Page 21 of Let Us Prey
Delores Drew is a thorn in my side for many reasons. Bash is borderline stalking her and doesn’t shut up about it, and Nico is terrified of how she riles up his fox. This is creating tension between the two of them—even if Bash is too idiotic to see it—which negatively affects the overall dynamics of my pack.
She hasn’t gone unnoticed around campus either, especially among the male professors. I can’t stop for coffee without that jackhole grizzly, Rusty Volkov, taunting me about the tempting prey in my class before he lumbers off to teach survivalism, or whatever he does out there in the woods.
Apparently, Aubrey and Renard have also encountered the Bad News Bunny firsthand. The lizard offhandedly mentioned she’s interning in his special archives—the same collection he will barbecue you for evenaskingabout. That tells me everything I need to know about how smittenheis. Renard hasn’t said shit besides that they’ve met, which isn’t surprising, but he’s been broodier than usual, which speaks volumes.
I can barely do my job. Her presence in my classroom inspires incessant chatter from the piranha peanut gallery, to where I’ve debated looking into fish-sized muzzles. While Delores does a fairly good job of ignoring the comments—which I find annoyingly admirable—Icannot ignoreher.
Besides being hotter than a fire hydrant chasing a dog, Blondie is smart. I’m not talking about intelligence that comes from memorizing a textbook, but an intuition that makes her seem older than her 18 years. Despite the hatred aimed at her during my class, Delores is managing to not instinctively shift and run, which shows a level of control I find surprising.
Shifting Studies for first-year students is a joke, but the basics are there for a reason. If you don’t know how to control your shift—or sense the instant a shift or half-shift is necessary—you’re going to end up dead, no matter how big and bad your animal is.
Never mind the overt threats I witness in my classroom alone, Delores Drew is in constant danger simply by existing here at the academy. Yet, our girl behaves likeshe’sa top predator, which is half the battle in this world.
Nope. Notourgirl. Never that.
“…what type of pred do you think my Cherryis,Nico? I bet she’s something sleek and powerful—a cheetah like her mom or a sexy-as-hell white wolf like me… ”
Aubrey and I exchange a look. While there’s been little talk of Delores besides the endless stream coming from my twin’s pie hole, I assume the others know goddamn well that Bash’s obsession is an animal at the bottom of the food chain.
Fuck, she smells good enough to eat, too.
“Oh! That’s her calling me now. Heyyy, Cherry! What are you wearing? Yeah, I know, but what are you wearingunderyour uniform? Mmm, tell me more… ”
By some holy miracle,Bash takes his phone into the other room. A collective sigh of relief echoes through Renard’s richly decorated sitting room—and possibly through time and space as well. The only one still wound up tight is Nico, but he’s going through an existential crisis, so he gets a pass.
“I unearthed something you might find intriguing, Cassius,” Aubrey crosses one corduroy-clad leg over the other and casually reclines on his leather throne. A pipe would complete the tweedy ensemble, but clearly, a dragon doesn’t need one. “It’s pertaining to the laws governing the hierarchy of the Romulus pack.”
That catches my interest. It’s no longer a secret among us that Bash asked our resident librarian to dig up any dirt he could on Romulus, to possibly appeal their decision to send me here. While I’m not holding my breath about being reinstated as heir apparent, I’m certainly not opposed to the idea of sticking it to the man.
Especially if that man is our asswipe of a younger brother, Titus.
Aubrey leans forward, resting his forearms on his thighs as he shrewdly surveys me, as if closely monitoring my reaction. “It’s apparently only illegal toconsortwith… weaker speciesifthey are treated as equals.”
I take a steady breath, willing myself tolistento what the iguana’s saying, instead of wolfing out over him casually bringing up the greatest mistake of my life.
Or that scaly Shakespeare here used the wordconsortinstead offuck.
Barf.
“What Aubrey’s getting at,” Renard smoothly interjects, although there’s amusement in his expression he’s doing nothing to hide. “Is that if we canproveprey are just as formidable as predators, then the Council will have no choice but to strike this archaic law from the books.”
I gape at the two ancient beings before me. Not only because they both suddenly seeminvestedin helping me challenge Titus for the throne, but that they’re humoring the idea of apexprey.
Something like that just doesn’t exi…
With a groan, I realize they’re suggesting the answer to my problems could be my biggest problem. A very tempting blonde problem in a little red plaid skirt. “No offense guys,” I clench my jaw. “But I’d rather let Zhenga kick my ass in the Ring during Pred Games than waste my time coaching a worthlessbunnywho… ”
I abruptly stop as a ferocious growl rips from Nico’s chest. He immediately pales as Aubrey turns to him in shock. Renard’s smirk only widens, and I can just imagine the bowl of proverbial popcorn as the gargoyle settles back to watch the show.
Enough of this bullshit!
Leaping to my feet, I angrily advance on the shaking fox. Grabbing him around the bicep, I haul him to stand and practically throw him onto the balcony before stalking after him. It’s one thing for him to snarl at me in the townhouse, but exhibiting this behavior in front of other alphas is unacceptable. It’s not like the others can’t hear us out here, but Bash is currently using the bedroom for his pillow talk, and I need to nip this rebellion in the bud.
A public show of dominance it is, then.
“I’m sorry, alpha…I don’t know why this keeps happening... " Pure terror is draining the color from Nico’s face, revealing an emotion I recognize all too well.
Shame.
