Page 28 of Feral
Ella cursed the heat building within her core. Doubling up on suppressants wasn’t cutting it anymore. Last night had only made things worse. “Ever heard of a little thing called humility?”
“Sure,” he answered without missing a beat. “It’s for losers and people dumb enough to think playing nice actually gets you ahead in life.”
“And which one am I?” she challenged.
“Neither,” he answered, his expression and tone more serious than she’d expected as he studied her. “You’re something else entirely.”
Ella’s lips parted to speak, but she found herself at a loss for words. He saved her the trouble, taking the lapse in her composure to kiss her as suddenly as she’d kissed him in the hallway.
She knew it was for the very same reason, and yet, she couldn’t help but return it for a second, until she came to her senses. By the time she broke away, Bishop was already stalking toward them.
“Time’s up,” he growled in a tone she’d never heard him use before, planting himself between the two of them.
Ella wasn’t sure what to make of this new possessive side of him. On the one hand, it was sexy as hell, but on the other, he was already acting like he owned her and they hadn’t even mated yet.
“Why don’t you let her decide that?” Axel challenged, standing toe to toe with him. Of course he was pathologically incapable of de-escalating a situation, or doing anything other than inflaming it.
“Bishop, please,” Ella pleaded, touching his arm.
He jerked away. “This is between him and me. Move back, I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“You’re not going to fight over me,” she hissed.
“Show some humility, Ella,” Axel taunted without taking his eyes off his opponent. She knew that gleam in them. “We have plenty of reasons to fight besides you.”
Before she could say anything, Bishop lunged at Axel, which was the last thing she expected. It seemed to take Axel off-guard as well, but he recovered quickly.
A girl near the path of destruction screamed out in alarm. Everyone else jumped out of the way as Axel planted his feet on the wooden floor, pushing back against his attacker. He gave Bishop’s chest a hard shove, enough to stagger him.
“You really want to do this here?” Axel challenged.
“I should’ve done that a long time ago,” Bishop growled, his voice once again cold and unfamiliar.
The entire evening ground to a halt and all its pleasantness melted away as Ella realized every last person in the ballroom was watching them. Even the teachers. At first, she was irritated none of them were getting involved, but how could she really blame them? Axel had a reputation, and it was well-earned. Bishop was the Empress’s son. No one would want to be the person who got between them, especially when tensions were already high.
“Fine,” Axel said, shrugging out of his jacket. “Your funeral.”
Ella watched in disbelief as they readied to fight each other. Her shock dissipated as she realized they were actually going to fight each other in the middle of the ballroom over her. And everyone saidstrayswere the uncivilized ones.
“Stop it,” she cried, throwing herself between them. Axel froze, his fist pulled back halfway.
“Get out of the way,” he snarled, his lip curling back in agitation. “Your boyfriend started it.”
“You’re acting like children,” she said, turning back to Bishop. “Both of you. Have you lost your minds?”
“This prick thinks he can just kiss you like you’re his property,” Bishop argued.
He had a point, but Ella wasn’t about to admit that. Not when the stakes were this high. “And I’ll deal with him for that,” she said, hoping against hope that Bishop hadn’t noticed she was dealing with it by returning the kiss. “It doesn’t mean you need to kill each other.”
“I’m not gonna kill him,” Axel said, showing his gritted teeth in a taunting grin. “Just rough him up enough that he’ll have to go home to mommy for a few days.” His eyes were still locked on Bishop, she could feel the tense energy between them. This had been a long time coming, and the kiss had just pushed them over the edge. Once Ella realized she had no hope of actually getting them to stop, she switched gears to convincing them not to tear apart the entire ballroom in the process.
“At least go outside,” she muttered. “If you’re going to act like animals, you might as well.”
“She has a point,” said Axel, his eyes taking on a dangerous glint that made her realize he had taken her words in the worst possible way.
“Outside, then,” Bishop said gruffly, already turning toward the door.
Ella’s heart started racing in panic. Not only were they going to fight, they were going to do it in their cat forms.
