Page 5

“Bring the familiar, she’d make a great snack for your new boyfriend,” Bram laughed. “In fact, why don’t we bring your friend too?”

He was looking at Anna.

Panic slashed through me. They were going to drag my friend along. I knew going into the Dungeon would be a death sentence, or worse, I could end up in the fish hatchery. I couldn’t subject Anna to that, not when I could save her.

Not when I could save them both.

I had to get these guys away from them. I had to use the lycan’s instincts against him.

“Stay here!” I hissed at my friend and my familiar as I yanked my arm free from Garrick’s grasp.

There was one thing I could do, one thing that would ensure they would leave my two best friends behind.

I bolted, running for the door.

I heard the small gasp of delight from behind me, and the thud of footsteps chasing after me. I slammed into the double doors, shoving through them to stumble out into the bright sunlight outside.

“Don’t run,” Uthred said, his deep voice rumbling over me as he caught up to me. “Makes me feel weird.”

What a strange thing for a lycan to say. Of course, it made him feel weird. Running triggered the instinct for him to chase. It was one of the safety tips passed down from the mundanes who managed to survive the first few years - don’t run from lycans, don’t steal from dragons, and never, ever sleep with an angel. Angels had dangerdicks.

Better to avoid the whole lot of them, but that wasn’t a choice mundanes could make.

“You’re a lycan,” I glared at him before I remembered I wasn’t supposed to do that. I dropped my gaze back down to the ground in front of me, slowing to a walk.

Something slammed into the back of me, and I stumbled forward off balance.

My arms pinwheeled as I stumbled, trying to keep my balance as my back radiated pain.

Then a greasy hand wrapped around the back of my neck and my collarbone, pinching against my skin as it yanked me backwards. My spine ached from the sudden change in direction, but I couldn’t focus on that as an arm wrapped around my neck and squeezed. I choked against the sudden pressure and the arm relaxed.

I looked up to see Garrick grinning down at me.

I smiled back at him, an instinctual panic reaction.

I’d learned that it was normal for me to smile when I was afraid, especially if the source of a fear was a man.

I reached up and pushed his arm off, trying to slide out of his grip, and his grin grew wider, more of a baring of teeth than anything resembling a friendly facial expression. He hooked his elbow around my neck to yank me close to him again.

Uthred reached out and grabbed Garrik’s wrist, twisting and pinching it to force his hand open and off of me. Garrick’s upper body bent with the motion, twisting with his arm to keep it from breaking in Uthred’s grasp.

“Ow! Uthred! Stop!” Garrik said.

“No one touches her!” Uthred snapped as the others caught up.

My heart pounded in my chest as my brain flip flopped around my intense confusion. I’d seen Uthred beat a mundane guy to death in my first year here. He was not, and had never been, the type to protect a mundane.

Uthred twisted a little harder, and a small pop echoed, the distinctive sound of a joint coming out of position. Garrick let out a scream, and Uthred let go of his hand. Garrick pulled it against his chest, holding it with his other hand as he backed away from Uthred.

Maybe he just had beef with the other shitheads and was using me as an excuse.

“Enough messing around,” Thorn said. “We made a big enough scene already. Let’s get to the dungeon.”

I kept quiet. I didn’t want any of them to focus on me. I’d seen that scenario play out enough times where one ‘Proper Student’ gets hurt by another, so they turn on the nearest mundane who can’t fight back. Just because Uthred was defending me now, didn’t mean he would defend me later. I needed to get away from Garrick before he cast a healing spell on his hand and then lashed out at me.

I turned and headed towards the Dungeon, my arms wrapping around me as I strode towards my doom.

“You don’t have to come with us,” Uthred said as he caught up with me.