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CHAPTER 1
Caelum
“What’s got you in a mood?” I asked my second-hand, Ryker, who stood in front of my window, looking out at the university and glaring at it. A sour expression had been quietly fixed on his face for about five minutes, and now he was beginning to pace.
“I’m not in a mood,” he finally denied, loosening his tie like it was choking him to death. “I met with The Politician.”
I groaned. I’d never met her, but The Politician had been a pain in the ass from day one. For some reason, the tuition board had given the brat a full scholarship. The worst part was that it was only October, and she was only a sophomore. That meant that there was the better part of three years still to go.
“You’re really bad at intimidating her for some reason,” I told him, grinning. Every time he had a meeting with The Politician, his whole week went into the toilet. She was one of those people that should be in Harvard grabbing a law degree, with the restof her ilk. Instead, she was wasting her time arguing for funds to cover extra vending machines in the student lounge.
It had started with the French Club, but now half of the clubs were asking her to be the president just so they didn’t have to deal with Ryker or any of the paperwork. She was frighteningly good at paperwork. And loopholes. And she had a talent for handling Ry, who was normally the person the university, and mostly me, sent down to say no to people. Normally they would take no with grace. Or they’d piss themselves. One of the two.
“Oh, I didn’t tell you,” Ry grumbled, pulling a cigar out of his pocket and biting down on it. “Her brother’s in an MC. So, she’s used to feeling intimidated and pushing right on through.” He huffed as he lit the end and pushed out a plume of smoke. “I could put her across my knee. I’d love to. Just say the word, boss, and I’ll put her in her place.”
I snorted. This was something that we joked about all the time, because back in our separate packs that wasn’t unheard of. Females normally toed the line around males. They were more submissive. And when they weren’t, their mates or family were expected to control them.
Not in the human world. Nope, human society was a magical place. A wild west without rules. Everybody just said and did whatever the fuck they wanted. “What did she get you to agree to?”
He shrugged. “Too much. But she’s threatening to appeal to the boosters to build a new student building with the funds earmarked for the new law building.”
“Making money with a university is hard,” I replied with a weary groan, trying not to get stressed by Ry’s concession. It wasn’t abad idea. We needed more areas for groups to study and host events. But we also had to get the best teachers in the school, and that meant earmarking our funds for that, rather than making the current students happy. And honestly, it was easier without students like The Politician that saw the problem and saw their legacies in being a pain in my ass. “I feel like the bad guy inAnimal House,” I groaned.
“You’re not.I’mthe bad guy inAnimal House,” Ryker said, being the provost. He stretched his neck to the right and then the left, obviously trying to release some tension in his shoulders. “In fact, I’m the bad guy in almost every movie about colleges,” he reminded me. “How did I let you talk me into this shit gig?”
“You’re an asshole, so you were made for it,” I teased, but I could tell he wasn’t in the mood to assure me that he was a badass. He wasn’t feeling intimidated by her for the most part. That particular student just made him feel like he’d been castrated. “Do you want to send her up to me? I can play hardball.”
“Nah. I just feel unsettled because she makes my dick feel hard and useless. I keep forgetting she’s kinda cute. Besides, damage is done. Next time I’ll just get my head more in the game.”
“So sure there’s gonna be a next time?” I asked.
“Yeah, she’s not just head of the Student Unionandthe Student Council this year. She’s head of three different clubs. Which isn’t weird when you look at her high school resume. It was the same fucking thing. And normally that makes a type—you know, sort of focused, strait-laced, tennis bracelet, that sort of thing—but that’s not her. She is way too fucking relaxed. Being in charge is fucking easy for her, and everybody knows it, that’s why they make her the head of everything.” He turned his head and grinned at me. “She’d drive you fuckingnuts.Shedoesn’t respond to positive reinforcement and she’s impossible to intimidate. And she’s hot, so then you’ve got a hard dick the whole time and you’re trying not to do anything creepy.”
“So she’s a living nightmare.” I grin in a consoling sort of way. “Look, I got a date tonight?—”
“As do I. I need it, too. My brain needs to be liquified a bit,” he grumbled.
“But tomorrow let’s let our wolves out. It’ll be good for you, loosen you up. A bunch of the gang are going—blood moon tomorrow.”
He put down the cigar to grin a toothy grin. “Blood fucking moon,” he said as if that was exactly what he needed.
It was true for me, too. A run on a full moon felt good to any wolf, but on blood moons we got a little wild—in a good way. If our wolves were at peace at the end of the night, we’d wake up feeling relaxed as hell. After starting the new school year, I needed it.
“What the fuck socks are you wearing right now?” he groaned as he watched me cross my legs one over the other.
I looked at them, but I didn’t have to. I was very deliberate with my socks. “They’re pumpkins. It’s October.”
He leaned closer. “Are they being chased by wolves?” He looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. “You dating achicktonight?” He never appreciated my socks. He came from a pack where personality and individuality were not appreciated, and there was still a lot of that baked into Ry.
I flipped him off. “You’re just jealous,” I said, grinning and lighting my cigar. “Believe it or not, you’ll be feeling like your normal asshole self by Sunday.”
He shrugged, conceding it. He didn’t have to be facing down girls who were particularly good at jumping through loopholes to be on edge by Friday night. Ry wasn’t like me; he wasn’t drawn to human culture because of human knowledge and human history.
Instead, he’d gotten into human music. That was his whole downfall. For years he’d hidden his fascination with pop culture and only listened to music on his headphones and learned to play drums to partake in pack ceremonies. And then he left his pack to try out for a band, his pack found out about it, the dream didn’t pan out, he was excommunicated from his pack, and before you knew it, he was a huge, trained wolf without a pack or an ass to kick. That was when I was able to pick him up and persuaded him to be my beta.
We were quite the odd couple at first, but now he could almost act human for five days in a row without going insane. Almost. He said he loved his life here; he fucked whoever he wanted as much as he wanted, as long as they weren’t an undergrad. He went where he wanted, watched what he wanted, read what he wanted, and played music as loud as he wanted. It was the wolf inside of him that he was at odds with.
My wolf and my human self were perfectly at odds, and always had been. Never been a problem for me. Life was exactly how I wanted it to be. Wolf on the weekends. Bachelor on the weekdays. A badass human with power and a whole university of sycophants. What could fucking be better than this?
