Page 56 of Gift from the Stone

“Have you tested your dominance before?” Vince asks.

“Probably not the way you’re about to test it, but yes, it’s been tested.” I smirk.

“I’ll push my dominance in the form of a growl, small, medium, high and I’ll judge your reactions. Try to keep your animal from challenging mine if you can. If not, it’ll be okay. I’ll back off immediately,” he explains.

I can feel my dragon sitting idly in my chest. She’s not the least bit intimidated or interested in anything he has to say. My human side appreciates the fact that he’d back off if she came out ready to brawl.

“On three, I’ll start small and keep increasing till we’re done.” I nod my understanding, bracing for his animal.

His growl is different than I was expecting. I mean, the guys are growly all the time, but I haven’t heard a shifter growl, other than Draken. His growl tends to start out as a deep rumble that comes from the depths of his chest. Even in his non-shifted form, you can hear a faint whistle, like the wind traveling through his massive teeth. And it grows into a thunderous, high-pitched roar, and you can feel his power vibrate through the skies. It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard before, so I don’t have anything to compare it to.

Vince’s small growl sounds more like a hiss, like he’s forcing air from the back of his throat and as he pushes more, it turns deeper and guttural. The noise continues to increase, becoming mighty, a raw, primal roar. My dragon looks at him curiously, but still not intimidated in the least. I swear she’s looking at him like a sweet kitten meowing.

“Holy shit, are you some kind of big cat?” The question slips out the moment I think it, not giving the logical, respectful part of my brain time to catch up.

His eyes widen before he lets out a booming laugh. “Did your animal react at all?”

“Yeah, she did…”

“And?” he pushes.

“Well, she thinks you’re a kitten. That’s why I asked,” I answer honestly, chuckling when his jaw hangs unhinged.

“Headmaster Vito said your animal was on a need-to-know basis. So I can assume between that and the fact your animal thinks I’m a kitten, it’s powerful.” He raises a brow, fishing for information. Not in a malicious way, more curious. I can understand that.

“I guess you could say that. How did I do?”

“You’re not going to have any issues in my class. I didn’t push all my dominance, but if you didn’t even react to what I did, you aren’t going to have any issues with the others. Let’s get over there to them.”

Draken approaches me as soon as we walk up, looking me over like he couldn’t see everything that just happened from the fifty feet we stood apart.

“Well, no claws came out, so I’m assuming you handled it fine.”

“I made an idiot of myself. I told him my animal thought he was a kitten.”

“Damn, little wanderer, that’s amazing and true. Vince is a Nemean lion,” he informs me between fits of laughter, bending over, clutching his stomach.

I look at him, horrified as what he says sinks in.

“Are you kidding me? He could bite my head off.”

“You’d have no problem eating him.”

I shake my head as Draken laughs and my damn dragon purrs, pleased that he has so much confidence in her. Luckily, Vince’s booming voice blocks that little sound coming out of me.

“All right, guys, this is Willow. She’ll be joining our class today and possibly for the rest of the term. Make her feel welcome. Her dominance is on par with all yours so don’t try any stupid shit.” He pauses, eyeing each of them seriously. “Today, we’re going to be going over yielding. No one is to challenge. Do you understand me? If you can’t out-dominate and force your animal to yield by this point, we’re going to have a problem. Come up here and pair up when I call your names.”

“This is where we growl at each other, and push our animals power out right?” I ask Draken in a low voice, so no one hears me. As much time as I spend reading, I should probably study up more on shit like this that actually affects me.

“Exactly. That’s the main point. Vince is testing to see if we have enough control over our animals that we can back down without fighting. When you have animals as strong as the ones in this class, it’s offensive for someone to try to intimidate you, so our instinct is to fight it out.”

“Seriously? And how do you think our animals or our bond is going to react to this?” My bond is already anxious, wanting the others, and my dragon is now on the defense, ready to rip open the first person to growl at him.

He cocks his head to the side for a second, checking in with his own dragon, then shrugs. “Not good, so this will be a learning experience for us both.”

Fucking hell.

We turn our attention back to the first set of guys, their growls growing louder and louder, more aggressive by the second. Sniffing the air, I can tell they’re both wolves from the wet dog scent I keep picking up. I actually did read in my journal, that to me, most other shifters are going to have an unpleasant smell since they aren’t my bond, or my mate as they call it in the shifter world. I can pick up that scent from around us as well. There are at least eight wolves in the class.

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