Page 9 of Eat. Prey. Love.

“More bad shit? I swear to Cereberus’ furry balls, I’m tired of all this secret shit biting us in the ass. Our parents and all the stuffed shirt asswads on the Council need to go.” He grinscrazily, looking at Dolly. “You’ll get a part of every single one of those fuckers for your trophy shelf, Baby Girl. Cross my black heart.”

How he plans on cutting off a piece of every Council member, I don’t know, but when my twin makes a promise, you can bank on it.

“Thank you, Fitzy.” She turns her head and kisses him lightly, her eyes dancing with the same brand of psycho I associate with my brother. I’ll make space when we get this place settled.”

“Great, there aretwoof them,” Chess mutters as he tries not to laugh. “We’re in such trouble.”

Aubrey huffs a few smoke rings, his eyes glittering with his dragon. “I enjoy snack size’s violent tendencies. She’s turning into an excellent huntress, Chester. Let Fitzgerald encourage her.”

“He’s right,” Renard says as he sits up, blowing a long breath out and closing his eyes for a moment. When he opens them, his easy calm is back and I know he’s put that emotion away until later. “We have much to do now that we are here. There is no time for dwelling and certainly none for sympathy.”

“Because of what you scented?” Dolly asks quietly.

“Oui,” he says with a decisive nod. “We know old enemies will descend upon this place soon enough and now we’ve discovered there’s at least one unknown hiding amongst the staff and students. We don’t know what else awaits us.”

I look around, finding my bag and retrieving my phone. “First thing, Dolly will text Luc and you two work on making this place not abhorrent. Aubrey and I will go to the main building to check-in with the staff shit. We’ll re-group afterward to talk about whatever sent Ren off the deep end.”

“I have to check in with student services and Coach Z, too,” Dolly reminds me. “I can do that once I get a hold of Luc.”

Biting my tongue to keep from saying she can’t go alone, I nod. “Be careful. Have your phone and your knife handy. I don’t trust anyone here we don’t know.”

“Sir, yes, Sir!” she chirps with a salute and I groan.

Great, now I’m going to this meeting with a raging hard-on. Par for the course today.

Runthe World

I did not getto go find Coach Z alone.

“Baby Girl, you know I gotta see the pitch, too,” Fitz says as he trots along at my side. He’s pushed his growing locks into two crazy man buns that match mine and it’s hard not to grin.

“You’re mad as a hatter, you know that?” I reply as I grab his hand and squeeze it. “But it makes me smile, so don’t even think about changing.”

“Are you talking about my stylish ‘do? ‘Cause masculinity is not defined by bullshit gender expectations. I contain multitudes and so do you. Anyone who doesn’t get it can fuck right offthe side of the planet.” He winks at me, then wags his brows. “I enjoy challenging people’s image of me, especially if it gets back to dear old Dickhead Dad.”

Chuckling, I look at the smaller arena in front of us critically. “Zhenga’s probably already on the phone with her family. It’s in okay condition, but she can’t draw crowds with this place.”

“Man, that chick likely has crews headed here as we speak. Z is a full-on nightmare when she’s on a mission. She probably skipped her jackass brother and went right to Daddy Leonidas.” Fitz lifts my hand to his lips, kissing it before letting go. “Go talk to her while I scope out the Khan contribution. Big bro might have to give our asshole patriarch a poke, too.”

“Great,” I groan as I huff. “We’re here for a couple hours and drawing the attention of the stupid Council already. I was hoping we could fly under the radar for a little longer.”

“Not a chance, Baby Girl. We were allbornto be the stars of the show.”

He blows me a kiss and turns on his heel, heading to the Battle Arena. Once he’s far enough away, I face the stadium, looking for which door is open.

Hopefully, Coach Z isn’t on a complete tear.

“The first matchisn’t for a month. I don’t know if they told you, but they extended the school year by a month to compensate for the lockdown in January,” Zhenga says as she rifles through the grungyAcademieuniforms. Obviously, their team had so little support that they couldn’t even get their kits cleaned. “So we have time for me to convince my father to invest in re-inventing this damn place.”

I nod, stacking equipment into a usable and unusable pile. “I get all my news from friends and the TV. My mother hasn’t spoken tome since Yule. I have no idea what she's up to—other than blowing my asshat father up.”

Zhenga pauses, tilting her head as she studies me. “You’re okay with that?”

“I would have preferred to deal with him myself. The guys would have, too.” I frown and shrug as I go back to sorting. “This didn’t give me any sense of closure, but I’m not surprised Lucille stole it from me. She’s stolen everything she could since I was born. Why not my vengeance, too?”

“I knew I liked you,” the lioness mutters. “I’m glad we figured out that mating shit. Honestly, I was clinging to the Raj as a way out. My family’s easily as nuts as yours, but there are too many of them to get my revenge. I’d gotten attached to the idea of living well to spite them.”

This is dangerous territory, but we’re both adults, right? We should be able to get past this overdue talk.

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