Page 94 of Let Us Prey
One I may or may not be falling for, like an idiot.
“You seem tense, Cash,” Renard remarks quietly, his signature teasing tone absent. “Are you concerned about Delores’ safety?”
“Well, yes,” I brusquely reply, not understanding what he’s getting at, since I assume weallare.
He shares a look with Aubrey before the dragon leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he keenly observes me. “You know it isn’t all on you to protect her, right? We are herpack,too.” When he sees me tense, he quickly adds, “I mean that we’re in this together, Cash—as a pack, as alphas, and asfriends. You don’t need to shoulder this responsibility alone, like some stoic patriarch.”
Well, shit.
His simple declaration stuns me into silence. It’s so incredibly contradictory to how I was raised that I don’t know how to reply. Not for the first time, I wish I knew more about the notoriously secretive dragon and gargoyle societies. Aubrey and Renard occasionally comment on how other species should try puttingwomenin charge, and although they can be tight-lipped about their pasts, I wonder if I should swallow my pride and try askingthemfor advice.
We’ll see about that…
Renard surprises me again by redirecting the conversation to safer waters, instead of going in for the kill. “How fascinating that our bunny is such a carnivore, hmm?”
Aubrey nods thoughtfully and I frown, realizing I hadn’t thought much of the fact apreyanimal eats meat. Delores has been having dinner at the townhouse more nights than not, and always compliments Nico’s cooking while cleaning her plate. Sure, part of it is probably ingrained manners and being raised as a predator, but it would’ve also made sense for her to develop an aversion to meat after she emerged…
“She has fangs too,” I add off-handedly, as I continue to turn things over in my mind.
“I beg your fucking pardon?” Aubrey shouts, startling me back to the present.“Fangs,you say?”
“Yeah... " I mumble, realizing now how weirdthatis as well. “They, uh, come out when she’s pissed—like when she’s kicking ass during a fight in class.” I shift uncomfortably under the combined weight of alpha stares. “She has pretty sharp claws, too.”
“What in the world?” Aubrey mutters, fumbling to get his phone out of his suit jacket pocket, stabbing at the screen as he immediately dives into a Google search. “You didn’t think this was something worth sharing with the rest of us, Cassius? By Horus, you wolves, I swear.”
For once, I don’t bristle under the ‘wolves-are-stupid’ implication, as I’m feeling pretty fucking dumb myself. When D first showed up in my classroom—practically knocking me out cold in the process—all I saw was red. She was a taunting reminder of my weakness; the reason I’d lost everything and been sent to rot in this hellhole. Now, of course, she’s my obsession, and every time those fangs and claws come out to play, it only makes me want her more.
Forget the others—I’vegot it bad.
Renard is chewing the inside of his cheek, looking more nervous than I’ve ever seen him. “Does she seem unnaturallyferalwhen these features appear?” he asks, not meeting my gaze.
Aubrey is too engrossed in his dark web travels to pay his companion any mind, but I give the gargoyle a hard stare, willing him to look at me. “Yeah, you could say that. What do you know, Ren?”
He abruptly stands and walks to the orchid he keeps under glass, lightly brushing a finger over the rounded surface, like a caress. “I’m not sure,” he murmurs. “It’s like a distant memory of something—perhaps not even mine. Let me brood on it a bit, but in the meantime, see if you can get Dolly to show any more unusual attributes—for research purposes.”
I’m torn over his request. Delores has already proven she can hold her own, one-on-one against her peers, but she also doesn’t have full control over her shift yet—partially because of her prey instincts for flight, and personal trauma. I don’t want to put her in a position where she might hurt herself, or relive what her ex-boyfriend and ex-friends put her through, but I also don’t like to coddle her.
When the lippy blonde first started pushing my buttons, it only made me want to push back harder, either until she broke or proved her worth, it didn’t matter which. Now, I still want to challenge her, but with the purpose of helping my baby reach her full potential. There’ssomethingpowerful lurking beneath the surface of Delores Drew, and while I’m dying to see what it is, I also wonder if it’s something we want to awaken at all.
If anyone needs protection, it might be us…
FIFTY-TWO
Under Pressure
Delores
My head is pounding as I walk out of my last exam of the semester. I should be excited because I’m finally free, but to be honest, I feel like I might keel over on the spot.
The weeks after Thanksgiving were a blur—mostly because every professor in the entire fucking school piled the students with projects, papers, and study guides that could double as bludgeons. I don’t know why they were intent on making us study twenty-four hours a day, besides to see if we’d crack, but it's been the most intense two weeks of school work I’ve ever experienced. I haven’t even had a sleepover with Bash and Nico lately, because I was so buried in work.
That would have helped me let off some steam…
I have spent most of my nights in either Rufus or Cori’s dorm room, all of us wearing headphones while we stuff our faces with pizza and clack away at keyboards. I wanted to work at the Tower, but to be honest, this time of year is about cramming knowledge and bitching about your professors… over half of which are my boyfriends, so it seemed prudent to hunker down with my friends instead.
Lucille will definitely check on my grades, and although I’m not permitted to come home during Christmas break, I’ll surely receive a not-so-vaguely threatening phone call if my marks aren’t up to snuff. I wouldn’t put it past her to send Bruiser to ‘remind’ me how important it is to still positively represent the very family I’ve been shunned from, so the bags under my eyes and my shuffling gait of a zombie have been earned. I don’t know if I’ve slept more than ten hours since Friday, to be honest.
I’m still a hundred percent likely to flunk my fucking Shifter History exam.
