Page 4 of Wings of Ashes (Wings of Ashes #1)

CHAPTER

“ S orry,” Nix apologized after face-planting into a muscular back. She really needed to do better with not getting caught up in her thoughts and memories of the past, or, well, the future.

A loud growl shook the wide back of the man, but he did not turn to look over his shoulder. He simply strode forward with the line, entering the classroom.

From behind her, she heard the sunglasses-wearing asshole from the hallway remark, “Another one? Am I supposed to be jealous?”

His scent of sex and the radiating warmth of his body heat seeped into her from behind. Oh Gods, was he in her new potions class?

She ignored him and maintained a safe following distance from the large man in front of her. Gods, his build was massive. He was the type of shifter who could walk through a brick wall like it was bubbles and foam.

She entered the classroom in the single file line and grabbed a piece of paper at the front desk like everyone else did.

She turned to look for a seat and was met with heated gazes from…a classroom of almost entirely men. There was one woman. One. Out of maybe fifteen students.

Meanwhile, the males in the classroom all stared at Nix with narrowed eyes that ranged from spewing hatred and annoyance to spewing unbridled lust. Ew .

“What—the—fuck,” a masculine voice grumbled from a desk in the middle of her brand-new class.

“Excuse me,” the sunglasses-wearing jerk from the hall breezed around Nix as she stood, frozen at the front of the classroom, all eyes on her.

The sunglasses-wearing dark prince strode over to sit near the back row of the classroom, where most seats were empty except for the hulking form of a man hunched over his desk, staring at the paper he had picked up at the front.

Seeing only the top of the bulky man’s head, she could only make out that his hair was a dark, reddish bronze color, under the shadow of his hoodie. He was the friend of Mr. Sunglasses—the friend who watched Nix fall and walked right around her without offering help.

So, he is Asshole number two, then .

“Are you lost, little swan shifter?” a random male voice asked Nix from a desk in the second row of the classroom. “Cooking class is on the third floor.” A few of the men close to him snickered.

Right. Because cygnus shifters typically studied homemaking and how to bring comfort to their alpha mates. The males were allowed to learn to be big and strong and knowledgeable about the paranormal world. Meanwhile, the prey shifters were kept ignorant.

“Professor Bowen, are you seeing this?” another male student asked.

A few footsteps sounded from behind Nix, and she spun around to see the professor of the potions class running his critical gaze over her.

The wrinkled, older professor coughed into his fist and asked her, “ Are you lost?”

Was it be-a-jerk day? “No, sir, I transferred into this class this morning.”

“The morning of the start of the second semester,” he said in a doubtful tone. Did he think she was lying?

“Yes, sir.”

“ Sir . So submissive; what a good little swan,” someone in the classroom mocked her, but she kept her gaze on the professor.

“Rather late to make such a change.” The professor tilted his head and paused, looking deeply into her eyes. She stared right back, unblinking. He nodded, as if appeased by something he saw in her. “Be sure your assignments do not follow the same ‘last-minute’ trend.”

Nix cracked a smile and exhaled in relief. “Yes, sir.”

“Professor Bowen!” Another loud male voice sounded. “You can’t actually allow this.”

Nix turned to face the classroom of males—and one female, who looked bored.

“And why not, Mr. Graeves?” Professor Bowen asked.

The blond male student sputtered, and Nix wondered if this “Mr. Graeves” had ever known any hardships in life. He couldn’t have undergone an hour of the torture I’ve been through .

Looking around the classroom, Nix thought to herself, This crew reeks of privilege .

“Because she is not here for an education,” the student exasperated. “She is here for our dicks.”

Nix’s jaw dropped. Okay, privilege and sexism . He thought she was here for… Her stomach turned.

Yes, Nix knew there was an unsaid rule that female cygni did not take the same classes as the alpha males and the other strong shifters.

Yes, she knew that there was a rather correct stereotype that the prey shifter females wanted to “trap” the alphas into marriage at graduation. But Nix was there to learn .

Graeves continued, “Let’s all be honest, cygnus shifters are at the academy to find husbands. If you allow her to join this class, this will be the start of all of them flocking to our classes. She doesn’t actually want to learn potions. She’ll just be a distraction.”

Nix was there to learn everything she could to avoid her future torture and murder. A mouthy boy would not take this chance from her.

The old Nix might have run and hid from such a topic. Instead, she took one step forward and locked gazes with the mouthy blond student.

“And why will I be a distraction?” she asked.

Graeves blinked in surprise at how confidently she spoke to him. He replied, “Because…you’ll try to seduce us.”

One second passed.

Two seconds.

Then, Nix’s head fell back as a loud, uncontrollable belly-laugh shook her small frame.

She laughed so hard, her lungs stung from the lack of breathing for the full minute.

By the time she caught her breath and calmed herself, all of the male students stared at her with wide-eyed expressions. The female student smirked at her.

“I’m here to learn about potions. Not small penises.” Nix glanced back at the professor. “Is there a specific seat I should sit in?”

Biting back a smile, Professor Bowen waved toward the entire classroom. “Anywhere that is open. Up to you.” He turned back to his desk to grab one of his papers. “Now, if we can begin—”

“Professor!” Graeves exclaimed in shock again. “You don’t understand. I’m not saying I’d want to fuck her. I mean, look at her. But the distraction thing—she may not even do it consciously.”

He continued, “Being around strong alphas can trigger certain pheromones in her species. Those pheromones will create a hard distraction, if you get what I mean.” He pointed to his crotch. “Doesn’t matter how ugly she is. The pheromones are like the mortal ecstasy drug.”

Wow. Yes, if Nix were a prey shifter, she would have run the risk of releasing pheromones and going into heat around the other alphas. But Nix only looked like a cygnus prey shifter.

The truth was that she did not know what kind of shifter she was—a prey, born weaker, or an alpha predator. Powers had never manifested. She had never been able to shift.

I have certainly been treated like a prey all my life. But that stopped now.

Deep wrinkles formed around Professor Bowen’s mouth as he frowned. “You say strong alphas bring out these distracting pheromones?”

“Yes!”

“Well, then maybe for the safety of the classroom, she should sit right next to you, Mr. Graeves.”

A few chuckles sprinkled through the classroom as Graeves’s face reddened.

Nix wandered to the back row of the classroom, where most of the seats remained empty. “No, thank you,” she called from the back. “I’ll just keep my pheromones to myself back here.”

There were exactly four empty seats in the very back row. Two were available beside the broad-chested, reddish-brown haired man who sat next to Mr. Sunglasses, and the other two were empty on the other side of Mr. Sunglasses.

It was as if students had purposefully left the two friends with open spots around them. They did radiate some strong, dark energy.

Nix plopped down into the seat, leaving one desk between her and Mr. Sunglasses.

“How convenient ,” Mr. Sunglasses sneered at her as if she had been plotting and scheming to sit near him for years. All because she ran into him in the hallway? What was his problem?

“Do you see anywhere else for me to sit?” Nix muttered back angrily.

His dark eyebrows shot up again as he flashed her another amused smirk. “Trying to act like you didn’t want to sit right next to me? Darling, just because I’m wearing sunglasses doesn’t mean I can’t see right through you.”

Nix rolled her eyes and tried to focus on the class. From the back row, Nix had to strain to hear Professor Bowen introduce the next class potion group assignment. She was not gifted with supernaturally strong hearing like many of the winged shifters in her class.

“Wow, now acting like you’re actually here for the class,” Sunglasses remarked in a sardonic tone.

His low voice floated over to her like a seductive snake. The low vocal melody wrapped around her and squeezed. She tried to block his voice out.

He continued, “Look at that furrowed brow and pouty lip as if you’re trying to really listen.”

“Can you shut the hell up?” Nix snapped at him.

She wondered what type of shifter Indoor-Sunglasses guy was. She didn’t know of any shifters particularly sensitive to light. Granted, she did not know much about other shifters in general. Another reason she enrolled in History of Winged Creatures .

“Hell?” He raised a dark eyebrow. “That sounded like a curse on your pretty pink lips.”

Blowing out a frustrated breath, Nix turned to scowl at the strikingly gorgeous, dark-haired man and spat out at him, “What do you know about Hell, huh?”

She aggressively clicked her pen as she added, “You probably have no idea of the meaning of the word. Endless torture and searing pain. I bet your idea of misfortune is burning your mouth on a hot cup of artisan coffee.”

The big-bodied friend beside him, who kept his face down and hidden behind his oversized hoodie, chuckled lowly. The gruff, throaty sound was gravelly and hoarse as if it were a rare occurrence, and the vocal cords were not prepared for such a thing.

Sunglasses turned his head to stare and gape at his friend. “Did she just make you laugh? ”

Nix begged her ears to hear Professor Bowen.

“…and then we will test it on a willing student. Does everyone understand the ingredients list and process?”

Damn it . No. Nix did not understand because she had not heard a damn thing. Maybe if she had alpha shifter hearing.

Professor Bowen added, “The forest on the outskirts of the academy grounds should have all of the ingredients you need.”

The forest? Were they supposed to gather raw ingredients for a potion all on their own? Nix had no idea what different herbs looked like. Starting a year’s class in the second semester might be a bit more challenging than I thought .

“Since we do have a new student, one of your groups should welcome her for the project.”

The one other female in the class raised her hand. “I’ll take her.”

“Fuck no,” Sunglasses cursed. “You’re in our group,” he told the other woman.

“So?”

“So, I don’t want to be in a group with a groupie.” He jabbed his thumb in Nix’s direction.

“She doesn’t seem like a groupie,” the female said and glanced at Nix. “Are you a groupie?”

“I actually actively dislike him.”

“Well?” the other female asked him from a few desks away, staring at his dark, designer sunglasses. “I don’t understand the issue. I thought one woman wasn’t enough for you, Bael?”

Sunglasses sighed deeply, appearing annoyed at having Nix join his class group for the assignment. Bael . That was his name?

Nix did not like the idea of being grouped with the two alphas who witnessed her fall in the hallway and did nothing to help, but not being the only girl in a group sounded preferable for this class.

“Okay, groups, go collect ingredients. Some on the list are quite rare, so you should not waste time and allow the other groups to find them before there are none left.”

Bael leaned over and whispered to Nix, “Get in my way, and you’ll understand what Hell is, Blondie.”