Page 46 of In Prey We Trust

Wow. Is Rennie like the prey staff Hercules or something?

“I didn’t know that. He doesn’t talk much about himself—I only knew about The Captain because when I first toured Apex, I saw him threaten some aquatic shifters giving the crew trouble during feeding time.” I grin a little, remembering how scared I was of the hulking form of his gargoyle then.

Stopping at the pitch, Kirby chuckles. “I imagine he was on a tear. Our benefactor is soft with those he cares for, but he is mighty in defending them.”

“Well said,” I agree as I see Felix glaring. “Time for me to get to class. Thank you, Kirby.”

“Anytime, Miss Dolly.”

With that, I turn and head over to where my grumpy boyfriend is tapping his smartwatch with a look of irritation.

Doesn’t he know good things come to those who wait?

“Get a move on! I know for a fact at least a half dozen of you are on the Pred Games teams. You have to be faster than this, even in non-shifted form,” Felix growls from where’s standing at the edge of the circle. He’s pacing as he watches every single person in our class run the dreaded suicides. My tiger is in rare form this morning—he’s had us run two miles worth of laps and after that, he started on stretches and then these damn things.

I suspect he’s using this as extra practice for the Games.

To be fair, he’s right about the amount of Games athletes in this class session. The Cappie Plastics and the Heathers are all sweating away, though the latter group is whining as if it pays by the word. There are a few male Games competitors as well and they’re from Cappie, so they aren’t handling Felix’s first day punishment well. It seems like they’re the male counterpart to the Plastics, but they haven’t harassed me like my ex’s group would, so I mostly ignore them.

Huffing as I continue to push my muscles to the point of exhaustion, I watch the interaction between Selene and Gold. Their respective cliques keep knocking into one another or causing ‘accidental’ trips. I can tell Felix has noticed, but he’s ignoring the plaintive cries from both sides as he focuses on the rest of the class. He didn’t have patience for one set of spoiled brat bitches, much less two competing for Queen of Petty Bullshit. Besides, he’s got members of his team panting like they’re going to die from exercise that isn’t as rough as what Coach Z demands of the girls in practice.

That’s making his tiger prowl, and I’m a little excited that I can sense that.

A whistle blows and we all jog over to the edge of the circle to drop onto the benches. They passed water around and I consider dumping it on my damn head. That’s how hot I am. But I don’t, because my next class is Speech and I’m barely going to make it through the stupid tunnel and the Arts Center in time. My saving grace is that the Plastics might share that time slot with me and if so, Professor los Feliz won’t want to yell at them. Crossing my fingers for that bit of luck, I toss back a gulp of water with a sigh of relief.

“You’re all a bunch of spoiled, ill-trained weaklings. None of you would survive Bloodstone and you may not survive this semester if you don’t shape up. I suggest anyone who had to sit early or barely made it through this round consider a private regimen to get up to speed.” His eyes light on me and I know he’s pleased, even though his expression doesn’t change. I can read the praise in his gaze and it makes my flushed cheeks even hotter.

Fuck, I’m a sucker for his ‘good girl’ eyes. It’s embarrassing.

“Now that I have a decent baseline on your physical capabilities, I want everyone to drop and give me a hundred push-ups followed by a hundred crunches. When you’re finished, you can hit the locker rooms to clean up and head to your next class early. Don’t even think about cheating; I’ll know.”

I wing a prayer of thanks to the universe. Thanks to César and his torture sessions, I’m good with that amount of calisthenics. I won’t collapse and humiliate myself as long as I can keep my aching thighs from betraying me. Walking over to the grass, I flop down to do the crunches first. I’ve barely started when a shadow falls over me and I see Felix giving me the tiniest of grins as he looks down.

“Make sure you do this correctly, Miss Drew. I’d hate to give you detention.”

If I didn’t ache from head to toe, I might take him up on that.

“I promise to do them correctly, Sir,” I say sweetly. His chest rumbles and I laugh, starting my crunches as if I don’t have a care in the world.

“Brat,” he mutters as he walks away.

I keep doing my exercises as I’m told, knowing the longer he holds out on this date thing, the hotter it’s going to be.

And I’m going to keep pushing his buttons the entire time.

As I predicted, even with the extra time, we barely made it to Speech. Rufus and Cori weren’t in this class, so I checked my phone to see if they’d messaged yet. The group chat was full of complaints about their morning classes and it helped me get through the massively boring introduction to this class. At Apex, we had so much freedom to learn our craft on our own, but it appears here, we’re going to be spoon fed every aspect of theater slice by slice. Thinking about it makes my brain hurt, but I make it through Speech and Music Theory without falling asleep.

I walk out of the Shird, squinting at the midday sun and cursing Felix’s morning exercise. My break today is small and I pull a power bar out of my bag. I have just enough time to chow down while I sneak into my stupid dorm to ruffle shit. Fitz will be upset that I’m going by myself when I asked him to come, but we haven’t worked it in yet. I’m worried some asshole hall monitor or my roommate will report that I’m not where I’m supposed to be. It’s not like Apex where I abandoned a single room on a floor by myself; someone’s going to figure it out if I don’t get this shit done.

House Reptilian looms in front of me like a giant bug. It’s shiny and slick, like a reptile’s skin, and rounded like it’s coiled up. It’s giving off a vibe that makes the hair stand up on my arms, but I suck in a breath and head up the steps, anyway. The front door has a badge scanner like everything else, so I scan in and look around. Dark woods and wrought iron are part of the gothic decor, making the common room look like they have designed it for Halloween. There’s two people curled in big chairs reading, but everything else is quiet—eerily so.

This was a bad fucking plan.

It’s too late now, though, so I stride over to the elevator and push the button for the fourth floor. The damn thing is old, rickety and has an open cage as the doors. I can’t help but wonder if that’s for aesthetic because Cappie sure as fuck has the money to upgrade this bullshit. It stops with a jerk and I get out, walking toward my assigned room. Another card swipe has me inside and I close the door behind me.

“Thank hell no one’s here,” I mutter as I look around.

They placed the various clothes and personal items we bought all over my side of the room. I assume Raina helped the crew do this because they shelved books with little knickknacks in vignettes, clothes are in the open closet and draped over the desk chair, and they made the bed with fluffy pillows and stuffed animals. If you didn’t know me, this could easily fool someone into thinking I’m here occasionally.

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