Chapter 35 Avery
AVERY
“You look very nice,” Brody told me in his most sincere tone.
He sat on the counter in between my bathroom sink and Ian’s, wearing dark suit pants and a half-buttoned white dress shirt.
He was also watching me like I was a bomb that was about to go off.
“I’m glad you decided to come tonight. Save me a dance? ”
“Did Ian send you in here to butter me up?” I asked, slanting a stern look his way before returning to carefully applying my mascara. “I said I was going to this thing, and I’m obviously not backing out now that I have on a full face of makeup and a ballgown.”
The gown was a rental, but I’d managed to find one that I didn’t hate and fit great.
It was an ice-blue number, form fitting with off-the-shoulder sleeves and a high slit up my right leg.
The material was feather-light and stretchy enough to keep me in relative comfort for the duration of the Blue Moon Ball.
Two Full Moons would fall within the month of May, with the first one occurring tonight, and the second—the Blue Moon—falling on the last day of the month, after the semester ended.
Blue Moon months were always a cause for celebration among shifters, and here at Proteus College, we celebrated by going to fucking prom.
“Look, Avery, I realize I’ve only known you for, like, four months now, but I don’t need Ian to tell me that you’re feeling down. Any sane person would be.”
I capped my mascara, adjusted the sleeves of my dress, then turned to face him. “I’m going to make camp, Brody. I’m one step closer to doing what I came here to do. There’s nothing to be down about.”
There wasn’t much chance for movement on the leaderboard at this point, since the rest of our training schedule would be drills and conditioning. There was only one more wraith combat challenge on the calendar, and it was with a partner of our choice. Ian and I were going to wreck shop.
I’d deal with the fact that I’d be at camp for most of the summer with the rest of the top of the Guardian class when I had to.
Brody gave me a dubious look. “I’m not worried about your ability to handle the Kace Mahoneys of the world, who think it’s open season to harass you.
You don’t give a shit about them. You did, however, at one point in time, give a shit about the members of the Blackwell Quad, and the way they’re treating you now is unacceptable.
You’d have to be a robot for it not to hurt. ”
I would neither confirm nor deny ever giving a shit about Heath, Aiden, Wyatt, and Elijah, but being seen and cared about by someone other than a member of my family gave me a pleasantly warm feeling in my chest. For a moment, anyway.
“You’re a keeper, Brody Dara,” I said with a genuine smile. “If it doesn’t work out with Ian, we can have a lavender marriage. I’ll make you very happy.”
He barked out a laugh and hopped down from the counter.
“I don’t doubt it,” he said, squeezing me in a hug.
After releasing me, he finished buttoning his shirt, hiding that toned, brown chest away.
“It’s not too late to find you a date, you know.
” He snagged his tie from the counter and looped it around his neck.
“Do you want me just to pluck one out of the crowd tonight? Blond, brunet, canine, feline…. I will even selflessly volunteer to check cock size for you. Just text me a list of your preferences.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Polite pass, but thank you.”
I had no interest in that sort of male company right now.
Maybe Ian and Brody would agree to accompany me on a quick trip to Colorado after the semester ended in a few weeks.
I could hunt down Tad for a little rock-climbing lesson and a quick hookup.
He was sweet, attractive, and human. Moon willing, he could scratch the itch the Blackwell Quad had ignited under my skin.
I needed it gone before I clawed my own flesh off.
My beast gave an irritated huff.
Oh, suddenly you have an opinion about Tad?
She growled and flopped onto her back, ignoring me.
The bathroom door swung open, and Ian stuck his head inside. “Are you two ready? Allen and Mal have only been here for half an hour, and they’ve already drank half a bottle of my best tequila.”
“All done, babe,” Brody said, turning his blinding white smile on my brother. He finished with his tie and held out his arms.
Ian, dressed in a perfectly tailored gray suit, slinked into Brody’s embrace and buried his face in his neck. “Ooh, you smell nice.”
“All right.” I waved a hand in front of my face. “Cool it, you two, or else I won’t be able to get the stench of horny shifter out of my towels. I’ll get my shoes, and then we can go get this night over with.”
“That’s the spirit, Aves,” Ian said drolly. “I bet you’d be more enthusiastic about this if you’d just let me commit some light murder this week.”
“Ian Baxter, your sword better be locked away in your closet.”
He rolled his eyes. “Obviously. The polyester of my harness does not go with this suit.”
Brody beamed at me guilelessly. “See? Best behavior for all of us. Let’s go—the ball started an hour ago.”
With one last look in the mirror, a quick adjustment of my boobs, and a final fluffing of my hair, I was ready.
Off to do a fun college thing like a real college student, and that was that.
When we entered the historic ballroom that was attached to the college’s main building, even I had to admit I was impressed.
Thirty-foot ceilings towered above us. Intricate crown molding created recessed quadrants, breaking up the starkness of the white paint.
Tall white columns held up the ceiling throughout the room.
Old hardwood floors were covered with large mahogany-colored carpets.
A wide staircase led to a second-floor balcony that encircled the entire room.
Soft blue fairy lights had been strung between the old crystal chandeliers, tiny stars twinkling overhead in the dim lighting.
Tall black vases sat atop tables adorned with silver tablecloths, each one holding an arrangement of moonflowers.
Several bars lined the walls, and one long table of finger foods had been set up nearby.
Students and faculty dressed in their finest stood around the space, talking, drinking, laughing. There was a dance floor in the large open space in the middle of the room, and the DJ already had what looked like a third of the student body out there, grinding on each other to a sultry beat.
“Oh, there’s Ash and Chance!” Mal said. She waved excitedly, gripping Allen’s arm as she hopped up and down on her monstrous heels.
Brody offered me the arm that was not occupied holding Ian’s hand, and I placed my hand lightly in the crook of his elbow.
He led us through throngs of people to a table where Chance and his date—one of those bright-eyed freshman girls he’d seduced with a tarot reading at the lake—waited for us.
Ash was nearby, wearing a crisp black suit that fit her like a glove.
Her date was… maybe the hottest girl I’d ever seen?
“Um, is that a teenage Jessica Rabbit?” Ian whispered, gaping at the voluptuous redhead. He untangled his fingers from Brody’s. “I must meet her.”
Brody cast me a pleading look. Biggest puppy-dog eyes ever attempted by a feline shifter, no doubt.
“Go meet the glamorous lady,” I said, laughing as I shooed him away. “I’ll go get us drinks.”
“Take a buddy!” he hollered over his shoulder as he scurried after Ian.
No thank you. If I could patrol the streets of my neighborhood under a New Moon without a buddy, I could walk alone from this table to the bar and back just fine.
The trek to the far side of the ballroom was more arduous than it should’ve been because of the four-inch heels I’d decided to torture myself with tonight, but I had three cups of punch balanced in my hands in short order.
As I weaved my way back through the crowd, I nearly stumbled when I met the harsh, penetrating hazel gaze I’d been avoiding—and missing—for weeks.
Gold flared briefly in Heath’s eyes as he looked me up and down, his expression morphing from boredom to fury in a blink. He wore a dark gray suit that fit him to perfection, his sculpted jaw freshly shaved and his sandy blond hair artfully styled. The perfect, polished Alpha.
On his arm was Phoebe, looking herself like the perfect, polished shifter princess in an ethereal pink ballgown. Diamonds dripped from her ears, throat, and wrists. Her blonde hair was twisted into an intricate updo, showcasing her elegant, long neck.
My beast snarled in rage. I tore my stare from Heath’s and blinked away the headlights, willing the bile that threatened to rise in my throat to stay the hell down.
“Oh, goodness,” Phoebe gasped with a tinkling laugh.
“Avery, we almost ran right into you.” She tightened her grip on Heath’s arm possessively and gave me a patronizing little pout of her lip.
“Aw, do you not have a date tonight? Bless your heart. It is hard to be a new student at your age, but of course—” She batted long dark lashes at me innocently.
“—you’re making it harder on yourself, aren’t you? ”
I pasted a look of confusion on my face, blinking right back at her with wide eyes. “What do you mean? I didn’t even wear my swords tonight.”
“Ugh, barbaric,” she huffed, sticking her tiny nose in the air. “It appears even your Alpha lineage can’t buy class. At least everyone has seen you for the uncouth city trash you are.”
I had a feeling the “everyone” she spoke of was limited to the man whose arm she had wrapped in a vice grip with her baby-pink claws.
The violence my beast was spinning within me won out. “I suppose you’re right, Phoebe. It is so uncouth of me to aspire beyond getting on my back for a quad and letting them use me as a battery and breeder.”
“Avery,” Heath growled in warning.