Everlasting Bonds - COMPLETE

Chapter 66

POV: Aidan

I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 5:30 pm

What time was Lark's meeting... 3:30? She should have been back by now. I checked my phone to see if she had sent a text saying she'd be late, but there were no notifications on my screen.

She always checked in, even if she was just going to be five minutes late. Something like an alarm bell sounded at the back of my mind and I did my best to ignore it. I was just being paranoid. She was fine.

She was fine.

She was fine.

"Has anyone heard from Lark?", I asked, trying and failing to hide the concern I felt. "She was supposed to be back an hour ago".

"No but I'm sure she's fine", Luka said. "She's just meeting with our Italian professor to see about testing out of a few classes that would be too easy for her. That easily could have gone long".

Greyson shot me a shrug from his set on the couch and I envied the two of them at that moment. They didn't waste their time worrying unless they were given a concrete reason to. I wished I could be like that.

I nodded my head and tried to let his answer ease some of my worries. He's right. Something like that could have taken longer than she thought. Why wouldn't she have called though?

Colt was working from home today and I got up to make my way to his office. He was usually more up to date on her whereabouts than the rest of us, as he checked in with her throughout the day. I knocked and heard a muffled 'yes' through the thick door.

I poked my head inside to see him typing something up on his computer. He looked at me over the top of the display before going back to what he was doing. "What's up?", he asked.

"I was just wondering if you'd heard from Lark".

He stopped typing then and gave me his full attention. "No. She's not back yet?"

I shook my head. "Not yet and she hasn't said anything in the group chat".

He opened up his phone, presumably to check his messages, before looking back at me. "She hasn't sent me anything either".

"Luka thinks she's fine and that her meeting just went long, but I don't know. Something doesn't feel right and it's setting me on edge".

He walked away from his desk, not bothering to shut his computer off, before leading me out of his office. "She always checks in", he said.

As we made our way into the living room the sound of the elevator arriving made us both pause and breathe a sigh of relief. She was home and she was fine.

Colt and I made our way to the entrance, and he abruptly stopped, causing me to stumble into him. I looked past him to figure out what was wrong and froze.

The person standing in our hallway wasn't Lark.