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All of them stare at me for several beats before standing in unison.
They stride across the dining hall like they own it. As he passes, Axe locks eyes with me. So does Enzo. The big one keeps his gaze glued ahead.
I can’t read any of their faces, so I do my best to pretend like it wasn’t a big deal and move through the line.
“What was that?” Stevie asks, leaning over her stew in a bread bowl as I join them.
I shrug and pretend that my sandwich is the most interesting thing in the entire realm. Far more interesting than gorgeous succubi demons with long hair.
Unlike the previous day’s offering, the bread is dry, and the meat is too salty. I take a swig of water to help wash it all down.
“Hello? Dove. Don’t ignore me. What was that whole thing just now?” Stevie asks again.
She’s not being pushy. It’s a reasonable question.
But I don’t know how much I can tell her without risking everything. “It’s nothing.” I go for the salad, stabbing a huge crunchy leaf and jamming it my mouth so I can’t talk.
“Bruh, it was clearly something,” Austin says, and chomps down on his enormous sandwich with fluffy white bread and stacks and stacks of meat and cheese.
It takes a few minutes to get the huge leaf down, and when Austin, Stevie, and Jess are all still staring at me, I do my best to change the subject.
“Do all wolves eat like you?” I nod toward the ridiculous sandwich.
“That’s a deflection,” he says with a smile. “But yes. Most of us are voracious eaters. High metabolism comes with the magic needed to shift into our other form.” His gaze goes distant, darkening for a moment before he clears it and takes another bite.
He doesn’t ask again, though, and neither does Stevie or Jess. The rest of lunch goes by uneventfully, and soon enough, the four of us are on our way to Supe History together.
We’re not the first to arrive, but since I’m not coming in alone, it’s not so bad.
That, and the instructor doesn’t bother acknowledging me as a new student. He just nods as Stevie leads us to four empty seats in the middle of the center row.
As I’m settling in, a notification dings on my tablet.
In the split second between hearing the notification and reading who it’s from, my heart sprints like it’s trying to win the race from my ribcage.
Another message from Axe?
Maybe Enzo has something unhinged and lascivious to say?
Dashel explaining why he ran off earlier.
Or maybe the big scary one, finally introducing himself.
But it’s none of those.
It’s just the instructor, Mr. Shaw, a short mage with a walking stick, giving me his lecture notes from the last month. How nice of him.
There are no instructions or pleasantries, just the attachment with his slides.
Odd, but less attention is better.
I scan the first slide, but a high-pitched and perturbed “Ahem” draws my attention.
“You’re in my seat,” Olivia says with a fake sweet smile.
“Looks like it’s my seat now,” I say and go back to the lecture slides.
She scoffs with the indignation of a girl who’s never been told no in all her life. “Excuse me? This has been my seat since the beginning of the year. Please move.”
