Page 15 of The Hunt

“Oh. Wow. Okay. Thanks for the heads up.”

“No problem.” I glanced at my watch.Shit.I was really late now. “Sorry, I have to be somewhere. Nice to meet you, and thanks for the tip about the finance center!”

I made it to the West End Café five minutes later. Tessa, Bree, and Sloane were at a table by the window, chatting over mugs of coffee and plates of pastries.

“Sorry I’m late,” I said, sliding into a chair next to Tessa. “I got caught up talking to someone outside the library.”

“No worries. I got you a pumpkin cream chai.” Tessa nodded toward a tall mug and pushed it closer to me. “But it looks like you might need some water too. You’re literallysweating, babe.”

“Yeah, I ran all the way here,” I said with a rueful smile.

“You didn’t need to run!” Bree said, grinning at me. “You aren’tthatlate.”

“I know, but I was also kinda worried about running into you-know-who.”

“Oh my god, did you finally see him?”

“Yup.” I grimaced. “This is so embarrassing to admit, but I hid from him.Like, full on crouched behind a column. I must’ve looked crazy to anyone who went past and saw me.”

“Girl, we’ve all been there,” Sloane said, brows rising. “No judgment from me.”

I sighed and wrapped my hands around the warm mug in front of me. “I guess I just need to get used to it. Now that we’re here, we’re bound to keep running into each other.”

“Yeah, it really sucks ass,” Tessa replied.

Bree and Sloane nodded, but their eyes were now focused somewhere over our heads. Tessa and I turned and looked over our shoulders to see a tall, dark-haired guy in jeans and a dark green Henley striding into the café. The tight shirt showed offhis Greek-god physique, attracting lusty stares from every single woman in the spacious café.

Oh, for fuck’s sake.Of course it had to be Rhett.

He caught sight of me and smirked, brows rising. Then he gave me a mocking wave before striding away to the other side of the café.

I groaned and turned back to face the others. “I guess today’s the day where I meet my quota for running into assholes,” I muttered.

“You know Rhett Sinclair?” Bree asked, brows shooting up.

“Yeah, why did he wave at you?” Tessa added.

“I don’t really know him. I just ran into him on my first night here.”

“Wait,Rhettis the Wilder you got into an argument with in that tunnel?” Sloane asked, leaning closer. “The one you told us about?”

Tessa lifted a hand, flashing me a guilty look before she addressed the other girls. “The oneItold you about,” she said. She turned back to me again. “I didn’t know it was Rhett, though. Was it actually him?”

“Yup.” My nose wrinkled. “Do you know him?”

“Not really. I knowofhim, though. He’s like, the hottest senior at Hollingsworth, bar none. And he’s also the head Wilder, I guess.”

“At the collegiate level, that is,” Sloane added. “I’m pretty sure The Wild Hunt is a lifelong membership thing.”

“Oh. Right.”

“It’s not exactly a secret who the members are on campus,” she went on. “All the uber-rich guys, basically. Like, the ones from billionaire families. They share a house off-campus, and they all wear silver skull rings.”

“How is it a secret society, then?” I asked, brows furrowing. “If all the members are known.”

“It’s more about what they do. No one knows.”

Bree nodded. “A friend of mine dated one of them for two years and he never breathed a single word to her about any of it,” she said. “There are rumors, though. Based on the name.”

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