Page 140 of Haze

He’s so fucking warm, and he’s not wrong. I’m so fucked. Please don’t break my heart.

He won’t, my wolf growls.

Chapter 46

Lena

“I understand the circumstances were beyond your control; however, at the high level of your classes, your professors believe that it’s in your best interest to take the rest of the semester off and carry on in the spring. I’m sorry, Ms. Alden.” My advisor apologizes for the fifteenth time during this meeting.

I’m struck speechless. I don’t have words.

“I can say that the school has agreed that this is not an instance where academic probation would be appropriate, so your status as a student is still very much intact. Your supervisor was able to file the paperwork, and the university is maintaining your employed status,” he tries to offer in an attempt to lessen the blow.

He seems to be waiting on me to say something, anything.

I go with the polite answer. “Thank you.”

Leaving his office, I walk down the stairs to the main lobby of the building and head out to the courtyard of the main campus. What do I do? Go back to the lab, I guess. Can you go into shock from an emotionally traumatic event? Does this qualify as an emotionally traumatic event?

The four-mile drive, despite midday traffic, is over in an instant. I’m parked in our lab lot and sit there, staring at the building. How am I supposed to go back in there?

Hot angry tears well in my eyes, and I push them away with the sleeve of my sweater. I shake my head.

Do I go home? Text Dr. Thorpe and tell him I’m sick? It’s not false. My stomach is a mess of jumbled nerves.

My wolf whines but offers no guidance.

I open the door to my SUV and grab my purse off the seat next to me. When I turn around, I come face-to-face with someone I didn’t anticipate seeing.

“Lena!” Brayden says excitedly, trapping me in the door well of my SUV.

“Brayden, I’m on my way to the lab,” I answer him sharply.

I don’t intend for it to have a bite, but it does.

“Yeah? Don’t you have class? You’re normally in your Immunology class right now.” He braces himself against the door of my SUV.

It’s creepy that he would know my schedule. But I don’t have the energy to deal with this. How do I answer that?

“Yeah, I’m not participating in classes this semester.” I give him a nod and swallow hard. “There’s been an issue with my schedule. I’ll pick it up next semester.”

“What?” Brayden gets defensive and pulls his phone from his pocket. The silver spoon he keeps in his mouth comes out, and he waves it around. “I’ll have my parents fix it. You were in the hospital; they’ll make an exception.”

“Brayden, stop,” I tell him. My voice breaks. I shake my head and push on his hand, trying to remove it from my SUV’s door. “It’s fine. I just want to go inside and do something I’m good at for a little while.”

For whatever reason, for the first time in the history of knowing him, Brayden does what I ask. He steps back and gives me room to close my door. It’s so uncharacteristically like him that when I turn, I’m surprised Finn isn’t standing on the other side of us.

When I walk into the lab, it’s full of its usual activity, and no one seems to notice me. It’s refreshing to belong so intensely that my presence isn’t acknowledged. I pull out my key ring to open my office door but find it slightly ajar. I draw a deep breath. Finn was here.

Opening the door to my office, I flick on the light, and there are objects that most certainly weren’t here the last time I was. A small stained glass Celtic cross in leafy green and cerulean blue hangs from a little suction cup on my window, and next to it sits an air plant, in desperate need of water, in a little glass capsule with decorative gravel.

I pick up the card on the counter next to them.

Kathleen,

Your office didn’t look enough like someplace you’d want to be. I know you like to work, but you need something bright here. And maybe something a little Irish too. I’ll see you for lunch TODAY. I’m down in the pathology lab if you want to come and save me from their chaos. I can’t wait to see you.

Finn

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