Page 6 of Eat. Prey. Love. (Apex Academy Capers #5)

Academie has a sprawling campus—even I’m a little impressed. The buildings are all in this fairy tale style architecture that makes it seem otherworldly. Their Pred Games facilities are much smaller than Apex or Cappie’s, but I’m sure Z and my twin can work with it.

After all, it’s not the size that matters.

Chuckling to myself, I look back to see the smug ass gargoyle watching our girl marvel at the towers and spires, her face bright with excitement. It kills me that her abusive parents kept her locked away like Rapunzel—it makes her seem far too innocent and na?ve for her age and pedigree. Knowing that her lineage might have an aberration tells me why they did it, but it doesn’t keep me from wanting to murder them with my bare hands.

Dolly is a smart, beautiful, talented girl who would have represented them well in all their Council related travel. Her mother’s jealousy and fear of being found out caused her to be a sheltered, beaten down girl who let people run her life for her. Watching her blossom makes my heart do weird things and my dick hard as rock. Unfortunately, it also makes me want to keep her safe no matter how much she hates it and that’s my biggest challenge.

I won’t hold her captive like they did, but it scares the piss out of me to let her put herself in danger.

“The library is massive and there’s so many places for you to brood, Rennie!” she gasps happily. “This place was almost made for you guys.”

Ren leans in and kisses her jaw, his gaze fond as he, too, takes in her delight. “ Absolutement , ma petite . I believe this school will accommodate all of our needs—though Fitzgerald looks a bit disappointed.”

“The fucking arenas are so damn tiny,” he mutters. “We’re supposed to build this shit up and they have baby facilities. Z is going to have to reach out to her fuckwit brother; we have no option.”

I shake my head, sighing as Fitz goes off on a tangent about what he thinks needs fixing before they can grow the program. He’s not wrong, but I’m not sure I want to insist on inviting unknown contractors onto campus. There’s too many variables here as it is.

A low growl echoes in the car, making it shake, and I whip my head around to see Renard staring out the window like he’s going to shift and bust the vehicle to pieces. “What? What the fuck is going on, man? ”

Dolly lays her hand on his shoulder soothingly, her voice soft. “Rennie, what’s wrong? Tell us what’s going on.”

“There are beings on this campus that are not shifters.” His voice is low, dark and scarier than I’ve ever heard before. In fact, I don’t ever think I’ve seen our friend act like this.

“Okay, emo boy. Talk to us. Tell us what you scented.” Dolly doesn’t look the least bit perturbed despite Fitz’s jaw hanging open. “We can’t help if you’re going ‘grr’ face.”

Grr face? What the hell?

The gargoyle is stiff as a board, pressed to the glass as he breathes deeply. I gesture for the driver to crack his window, hoping that the scent will get stronger so he can identify it. Then we can plan for whatever the hell this shit is.

“This school has secrets,” he spits. “Dangerous ones—and I don’t mean whatever vaults it’s hiding. There are beings we cannot trust here and they are not visiting. The scent is too strong; they live here.”

“Ren, what the fuck kind of beings are you talking about?” I ask in exasperation.

“Ones that are not allowed ,” he grunts angrily. “They are abominations—it is treason .”

I blink, looking at the typically laid back shifter as he struggles with a gamut of emotions. He finally tears his eyes away from the window and looks at Dolly with a tortured expression. She cups his jaw, nodding as she pulls him into her arms. Ren buries his face in the crook of her neck and her eyes meet mine. It’s obvious she has no idea what the fuck is going on, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

Something has triggered our friend badly and he’s falling to pieces before our eyes .

“Get us to the goddamn library,” I snarl at the driver. “We’ll go to the main building later. And not a word about this to anyone .”

The shifter nods, turning the wheel to steer away from the hulking main building to head over to the back entrance of the library complex. Luckily for us, the escorts have loyalty to their employers, not the school or Council, because we couldn’t have guaranteed this outburst stays secret otherwise.

Once we’re safely in the loading area, I hop out and knock on Fitz’s window. He joins me, walking to the back of the SUV to grab our shit. His expression is full of confusion and I shrug—I truly don’t know.

“Sulky Shakespeare never acts like that,” he says after I close the trunk. “And I don’t smell a fucking thing out of place. Is it a mythical thing, you think?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. Let’s see what Aubrey says.”

Chess and our dragon friend exit their vehicle, going to the back to get Jinx’s carrier and their things. By the time they join us, I’m hiding my escalating concern. Dolly and Ren are still in the car, quietly sitting together and whispering.

“What happened?” Chess frowns as he tilts his head.

Fitz snorts. “We don’t know, love. All of a sudden, the big guy went apeshit, saying he smelled non-supes on campus and then sort of crumbled like a cookie.”

Aubrey’s eyes widen and he sucks in a breath. “Shit. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know what it has to do with.”

I arch a brow. “Do tell, Draconis.”

“Guaranteed it has something to do with that fucking orchid and his fucking past. Looks like he’s going to be forced to unlock some of those cages inside sooner rather than later.”

Shit. That doesn’t sound good at all.

While the rest of us get our shit into the librarian’s complex at the back of the library, Dolly sits with the gloomy gargoyle in the living area. We’ll need to modify this place to fit our family, but I’m certain Chess can help get it done. Our girl’s punky badger helped get Aubrey placed here through his boyfriends. They made some calls to the Kavarits and the long-time Sphinx working at this place went on an extended sabbatical.

Unfortunately, this place looks like a grandmother’s tea room and the Pepto colored walls and doilies are everywhere. There are creepy ass sightless porcelain dolls on every surface—and I do mean every —which is when we all find out they scare my twin to death. He’s zipping around with his hand shielding his eyes as he drags our shit in, muttering to himself about them ‘coming to life at night to kill him.’

I’d be laughing, but we can only handle one person losing their marbles at a time—Ren is a much bigger concern.

“Get it together, bro,” I rumble at him, adding an edge of alpha to it so he pays attention.

Fitz straightens, glaring at me for a moment before he sucks in a deep breath then blows it out. “In with the anxiety, out with the calm…”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Aubrey snorts as he pushes past with Jinx’s carrier. He sets it down on the frilly couch, wrinkling his nose before letting the tiny menace out. “Why is everyone going banana pants? Is there something in the fucking air here? Fucking French…”

That gets Ren’s attention and he lifts his head, giving his mate a dirty look. “ Suce-moi la bite, garcon lézard. ? 1 ”

A laugh bursts free and even though I don’t know what he said, I get the gist, especially when Aubrey smirks at him. “Only if you stop being a whiny little bitch, mon coeur . Good boys get treats. ”

Dolly’s eyes glaze over and I watch her squirm against our friend. She gives Aubrey a matching irritated look before hissing, “ Sois gentil, mon grand. Il souffre vraiment. ? 2 ”

When the hell did she learn that much French? Son of a bitch.

“Oooooh. I love it when you voulez-vous , Baby Girl. It makes my dick do backflips.” Fitz walks over, bending to nuzzle the other side of her neck until she moans softly. “Much better than when this fancy asshole does it.”

“It is sexy,” Aubrey muses as he grins at her. “I didn’t know he was teaching you.”

She frowns, her eyes narrowing. “He’s not . I took French in high school and Luc helped me a little this summer. I can learn things on my own, too.”

“Speaking of your designer friend, we should text him and let him know we’ve all arrived safely. His help was invaluable,” Chess pipes up. “We did not want to transport our family on other people’s jets, so lending us his made Felix calm down immensely.”

I roll my eyes, but nod at his statement. “Princess, you handle that. Chester, this place is…” I pause, not having the words to describe the décor accurately.

“A nightmare. I’m on it,” he says with a grin. “Maybe Ren could help? He enjoys it and it might be a good distraction until he’s ready to talk about what happened.”

The gargoyle lifts his head again and huffs. “Fine. But shut the hell up about my… issue… until I can gather my fucking thoughts. There are many things we need to discuss and they are important for both our current situation and the future. Some of them are not known outside of small circles and my story is known to almost no one.”

“More bad shit? I swear to Cereberus’ furry balls, I’m tired of all this secret shit biting us in the ass. Our parents and all the stuffed shirt asswads on the Council need to go.” He grins crazily, looking at Dolly. “You’ll get a part of every single one of those fuckers for your trophy shelf, Baby Girl. Cross my black heart.”

How he plans on cutting off a piece of every Council member, I don’t know, but when my twin makes a promise, you can bank on it.

“Thank you, Fitzy.” She turns her head and kisses him lightly, her eyes dancing with the same brand of psycho I associate with my brother. I’ll make space when we get this place settled.”

“Great, there are two of them,” Chess mutters as he tries not to laugh. “We’re in such trouble.”

Aubrey huffs a few smoke rings, his eyes glittering with his dragon. “I enjoy snack size’s violent tendencies. She’s turning into an excellent huntress, Chester. Let Fitzgerald encourage her.”

“He’s right,” Renard says as he sits up, blowing a long breath out and closing his eyes for a moment. When he opens them, his easy calm is back and I know he’s put that emotion away until later. “We have much to do now that we are here. There is no time for dwelling and certainly none for sympathy.”

“Because of what you scented?” Dolly asks quietly.

“ Oui ,” he says with a decisive nod. “We know old enemies will descend upon this place soon enough and now we’ve discovered there’s at least one unknown hiding amongst the staff and students. We don’t know what else awaits us.”

I look around, finding my bag and retrieving my phone. “First thing, Dolly will text Luc and you two work on making this place not abhorrent. Aubrey and I will go to the main building to check-in with the staff shit. We’ll re-group afterward to talk about whatever sent Ren off the deep end.”

“I have to check in with student services and Coach Z, too,” Dolly reminds me. “I can do that once I get a hold of Luc.”

Biting my tongue to keep from saying she can’t go alone, I nod. “ Be careful. Have your phone and your knife handy. I don’t trust anyone here we don’t know.”

“Sir, yes, Sir!” she chirps with a salute and I groan.

Great, now I’m going to this meeting with a raging hard-on. Par for the course today.