Page 68 of Mortal Blood
“You’re holding back,” Ryker snarled, and I battled the urge to snarl right back. “Avert your fucking eyes, Ellis, if you want to keep them.”
I swallowed my frustration and cast my gaze at his feet. Ryker grunted in satisfaction and kept on pacing. The ground was damp and he was wearing a track through the short grass, or what was left of it after a couple of hundred shifters had spent the year clawing it to pieces during their lessons.
“Every other shifter here can shift on command. You think you’re different, Ellis? Special?”
“No, Alpha,” I ground out, despite all evidence to the contrary—on the different part, at least.
“Damn straight. You’ve got two weeks to work it out.”
I snuck a glance at Cole to confirm he was just as confused as I was.
“Two weeks until what, Alpha?” he asked.
“Until you and your mate run on the moon hunt, unless one of you fucks it up before then.”
“But Alpha!” Kallan protested, and Ryker rounded on him.
“Did I ask your opinion?” he demanded, and Kallan shook his head sullenly. “That’s what I thought. And I’m pretty fucking sure I didn’t tell you to stop your scent drills, either.”
Kallan’s jaw clenched, but he turned away and closed his eyes while Harvey went back to waving scent cloths in front of him. Scenting in human form was harder than scenting in wolf form, which I guess made sense. But at least Kallan and the others hadsomekind of enhanced senses in human form, which was more than I could say. And that was bad news, because Ryker had made it perfectly clear that now I’d achieved a full shift, I was going to be expected to sit the end-of-year shifter assessment—and I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to involve any actual sitting.
“Wait, did you say moon hunt? I can’t even run yet!”
“Well, then I guess we’ll all have a good laugh, won’t we? Work it the fuck out.”
And with that, he stalked off to harass someone else. I turned to Cole.
“Just great. How am I supposed to work out running if I can’t even shift?”
“Start by working out how to shift,” Ryker called back without breaking his stride. I rolled my eyes. Stupid shifter hearing.
“Come on,” Cole said. “With me.”
Except, thirty seconds later, Cole was in the form of a magnificent, powerful wolf…and I was still woefully human. And stayed that way for the rest of the lesson. I was so screwed.
Cole grabbed my pants and tossed them to me, then stooped to grab something from the grass as I tugged them on.
“You dropped this,” he said, holding Aodh’s stone out to me.
“Oh. Thanks.” I quickly thrust it in my pocket, trying not to pay attention to the single glowing light remaining inside it. I could see the question in Cole’s eyes, but he didn’t push it. Either he didn’t know what the stone was—which seemed pretty unlikely—or he was respecting my privacy. I wished I could tell him about it, but he had bigger concerns right now thanwhatever mess I’d gotten myself into with the devious little fae.
But tonight it would be over, one way or another. One light left meant this was my last day to hold up my end of the deal, and whatever my father might or might not do, I was pretty sure it paled in comparison to breaking my word to Aodh. No. Tonight, I would be meeting my father.
When the rest of our classes finally finished for the day, I nibbled my way half-heartedly through dinner, and then made my excuses. Cole watched me leave wordlessly, and I could feel his gaze follow me every step of the way out of the canteen. Oh yeah, he definitely knew I was up to something. Part of me was grateful that he was giving me the trust and the space to work this out on my own. The rest of me wished he’d demand to know what was going on and insist on coming with me, because I so did not want to do this on my own. But thanks to Aodh, my hands were tied. There was nothing left now but to get it over with—one way or the other.
I switched out my academy uniform for something a little less conspicuous and hurried through the corridors, taking care to avoid anyone who might ask awkward questions—which was basically everyone.
I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until the doors were in sight.
Turned out my relief was premature.
“Going somewhere in a hurry, pet?”
“You know,” I said, whirling on my heel to face Davorin, “for a big academy it seems like I can’t get an inch of space.”
“An inch, pet?” he said, closing the gap between us. “I see more than an inch here.”
“Well it could be a mile and it wouldn’t be enough.”
