Page 36 of Cruel Destinies

After raiding the cabinets in the kitchen, I carried my haul to my room and unloaded it onto the foot of my bed, preparing myself for a long evening of gorging while bingeing reality shows on my tablet.

By the time a hand knocked on my door an hour and a half later, I was buried under a pile of empty wrappers and potato chip crumbs.

“What’s up?” I called without looking away from my tablet screen.

The door opened, and I recognized Arya’s telltale blue highlights in my peripheral vision.

“Whoa. It looks like a convenience store exploded in here.”

I glanced down at the garbage heap of my bed and floor, and at the cheetoh dust smeared across my shirt. “Yep. Just living the dream.”

I heard her sigh as she came over and cleared a spot on my bed with a sweep of her hand so she could sit. I let her stare at me for a moment before I relented and turned off my tablet, setting it aside.

“This is probably a stupid question, but are you okay?” she asked, locking me with her gaze now that she had my full attention.

I sat up, brushing wrappers off my lap. “I know this isn’t pretty, but I’m just in a bit of a funk. It’ll pass.”

She eyed me skeptically for several long seconds, making me uncomfortable.

“Wanna watch the Real Shifter Housewives with me?” I asked to break the tension, flashing her a cheeky grin.

Her eyes widened in surprise. “That’s a thing?!”

I nodded eagerly, scooting over against the wall to make room for her. “Yeah. It’s only on Shiftflix—that’s a secret streaming platform only for shifters. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it yet.”

She settled against my pillow next to me, kicking an empty popcorn bag onto the floor. “You’d be surprised how many shifter-related things I still don’t know about.”

I shrugged. “Eh, I only know because my dad showed it to me. But then, he only watches it for the news.”

“There’s shifter news, too?” Arya gasped, flicking a piece of popcorn off the sheets.

“There’s basically shifter everything,” I replied, pulling my tablet onto my lap and turning on the screen.

I exited the Real Shifter Housewives and let her scroll over the available viewing options.

“SCIS?” she asked, furrowing her brow.

“Shifter Crime Investigation Service,” I explained.

“Holy crap! That’s awesome! How do I get access to this?” She scrolled up as she gushed over all the shows.

“You can only find the app if you have specially encrypted devices invented by kitsunes. And since all of our tablets fall into that category, you can easily get it on yours.”

“This is amaze-balls!”

I beamed. “I know, right.”

Eventually, she handed my tablet back to me, and I started the Real Shifter Housewives over from the beginning. I didn’t mind rewatching it. I’d already watched it several times, actually. There was something really comforting about seeing people with more fucked up love lives than mine.

We watched two episodes together before Lord and Lady Dracul made their entrance.

“Wait.” Arya tapped the screen to pause it. “Dracul. Are those Tobias’s parents?”

I nodded with a scandalous grin. “Yeah. They do their best to limit their air time on this show, but they still make an appearance every few episodes.”

“Huh,” she hummed, then unpaused it, eager to continue watching.

“Octavia, my dear, would you mind fetching us a drink?” Lord Dracul asked his wife from the ridiculously lavish parlor of their mansion.

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