Page 23 of Devil May Hunt
What kind of cryptic bullshit was that?
He wanted to ask what he meant, but he caught himself. No more playing into the alpha's hands. Brennon was just giving him the reactions he wanted.
“I’m leaving. You promised I could go once I ate, and I did. Are you going to keep your word?” he demanded, suspicion growing when the alpha held out an arm, pointing toward the hallway.
“By all means.”
“You can’t follow me.”
“I have other engagements that will keep me occupied for the time being,” Gunho said, then he chuckled mockingly whenBrennon didn’t move. “This isn’t a trick. Go back to the life you’re clinging so strongly to. You have my permission. I won’t follow. There’s no place for me there.”
“Why do I get the sense you want to add the word ‘yet’?”
The corner of his mouth tipped up wolfishly, but he didn’t respond.
“Whatever.” Brennon retreated. “I’m really leaving.”
Gunho bowed his head slightly.
Without a backward glance, he rushed to the exit, heart still pounding wildly in his chest even after he’d hailed a cab and was halfway back to the Academy. He kept turning to check out the window, but it didn’t seem like he was being chased.
That’d been too easy.
What was the alpha playing at?
And why was Brennon every bit as curious as he was afraid of whatever that could be?
Chapter 7:
“Bro, he keeps staring at you,” Ives, a fellow cadet at the Academy, hissed out of the corner of his mouth as they held themselves in a static push-up. “What’d you do to piss off an Imperial?”
“If you think that’s a look of anger he’s been giving him all morning,” Rin stated from Ives’ other side, “you’re a bigger moron than I gave you credit for.”
“Hey!”
“Got something to share with the rest of us, Cadet?” Banks, the Active in charge of their group's training, called out sharply.
“Apologies, sir!” Ives huffed out his cheeks and pretended to concentrate on the lines of the polished floorboards beneath them.
Brennon kept his mouth pressed into a thin line, refusing to dignify any of the gossip with a response. He was well aware of Gunho’s attention, it’d been locked on him for the past two hours, ever since he’d entered the gym for morning drills and discovered him standing next to Banks.
They’d introduced him as a guest trainer, but he’d done nothing other than watch, occasionally saying something to Banks that Brennon couldn’t overhear from his distance.
Banks blew the whistle around his neck and the cadets all groaned in relief and got to their feet. He didn’t give them much of a chance to relax though, ordering them to do twenty laps around the gym.
“Need me to help you fake an illness?” Rin asked, jogging up to him and keeping pace. He went silent when they passed where Banks and Gunho were standing, then added, “Or I could pretend to trip and kick you really hard. A broken ankle or nose should do the trick.”
“Are you trying to help me,” he drawled, “or using this as an excuse to get back at me?”
“For?”
“Ruining our friendship?”
Rin grunted. “You didn’t ruin shit, Bren. Take it from someone who’s been in a similar situation as this, Imperials aren’t people you want to be messing with. If he’s here—” he cut off midsentence and swore, something distracting him.
Brennon followed his gaze to the entrance, clicking his tongue when he spotted Kelevra. “Who needs the broken ankle now?”
“Yeah, and let Kel murder you for hurting me?” Rin clapped him on the back and broke off from the rest of them, not bothering with asking for permission from Banks.
