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I had positioned myself sideways, in case any one of the trios jumped me. I left my back exposed to no one.

“Really? No fight?” I asked.

“It sucks, I know.” The wolf sniffed and nodded at my blood-stained clothes. “But time is of the essence, as you’re being hunted.”

There was no need to lie. Soon, the news about me stabbing the vampire prince would spread to every corner of the academy. The vampires wouldn’t be the only creatures to hunt me. There were campus sentinels.

I was lucky that it was the shifters who blocked me, as they had no love for vampires.

“Good women and good cat!” I waved at them. “Now, will you step aside and let me pass? And you won’t tell a soul that I’m hiding in Underhill for a day or two?”

It might be longer than that, but they didn’t need to know that. I trusted and shared secrets with no one, and Sy agreed. She’d been solemn and quiet after getting us in this shit, but I was already over it. Who didn’t make mistakes? She was now watching the shifters like a hawk through my eyes, even though she was exhausted.

“You can’t hide here,” the honey badger snorted. “You’re as senseless as they say, Little Bob.”

I bristled. “Which fuckers badmouthed me?”

The panther chirped like an angry bird.

“Underhill is the last place you should go to hide,” the wolf chick said warily.

“I can deal,” I said impatiently. “Just let me pass. I need to bathe inside, so no one will sneak up on me.”

And then I needed to find a place to crash and recuperate.

“You’ll be dead before you even finish the bath in that forbidden forest,” said the honey badger. “We’re the baddest in the realm, and even we don’t go in.”

So, they resided on the other side of Underhill to show how badass they were.

“You need some meat and bread first, boy.” The wolf softened her tone. “I can feel your hunger a mile away, which is disturbing. So, I’ll tell you why you should go with us since you’re as wound up and distrusting and paranoid as a baby crocodile. Bea told us to wait for you here. She saw this coming in a tealeaf reading.” She spread her arms at my look. “Don’t ask me how, but she’s getting better at tapping into her seer gift, and her readings have been mostly accurate. So, stop barking aggressively and annoyingly, Little Bob. We aren’t here to waylay you but to rescue you, lending you a hand that you very much need. Say, what about we bring you to our house and give you food and a place to sleep for the rest of the night?”

It sounded too good to be true.

I regarded them, uncertainty and temptation warring in my head.

“I’m Dixie,” the wolf chick said while jerking a thumb toward the honey badger. “She’s Luna. The panther to your left is Javier.”

“So, no strings attached?” I asked.

Dixie tilted her head. “What strings?”

“I’ve just escaped the House of Vampires due to irreconcilable differences,” I said. “I won’t let myself be used as a pawn in a dispute between the two houses since I’m sure that I’d be the collateral damage or the sacrificial lamb. I don’t do house politics. I stand for myself only, and I owe no houses my fealty.”

“Woo, Little Bob isn’t as dumb as my source said,” Luna said.

“You overpaid your source then,” I offered in sympathy.

She laughed. “The boy can be fun.”

Dixie nodded. “You’ll change your mind about fealty, Little Bob, since you’re a shifter after all.”

Sy perked up, intrigued. We could shift back and forth, but we weren’t exactly a shifter.

I shook my head. I didn’t want to reveal what we were. Nor did I want to mislead the shifters.

“Your animal is dormant,” Dixie concluded, and Luna nodded her agreement. “Stay with us, and you’ll shift.”

Yeah, right. They’d freak out when Sy came out with a mouthful of fangs.