Page 33 of Wild Hunt
Fenrir followed suit. Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit.
“At least I’m not putting all of us in jeopardy because I can’t accept that my mother’s dead,” Fenrir snarled.
I grimaced. Oh, fuck. Hades was on him in an instant and while he managed to get in the first punch, they were soon both on the floor with Fenrir on top, trying to strangle him. I had to leap out of the way to avoid getting taken down in the process.
There were a few screams from other students now clamoring to get out of the war path, but it didn’t take long for an audience to form around us. The Triad was always a united front in front of our classmates, even when we weren’t behind closed doors, and this was definitely going to give the rumor mill fuel for some time to come.
Hades managed to get the upper hand again with a swift uppercut to Fenrir’s jaw. The werewolf’s lip split open but he barely seemed to register it, taking the opportunity to throw Hades into a nearby table.
Most of the lunchroom tables had cleared out by then as students pressed around in a ring to watch the fight, and all I could do was watch for a moment to intervene. “That’s enough,” I hissed. “Do you want us all to get expelled?”
It was a hollow threat, knowing that even my father wouldn’t dare to upset Cronus that much, but I was desperate. At the rate they were going, they would kill each other before long.
They ignored me, of course. Through the crowd, I caught a pair of huge green eyes as Kore pushed her way through. She stopped near the front and stared at them like all the others, a frown on her face to make it clear she wasn’t impressed.
I saw her mouth, “Idiots,” before she slung her bag over her shoulder and walked off.
So the refereeing was all up to me, then. I groaned at the thought of leaving my newly pressed uniform in tatters, but this called for extreme measures. I shifted into one of my favored forms, a great black Siberian tiger. They might have ignored my verbal warnings, but they both looked up at the sound of the roar.
I took the chance to put myself between them, snarling in warning at Hades, then Fenrir in turn. The former’s eyes were glowing hot with fire he was barely in control of, despite his usual restraint. Fenrir looked half a second away from shifting into his own beastly form, which was exactly what I was trying to prevent.
We were already guilty of resurrection magic by association. The last thing we needed was him letting that thing out in front of all the rich brats of Olympus. Keeping a hellhound as a pet was nearly as bad.
I said enough, I growled telepathically. Only the two of them could understand me in this form. I’d learned that the hard way, and I could only theorize it had to do with the bond between us.
They were both in their separate corners, but I could tell if I moved an inch, they’d be back at it. Fenrir was the first to mutter under his breath and stalk off through the part that quickly formed through the crowd.
Even he seemed to know he was close to losing control. If only Hades could become capable of that kind of self-awareness.
He turned and walked off the other way, leaving me in the middle of the crowd. I wasn’t going to shift back and be naked in front of them, even though I was already humiliated.
I knew if I headed back to the dorm, I’d risk running into my father or brother, so I headed for the men’s locker room instead. There were no gym classes in session, so I expected it to be empty.
It wasn’t.
I froze on the other side of the push-in door as I found myself face to face with Dionysus, who’d just gotten out of the shower and was wearing a towel around his waist.
He stared back at me, a blank look on his face. “Loki?”
I shifted back into my human-ish form. His face turned bright red and he looked away. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Can’t shift with clothes on,” I answered, smirking as I opened my locker and grabbed the spare change of clothes I always kept inside for just such an occasion. “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”
“Whatever,” he muttered, pulling the door to his locker open.
“So, is there a reason you shower in the middle of lunch, or is the water pressure just that good?”
I could feel him glaring at me as I buttoned my shirt. Getting under his skin had always been too much fun to resist.
“Ever since my roommate outed me in front of the entire school, I can’t exactly shower with the other guys without getting weird looks.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Atlas?”
He frowned, and I could tell he was trying to assess whether or not I was fucking with him. “You really didn’t know?”
“What happened?”
“Nothing,” he said, shutting his locker.
