AllFreeNovel
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Lissa and Declan were right. He was waiting for me, and I’ve failed his test.
“I’m sorry I was late and that affected your dinner service,” I tell him. “Dr. Wright wanted me to meet with him and he kept me late. I’ll make sure it won’t happen again.”
“It won’t happen again because you’re going to pack your bags and leave.” Syn doesn’t look up from his phone until he’s finished speaking, and then he carefully places the phone on the chair arm before he finally focuses his attention on me.
“I was barely late and this was the first time—”
Syn holds his hand up and raises one finger. “Late for dinner, despite the clear instructions.”
“That wasn’t my fault, and the professor said that…” The words die on my lips as Syn holds up another finger.
“Wearing clothing that has not been provided by me.” Another finger joins the first two, making him look like a boy scout. “Taking it upon yourself to move out of the room assigned to you.” He lowers his hand and crosses his arms. “And I’m adding talking back and refusing to address me with the correct term. Three strikes is fair, but you’ve made it four. You broke the rules. You need to go,” Syn says, like it’s the simplest thing on earth.
I stay rooted to the spot. Even if I wanted to leave, I don’t think I can move. I’m not happy or even relieved that I’ve been given my freedom. Instead, the fear I had of leaving too soon hits me.
Passing the initiation was never my goal. I’ve never held some deluded belief that I stood a chance of becoming a member of the Elite. Making it to the end was my hope. Syn’s never given me a timeframe, and my assumption was that the first initiation had run from the start of the semester until the end of midterms, so by that logic, the same eight weeks would get me to the end of the semester—probably with some big finale, which would have me failing my exams and leaving James Keyingham altogether anyway.
A quiet exit like this was something I never even dared to hope for, so I should be relieved…
But I haven’t been able to plant the camera Payne gave me only a few hours ago.
I haven’t had the opportunity to see if it would work and give me Syn’s password.
And I haven’t had the opportunity to use it and see what’s on his computer.
Because they had become possibilities.
“You’re still here?” Syn asks. “Don’t tell me you thought you would actually pass this initiation?” He bursts out laughing, but it sounds forced. “Members of the Elite need to be able to follow rules. I was more curious to see if a dog like you could even be trained.”
“Right family, wrong breed,” Gemini says.
His words are enough to throw Syn off as he turns towards him with an arched eyebrow. “What?”
“Right family, wrong breed.” Gemini frowns. “Or is it the genus?”
Syn lets out a long sigh. “For the love of God, Gem, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Dogs.” He shrugs. “Well, foxes.”
As Royal wearily rubs his face, Syn just stares at Gemini.
“You keep calling her a dog, but really, she’s a fox—a vixen. Vicki the Vixen. And foxes aren’t a domesticated species.”
Syn continues to stare, running his tongue over his lower lip. “You are aware that you’re proving my point, right?”
“No, I’m making my own point.”
I can’t tell if Syn looks pissed or bemused, but I’m also not sure he knows either. He just moves over to the sofa, sits down and spreads his arm over the back before gesturing to the space in front of him. “The floor is all yours, Gem.”
“You’re trying to train an animal that can’t be trained,” Gemini says like that’s obvious.
Having Gemini make me wear a fox’s tail by anchoring it in place with a butt plug is one thing, but I definitely don’t like him referring to me as an animal.
Gemini rolls his eyes. “The problem isn’t the animal, it’s the person who’s dumb enough to try to train it.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Syn snaps.
“And you think I have weird kinks,” he mutters before he starts to unzip his pants.
