3. Riley
Riley
“Not a chance, Riley,” Felix said for the millionth time since we left the hospital. “One look at you and every horny male in the place will know you’re a female.”
He turned his back on me while his fingers danced over his keyboard. Piles of discarded soda cans and takeout containers covered every available surface in his small studio apartment. Seeing such a gross mess made my stomach heave, but Felix cared little about the squalid conditions he lived in.
“I could pass for a male!” I retorted, shoving a stack of pizza boxes to the floor so I could sit down on my friend’s lumpy couch.
“Really?” Felix stared pointedly at my chest when he swiveled around in his chair. “Hate to break it to you, cupcake, but you have boobs. Most males don’t have boobs that big.”
“My breasts are not that big. I can bind them so they look like beefy pectorals.” Felix was being difficult. I understood his concerns, but now that the idea of scamming a place at Moonfall Academy had taken root in my brain, I refused to accept defeat.
“And your lack of a dick and other male attributes?!”
“There are glamour spells. I could use one.”
“Um, glamour spells are expensive. Way more expensive than you or even I could afford. And they don’t last forever.”
“But I thought the Blue Heather coven owed you a favor,” I whined.
Felix had done something highly illegal last year for a local witch coven.
He’d refused to tell me the details in case the Magical Investigation Bureau (MIB) questioned me, but he had admitted the witches agreed to a favor of his choosing when he needed it, as well as paying him a small fortune.
“For fuck’s sake, Riley! Going undercover at a school like Moonfall is dangerous! Roland almost lost a leg because of those psychos!”
A leg? I gulped. That didn’t sound like regular hazing. Were the students at Moonfall really that unhinged?
“I’d only be there for a short time. A few weeks at the most. Just long enough to check out where Lorna lived and worked and then identify who hooked up with her and whether they played a part in her disappearance. Once we know who it was, you can do a deep dive into them.”
Felix threw his hands in the air in frustration.
“I don’t have the MIB’s resources, Riley! Even if you find out which wolves she met, we might never know where she went after the August full moon party. And if the shifter mafia or mages are involved, digging into her disappearance will be dangerous.”
“Mages?!”
“Yes, mages. There are online rumors that Tiberius Vane is up to his suspiciously unlined neck in dark things, Riley.” Tiberius Vane was the Mage Council leader,and head of the overarching Supernatural Council that governed us magicals.
I’d seen him strutting like a peacock on TV and concluded the male was a raging narcissist. His son, Alaric, however, was hot, and both Felix and I agreed we wouldn’t kick him out of bed, despite his awful father.
I wasn’t a fan of Brianna Vane either. The witch had to be at least a hundred, yet she had better skin than I did!
Rolling my eyes derisively, I scoffed. “You have plenty of resources, Felix. I have faith in your hacking abilities.” Truly, I did. It was a wonder the MIB hadn’t headhunted him already. Although, knowing him, they had and he just hadn’t bothered telling me.
My friend huffed out a long-suffering sigh.
“You’re never going to let this go, are you?”
“Nope. Mom’s in rehab, so I have no reason to stick around.” As promised, the doctor had pulled strings and got my mother a place at a fancy rehab clinic in Silver City, funded by a shifter charity. I had no clue how he’d managed it and hadn’t bothered asking.
It was unlikely the rehab program would be successful, but for the next few months she was safe, which was all I cared about.
“And what about the trailer? If you fuck off, Frank will evict you.”
“Mom will be in rehab for ages. When I get back, I’ll crash with you until I get a job and can afford rent on a new place.” He scowled when I gave him my best, sweetest smile in the hope he took pity on me, his oldest and most loyal friend.
“You’re lucky I love you, cupcake,” he grumbled.
“You’re sure this is the favor you want?” Tamara, a glamorous witch with pretty purple hair and a taste for human designer labels, tapped her matching purple nails on the diner table.
We sat in a corner booth, well away from the small group of human kids snickering loudly as they huddled together watching social media videos. From the way Tamara grimaced at the sticky floor and laminated menu, this place was not up to the standards of her usual hangouts.
The diner was in human territory, but witches mostly passed as human, so humans remained oblivious unless they saw magic at play. Which almost never happened, as the penalties for casting magic in the presence of humans were severe.
Felix had chosen this as a meeting spot because neither of us felt comfortable meeting a witch in coven territory. Witches and shifters often worked together, but that didn’t mean we trusted one another.
Like mages, witches could be duplicitous. That said, I trusted Felix, and since he had an existing relationship with the Blue Heather coven, I had no reason not to trust Tamara.
“I would have preferred to bank the favor, but I value my balls,” Felix muttered, slanting a mutinous look in my direction.
I rolled my eyes. “Stop bitching. You agreed to help.”
“No, I agreed to use my tech skills to assist, not facilitate your demise at the hands of murderous wolf shifters,” he hissed.
“I’ll be fine. Honestly, anyone would think I had no skills.” Felix’s lack of faith in my abilities wounded me. “I can hold my own.”
“Not against alpha-wolf mafia heirs!”
“I can’t abandon Lorna, Felix.”
Lorna wasn’t like me. She’d grown up sheltered from the world, shielded from males with bad intentions, and even though she was older than me, she was far more naive and trusting.
Since fate had brought us into each other’s lives, I refused to let it tear her away from me again.
“Look, I’ll be super careful and stay under the radar.”
Felix ground his teeth. “I don’t believe that for a second.”
I smirked because he was right. I would do whatever it took to find my sister.
“Shall I come back another day?” Tamara’s lips curved up in amusement. “You two seem like you have a few issues to figure out.”
“No! We’re good!” If the witch left, I’d have no way to track her down. And without a glamour spell to disguise my appearance, I would struggle to pass as male. Even with short hair and bound breasts.
As much as I hated to admit it, Felix made a good point. Any shifter with half a brain would know instantly that I was female. And shifting would confirm it. Not that I was in any danger of shifting, not even on a full moon.
My wolf cracked one eye open and yawned, happy to remain dormant inside me.
Don’t you want to run under a full moon? I asked for the millionth time, but all I got back was a sense of apathy and disinterest.
Maybe this was normal for a hybrid? It was impossible to say, not having met another hybrid shifter. We were rare for a reason.
Tamara glanced at her phone, anxious to wrap up the conversation.
“To be clear, the glamour will disguise your appearance, but if you get physical with someone, they’ll feel your true form, not the fake one.”
I shook my head dismissively. “Not a problem. I won’t be getting close to anyone.”
Felix snorted. “Hmm.”
“I swore off males, remember?” My last bed partner had proved disappointing in the extreme. And also an asshole. I was done with males—human and shifter.
The witch’s gaze flicked between me and Felix. He gave me some side-eye before nodding.
“If Riley wants to risk her life masquerading as a male wolf shifter, then I won’t stop her. And since her self-control is solid, I know she won’t fall prey to a handsome alpha.” Sarcastic asshole. I’d prove him wrong!
I flung my arms around my best friend and planted a wet kiss on his cheek. “You’re the best foxy ever, Felix.”
“Damn right I am. The sexiest, smartest, and most cunning fox in the realm.”
Tamara rolled her eyes before a magic contract washed over the pair of us.
“Then our business is done. I need a day to gather the ingredients for the spell, but when it’s ready, I’ll message you the usual way.”
Felix nodded. “Thanks, Tamara.”
“No need to thank me, darling. Casting glamours is easy, and a waste of a favor if you ask me, but whatever.”
“Not when my sister’s life is at stake!”
The witch shrugged because we were shifters, and to a witch, shifters were less than.
Felix reached out and squeezed my hand in warning.
I forced a smile. “Thanks for, um, helping.” Fucking witches.
“No problem,” Tamara chirped, more interested in her phone than us now that our business had concluded. “I’ll be in touch soon!” She slid out of the booth and sauntered off in a cloud of lavender and sage.
The humans didn’t even glance her way, which I assumed was because she’d cast a look away spell. Many witches used them to avoid attracting unnecessary attention if they weren’t doing business with humans.
It was safer when navigating human neighborhoods.
“Will the glamour hide my hair?” I asked Felix as an afterthought. The thought of cutting my long hair hurt, but I’d do whatever it took to find Lorna.
“I assume so, but it might be best to chop it,” Felix admitted.
Ugh.