Page 131 of False Catch

"How much time?" Gray asks.

Morrison and the others exchange glances. "One month," she says finally. "You have one month to formalize your... arrangement. All bonds must be registered with the university health center. Any violation of conduct standards, any degradation in performance, any sign that this is affecting your academics or the integrity of the program, and you're done. All of you."

"That's not—" I start.

"It's more than fair," Morrison cuts me off. "Most schools would expel you immediately. One month. Prove this can work, or it ends."

"We'll prove it," Gray says.

Morrison's laugh is bitter. "We'll see, Mr. Lockwood. We'll see."

She gathers her papers, and the panel files out. Bennett pauses at the door, looking back at us. He sighs and shakes his head before saying quietly, "I hope you prove me wrong about this being impossible."

Then he's gone, and we're alone.

The silence stretches until I can't stand it anymore. I wrench myself out of Zane's arms, whirling to face them.

"What the hell were you thinking?" My voice cracks. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

"Saved you from martyring yourself," Bo says mildly.

"You didn't save me. You've potentially destroyed your futures. Gray, your parents—"

"Will either accept my choices or they won't," Gray says. "But they won't control me anymore."

"Tyler, your scholarship—"

"Is based on academic merit, not their approval," Tyler says. "I ran the numbers. I can make it work."

"All of you." I look at each of them, my vision blurring. "You're idiots. Complete, absolute idiots."

"Probably," Cameron agrees. "But we're your idiots."

"That's not—" I break off, covering my face with my hands. "One month. How are we supposed to form six more bonds in one month?"

"Enthusiastically," Eli says simply. I smack him on the arm but he just grins at me.

"It's impossible," I say, glaring at each of them.

"No," Jackson says, stepping closer. "What's impossible is imagining a future without you in it."

"Jackson," I breathe.

"I was broken before you," he continues. "We all were, in different ways. But you made us whole. Made us a pack."

"So we're not letting you go," Beckett adds. "Not for the university, not for our families, not for anyone."

"Even if it means losing rowing?" I ask.

"Rowing brought us together," Gray says. "But it's not what keeps us together. You are."

The tears come then, hot and fast. Eight pairs of hands reach for me, pulling me into the center of a group embrace that should feel suffocating but instead feels like coming home.

"One month," I whisper against someone's chest. Tyler's, from the scent.

"One month," he confirms. "We can do this."

"How?"