Page 82 of In Prey We Trust

“Fitz will never let us live this down, you know. We didn’t just defile your library; we fucking broke it!”

That starts the laughter again, and I have to admit she’s right. None of them will ever let this go and there’s no fucking way that noise didn’t wake someone. The archives aren’t sound proofed and we just fucked like demons.

“Ahem.”

I look up from our tangled spot on the ground to see the tiger in question, looking so excited he may not sleep for a week. Chess and Felix are smirking as well, and my gargoyle is lazing on top of a tall bookshelf as he looks at us upside down.

“I believe I’ve been told over and over that there’s no humping in my goddamn library.”

Dolly giggles and I scrub my hand down my face. “That’s correct.”

“Looks like someone’s buying a new table,” Fitz sing-songs. “And now I can fuck anyone I want anywhere I want, you scaly hypocrite.”

“Fitz!” Chess says, as he looks at us sheepishly. “No, you can’t.”

“Yes, I can!”

I look down at our girl, feeling the flush creep up my neck. “Are you certain I can’t crisp him?”

“Nope. No crisping.”

Damn. This is going to suck.

Wake Me Up

Delores

It took two weeks for Aubrey to get the table in the archives replaced, and the guys definitely didn’t let him forget his own egregious breach of his rules. They riddled our nightly work sessions with ribbing that made me both bright red and turned on to varying degrees. I’m doing well with expressing myself when we’re alone, but I still get squirmy when we have Rufus and Cori there to join in. They’re supportive and gentle—well, Cori is—but I’m working to shed the trauma I had after Todd tossed me out like garbage.

It helps that the guys are fucking determined to make me feel like a supermodel even when I have fucked up hair and morning breath.

“Miss Drew, are you paying attention?”

Blinking back into reality, I give the eagle-eyed tiger a bright smile. “Yes, Professor Rakoto.”

“Perhaps you can tell us what the primary reason for the assassination of the Archduke was and how it impacted both shifter and human history?” Her gaze narrows on me as she stalks closer, but I don’t let it bother me.

Finding out she’s a Khan puppet makes it infinitely easier to categorize her as an academic threat, but not a physical one. She can treat me like shit and try to embarrass me, but unless the twins’ father puts a hit out on me, I’m fairly safe. I lick my lips as my brain works to find the answer she wants, even if it’s not what actually happened. Once I remember this is the guy I coined the ‘Archduck,’ I’m able to breathe easier.

“The Archduke was the younger brother of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary. European shifters could worm their way into many of the royal families in the previous centuries. Unlike in this country, so many of the heads of state between the latest part of the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution were not actually humans. The European and Asian Councils had great power at the turn of the century, but many of the families were still at war with one another over business interests.”

She sniffs, folding her arms over her chest. “Why does that matter?”

Because he didn’t fucking duck and that’s what lead to World War I, you twat.

But I don’t say that; I simply smile again. “It’s important because the Emperor’s son died and the Archduke became the heir apparent. He made choices in his personal life that angered the crown, but they couldn’t cast him aside because of interspecies marriage because of the Crown Prince’s death. Neither preds nor prey were happy when he married his swan lady-in-waiting because the two sides had been battling for lands with one another and the humans for many years. Thirteen years after their wedding, a member of the prey resistance faction assassinated them in a public appearance in Sarajevo and it lead to a declaration of war between the species.”

“Very good, Miss Drew. How did the humans get involved? Why do they think this war belonged to them?”

The classroom is silent as I pause again. I’m sure the Plastics and the Heathers think I’m going to whiff this, but Rennie has made sure I’m ready for anything. “As it is now, very few humans are aware of our existence and have no idea we walk among them. So the humans believed a rebel from a nationalist faction shot a human leader and the two countries went to war because a human assassin killed a human royal. The other causes of the Great War involve all three species, as they cannot make rational decisions in large-scale disputes.”

Of course, if the Councils hadn’t declared revealing ourselves treason after the Magic Treaties, the Archduke could have ducked or even healed his wounds before he got to the hospital.

“Excellent, Miss Drew. I’m glad to see you are catching up with the rest of your peers. I was worried you were lagging so far behind that you’d flunk the first semester and have to repeat it next year.”

My lip hitches and I open my mouth to retort when the door flies open. The frame is filled by two beefy looking bear shifters and our nervous Headmistress from Apex. She hurries over to the professor, who nods and looks directly at me. This is not good. I calmly pick up my phone, texting the group chat to let the guys know it seems like I’m being pulled out of class for something and to track where I am. When Rakoto calls for me to join the cadre at the door, I hit send and shove my stuff into my bag.

I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but I have a bad feeling about this.

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