Chapter 37

Rigert and Hanson burst into laughter. I scrambled to get up on all fours. I barked at them, teeth bared. They both scramble backwards as I inched closer to them. Then, Kairos stepped in front of them. I felt my ears go back, submissively. Kairos crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at me.

“This is exactly what I was talking about,” he snapped. “Letting your anger control your shift.”

I paused and blinked at him. Anger? That was certainly not what I felt a few moments ago when he’d kissed my neck. I growled at him. He merely raised an eyebrow.

“Shift back, Smith,” he spat.

This time, I did let the anger control me. My bones and joints cracked again as I stood up straight. I wound up on two human feet, glaring at Kairos as he glared back at me.

“Maybe if you didn’t piss me off,” I spat. “I wouldn’t have shifted.”

“My job is to piss you off,” Kairos sneered. “I’m supposed to tempt you to shift. That’s the lesson. Resist the urge to shift. Rigert and Hanson clearly could. Why couldn’t you?”

Hanson and Rigert were still cackling behind Kairos. I managed to shoot them another glare that stopped them. They kept their smiles though. With another glare at Kairos, I stormed across the forest and grabbed my bag. I slung it over my shoulder and left the class without a second glance at any of them.

Later, I met up with Loren in the cafeteria for lunch. News of my faux-pas had clearly traveled quick across campus. Between that and my rejection two weekends ago, people stared and glared at me as Loren and I took our seats at lunch.

“Gods,” she shook her head. “Why does he have it out for you?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled. I poked at my sandwich. “You’d think winning the fight would’ve gotten him to back off a bit.”

Loren hummed and stabbed at her salad. “What was his part of the deal again?”

“I kneel,” I cringed and shoved my tray away from me. “Fuck that. I’m not doing that.”

Loren shrugged and took a huge bite of her salad. “I don’t disagree with you,” she said around a huge bit of lettuce. “But maybe it would appease him enough to leave you alone.”

I groaned and looked across the cafeteria. Kairos, Thorne, Maximus and Petyr were all in their usual spot. Alessia, Loren’s sister, was sitting next to Petyr, arm wrapped around his bicep. Meg, Maximus’s sister, was perched on the table, looking around the room.

When she made eye contact with me, she sent a wink my way before chomping into the apple in her hand. I grimaced and looked back towards my sad sandwich.

“What did he even do to set you off?” Loren pondered.

I blanched. “Sorry?”

“Kairos,” she forked another bit of her lunch. “Or was it just his prescience that pissed you off?”

I bit my lip and poked at my sandwich again. I thought I could trust Loren. I knew I could trust Loren. She’d asked no questions about Pietha being my stylist for Mateball and she never pressed me about why I was always off training with some mysterious mentor (Valentin).

But from what Victoria had told me, it was extremely rare for a wolf to have a fated mate and even rarer for a wolf to get another fated mate after rejecting the bond with their first fated mate. If I told Loren the jolt I’d gotten from Kairos kissing me or about how Valentin and my hearts always were synched, I doubted she wouldn’t have any questions. That whole thing would mean revealing my biggest secret yet, that I was the Princess of all of the wolves.

Something about that just didn’t feel right, yet.

I shrugged. “General being in my line of sight,” I tried to keep my tone as casual as possible.

Loren laughed. “That’ll about do,” she said. “Hey, did you do the magiks homework yet?”

“No,” I shook my head, grateful for the change in topic. “You need help?”

“Yeah, the way that question four is written is confusing. What do you mean you add wolfsbane to the sleeping potion…”

I let her trail off, half listening as I looked back across the cafeteria. Kairos had somehow procured a blonde woman to sit on his lap in the five minutes I’d taken my eyes off of him. She was running her long, pink nails down his chest. He looked bored. Yet somehow, the flames within me started to burn hotter deep within my chest.

Is this… jealousy? I balked. Over fucking Kairos?

You tell me, my wolf quipped in response. I ignored her because I knew she was right. This was jealousy. I scowled to myself and looked back into my sandwich.

Lunch ended and Loren and I made our way across campus to Magiks. I helped her with her homework in the cafeteria, but she was still trying to process it as we crossed campus. I couldn’t help but stare into the backs of Maximus, Thorne and Kairos as they walked in front of us.

All three were in our Magiks class. All three were my supposed to marry the Princess – who, unbeknownst to them, is me. All three made me feel some type of weird jolty electricity that had been explained to me as a sign of a fated mate. I couldn’t help but wonder why I was drawn to all of them when they were all such dicks.

A wolf needs a mate, my own inner wolf mused. It’s simple biology.

But do I really? I threw back. In fact, you showed up when I was breaking a mate bond.

Because I wanted to save us from death, my wolf snapped. She was getting snippy with me a lot recently. Breaking a bond is known to cause death. The Queen even told you so. I only pushed my way out to save you. But I am still weak. A mate would fix that.

A mate would fix that.

But what if I didn’t want a mate? Especially when the three mate options were the douchebags in front of me. Or some random fifth mysterious mate.

Or High Alpha Lunerly, my wolf mused. I scowled at her.

He’s off limits, I said back. By his orders.

He is not the Queen, my wolf said. If she wishes you to mate him, then mate him you may.

Loren and I rounded the corner and pushed into the classroom. The three wolves in front of me were already at their place in the back left of the classroom. They were either ignoring me or were unphased by me as Loren and I sat down in our seats.

I huffed as I sat down next to Loren. She frowned. “What is it?”

I glanced over my right shoulder. The three wolves were now laughing amongst themselves. Kairos, fully, Thorne had a slight smirk and Maximus was chuckling. I looked back to see Loren watching me.

“Nothing,” I said softly. “Sorry.”

She patted me gently on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about them,” she said. “Max and Kairos will be graduating at the end of the year then you won’t have to see them ever again.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. If only she knew how wrong that was.