Mate Massacres

Chapter 29

Pip barely slept. When he did, nightmares of Krey being a half-wolf, half-human, chasing him through the dark woods woke him in a cold sweat.

Every time Pip fell back to sleep, he dove into the same nightmare.

At four in the morning, he decided to sit by his windowsill and wait for the sun.

The worst part about his nightmare was waking up and remembering that Krey, the wolf-human thing, was real.

His alarm went off at 7:30 am. Pip was far too tired and too lost in his mind to even think about going to college. His aunt nearly dragged him out of his bedroom until Pip started crying and pleading for her to leave him alone.

Pip didn't feel well either. His head hurt, his throat was sore, his nose was blocked, and his temperature was temperamental for most of the morning.

When lunchtime arrived, and Pip thought about surfacing from under his duvet to make soup, someone sent him a text.

The hairs on the back of Pip's neck stood on end.

His phone was on the bedside table. Pip popped his head from underneath his duvet. The cold air of his bedroom wasn't welcoming, but he wasn't allowed to turn the heating on during the day.

Pip hugged his hot water bottle and reached for his phone.

Krey had texted him.

Pip quickly pressed his phone into the duvet and closed his eyes. At first, he thought about deleting it and blocking Krey's number.

"There's no need to be extreme here," Pip whispered. "I liked him enough before he..." Pip shook his head.

He took a breath and opened the message.

"Pip, can we meet soon to talk?"

For such a simple message, Pip couldn't decide on an answer, not yet. He turned his phone off, shoved it into the drawer, and sank back under the duvet.

* * * * *

Krey had waited all day for a response from Pip. His mate had read the message, but not replied. Krey decided that no response was better than rejection.

He paced outside his dad's old office, occasionally looking at his father's name on the door. Roden Graymer.

Krey needed an office. He couldn't keep hiding in his bedroom, but he couldn't find the courage to open the door to the office. The last person to be inside was his father when he was still alive.

Krey's mother locked the door and kept the key on her windowsill for months, unable to look too.

Krey wanted to go and get her, so they could look inside and be sad together, but he didn't want her to see him upset.

Krey missed the times when he would storm into the office and yell at his father about pointless things. His dad would always listen and offer a rational solution to his problems. Krey had loved his father a lot, but never told him, and that hurt Krey so much.

If only Pip were here, Krey thought. Pip made Krey's life a little less tragic, but now he didn't even want to speak through text, never mind face to face.

Francis had been watching Pip's house, and she said that Pip never went to college. Judging by how much Pip studied in the library, Krey knew just how much Pip was struggling to deal with what he saw. Skipping an entire day of college was a big move for his mate.

I've fucked everything up. I should've seen this coming.

Krey squeezed the key to his father's office until the metal hurt his palm. He decided that today wasn't the day to dive into his sorrows and marched back down the corridor, staring in disgust at the ugly patterned wallpaper.