Page 228 of Scarlet Wars
Yeah.Thatmade my stomach twist into knots I didn’t have names for.
I stopped in front of her door, inhaling deeply, trying to summon whatever courage people seemed to think I naturally possessed. My knuckles lifted to knock, but before I touched the wood, raised voices spilled through the crack.
“Are you kidding me, Rachel? You’ve gone off the fucking rails.”
I froze.
That was Hillary’s voice… Right?
My Healer, usually calm, dry, unflappable Hillary, yelling?
At Rachel?
I really shouldn’t have eavesdropped.
But then somehow… I absolutely did.
“It’s only dinner. And I haven’t even asked him yet.”
Rachel was going to ask someone out?
As soon as the thought formed, every organ in my body froze solid.
Caden.
She was going to ask out Caden.
“Why? Because he’s a First Offensive?” Hillary snapped.
Rachel muttered something I couldn’t make out.
Which only made it worse.
Oh gods. It was Caden, wasn’t it?
My heart did a violent, undignified nosedive.
I pressed my ear harder against the door, shameless and fully committed to this catastrophic life choice.
“Don’t worry about it, okay? He’ll leave back for Crown soon enough, and we all know Colt doesn’t do attachments.”
Godsfuckingdamn.
I jerked back like the door had burned me.
Rachel. Was going to ask out Caden.
My jaw clenched so hard it clicked, my hands curling into fists before my brain even bothered to keep up.
I spun away from the door and started pacing up and down the hallway like a feral animal with too many emotions and nowhere to put them.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I wanted to barge in and make it legally, emotionally and universally clear he was mine.
I wanted to strangle her for even thinking about it.
I wanted to drag Caden out by the collar and staple a sign to his shirt that said TAKEN in giant red letters.
