The others snickered, and I fought to keep my tone even. “Leaveher be. We have nothing better to do?”
“She’s not allowed to park in our parking lot,” Brent said.
I nearly put my fist through the whiny wanker’s teeth. “Where the bloody hell is she supposed to park?”
Rhett grinned, loving that I was upset. “Touchy, touchy, Orion. What’s this all about?” He cocked his head. “You’ve got your own seniorprankwith her, is that it?”
Tucker’s eyes widened. “Oh shit. Has the hunter gotten bored with all the usual prey?”
I ignored him, sucking in calming breaths as Harper drove away.
“Well?” Tucker said, relaxing against his truck, arms crossed.
“Maybe,” I said. “Don’t fuck with my game.”
He chuckled. “Damn, Mercer, I got game too. I have the hottest girlfriend in the school.”
“I can understand why Orion would get bored,” Rhett said as if I weren’t there. “He’s got Elowen drooling all over him every time she sees him. Where’s the challenge?”
Aria busted out laughing and then clapped a hand over her mouth. “Rude, babe. That’s my friend you’re talking about.”
Rhett shrugged. “Am I wrong?”
“No. It’s pathetic, honestly.”
Tucker gripped my chin and gave it a wag. “With a face card this lethal, who could blame her?”
I knocked his hand away. “Piss off,” I snarled, but managed—just barely—to lighten it with a laugh.
Tucker laughed too, rubbing his wrist where I’d whacked him.
“I don’t blame Orion,” Rhett continued. “He’s hunting for sport outside our own kind because the buffet is too easy.”
“This is all very enlightening,” I said, casual as hell. “Please. Tell me more.”
Tucker shrugged. “Why else are you so defensive about some little Bender?”
I had a witty denial ready to fire but found my jaw clenched shut.
This is ridiculous. I don’t care.
Yet a voice whispered if he called her “little” again I was going to put him on the ground.
“She’s pretty in a witchy kind of way,” Aria said. “I mean, her fashion sense is atrocious, but she’s not…ugly.” She glanced up at me. “But she’s also way beneath you, Orion. It’s weird you don’t get with Elowen. Like, really weird. You’ve hooked up with everyone else.”
I shrugged and smiled tightly. “Maybe I like to be the prey sometimes too.”
The group laughed, and we went our separate ways: they to their big white houses on the Narragansett Bay, and me to Atlas Hall. Once inside my student apartment, I sagged against the wall.
“No wonder Harper hates you, mate,” I muttered to the empty apartment. “You’re utterly full of shit.”
I rubbed my eyes and headed for the bedroom, intending to crash.
Lo and behold, it turned out the apartment wasn’t so empty after all. My roommate, Easton Locke, had finally seen fit to grace me with his presence. He sat at his desk, in the dark, blinds drawn, working intently on a laptop that was covered in an array of artsy stickers.
“So, we meet at last,” I said. “Mind if I turn on a light?”
“If you must,” Easton said without looking up.
