20. Hunter
Hunter
My lion had been on edge all day, which was very unlike him. Like most male lions, he spent much of his time snoozing. We were lazy beasts at heart, but I fought hard against my biology, refusing to be an alpha lion that lounged around all day long while females catered to my every need.
The only time my father bothered rousing himself was if it involved food or a lioness.
I adored my parents, but when I formed my own pride, I planned to do things differently.
Subservient females didn’t interest me. Unfortunately, it was hard to find a lioness who didn’t cow down at the first whiff of my dominance. And in this school, it was impossible.
But I enjoyed the challenge of beating entitled young shifters into submission, teaching them the skills they needed to protect themselves against humans and other magicals.
Especially the mages in charge of our magical society.
Those power-hungry bastards needed taking down a peg or ten.
My beast paced up and down while I ran hard on a treadmill to get my blood pumping. Covering Bernard’s classes was proving a pain in my ass, but Principal Hawksley seemed to think it would only be temporary.
Having heard how bad Bernard’s injuries were, I highly doubted the asshole would be back, but at least Hawksley was paying me an additional stipend for the overtime.
I usually only taught year three students, which meant covering classes for the first-years was tedious as hell. Most of them were lazy, cocky as fuck, and clueless.
The wolves and bears thought their innate strength made them invincible, the cats never listened to instructions, and the lesser shifters were terrified of me.
I rolled my eyes when I recalled how a rabbit shifter had frozen on the balance beam for ten minutes after I growled at a wolf larking around nearby.
My lion heard the outside door open and purred at the small hybrid wolf’s arrival. I slowed the treadmill down as the little wolf sauntered into the gym wearing a loose pair of sweatpants and a hoodie that swamped his slight frame.
For a male wolf, he was remarkably pretty. So pretty I’d initially assumed he was a female admin when I spotted him walking across campus one morning. It wasn’t until he showed up in the class yesterday that I realized he was a student—a male student.
Males normally didn’t appeal to me. And besides, I had a strict policy of not blurring the boundaries with my students.
Scott walked over and waited for me to hop off the treadmill. He fidgeted nervously, although I wasn’t entirely sure why when I’d been nothing but professional in our interactions.
“I can come back another time,” he said after a few moments. “If you’re busy,” he added, staring at the floor.
“No, I asked you to come,” I reminded him, somewhat snappier than I intended.
“Let me grab some water, and then we’ll go through what you already know.
” I hit the stop button before jumping off the treadmill and using a towel to wipe the sweat from my face and chest. Scott’s gaze slid up and then snapped away as if he didn’t want to be caught ogling me.
If it had been any other student, the unwanted attention would have annoyed me, but my lion liked him looking. He purred even louder, happy the little wolf had noticed us.
Quit it, I told him, annoyed, but he carried on preening.
“So how much training have you had before coming here?”
“A few years,” he replied, still refusing to meet my gaze.
“Who trained you?” Only alpha wolves received targeted training, and I could tell Scott wasn’t an alpha anything. Hybrid shifters were weaker than full-blooded shifters. It was why they rarely survived past infancy back in the old days.
“An old wolf shifter,” the little wolf said, following me to the mats. “He took me under his wing as a youngster after my wolf first manifested and I had no clue what I was.”
My heart went out to the kid. Being raised as a human and then discovering you were anything but must have been terrifying.
“Is it your mother or father who’s the wolf?”
His mouth flattened, drawing my attention to how full his lips were. I forced myself to focus on his words.
“My sperm donor is a pack alpha. He doesn’t know I exist. Mom left town the minute she realized he’d knocked her up.”
“Mind if I ask which pack?” I had a feeling it was one of the more regressive ones from the way his scent curdled at the mention of his father.
“Yeah, I do mind.” He glared, meeting my gaze head on in a silent challenge, daring me to push the issue.
“Fair enough,” I replied with a shrug, impressed at his refusal to back down. Ordinarily I would have bristled at the challenge to my alpha dominance, but strangely, my lion didn’t mind the little wolf’s disrespect. If anything, he approved because it showed the little wolf had a backbone.
“Okay, let’s see how well your trainer taught you.”