A University of Betrayal (The Blairville Legacies #2)

Chapter 30

Emely

Missile

Dorothy

Seething with rage, I stormed across the busy campus. I could feel the stares of the guys in the pack at my back.

Fine . Then they were just about to watch me kick the ass of a Ruisangor who didn’t know his limits.

I had my eyes on the Lamborghini, which he had actually parked next to my dark green jeep. Again!

He was leaning against his car with his hands in his pockets, talking to the platinum-blond Ruisangor, an amused smile on his lips. He was about to lose it!

“Oh no,” I growled with my lips pressed together, rushing through the students who willingly made space for me. “Not with me.”

As if Miles had heard me from a distance, his head turned in my direction. His smile faded. I wish I could have captured this moment.

“Emely?” I heard Cody behind me. He must have followed me.

Focused, I sped up, approaching Miles, not even intending to stop.

Miles DeLoughrey had pulled out the guns with his St. John’s wort concentrate move on Saturday, and I wasn’t going to let that sit on me.

“I’ll kill you!” the words escaped my mouth, and I lunged toward the bastard.

My hands grabbed Miles’ far too strong shoulders.

The Ruisangor next to him moved aside, and immediately, I felt the eyes of half the campus on me.

But my focus was on Miles’ deep brown eyes. Just like on Saturday, when an inner voice of sanity had forced me to let him live when I would have loved to tear him apart.

He had licked my blood from his ridiculous knife. The mere memory sent goosebumps down my spine, accompanied by a strange tingling sensation, which I skillfully suppressed.

“Wow! Emely,” Cody exclaimed behind me and in the corner of my eye, I saw other guys from the pack rushing toward us and the blond handsome man next to Miles trying to step in, but Miles raised a reassuring hand in his direction.

I then pushed him harder against his swanky car, clawing through his black shirt.

Miles’ jaw began to work, and I could see him stifle a groan of pain as he scrunched up his face slightly.

I hoped my nail marks would remain, at least to some extent.

“Come on, kill me in front of your pack,” he murmured playfully, pointing behind me with his amused gaze. More rage clenched inside me. “I want to see you break the rules, wolf girl.”

“Emely, leave him!” Harry shouted behind me. “Whatever that bastard provokes you with, it’s not worth it.”

Miles laughed derisively and lifted his angular chin.

“Go on.” He narrowed his eyes slightly. “This is your chance.”

“Go to hell!” I yelled at him, and my jaw began to work fiercely as well.

“Finish him!” Noah bellowed, and I moved closer, completely blocking out the sensation-seeking students with their phones pulled out.

“Copeland!” an angry female voice shouted, which could only belong to one person in particular. “DeLoughrey!”

Miles’s smile intensified and we both focused on each other, trying not to let our eyes drift out of control. But someone tugged me back. Hunter .

Before I could give him a grim look, I spotted the redheaded air witch who had just waltzed into Vanderwood like this was her territory.

She slammed the door of her new caramel colored convertible and pointed aggressively up at the distant tower of the west wing, around which a screeching flock of ravens was buzzing.

“Into my office!”

Confrontation

Christopher Tyng

It was a disgrace to be standing next to a Ruisangor and having to justify something understandable to a Quatura.

Harlow calmly unpacked the contents of her leather bag – decorated with leopard patterns – but her eyelids twitched.

The ridiculous decorations in her office were at least a little distracting. Until her way-too-high voice warbled through the room.

“Do you have the slightest idea what kind of riots you’re provoking on this campus with your daily outbursts?”

She wasn’t looking at Miles. She was looking at... me ?

More anger, more concentrated rage that I would have loved to take out on Miles. With my claws. On the hood of his car.

“He’s being provocative!” I said, pointing at Miles, who was standing next to me with his arms crossed behind his back, smiling with satisfaction. The sight alone was enough to get on my last nerve.

“I already know that, Miss Copeland,” Rebecca fucking Harlow sighed. “And do you know what to do with people who think they could overstep the line? Who think they can dance around your nose?” She paced around her desk, a sharp amber letter opener in her hand. But this time she wasn’t looking at me, but at my rival. “You take something they’re attached to. Something that means a lot to them.”

Harlow stopped in front of him, letting the tip of her letter opener tap against his chest, and I watched his Adam’s apple move, his gaze fixed on the woman in front of him, his smile gone.

“Mr. DeLoughrey. Do you know that I once knew someone like you? He overstepped the mark, too.” She laughed, making a shrill noise. “But anything that runs riot will, sooner or later, be destroyed by nature itself.” She smiled. And she was the only one capable of doing so in that moment. “Your entire species is a disgrace to this city. A mistake of nature.”

She turned to me, took the letter opener from Miles’s chest, and stepped toward me.

I swore to myself that if that thing so much as grazed my clothes, I’d take her to court with the proper laws.

“Which brings us back to you, Miss Copeland.” A disdainful look settled on her porcelain face. “One more misstep like that in front of the entire campus, and I’ll erase you from the student records.” I bit my lower lip and thought I saw Miles smirk in the corner of my eye, but when I looked at him, he lowered his smile-adorned gaze to the floor. “And considering your good performances, that would be a pity.”

I looked back at Harlow. Her letter opener hovered over my chest. Harlow smiled.

“And while we’re at it. Neither of you will win the election... I’ll make sure of that.”

The door bursting open made her flinch, and the smile automatically vanished from her face as something fell off the laden dresser behind us and shattered into shards. A vase with a leopard pattern.

“Rebecca!” my uncle exclaimed, casting a confused glance between me and Miles.

Oh, great .

“When did I give you permission to call me by my first name, Mr. Copeland?” Professor Harlow sighed and walked past her desk to return to her briefcase. “And I recently got a doorbell made of gold. Just for you . So, you don’t just storm my spare office like a... savage.”

She emphasized her words so theatrically that I almost snorted. Miles stifled a laugh, and I resisted the urge to kick him.

Miles cleared his throat. “It’s a Copeland thing.”

“Silence!” the co-director emitted.

I hoped my glare would kill him inside. But when he caught mine, there was only the usual satisfaction.

Who had raised this guy? The other Ruisangors were just as arrogant, but not even the one with the ice-cold killer look provoked us as much as this annoying specimen next to me.

“Before you ask, these two troublemakers almost managed to start a brawl,” sighed the co-director, examining a crystal ball that she placed next to another one on her desk in a wooden holder, smiling in a way that might make you think it was her child. Except I was sure this woman would scare away anything under twelve for miles.

“Emely?”

I looked to my uncle, who eyed me questioningly.

“I’m not a troublemaker,” I replied in a firm voice.

Alarik looked at Miles, then back at me. And finally, he sighed. I detected exhaustion in his tone.

“Both of you, please leave. I’ll sort it out.”

The Quatura lifted her head. “Don’t be ridiculous, Mr. Copeland.”

“ Professor Copeland!” my uncle corrected her with an angry look, and this time I had to grin. But even this one triumph faded bitterly when I caught sight of Miles grinning too.

Could he please not do that?

You’re Loved & I’m Hated

Christopher Tyng

The second Alarik closed the door behind him, I wanted to leave, but Miles immediately began to add his ridiculous two cents.

“That must have felt like a death sentence to you,” he began with a provocative look. “Just the look of shock on your face when she threatened to make you lose the elections.”

“You don’t care about that anyway,” I snapped at him. “If you lose a job, Daddy will come and make sure you get it back.”

Miles’ face darkened.

“It’s not like that,” he said through clenched teeth.

I shook my head.

“I’m in absolutely no mood to keep arguing with you,” I growled angrily and turned to leave.

“I think I’ve just got into the mood.”

That was enough for me.

I turned back around. Stepped toward him.

Then we would be alone when I tore him apart. All the better.

“I could have killed you yesterday!” My eyelids fluttered. “What’s wrong with you? Do you want to die so desperately? So I can break the treaty and your family can come after the pack? Are you guys really that eager to destroy us?”

My eyes must have turned yellow, because his turned red too.

When his hands moved even a tiny bit in his trouser pockets, I immediately backed away. Not again would he throw one of those cursed knives at me or throw St. John’s wort at me. This devil’s stuff burned on the skin, and I wasn’t in the mood to break several rules at once right now. If he did that again, he’d be as dead as me this time.

“I don’t care if my clan wants to tear your little animal shelter apart,” he sighed. “I don’t want to see you all fail, I want to see you fail!” Miles’ expression had become serious, almost dark. “You think you’re something better. In control and untouchable?” He laughed bitterly. “I’m going to drag you out of your little fairytale dream.” He leaned down toward me, and for a moment I held my breath. “I’m going to destroy you, Emely.”

It sent shivers down my spine. But I couldn’t leave it at that.

An equally bitter laugh escaped me. “Believe me, you don’t want this war!”

The air around us crackled with tension. Tension that would destroy him if he didn’t learn his limits soon.

“You bet I do,” he whispered, and the low, menacing sound of his voice raised every hair on my body. “Every day I see you fail, Copeland... every damn day you lose control of your oh-so-perfect life will be a good day for me.”

Shadows flitted across his defined jawline.

“I’ll never sink that low. Before I allow that to happen, I’ll ruin you first!” I pressed out.

He laughed unenthusiastically. Then his expression hardened. “I am your downfall, Emely. And I cannot lose.” His gaze pierced mine. “Because when I fall, you fall with me.”

My heart stood still. Only when Miles turned away from me and disappeared elegantly down the hallway did I let my lungs fill with air... until I was gasping for breath.

Miles DeLoughrey had just declared war against me. And I wasn’t one to lose wars.

Gentle Breeze, Water Dripping from

Needles and Leaves, Distant Birdsong

Nordic Wilderness

“Are you okay?” asked the deep male voice from the phone.

I took a deep breath and walked along the creek, behind our estate, the phone pressed firmly to my ear, as a massive wolf flew past me. My little brother Finn jumped after him in his wolf form and rolled over Cody. In the distance, Hunter growled menacingly before leaping after him as well.

I ignored the three of them, rolling my eyes, and walked further into the forest.

“No. This place is a mess.”

I didn’t mention that my father wanted to marry me off and that my uncle seemed to be at war with the Russian Alpha. I hadn’t called for that reason.

“Was that just Hunter?” Kieran laughed gleefully on the other end.

I just snorted.

“When are you coming back?” I asked, sighing.

“Next semester,” came the curt reply I always got when I spoke to Kieran on the phone.

He was taciturn, but I was used to that. I’d rather have a quiet pack member than the wild bunch who’d just gone on a witch hunt for Cody in the meadow behind the house just because he’d stolen the calf meat for the arm-wrestling winner.

“There’s something, Emely.” He sounded worried. “Out with it.”

I sighed. But decided at the last moment against telling him about the hideous DeLoughrey or Mikhail Rolanow. Instead, I broached a minor issue.

“The Vanderwood has a co-director now. A Quatura.”

If there were any creatures Kieran loathed more than Ruisangors, oddly enough, it were the Quatura.

“A Quatura... Alarik allowed this bullshit?”

He didn’t sound shocked because he knew Alarik. But this time it hadn’t even been Alarik’s fault.

“She just walked in and made herself comfortable in his office.” I snorted with a laugh. “But trust me, Alarik hates Harlow. Maybe he’ll kick that woman before you get back.”

“Harlow?” Kieran asked tonelessly.

“That’s her name. Rebecca Harlow.” I didn’t want to think about this woman any longer. “Anyway... I’m glad you’ll be back soon. The others are acting like rowdies.”

Kieran was quiet on the other end.

“Kieran?”

I heard a brief noise on the other end, then his voice again.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I was just distracted.”

I kicked a stone into the stream in front of me and accidentally hit a bird, which fell into the water and was swept away by the stream. I gritted my teeth with an apologetic look.

“Is the Winter Ball happening this year?”

“I guess...” I replied, surprised that Kieran was interested in this unnecessary celebration. “Why?”

“I think I’ll be back a bit sooner.”