Page 22 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

“I will feed you to the dog if you don’t shut up,” Casimir says.

“I would like to eat everyone who is laughing at him.” He slowly lowers his phone like he doesn’t want this atrocity of Julian chasing after the feral poodle on camera, but I sure do.

Or maybe he doesn’t want documented proof of him declaring who he’s going to eat so the cops can’t use it as evidence in a “Why did you murder this man?” “Oh, because he laughed at my dog” way.

I start laughing but tuck my head toward Ezio to avoid Casimir’s glower. Even the judge is laughing. It’s hard not to when Gustov’s hair moves like that with each leap, hop, and tumble.

Julian grabs for him, but all he gets is an armful of fluff as the poodle shoots out of his arms. But the next time he zooms by, Julian snatches him up, hauling the large poodle to the gate while he stares at his partner who seems to be avoiding his eyes.

“I, uhh… apologize,” Julian says as he passes the judges, and I don’t know why that makes Yorick, Ezio, and me laugh harder.

Gustov’s tongue is lolling out of his mouth while Julian carries the sixty or so pound dog over to Casimir and plops him into his arms.

“There you go. The best dog in the world. The greatest dog to ever exist. The one that will outshine all other dogs and the only one to get a disqualification.”

Casimir clears his throat. “He… must have gotten confused.”

“Ah, confused. Yes. That was definitely it. You’re right. He forgot his name, he forgot how to come back, he honestly just forgot everything.”

“I mean… he was still cute,” Casimir decides on.

I choke back a laugh. “He was definitely funny. I don’t know if anyone wasn’t laughing besides Casimir.”

Ezio grins. “I think he was stunned by how phenomenal his dog was at not listening.”

“I mean… I do think he won the award for least attentive dog,” I say.

“Who invited any of you?” Casimir asks. “I bet it was that expensive treat that woman conned me into buying for him. It probably had drugs in it to make him crazy… like catnip but for dogs.”

“Oh yes. I’m sure her all-organic dog biscuit is the reason I made a fool of myself out there,” Julian says dryly.

“Oh look,” Casimir tells him. “It’s time for your agility class.”

“I have made enough of a fool of myself. I am not running an agility course.”

“The prize is professional photos of your dog, and I want photos of you to adorn my walls,” Casimir coaxes.

“That’s both romantic and conniving,” Julian says. “You just going to hang them next to the Gustov portraits?”

“I will. I will also send them to your father.”

Julian smirks, evidently liking this idea. It seems like these two really enjoy bonding over harassing his father. “If I do this… I get to have a kitten.”

“You can have as many kittens as you’d like.”

“I get a steak dinner at that place I love,” Julian says.

“Why’s he over here acting like Casimir wouldn’t give him all of this no matter what?” Ezio asks.

“I think he secretly wants to do it but is pretending he doesn’t,” I explain.

“Nuh-uh, you don’t know me,” Julian says while clearly trying his hardest not to grin. “Okay. Fine. I kind of want to do it. I want to beat all those lesser dogs and get my portrait. I’m going to go change.”

And off he goes without realizing that it’d look awfully strange for a dog to come out of the bathroom alone. Casimir hands over Gustov before rushing after Julian. Not too long after, they both come out of the bathroom.

“I, uhh… forgot to take a bag in,” Casimir says as he tries to pass off Julian’s clothes to Yorick.

“Is that his underwear sticking out of your pocket?” I question.

“Don’t mind it. It’s like a lucky item. Now where’s this pattern? You need to learn it. Do they post it or something?” Casimir asks.

“I think you walk it before they start, but we might have missed it with Gustov’s class and fucking around,” I say.

“But maybe there’s a paper pattern as well for beginners to look at?

” At least this is what I’ve noticed from watching a couple of classes while waiting.

Casimir returns with a paper which he holds in front of Julian, like it’s not at all strange to be showing your dog the pattern on a paper.

And even less strange for the dog to be scrutinizing every inch of it.

“If I’m supposed to be running with him, can I look at it?” Ezio asks.

“Here,” Casimir says just as they call Julian to go next.

“What the hell? I got no time to look at it! We were late so we didn’t get to walk it! What am I supposed to do? Just flail my arms around and run?”

Casimir just smiles and pulls his phone out. “You better do good or I will finish what we started two hundred years ago.”

“You’re just going to eat me because you gave me two seconds to look at the course!” Ezio cries as he takes the leash. Casimir already has the camera recording and Julian is prancing as much as Gustov was. Despite acting like he wanted nothing to do with this, he is thrilled .

“Where do I stop? What do I do? Do I take the leash off? What do I do with it?” Ezio mutters as he removes the leash. Ezio takes one step and Julian takes off. He flies over two jumps and scales up a ramp while Ezio runs around flailing his arms, often going in the wrong direction.

“He looks so foolish out there,” Casimir says with much glee as Julian whips through the tunnel so fast that when he comes out the other side, Ezio’s in his way. He nearly throws Ezio to the ground, which causes Casimir to cackle wildly.

Julian takes on the weave poles with such precision that I can’t help but wonder if he studied up on this before the event.

And to everyone’s amazement, he finishes the course in record time with very minimal help from Ezio, who is still staggering around.

I’m not even sure he’s aware the course has been finished.

Julian prances up to the gate where he comes eye to eye with a man staring at him.

Julian stares back then slowly looks over at Casimir. If a wolf’s face could express horror… he’d be depicting pure horror at this moment.

“Funny how none of us realized the judge was a werewolf,” Yorick says while he snickers.

Casimir freezes when the judge turns to him and gives him a “You know better” look.

Ezio and Julian quickly exit the area, looking like toddlers who’ve been disciplined, as I laugh.

And Julian doesn’t even come our way, just scurries toward the bathroom with Casimir coolly walking after him—like if he looks sexy and prestigious, the werewolf who is still staring disapprovingly at them will back off.

“I take it they got disqualified as well,” I comment as I watch them return. Julian grabs my arm.

“Oh my god, we have to leave. He’s the alpha of a nearby pack and I have literally just pranced around like a dog,” Julian says. “My father is going to kill me. He’s already called me six times. Six times .”

“I wonder if sending the video to him will make him feel better?” Casimir asks. “He should be proud of how fast you were!”

“In what world would that help ?” Julian asks.

“This is my favorite part,” Casimir says as he shows us all a still of Julian tripping Ezio.

It apparently doesn’t help Julian. “I can never show my face in the werewolf community again. That’s all there is to it,” he decides. “I need to change my look, my job… I’ll need to find a new identity.”

“I think you’re being rather dramatic. He loved it,” Casimir says, looking over at the judge still staring at us. “And if he didn’t, I will simply throw him out of my territory with enough force he’ll never be able to return. Fun, huh?”

“So fun,” Julian mumbles as he rushes us out.

“The real question is… what were you even doing out there, Ezio?” I ask.

“Do you know how hard it is to chase a wolf while trying not to run faster than what’s humanly possible? I was trying to throw in the hand motions I saw the others doing. Fuck if I knew what was happening.”

Julian whips around to face us. “What’s happening is that we’re never going to a dog show again. Let’s go back to our rooms and pretend none of this ever happened.”

“I don’t know. I enjoyed it,” I say with a grin. “I’m going to admit… I was pretty skeptical. I really thought that maybe this was a bit ridiculous… but it was thrilling .”

“Thrilling, alright,” Julian mutters.

Ezio catches my arm and I glance over at him.

“Yeah?” I ask when he pulls me back from the others without saying anything.

“Uh… just uh… wondering… what you’re doing tonight? Or am I not allowed to wonder?”

“You can wonder,” I say. “I do have plans. You know Donovan? They were talking about him the other day.”

“No, I don’t.”

“He owns a club about an hour from here. But he also deals with a lot of other vampires and was talking to a few about what happened to my family. I was going to drop by there tonight.”

“Alone?” he asks, and I hesitate. I mean… it would be fine to tell him my brother is alive, right? It’s not like he’d blab it to someone who would put Joaquin at risk. But I can’t tell him here. Who knows who else might overhear.

“Uh… no, not alone. It’s… complicated. I’ll tell you later, okay? But I promise I’ll be fine.”

Ezio looks uncertain but gives me a smile. “Okay. Yeah. Just… if you ever need me, don’t be afraid to ask.”

“I won’t… thank you.”

“Let us return to the room and relive the day’s events,” Yorick suggests when we catch back up to the others.

“Oh yes, that’s definitely what I want to do,” Julian says dryly.

“I believe I can put the recordings on the big screen for critique.”

“Well, that’s certainly the last thing I want to do. I, uhhh, feel positive that I could do something else.”

“What else does Julian enjoy doing?” I ask. “All I’ve ever seen him do for fun is be tortured by paintings of Gustov and display his nakedness.”

“He likes strip board games,” Ezio says.

I nod as I point at Ezio, acting like he’s thought of something quite astounding. “Right, do you think we could pay the delivery lady to watch? Or maybe she’ll pay us?”

“That woman seems up for anything. I will inquire,” Casimir says.

Julian gives us a look of disbelief. “Casimir is the reason why this day went to hell and you are all ganging up on me!”

“Honey… don’t fret,” Casimir soothes. “I will eat them if you wish.”

“Don’t eat our friends! If you just eat everyone you have a minor scuffle with, there will be no one left.”

“I don’t see the problem,” Casimir says. “More peopleless areas to have sex.”

Julian shakes his head wildly. “That’s not what that means! I’m going to leave you guys stuck here since I can leave anytime I want. Cyrus will go with me. He’s only slightly bullying me.”

“I did work quite hard laughing at you, and it made me hungry for lunch.”

“What about the rooftop café?” he asks with a smirk.

Yorick gasps. “But, puppers, I rooted you on! You would leave me too?” he whines. “You did so good! It’s not my fault that meanie werewolf was so jealous of your phenomenal run because he knew he couldn’t make it look so smooth!”

“That’s true. My dad just texted me an exasperated emoji. He’s at a loss for words.”

“Just the way I like him,” Casimir says.