Page 49 of First Kiss with a Mothman

Caleb shakes his head with a smile. “They’re going. Progress. I’m working on him.”

His tone leads me to believe there’s a lot more to the story. “Or is he working on you?”

He turns and leans on the counter. With a sigh, he replies, “I don’t even know anymore.”

My smile falls. “You need to work it out with that dude.”

“Oh, suddenly you’re the expert on sharing your feelings with guys?” He shoots me a challenging grin.

“I asked my crush out.” I pull on my blazer. “I’m literally going on a date with Arie in a matter of minutes.”

Caleb touches his chin. “That’s true. You do have the moral high ground here.”

“I told you a bet was a bad idea. Your feelings come before any frat shenanigans.” I tap Caleb’s shoulder. “Let me know how it goes.”

“Same to you.” My friend smiles. “Speaking of bets, Shorley owes me ten bucks. He said you guys wouldn’t fuck until after Halloween.”

I bristle and mutter, “I hate you.”

As I walk up the stairs, Caleb laughs and says, “I love you too, sweetie. Use protection!”

While this type of rapport is normal at Alpha Claw Omega, it does feel nice to know my best friend has my back. And he raises a valid question in my heart: if Arie wanted to get intimate again tonight, would I be ready to have sex with him? Is tonight the night I let him have all of me?

He’s not picking up his phone. And now he’s not answering his door. We were supposed to meet up fifteen minutes ago, but I usually wait for him outside his dorm building. Someone let me in, so now I’m standing in front of his single room. But he’s not responding to my knocking. Is he asleep? Why would he take a long nap when we had plans? And if he were asleep, I’d be able to hear him through his door, probably.

I put my antennae on the wooden door, then knock again. Nothing. Either he’s blowing me off or…something bad happened to him. No way.

Don’t freak out, Mort. I’ll simply take a look at his window. I can fly, after all. When I walk around the building through the forested area, I carefully count the windows until I find Arie’s dorm. Holding my blazer and shirt in my hands, I unfurl my wings and float up. What I witness makes panic rise up in my throat. I fly closer to make sure my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me.

Arie’s window is shattered.

Dorm windows aren’t ever supposed to be broken. He’s nowhere to be seen, but his window is broken, gone to pieces. I look around as my heart pounds in my throat. Did he fall out the window? Did he jump?

He’s only three stories up, so it’s doubtful he’d die. Still, what is going on?

When I gaze at the dorm, I notice all the glass is on the inside. And there are feathers everywhere. No Arie, no window, but the broken glass is inside? Nothing makes sense. Did someone throw a rock into his window?

Before I can clear my head, I hear a distinct rustling fly by me. A raven lands on the bed and looks right at me. Even without the scarf, I recognize this one, specific feathered beast.

“Reginald!”

“Squawk,” he coos, weaker than I’ve ever heard him before. When I gently float in, carefully avoiding the glass, I land near the bed.

“Where is Arie?” I ask. I recognize that I’m attempting to speak to a bird, but this is an emergency.

“Squawk,” he says dolefully. It is then that I notice his neck, or the part under his head, is bleeding.

“What happened?” I ask.

Reginald seems distraught. Before I can pet him, he flies off.

“Wait!” My only lead is flying out the window, so I take after him. Whatever’s happening, I need to make sure Arie is safe.

Fortunately, I don’t have to go far. It takes me five minutes to fly to the woods past the campus wall, not far from where we hold the bonfires. I notice several birds of various shapes and sizes flying into the greenery, more than usual. I also spot a familiar figure standing by the trees.

“Mort?” The giant tree spirit glances at me, and I float down but stay above ground.

“Kovi…can’t talk now.” I huff and point into the thick woods. “I need…to get in there. Have you seen a dude?”