AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, shit, girl, we can take care of that in two weeks. No problem. You stick with me. Gammy always said if our family knows how to do one thing right, it’s how to eat.” She passes a croissant my way, and I accept it with a smile.
I’m about to thank her again—for her kindness and the warm welcome—when her eyes widen, and a faintly sour smell begins to rise from her skin.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, my spine going stiff.
“Wolf,” she whispers, her lips barely moving. “Headed this way. Extremely intense energy. Insanely huge. Probably coming to kick our ass for being where Variants aren’t supposed to be.”
I drop the pastry and brush the crumbs off my hands. “Good. We’ll get this fight out of the way on day one and be free to enjoy ourselves.”
Layla gulps. “Unless we’re in pieces.”
“We won’t be in pieces. This is a school. I’m pretty sure other students aren’t allowed to kill us, at least not in broad daylight in sight of the faculty building.” I stand and spin to face the incoming bully, only to come face to chest with a very familiar set of pecs.
Pecs I was rubbing all over just a few hours ago, in fact, while I claimed his gorgeous cock as my territory.
I glance up to see Ford staring down at me with a more-than-friendly look in his eyes and my nipples tighten inside my bra.
Refusing to acknowledge the surge of awareness his presence sends surging through my system, I widen my eyes and say, “Hey there, oldfriend. Meet Layla, one of my new roomies. Layla, this is Ford, the wolf I told you about. He used to tease me at summer camp when I was a kid.”
“Hey, Layla,” Ford says, casting a kind, if slightly distracted smile her way before locking his gaze on mine. “Can we talk? I know we were going to catch up later, but I overhead something I think you’ll want to know about. ASAP.”
“Sure, no problem.” I turn back to Layla to see her studying us with a scandalized delight that makes it clear she isn’t buying the fact that we’re “just friends” for a hot second and say, “I’ll meet you guys back in the room before dinner?”
“Yeah, sure thing,” Layla says with a flash of her teeth. “See you then, roomie. Nice meeting you, Ford.”
“Same,” he says, lifting a hand her way before taking my arm and drawing me toward a break in the trees.
I start to ask him what’s up, but he presses a finger to his lips and nods down the narrow path leading toward another, slightly smaller lawn with a pond on the other side of it. I nod, and follow him, wondering what the hell he could have overhead in an hour apart that warranted an immediate strategy huddle.
Or maybe he was just missing you. Like you missed him.
I barely resist rolling my eyes at the inner voice of Girlish Idiocy or Raging Hormones or whatever it is.
This is something serious or Ford wouldn’t be here. The rational person inside of me knows that even before he turns to face me beneath the farthest tree and says, “The doctor’s refusing to do it. He won’t take out your implant before the trials. Not even when Natalie threatened to pull strings to get him fired.”
six
FORD
Juliet’s eyesnarrow as she digests this latest bit of shit news. “How do you know?”
“I stopped by Natalie’s office. I wanted to talk to her about the culture here, to see if she really believed all the shifters sang kumbaya around the campfire together every night, or if she was bullshitting us the entire way here.”
Juliet grunts softly. “I’d like to know that, too. My roommates said the wolves have been dicks and the big cats not much better.”
“I’ve already met several of those dicks,” I agree. “And at least in Lupine, the dicks seem to outnumber the non-dicks at least three to one. I’m playing my cards close to my chest for now, so the dicks will trust me, but sooner or later I’ll have to choose the right side.” I sigh. “And I don’t see that being pretty.”
“Then don’t,” she says.
I blink. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t choose sides. Or, better yet, choosetheirside. Make them think you’re one of them, infiltrate the leadership, and destroy them from the inside.” She shrugs. “Or at least hold out on betraying them until we’re in and don’t have as much to lose. It’ll be much harder for them to get rid of us once we’re students for real than to sabotage us during the trials.”
Fuck. Why hadn’t I thought of that?”
“This is why I’m going to be a military school major,” she says, answering my unspoken question. “And you’re going to write poetry. You’re a surprisingly earnest person, Ford. But I guess that makes sense. When you’ve spent your whole life at the top of the food chain, you don’t have to be sneaky or duplicitous to survive. You just take what you want and crush the competition with brute force.”
“I would have thought of it,” I say, pretty sure I’m telling the truth. “It just took me a little longer to get there. You’re smarter than me, Juliet. I know that and I’m okay with it.” She starts to speak but I cut her off, “I would make a joke about how I’m prettier and more charming, so it all evens out, but if we’re going to pretend to be enemies, we need to make this quick. No one should see us talking out in the open.”
