I come to an abrupt stop when I see him, letting a bright smile come over my face. Tricking him is not my usualmodus operandi, but I’m fairly certain I can do it long enough to get him where we need to be. “Jas! Hey, Jas…”
The dragon turns to look at me, his brows furrowing in confusion. I don’t meet him after this session—at least, not in the classroom—so it’s out of the ordinary for me to be here. “Zav? What’s going on? I thought we were all meeting in the dorm for dinner. Salem is making some… hell, I don’t know. It’s hard to focus when he’s talking about cooking.”
Not for you—you can usually focus on every single one of us, taking in every detail like a savant.
But I don’t say that because it would give away that I know he’s having a problem with shit. Instead,. I nod, falling into step with him. “Change of plans. We need to make a detour to the main building first. I have to grab something for my class tomorrow, and since you said none of us should travel alone…”
His eyes narrow. “Youcame here alone.”
“Only the last bit. I had company until I got to the building.”
One more white lie won’t hurt, right? Especially since I’m going to fix this so we can all deal with genuine issues rather than interpersonal shit.
Surprise!
Kit/Kat
“Where are we going? I thought we were heading to dinner,” I say as my stomach growls.
Salem chuckles, bumping me with his big shoulder and knocking me off balance a little. Once I’m in control of myself, he pulls a granola bar with my ribbon on it out of his pocket. “Don’t want you to be hangry, KK. You get hard to handle when you’re all… riled up.”
Heat floods my neck, spreading toward my face unbidden. This fucking guy… I clear my throat and mutter, “Thanks. Sorry, my stomach was rude. Slash has sort of trained me.”
“Lucky him,” Oriel says as he flanks me on the other side and I have to force my eyes to the ground to keep anyone else from seeing the mild panic in them.
Now there’stwoof them and I’m definitely going to die on the spot one of these times they’re poking at me.
“I take my job as a trainer seriously, it’s true.”
My hands cover my cheeks as I let O and Salem lead me wherever the fuck they’re all avoiding telling me about, hopelessly trying to get a grip on my reactions. Slash missing their innuendo is funny, but I can’t even enjoy it because I’m so filled with that hot, itchy feeling. I’m not stupid; I know it has to do with my body having a physiological reaction to the gorgeous men taunting me. But it’s new and different, so I just don’t knowhow to deal with it. Hell, I don’t even know if it’s going to give off some…. signal that the others will pick up on. Dank’s potion works on a lot of things as far as I know, but what about… arousal?
That makes my anxiety spike a bit, and my pulse jumps as I try to figure out what I’m going to do to get that answer. Obviously, I can’t control how my body reacts; I’m not a Cubi. Although, I guess they can’t really do that until—I shake my head, pushing out the intrusive ADHD thoughts so I can focus.ThisI can do; I learned coping skills. But my pussy isn’t my brain; telling it to shut up won’t work. It might make me feel better, but it won’t fix a genuine issue that could give me away before I’m ready to admit stuff.
Gahhh. why the fuck is everything so damn hard to wrangle? I’m such a mess.
“KK? I can sense you spiraling from back here.”
X’s voice is soothing, likely on purpose, but it’s not patronizing. They’re just trying to help, especially because theyalsoknow the four-one-one. So I cough to make sure my voice isn’t a dead giveaway, then respond. “Um, well, you guys know that being unaware of my surroundings is difficult for me because of the stuff, so…”
“Wait! I know what to do,” Oriel says and my gut clenches. I have an idea what he’s going to suggest and I don’t know that I’m ready for that with a full damn audience. My pulse spikes again when I imagine all of them—except for our pissy prince—watching me while I can’t see them.
Unfortunately, the reaction I get isn’t the one I thought it’d be—no, it’s more heat in my veins and a clench inside that isnotfear. “I don’t think?—”
Before I can finish, O whips out a blindfold and is standing in front of me, lifting my chin to meet his eyes. “I promise it will be okay. Even though this is a lot of trust, you know that Salem and I won’t let anything bad happen, right?”
I nod, swallowing hard as I look at him.
“Hey! I will not let bad shit go on, either,” X growls indignantly. “Nor will Annie or Slash. Don’t be an asshat, O.”
The crow shifter rolls his eyes, then tears his gaze from mine to the offended cobra shifter. “X, that’s not what I meant. He’s already had one discussed and shit was fine. Salem is around him more than anyone. It’s different in terms of familiarity, okay? I wasn’t making a value judgment, you big diva.”
“Well… I guess?—”
“He had a blindfold on with youpreviously?”
Annie and X speak almost simultaneously and I have to tighten my fists at my side. I don’t want the guys to fight, especially about me. Biting my lower lip, I cough again before they can devolve into bickering. “Hey. Hey. Shut up.”
They all stop, looking at me as I turn to face the group. Slash is studying me carefully, as if he’s trying to find out if I was harmed by what Oriel claimed. X and Annie both have odd expressions on their faces that I can’t place. Salem is glaring at the crow demon with daggers in his normally sleepy eyes. This is so fucking weird that I can hardly stand it, so I hold a hand up.
