13. Riley
Riley
My phone buzzed just as I was about to leave my room the following morning. I’d tossed and turned all night and now had the beginnings of a headache caused by lack of sleep.
Who was this T Lorna had fallen for? I needed to find him.
“What?” I snapped, conscious of the time. The window for snatching some breakfast was rapidly closing.
“I’ve made a list of students at Moonfall Academy whose names begin with T. Check your messages.”
I opened our chat thread and downloaded the text file. “Thanks, Felix,” I said, feeling guilty for snapping his head off.
“You’re welcome, cupcake. I’ll let you know if I find anything else.”
The instructor glared at me when I rocked up to the self-defense for shifters class ten minutes late, frantically chewing the last bite of my breakfast roll.
Everyone turned to stare, but I ignored them and swallowed before muttering an apology.
“Since you are new to the school, Mr. Scott,” the instructor sneered, “I will let you off this time, but next time you’re late to one of my classes, there will be consequences.”
I nodded and found a place at the back of the hall. Everyone else was bare chested in shorts. Meanwhile, I’d pulled on sweatpants and a hoodie back in my room to avoid having to change in front of anyone. Now I stood out in the worst way in a rippling sea of abs and pecs.
“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, it’s important not to rely on your animals when defending yourself from an attacker. Can anyone tell me why?”
A lanky guy who smelled like a feline shifter put his hand in the air. “Because humans freak out when we shift.”
“Yes, correct. So being able to defend yourself if you’re attacked by a human or are in a human area is important.”
“But surely we can shift if a human attacks us, sir?” a burly wolf shifter asked.
“No, the law states we can’t attack humans in our animal form. Not unless we want to be arrested for crimes against humans.”
“Even if they attack first?” The shifter didn’t look happy about discovering he couldn’t murder humans on a whim.
“No, Maxim. So in this class, we’ll be learning self-defense strategies that don’t involve shifting.” He surveyed the group. “Everyone pair up.”
I stood back and watched as the rest of the class gravitated into pairs until I was the only person not in one. Great.
“I can sit this one out,” I offered, hoping the instructor agreed, but he shook his head.
“You can be my guinea pig.”
I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that.
Twenty minutes later, after being pummeled into the mat multiple times, I was one hundred percent certain Instructor Bernard was a sadist. I could have defended myself, but that would have drawn unnecessary attention, which was not my goal.
Although, after the incident in the canteen, I was pretty certain the entire student body knew who I was.
“This is how you disarm a human attacker carrying a knife,” Bernard explained to his audience while going through the moves in slow motion with me pretending to be the knife-carrying attacker. I bit back a scream as he dislocated my shoulder while taking me down at full speed.
“And now it’s your turn, so try the move with your partner.” Then he added, “Be sure to swap roles once you’ve nailed it.”
I lay still for a second, unable to move as white-hot pain skewered my shoulder. It was in times like this that I wished I had magic. Specifically healing magic.
Sadly, while the school had a couple of witch healers on staff, they were only there to heal the most serious injuries because shifting fixed anything minor, like a broken nose or a sprain.
Only I was unable to shift on a whim, which meant I could look forward to suffering until I forced my shoulder back into place.
“Get up, Scott. If you need to shift to fix that, then shift.”
“I’m fine, sir,” I gritted out, using my good arm to ease myself off the mat.
Instructor Bernard shrugged, apparently unconcerned about causing me unspeakable pain, and then strode off to assist a few pairs with their moves.
I shuffled toward the edge of the room, my left arm dangling uselessly at my side. One of the smaller shifters threw me a sympathetic look, but I ignored them. I didn’t need pity. Just some industrial-strength painkillers.
No doubt this would reinforce the belief that hybrid shifters were less than. Part of me understood why other shifters felt that way because, right now, I was useless. Being unable to shift made me little better than a human, even if I was stronger for my size and stature.
Even more so, considering I was female.
Not that any of these assholes knew that.
I silently wondered if the other students would treat me any better if they knew I was female, and then I scoffed under my breath. Of course they wouldn’t. In fact, I’d have probably experienced many attempted sexual assaults by now if shifters like Dirk knew I was a female wolf.
On that cheery thought, I made sure I was the first one out of the gym the minute the bell rang. Not wanting to run into any hostile shifters while incapacitated, I took a quieter path back to the dorms.
Unfortunately for me, luck wasn’t on my side.
The alpha wolf shifter with the dimples appeared from behind a large building I had yet to visit, brow furrowed as he read something on his phone. As our paths crossed, he scowled all the more when he took in my white complexion and non-functional arm.
“Who the fuck did that to you, little dude?”
“Instructor Bernard,” I gritted out. My wolf had woken up and was busy whining.
Nice that you care more about this hot wolf than my pain, I complained, but she ignored me—as usual.
“The self-defense guy?” Candy-cane wolf, as I had christened him in my head, didn’t look happy.
His green eyes glowed as his wolf came forward, which was odd. I had no clue why a powerful alpha wolf would give two shits about me being hurt. Unless he had the hots for my wolf, which made no sense. She wasn’t powerful. Or even present half the time.
“Yeah.” I was in too much pain to want to hang around, even if candy-cane wolf was distracting as hell. Wincing as my useless arm jolted, I turned to leave.
“Little dude, you need to shift to kick-start the healing process.”
“Thanks, but I can’t do that,” I gritted out. Bile burned my throat, and my wolf surged forward, taking me by surprise. For one awful moment, I thought she’d force the shift, but at the last minute, I shoved her back down.
Now you want to shift? I yelled. We’ll give ourselves away!
She whined and huffed, unhappy about being stopped. It seemed she wanted to meet candy-cane’s wolf counterpart.
You can’t show yourself, I reiterated. Not unless you want us arrested on some bullshit charge. I had no clue what those charges would be, but I was certain the school would make an example of me if it discovered I was here under false pretenses.
Candy cane cocked his head to one side, eyes still glowing. “But I can sense your wolf. Why can’t you shift?”
“I’m a hybrid. My wolf is latent.” Not exactly true, but close enough.
He stared at me. “You’re lying about the latent bit. Why?”
A jolt of surprise shot through me. How did he know I was lying? I had a damn good poker face.
“I’m an alpha wolf,” he explained. “Lies smell sour, like milk left out in the sun.”
Why had Felix never told me this? I wondered if perhaps he didn’t know. Maybe it was different for fox shifters?
“I’m not lying,” I lied. The pain in my shoulder was making me heave, and if I didn’t pop some pills, I might end up hurling all over this guy. “My wolf is present, but she never wants to show herself.”
The minute the words were out there, I froze. Oh my goddess, I’d just revealed my wolf was female. Sweat trickled down my spine as a deep sense of horror swept over me.
I was so fucked.