Page 19 of Feral
All he could do was hope he was right about Ella and that she’d see through the guy. She certainly wasn’t going to take his word for it, and the more he stood against their relationship, the more he’d push her right into Bishop’s arms.
Chapter 10
Ella
As Ella sat in the passenger’s side of Bishop’s Mercedes, watching the night fall over the rolling mountains, she found her curiosity was getting the best of her. Bishop had refused to tell her where they were going, only that he planned to take her somewhere that was important to him.
She was trying to imagine what romantic escape he might have planned without getting her hopes up. Just because this night was a first for her didn’t mean he’d feel the same way. She was sure he’d had no shortage of queens willing to go to his bed.
The further they drove, the thicker the surrounding woods became. Ella glanced over at Bishop. “You know, there are plenty of horror movies that start out this way.”
Bishop grinned. “We’re almost there, I promise.”
He was telling the truth. It wasn’t long before Ella saw the warm lights from behind a few dozen windows in the mansion at the end of the drive they turned down. Her eyes widened as the structure came fully into view, lit by the hanging lamps above the marble fountain in the center of a circular drive.
“Whoa,” she breathed. “What is this place?”
“It’s called the Felidae House,” he answered. “It’s among the oldest standing structures here. Even older than the Academy.”
“Seriously?” she asked, turning to face him. “Why haven’t I ever heard of it?”
“Because only a few are granted admission,” he answered with a conspiratorial twinkle in his eye.
That certainly seemed a strange place for a romantic evening, but Ella was afraid to assume too much. “I’m not going to be sacrificed, am I?” she asked dryly.
Bishop laughed, coming around for her door. “It’s notthatkind of club, but you’re on the right track,” he said, offering his hand to help her out of the car.
“Sounds exclusive and vaguely menacing,” she quipped, following him to the front door. Before they could reach the top step, the door swung open and a young man dressed in a dapper black-and-white suit bowed to them.
“Good evening, Master Meyer. Your Grace,” he said, nodding reverently to Ella.
The address certainly didn’t have the same effect on her as it had when Sterling had used it, but it still caught her by surprise.
Bishop led her into an open room at the foot of a grand staircase. The entire space was lavishly furnished, complete with a hanging crystal chandelier. Ella felt dizzy when she saw just how high up it was mounted.
“This place is incredible,” she murmured.
“I’m glad you like it. Come on, I’d like to introduce you to some people.”
“Okay,” Ella said hesitantly. She couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed, since she’d hoped it would just be the two of them. She didn’t care where he took her, as long as they got the chance to talk and get to know each other better. She told herself that if this club was important to Bishop, it should be important to her, too.
When they came into a vast ballroom filled with men and women dressed in formal eveningwear, she looked down at her clothes. “I’m seriously underdressed.”
“Nonsense,” Bishop said, linking his arm with hers to whisk her into the ballroom. “You look perfect.”
There was music playing, and it didn’t take Ella long to realize it was coming from a live harpist and violinist on a stage in the back of the room. Whatever this place was, its members had spared no expense for the evening.
As Bishop led Ella around the room, introducing her to the elite of Felidae, she found herself wondering if this was just a taste of what her life would be like when she became Empress. The people who had once looked past her like she was invisible when they thought she was nothing more than a stray were now fawning over her, and she wasn’t sure it was an improvement.
After an hour of fake smiles and doing her best not to out herself as being as woefully uncultured as she was, Ella was starting to entertain thoughts of sneaking out a bathroom window.
“What do you think?” Bishop asked, opening the door to reveal a huge suite decorated in the same rich colonial style as the rest of the mansion. At first, she assumed it was a guest room, but then she saw the shelf full of books and a desk that seemed to have been used recently. The desk sat near a large bay window overlooking the forest out back, and there was a messenger bag identical to Bishop’s leaning against the desk chair.
“I don’t understand. Whose room is this?”
“Mine,” he answered, smiling at her confusion. “I don’t stay in the dorms during the Academic year.”
“Youlivehere?” she asked in disbelief.
