31. Riley
Riley
Heat enveloped me. I opened my eyes to discover I hadn’t shifted back, much to my surprise.
When I asked why, my wolf just sniffed and made it clear she was in no rush to give up control.
It took a few seconds to work out that the warm, furry body wrapped around mine was the enormous tawny wolf that had saved me from the sandy one.
Why was he still here? And more importantly, why had he not shifted back? I had no clue who the wolf was, only that he was the largest wolf I’d ever seen. Even bigger than Tate Montes’s beast.
I tried moving, expecting pain, but while my ribs ached and still felt bruised, I could breathe freely now. The deep gouges across my hips and side had also partially healed and were no longer oozing blood.
A fluffy blanket of snow lay on the ground, and the air was so cold that every time I exhaled, white clouds filled the air. What time was it? Shit, I must have missed my afternoon classes. At least it wasn’t fully dark yet.
Thank the goddess I hadn’t shifted back. Not only would I be naked, but I’d also have a wolf to deal with while I was in human form. This strangely protective wolf might like my female wolf, but I doubted he’d feel the same way about me as a male.
The wolf grumbled as I shuffled away from his warm fur, but he didn’t wake. My wolf whined and dug her claws into the frozen ground, refusing to listen to my demands that we leave before I shifted back.
No, she told me. Mine. Mate.
Mate?! What the actual fuck was she on about?
The wolf isn’t ours. He’s an alpha!
At least I assumed he was. Given his size, he had to be an alpha wolf. And also, I’d felt his dominance when he forced the sandy wolf down.
We’re a hybrid. We don’t have a mate.
Mate, she insisted, stubborn as always.
I tried to force my will on her, but she didn’t listen. The stupid creature had formed an attachment to the alpha wolf and wasn’t willing to let him go. So I pushed harder, and after a minute of internal struggle, she had no choice but to hand over control to me.
I shifted into my human form and regretted it almost immediately. Even with shifter blood in my veins, it was cold enough to freeze my extremities off. Snow landed on my shoulders in a white crust. If I didn’t move immediately, I’d end up with frostbite.
The sight of a dead wolf nearby, stiff and half-covered in snow, did little to cheer me up. I only hoped nobody linked me to the wolf’s demise. The MIB investigators—assuming they were called in—would smell my scent on the body, but surely the alpha wolf’s scent would be the dominant one.
At least I hoped so. I had enough problems to deal with without becoming the prime suspect in a murder inquiry.
Not wanting to be here when my wolf savior woke up, I ran off through the trees and quickly picked up the trail back to campus. It took me far longer to get back to where I’d shed my clothes than it had when I’d run full-throttle on four legs instead of two, desperate to escape the sandy wolf.
I found the remains of my clothing under the tree where I’d listened to Mom telling me she was living her best life.
My pants were unsalvageable, but there was enough left of my hoodie to hide my chest and ass.
I wrapped myself in fabric as best I could and retrieved my phone from where it had landed under a bush.
And now that dusk had given way to night, I made it back to my dorm building without being seen, shivering the entire time.
A lone shifter sat on the sofa in the living room when I stumbled in through the entrance. His eyebrows shot up when he saw the state of me, but he didn’t ask if I was okay. Hardly a surprise. Most of the students here either ignored me or were openly hostile.
Simon and his friends being the exception.
Speaking of…Simon must have wondered where I went.
The minute I reached my room and locked the door, I checked my phone for messages.
Simon: You okay? You disappeared.
Kasia: I added you to our group chat.
Pussy Power Rules: Welcome!
Kasia: Embrace the power of pussy, wolfie.
I snorted out a laugh. If only they knew. My gaze drifted to the closet, where I’d hidden the magic pendant inside a sock inside a shoe.
Maybe one day soon, when I’d found Lorna and walked away from this dumb academy filled with toxic, misogynistic bullies, I’d show the pussy squad my true self. But until then, I needed to be careful.
Trust no one was Felix’s motto.
Quickly tapping out a reply to Simon assuring him I was still alive, I stepped under a hot shower and washed the filth away from my aching body. Then I crawled into bed.
A mournful howl echoed from the forest outside, sending a shiver of longing down my spine. The wolf must have woken to find me gone. Was he angry I’d left without thanking him for saving my life?
I just prayed he didn’t try tracking me down.
“What happened to you yesterday?” Simon asked as I shoveled a forkful of eggs and sausages into my mouth and washed it down with black coffee. Stars, I was so hungry. Hungry enough to demolish the entire contents of the hot buffet selection this morning.
Was it a side effect of shifter healing?
I had no clue. I debated asking Simon but decided it was better not to reveal the exact nature of what happened yesterday.
“I got a call from home and then needed some time to process,” I told him. “Family stuff.”
Simon nodded sympathetically. “Well, you didn’t miss much. We did some sparring in Mr. Leone’s gym class, and thanks to you, I won my fight!”
I’d been working with Simon, teaching him some basic self-defense moves. While he would never be powerful enough to beat a much larger shifter, he at least had a few moves now that might buy him enough time to scream for help before he ended up mortally wounded.
“That’s amazing!” I was genuinely happy for my friend.
Snake shifters had a poor reputation in our world.
Many of them got accused of being shady as fuck, but Simon was a decent guy.
Like Felix, he loved online gaming, so after I talked about him with Felix, my fox bestie had added Simon to his Magicord server.
The two of them had since become gaming buddies, which was cute.
Simon blushed as I told him how proud I was and how much he deserved his win.
“Mr. Leone asked where you were,” he said while I shoveled more food down. “He didn’t look pleased that you’d skipped his class.”
I hadn’t expected him to be teaching the class. Not after he’d said he was too busy to meet me for my private tutoring session yesterday morning.
Oops.
Oh well, it was too late now. And besides, it was better if we had a break after the blood incident. Auntie Flow had backed off some, but she hadn’t gone away completely. And if the lion shifter’s nose was that sensitive, I’d prefer it if he didn’t come anywhere near me.
“Never mind Leone. What can you tell me about the shifter fight ring? A feline shifter I met at the full moon party asked if I was going.”
Simon’s eyes widened in alarm. “I wouldn’t advise it,” he warned. “It’s run by the shifter mafia. They make a ton of money on the fights.”
My ears pricked up. “Oh? So the likes of Tate Montes will be there?”
Nobody sitting nearby was paying any attention to us, but it didn’t stop Simon from blanching at the mention of Tate.
“Probably. His father is, you know, involved…” Simon scanned the room, paranoid about being overheard.
“Involved in shifter mafia shit?” I prodded, thirsty for information. Tate was still on my list, and if his father was mafia, it didn’t take a leap of faith to figure that Lorna could have stumbled across something she shouldn’t have and paid the ultimate price.
Felix had sent me some links to posts on underground forums that talked about how females from lesser shifter communities were going missing. Some posters believed the mages were responsible, but others thought the shifter mafia was behind the disappearances.
Felix had signed off his message with yet another warning about being careful, which I duly ignored.
“Yeah,” Simon replied, dragging my attention back to our conversation. My friend edged away from the table, desperate to escape my inquisition.
“So where is this fight ring? Assuming I decide to go.”
“In an abandoned tunnel network, but you need a QR code to get in.”
“And how do I get one?”
“Sorry, I don’t know,” Simon admitted, dashing my hopes.
I huffed out a sigh. Perhaps Kasia would get me in. She’d asked if I was going, so she and the pussy squad must have their own QR codes. I resolved to message her and find out.