Page 19 of Coming Home

That brought cheers from the rest of my class seconds before the final bell rang.

“Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your break,” I told them as they all got up and scrambled to leave.

Ben was still standing in my doorway, staring at me like he’d just seen a ghost. The activity and excitement of the holiday had the kids pushing him through the door and into the hallway.

“Caroline, shut the door behind you on your way out, please,” I said.

She smiled. “Sure, Ms. Shelby. See you next week.”

“Bye, sweetie,” I said.

The second the door was closed, I sat down hard in my desk chair and had to put my head between my knees for a few minutes to calm myself.

When I felt like I could handle it, I grabbed my phone and dialed Peyton’s number. She picked up on the first ring.

“Aren’t you in school? Why are you calling me?” she asked.

“Technically school just let out, and technically I’m freaking out!”

“Calm down, Shelbs, Just breathe, you sound like you’re on the verge of hyperventilating.”

“That’s because I am.”

“What’s wrong? What happened?” she asked, suddenly upset and feeding off my emotions.

“Ben’s here,” I spat out.

“Your Ben?” she asked.

“Yes, my Ben,” I said.Mine,my wolf agreed.

“When? Where?”

“I don’t know, Pey. He just waltzed right into my classroom today to pick up the twins. He was in uniform and he looked so good. I didn’t want him to look that good. I’m just really moving on with my life, but it’s worse than that.”

“Shelby, it can’t be that bad,” she said, trying to calm me down.

“It is, because my wolf still wants to claim him.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know. You tell me!”

“You said he wasn’t your one true mate,” she reminded me.

“I know what I said, Peyton. I haven’t seen him since we were eighteen years old. We weren’t mated when he left, but my wolf has always been protective of him since the moment she surfaced, but then I’ve always been protective of him, so I just figured that was me. But it’s not going away. Why isn’t it?”

“I don’t know sweetie, unless . . .”

“Do not say what I think you’re going to say!”

I hung up the phone. I didn’t want her to say aloud the words I was thinking, fearful they would somehow make them truer. I had finally begun to put that part of me to rest. I hadn’t written him in almost two months, since the night of my first date with Walker.

Walker and I still talked every day. We had agreed weeks ago we were better off just as friends, but I felt like I’d be lying not to tell him. He had helped me deal with a lot of things in his own crazy way and I’d opened up about Ben to him more than I’d ever done with anyone, even Peyton. I still didn’t tell him everything, and he suspected as much, but I told him a lot.

With my phone still in my hand. I sent him a quick text.

ME: Ben just showed up out of the blue.

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