Page 40 of Prey It By Ear

Dolly wrinkles her nose at me, obviously displeased with my commentary. “Don’t discourage him if he’s being optimistic. It’s not like any of us are rays of sunshine, and it doesn’t hurt to put a hopeful spin on things that are daunting, Felix.”

Before I can respond, she squeals as my twin comes up behind her and lifts her off the ground to spin her around with a nutty smile. “Baby Girl, you’re our sunshine, and that’s all we need. Besides, the gloomy asshole will be back to himself once he’s really gone through all his shit and figured out that the class load means he’ll have to whip up a fuck ton of new lesson plans. He hasn’t been required to do many of them since we were all back at the Tower.”

“Fuck.”

We all wait for the expression on the gargoyle’s face to go from cheery to scowling, and once it does, even Aubrey breaks into howling laughter. My goal wasn’t to crush him, but the dichotomy between his original attitude and the complete one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn he just took is definitely funny. The dragon grabs two bowls out of the cabinet and methodically fills them, not even attempting to intervene.

I suppose when you live together for as long as they have; you know which battles to fight and which ones to let go of.

“Thank you for pointing that out, Raj,” Ren grumbles as Aubrey comes over with his bowl. “I am looking forward to pissing on your parade the next chance I get.”

Chuckling, I shrug. “You can try, but I have to go to the boys’ games stadium to help Fitz and then meet Midori to go over my roles as Athletic Director and Staff Health Coordinator. I have no idea what kind of shit the second part is going to entail, but I’m certain it will be extremely time-consuming and mind-numbing.”

“She’s doing that to make sure all your time is swallowed up like a freaking vacuum,” the Princess mutters as the coffeemaker finally finishes and she wriggles free of Fitz’s grip to run for it. “That's why all of this is happening. They want to keep us busy so we don’t figure more out, grow stronger, and show the world who they really are. Also, my mother just hates me.”

“Maybe so, snack size,” Aubrey says as he leaves his place at the counter to get mugs for him and the pouting gargoyle. “But since Fitz wasn’t able to fix it, we have to get creative in our efforts.”

Sighing as I watch my family cycle through the pot until there’s just enough left for me to put in my travel mug, I rise to my feet. “Clean up your mess. Chess worked hard this morning to get this place back in shape after our meeting. I’m going to head to the stadium to sort through shit. Fitz, if you’re not there in twenty minutes, I’m going to make you come to the Midori meeting.”

He clutches his chest dramatically as I pour my coffee, looking around for help as if I’ve just stabbed him in the gut. When he doesn’t get it, my twin finally shrugs and says, “Fine. I’ll wolf this down and see you there, bro. Just take a pill, okay?”

Anyone who says having a twin isn’t enough to drive you to a padded room is full of shit, and I’ll stand ten toes down on that.

“The equipment looks fine,” I mumble as I check things off the inventory list from the end of the year. “Uniforms will need some replacements. Unfortunately, that idiot wolf constantly destroyed everything he touched. We’ll never get the damn smell out of that locker so it can be used again.”

My disdain for canines is biological, especially their territory marking bullshit, but I’m even less happy that our ‘problem child’ from last year was a wolf. Several of the Society families are from canus, and that doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. However, the wolven ones have always had beef with the feline families like mine and Zhenga’s. It’s odd that they can function at whatever these assholes do for meetings, but who am I to judge? I doubt my father personally attends many—he prefers to remain on Bloodstone—and Z’s idiot relatives are much less threatening than the might of the Khans.

Still, that little shit from the Antonoviches has left expensive damage in his wake, and I’m discussing it with Midori.

“Bro, I think we should petition for a remodeled locker room, anyway. This place still isn’t good enough to draw a truly competitive team. What do they expect? Apex and Cappie had fly donors and top-of-the-line stuff.”

I shrug, giving Fitz an exasperated look. “They will not give us that kind of budget. Sure, with the princess making the girls’ team better than it has been in decades, Z has leverage. But males who want to advance in sports are definitely not attending l’Academie or even Zhuǎn xīng U&M. That’s why all the money goes to their respective strengths, not this program.”

“Those nerdy fuckers only win occasionally because they pay ringers. One day, I’ll prove it.” My brother stomps over to the supply closet, throwing it open as he glares. “We’re Khans, Felix. I think our father would be pretty pissed to see us in charge of such lowly shit. Maybe we should let him know.”

I stop what I’m doing and turn to pin him with an angry expression. “Do you really think this is worth involving him? You know there’s always a price, and he never pays it, only us.”

Fitz grins cagily. “I think doing so gives you a reason to speak to the evil son of a bitch, and during that time, you can carefully pump him for information about the shit we’re looking into. If he thinks he’s got you back, bro, he might even let shit slip. His ego is the single biggest contributor to his failures, you know?”

Taka Khan doesn’t fail often, but my twin is right; when he does, it’s because his ridiculously over-inflated sense of self-importance blinds him to reality.

“Okay,” I admit. “That might not be a terrible idea, despite the usual ramifications of having contact with home.”

Fitz grins, his eyes sparkling as he adds, “Plus, maybe he’ll give you some intel on our cousin and what the fuck he’s doing here other than pissing off my Baby Girl. I’ve wanted to poke holes in that fucker since we were kids, and if his goal is to hurt her, it gives me a valid reason, even though dear old Dad doesn’t know it yet.”

The memories of how Asani treated females on Bloodstone make my blood boil, and I have to take several measured breaths to get my tiger to calm down when I imagine Dolly in that position. None of our relatives were as bad as Titus and my father, but they weren’t good, either. Being a Khan means you can take whatever you like on Bloodstone, and although there are many loyal felines who aren’t from our family or even our species there, the Khan bloodline reigns supreme. No one was safe if the other person involved came from our family, even those with mates or marriages.

I crack my neck, trying to shake off the fury I feel about things I witnessed and couldn’t stop when I was a kid. My mother’s death is one of them, but there were other atrocities that Taka felt ‘built our character’ as men and future leaders—Fitz knows that. He’s probably playing off my rage, but he’s also not wrong about needing intel. Closing my eyes, I work hard to purge the memories from the forefront of my mind so I can control myself.

“Fine. I’ll meet with Midori, and once she blows me off regarding funding, we’ll set a time to contact Bloodstone. Does that satisfy you, brother?”

My twin smirks, a hint of dark glee in his eyes as he replies, “For this topic? Yes. I have many others I’ll continue working on while you’re groveling to the croc in the office. Never fear, Felix; the depths to which I will go to protect what we care about are unfathomable, even to me.”

That’s an ominous statement if I’ve ever heard one—my brother is on a mission, and I’m not inclined to stop him this time.

That’s Life

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