Page 45 of Let Us Prey
The toothy smirk would make me shiver if I didn’t trust him. I don’t doubt for a second that whatever his family does, Rufus is tattooed neck deep in it. Still, I nibble my lip in concern. “If we’re waiting for them to make a move, what do you suggest we do in the meantime?”
“Maybe we should talk about why you think all of your professors hate you when at least five of them clearly want to chase your fluffy cottontail,” he replies. “Outside of Abel the Asexual Asshole, you’ve got all the hotties trying to peek at your panties, girl.”
“What?!!” I shout. He’s lost his mind! None of those men want to—“Rufus!Don’t say that kind of stuff where people could hear! What if someone told them I’m crushing? I’d be humiliated... "
Cori looks at both of us for a moment before dissolving into giggles again. “Shit, Ruf, she doesn’t know!”
His head tilts as his smirk grows wider. “Oh, now that’s just adorable! Dolly Bear thinks they’re being mean to her because they don’t like her.”
I smack my foot on the ground next to him. “They don’t! I mean, okay, except for Bash—he’s clearly being a perv. A sweet perv, but a perv nonetheless. But you can’t possibly think Professor Cassius or Renard or Aubrey…?” They look at one another and burst into laughter again, making me crinkle my nose.
What in the hell is godsdamned funny?
“Dollface, you don’t realize because you’re new here. Wolfie boytoy’s brother is known for being allergic to students—periodt. That he put you under Romulus protection in front of an audience is shaking the grapevine something fierce.”
“And, and... " Cori cuts in excitedly. “The other two never let students call them anything but Professor or… well, to be honest, people don’t call the librarian anything because he roars and kicks them out before they can even open their mouths. His assistant handles everything because his temper is like…legendary.There’s never been a student aide that made it through their first week in the library. They always get kicked out with bellows and flames.”
What? Are they serious?
They have to be pulling my leg. I mean, yeah, the guys are all pretty stand-offish, but it’s not like I’ve worried they’re going to roast me or anything. And Professor Cassius probably said the Romulus protection thing because Bash would lose his shit if people messed with me, which could get him in trouble with administration.
Right?
Rufus bats his lashes, sighing as he clasps his hands near his cheek. “Methinks the blonde bunny has suitors. However will she choose?”
That makes me scowl even more. Not only do I not know what to do with their claims of a godsdamned harem lining up for me, I also don’t like the insinuation I’d have tochooseone of them over the others. It’s putting the cart before the horse, I know, but it bothers me to hear Rufus say it. “Oh, shut up, Ru-Ru,” I mutter, pulling out my phone to look up the ranges of the last show I spotted in the book in front of me.
“Touchy, touchy. Guess I won’t suggestSeven Brides for Seven Brothers,” he snarks, picking up his book and flipping the pages. “Clearly, our Dolly would put a hit on six of them. Greedy, greedy.”
Narrowing my eyes, I pointedly ignore him while researching on my phone. I’m not greedy; I just refuse to be pigeonholed into the antiquated idea that monogamy is the only option. I’m a feminist.
Yeah, that’s it.
TWENTY-SEVEN
So Am I
Delores
After my classes are over, I trudge back to the dorms via one of the ‘safe routes’ the ladies in the infirmary marked for me. There are quite a few, depending on where I’m coming from and where I’m headed, which is comforting. Emergency-only routes are marked in bright red on my Apex app—those are underground and only to be used in the most dire situations. The nurses told me if we use them and a pred sees us, it could give away the location of prey housing if someone looks hard enough. I don’t want to get a bunch of people who have been kind to me killed, so I won’t even consider using these tunnels unless I have absolutely no other choice.
The Shird is a big-ass hike from the CHUM, and the roundabout path I’m taking doubles the time to get home. I don’t have work study with Aubrey tonight, but I do have homework in nearly every class. Most of it is lengthy essays, because I’ve read so far ahead of the curriculum at this point I could probably take a final and pass. Simply passing isn’t good enough for Lucille, though, so I have to buckle down and get some work done tonight, and over the weekend. The twenty-page paper on the ‘Glorious Formation of the Apex Council’ is looming over me like the sword of Damocles and I have no idea how I’m going to pretend to kiss those wrinkly old farts’ asses for that many pages.
When I badge into the building, it occurs to me I don’t have a damned thing in my room to eat. I’ve run through the small order I received from Animalzon last week, and I didn’t have time to place another. Sighing, I remember the vending machines in the student lounge with a frown of displeasure. Tasteless healthbars and bits of freeze-dried meat sounds unappetizing as fuck, but I have neither the supplies nor the space to do much else. I can’t just mooch off Bash and the guys forever. It feels like I’m a kept woman and this summer I vowed to let no one ‘own’ me ever again.
Roarmen it is, I suppose.
Stepping off the elevator, I head to my room to drop my things before I go hunting for plastic food. My phone buzzes and I juggle my bag, the keycard, and it as I eye the hallway carefully. I never swipe my card until I’m certain there’s no one lurking in the corridor—better safe than dead. I should probably keep my Airpreds in so I have a hands-free way to contact people, but I worry about not being able to hear the surrounding noises.
Having an entire student body hunting you really puts a godsdamned crimp in your fucking day, let me tell you.
“Go for Dolly,” I mutter around the card in my mouth.
“Is that how you answer your phone for your two bestest friends in the entire world?” Rufus tsks.
I can imagine him shaking his badger-striped head as if disappointed, and it brings a small smile to my lips. “Only when I’m also trying to make sure I lock myself in my room, unmolested. I just left you guys. What could have happened in the past thirty minutes that’s so urgent?”
“Is that her? Dolly, we miss yoooooooou!” Cori squeals in the background, and I immediately realize I’m on speaker.
