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Chapter Forty-Six

D ray

“That’s it!” I say, slamming back the door.

The lights are out and I click my fingers.

They flick back on and the little kitten and the professor jolt in surprise.

He’s lurking by the bed, but scurries away back into the shadows, hissing as he does.

“I don’t know what freaky made-up shit, he’s told you.

But he is not your fated mate and there is no way in his twisted version of hell he’s sinking his fangs into you. ”

“What?!” she says in alarm. Like the little thing hadn’t considered that.

Isn’t that every freaking girl’s fantasy? To be pinned down and sucked off by a vampire? That or pinned down and taken by a fucking great wolf.

The professor slinks further into the shadows, shame sagging his shoulders, and if I was a properly functioning human being, I’d feel sorry for him .

But I’m not, she’s ours.

“I need to think about this – all of it,” she says next, rubbing at her forehead.

“There’s nothing to think about,” I snarl.

“I’m too tired to argue right now,” she says, with a sigh of exasperation.

“You need to rest,” Beaufort and the professor say at the same time, before glowering at one another.

This situation is fucked up.

“I agree,” she says, and Beaufort looks shocked out of his skin. That must be the first time ever that she has. “So can you all just leave me in peace.”

“We need to stay here and protect–” Beaufort starts, but that momentary snap of time where she was agreeing with him has ended.

“No, I need you all to leave me alone so I can think about all of this.”

“We’re not leaving the clinic,” Beaufort says.

“Me neither,” the professor says.

“Don’t you have class to teach?” I say.

“Don’t you have class to attend?”

“Fine, stay in the clinic if you want, just get out of this room,” the little kitten snaps, her claws now out.

“Come on,” Thorne tells us all, moving towards the door.

“I need to talk to you first,” she says. I grin at the professor. His jaw tightens. “Just Thorne,” she clarifies and now the professor is smirking right back at me.

Beaufort, the professor and I stroll slowly to the door, none of us want to be the first to pass through the doorway.

“After you, Prof.,” I say, holding out my arm and bowing a little.

“You first,” he growls .

The three of us tussle in the doorway and finally Thorne snaps.

“Get out!”

We file through the door; me first, then the professor and then Beaufort. The door slams behind us.

“Why does she want to talk to him and not us?” I whine.

“Probably because he isn’t a shithead,” the professor says. “And he’s not walking around with his dick hanging out.”

“I didn’t have time to change. Besides, she likes my cock.” I imitate his annoying smirk and anger flashes in his glowing eyes.

“Cut it out,” Beaufort says, walking a little way down the corridor and flopping down onto a chair. “And he’s right, put on some clothes.”

“Where exactly–”

“Magic some up.”

I chuckle and then I let my magic weave through the air, a pair of sweats landing with a thump on the floor. I pull them on and sink into a chair beside Beaufort. The professor remains on his feet and starts pacing up and down the corridor like a first-time dad waiting for the arrival of a baby.

I lean my forearms on my thighs, both legs bouncing up and down and whisper to Beaufort: “You think there’s any truth to his shit?”

“You do know vampires have exceptional hearing,” Beaufort says in his normal voice.

I snap my head his way. “Can you hear what Briony and Thorne are talking about?”

The professor pauses, then shakes his head. “Thorne’s using a blocking spell.”

“What the hell?” I say, peering at the closed door. Why would he do that? There’s meant to be no secrets between bond brothers.

“And I don’t give a shit what you think, Eros, I’m telling the truth.”

I jump up into a crouched position on the seat of the chair and spin around to face him, leaning my forearms on the back of the chair.

“Okay, so she smells good to you. How do you know that that isn’t all it is? A bit of a crush.” He grinds his teeth together in irritation. “Hey, no judgment, we all have them and she is fucking cute.”

“Do you know how many girls pass through this academy every year? None, not a single one, has ever caught my attention like this. I’ve barely registered their scents, let alone become obsessed with it.

Yet the moment she stepped into the Great Hall I noticed it among all the other scents.

It stood out like a beacon. It pummeled straight to the core of my brain and lodged itself there. ”

“That doesn’t mean–”

“It does. It’s the sign for my kind.” He runs both his hands through his hair. “You don’t think I’ve researched the shit out of this? You don’t think I’ve considered it’s just lust or a crush? It’s not. Briony is my fated mate.”

“Well,” Beaufort says, looking up from his chair, “she’s ours too, so where the hell does that leave us?”

I jump off my seat, gathering my hair into my hands, twisting it into a knot behind my head. I stink of dog and the forest and the weird-ass chemicals of the clinic.

“You know what, I think we have bigger things to worry about right now.”

“Like what?” Beaufort says.

“Those other scents that were out there in the forest.” I rub at my nose. “You smell them too, Prof.? ”

“What scents?”

“The scents of the cunts that attacked our little kitten.”

The professor’s eyes flash a blood red and his magic soars in the air. “You recognized the scents?”

“You didn’t?”

He places his hands on his hips. The dude looks rough, something I only just noticed. “I don’t have your sense of smell. Don’t get me wrong, mine is good. But it’s mostly just prey and blood I can smell … and her. Most human scents all smell the same to me.”

“Well,” I say, rubbing my hands together, “I recognized some of them for sure. The question is, what are we going to do about it?”