Page 16 of Midnight Hunt

I raised my coffee to her in acknowledgement. She clinked hers against it before downing most of it and going back for more out of the pot. My eyes followed her, hungry for something that wasn’t on the spread before me.

Muzzle between her thighs?I’ve yet to actually shove my muzzle there yet, but I’m about to.I kept the comments to myself, because it would only get her dragged over the table. And she needed a full belly of actual food if I was going to be able to chase her through the trees again…and I wanted to hunt her more than anything.

Chapter Ten:

~Valerie Contempt~

Between eating till it hurt, convincing myself to return to my room for clothes and my toothbrush, and the growing tingle at my core, I was a mess. Breeding frenzy made me just wantmore…and more…and more.Until there wasn’t room for anything left. Who needs blood when I have Lochlainn pumping through my veins. It was bizarre how fast it happened. Normally it doesn’t care who it is, or at least, that’s what Mother said. When she went through hers, she slept with close to twelve different people beforeit took.I gag every time I remember her story of the orgy (not because my mother can’t have sex or orgies it’s just…my mom).

It's not supposed to want a specific person. It’s just supposed to be hungry. And yet, as I scrubbed my pits and nodded my hello to Randolph, it wanted nothing else but Lochlainn. I was in a mixed bathroom of bodies, all naked and pretty and covered in suds and I wasn’t tempted by any of it. If it wasn’t Lochlainn’sthunder log, apparently my pussy wasn’t interested…which was confusing, but then again, who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth?

I rinsed myself off, careful to keep my legs clenched the whole time. Dressing in fresh clothes and drying my hair felt like a luxury after the night I had. Finally, I was flopped down on one of the lawn chairs out in the courtyard of The Grove, trying to wrap my brain around financial equity, or whatever my paper was supposed to be on, when a shadow loomed over me.

“You got a visitor.” Kahrina grimaced before she nodded her chin toward the gate that held out the rest of the school from the gardens.

“Oh no, tell me it’s not a gaggle of idiots here for my head,” I snapped the book closed with an irritated thud.

“Not agaggle,” Kahrina wheezed, hands on her hips. “I would normally suggest striking like a viper before they speak, but I fear that may only worsen your predicament.”

“Fuck,” I threw myself out of the chair to get a good look at who was beyond the magic ivy-covered gates.

“Indeed.”

Amber, my sorority president, glared at me through the heart shaped, plum-colored leaves.Ex-sorority.I stood a good twenty feet from her and it took all the restraint in my body not to flop back in the chair, flip her my middle finger, and return to my reading. Instead, I arched a brow, stepped closer by ten feet, and yelled, “What do youfucking want?”

“Come out here and ask me that,” she snarled.

“No thanks!” I called back.

“Hag!”

“Useless wench!” I retorted. She recoiled, her perfect blond hair fluttering around her in absolute audacity. I tossed my hands out, “I can be an asshole too. You want me to turn your toes blue? Make all your faucets leak no matter what you do?I’ll curse you and your fucking children to never taste anything fresh every again. Try me, mother fucker. This is not a fight you win.”

Amber shook the gates, rattling the leaves. The ivy hissed at her, snakes made of vines and sharp thorns striking at her. With a yelp, she rushed away from the gate. I waited to see if she would return, but when she didn’t, I glanced at Kahrina looming over my shoulder. “The ivy’s a nice touch.”

“Thank you,” she beamed, flicking her golden yellow hair off her shoulder. With a flick of her wrist, the ivy settled down to normal rustling from the wind. “I wanted to ask…can you really curse her and her family to never taste anything fresh again?”

“Yeah, actually. That was my mom’s favorite hex,” I shrugged. “It makes everything you taste have a distinct sour milk or rotten eggs flavor. Not impressive but certainly annoying. Also, it’s a headache to undo, so curse breakers are practically useless.”

Kahrina eyed me with a twinkle of something I couldn’t quite make out. But when her lips curled and she chuckled to herself, it was probably good. “You know what, I like you. We’re absolutely hanging out more.”

It wasn’t a question, but it did make me smile to myself as she sauntered away. There was a dark, honest something in Kahrina. She wasn’t as goody two-shoes as I imagined her to be, but then again, druids aren’t bound by political morality. They deal with what is best for nature, for life itself. And sometimes, being a wicked little thing is good for the realm.

I snatched up my book once more, settled into my comfy chair, and returned to my studies with a warmth in my chest that wasn’t there before…maybe I should have joined The Grove from the beginning? Or maybe I needed to be shunted from my sorority to see it for what it truly was? Either way, stretched out in the courtyard, magic pencil scribbling away while I read passages out loud to the dancing flora around me, I felt at home.

As my notes became paragraphs, and my textbook grew riddled with tabs and highlighter, the sun began to set. It wasn’t till the amber glow of sunset was outdone by the glittering flowers around me that I even realized I’d been out there all day. I’d had the genius thought to bring food out with me, so it wasn’t till dinner time that my stomach gurgled. I closed my book and rubbed my face.

The lights darkened as something…or someone loomed over me. I dropped my hands to my side, staring up into the face of Lochlainn. His hands on his hips, head tilted to the side, all that wonderful chestnut hair in a messy bun at the top of his head. The indents from where his reading glasses pressed into his nose were the cutest part.Well, second to the large leafy sweater over a pair of well-worn jeans.

“I’ve been told to award you a good job. Apparently, you only threatened one person today, and according to my TA, it was well deserved,” his lips curled smugly, honey eyes roaming me as I stretched out extra flirtatiously along the chair.

“Amber, the sorority president came by. But you’ll be proud, I told her no thanks, and she scampered off.”

“Mmm, and so the rumor that you’re going to steal her kidneys in the night, roast them over a fire, and eat them as your supper was…just a rumor?” He snickered.

I huffed, tossing my abused textbook to the flat stones beneath me, “Kidneys? Seriously?”

“It is a rather salacious—”

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