Page 17 of Make Me

Bethany took a sip of her juice, ignoring Cody’s too-loud voice grating in her ear. For some reason, he had felt the need to sit next to her this morning, and she hoped it wouldn’t become a habit. It was torture to have him this close to her and not be able to slide under one of his broad shoulders and bury herself into his side. Fighting the mate pull had irritation dancing along her skin, and the hair on her cat stood up.

She held in a sigh and took another sip of her juice. Maybe the pull wouldn’t be so strong if she hadn’t seen Cody at all this summer, but he’d popped up constantly. Her mom had kept her busy by throwing her into more of the pride’s leadership activities and running strategy sessions over and over again. But every so often, she would get to sneak out to their spot, and without fail, Cody would be there. Sometimes they didn’t talk at all, just lay out in the middle of the clearing and stared up at the stars. Sometimes they talked about the Academy and their friends.

Bethany found that she missed Holly and Zack a lot. The two of them had become so ingrained in their lives at the Academy that being separated was hard. Sure, she and Holly exchanged letters frequently, but it wasn’t the same. Her lioness missed Zack the most, but Bethany hoped the distance would help with her lioness’s crush. Her cheeks still heated when she thought about that awkward kiss in the library. But Zack never brought it up again, and slowly, Bethany had relaxed around him. Although the crush hadn’t gone away. If she didn’t know any better, she would say her lioness claimed the quiet wizard as her mate as well.

Speak of the devil…

“Bethany, Cody,” Zack greeted as he slid into the seat across from Cody. “You’re back.”

“Zack! We missed you!” Cody said. Was that a little bit of red on the Alpha’s Heir’s cheeks?

“Missed you both too,” Zack said. There was definitely a dusting of red on Zack’s cheeks. “Holly and I missed you at dinner last night.”

“Yeah, we got in super late. Pack and pride things,” Cody answered easily.

Bethany had been delayed by a pride elder meeting that ran long, but when she’d gotten to the portal location, she’d found Cody sitting there waiting for her. He’d said he had just gotten there himself, but she had a feeling that he had waited for her. She refused to let the warm feeling in her chest spread. Instead, she kept her gaze on Zack.

“Well, I’m glad you made it,” he said with a warm smile.

His eyes darted to Cody’s and an odd look crossed his face, but before she could study it further, Holly approached, and she wasn’t alone.

The girl Holly was leading had to be a new student. She was very pretty with long brown hair and bright blue eyes. Her slender frame seemed to fold into herself as the noise of the cafeteria echoed against the stone walls.

“Everyone, this is Claire,” Holly announced as she got to the table. “She’s a brand-new student and my friend, so help me make her feel welcome. Claire, this is Bethany, Cody, and Zack. And so Cody doesn’t stick his foot in his mouth like he’s prone to do,” Holly teased, “yes, Claire is blind.”

Claire gave a small smile and a nod to the table. “Pleased to meet all of you. I hope you don’t mind if I join you for breakfast?”

“Cute as a button and she has manners? She can stay forever, and we can kick Cody out,” Bethany said lightly to set Claire at ease.

“Hey!” Cody protested. “I forget to say good morning to you one time and all of a sudden I’m an animal?”

One time last year, Cody had been so tired he had just plopped down at the table one morning and hadn’t said a word. Except her lioness wanted to poke at him constantly to make sure he noticed her, so she had teased him about his lack of good morning. She picked on him about a lot of things, waiting for the day when he snapped back in anger, but he never did. He just took it or teased her back. Truthfully, she enjoyed their banter more than she probably had a right to. It helped ease the pull between them.

“You’re a wolf, so yes,” Bethany shot back.

“Shifter,” Cody growled.

“Children,” Zack chided. “We want Claire to like sitting here, not be scared off by your bickering.”

Zack rose to his feet as Holly and Claire sat down. “Claire, it's a pleasure to meet you. Holly is the best person to know here and has saved all of our butts a time or two.”

Holly brushed it off. “We all have to take care of each other. Now, let’s sit and get some food before Claire’s first day of classes.”

As Holly helped Claire sit down, Bethany studied the quiet woman. She definitely wasn’t a shifter or a dragon, so she had to be a witch. Her lioness’s nose twitched, and the cat sat up in her head, focused on the quiet witch. There was something… interesting about her. Something that intrigued her lioness. She was very quiet and sweet, and to an untrained eye, she also seemed innocent and naive. But her lioness told her there was something more to the sweet blind witch, and Bethany couldn’t wait to find out.

Zack’s POV

A week later

Zack’s steps slowed as he approached the dining hall. Cody and Bethany had gone home for the weekend, so he was just meeting Holly and Claire for dinner. Bethany had a pride event to go to, and Cody was tagging along under the guise that he was going home to visit, but Cody had confessed that he was really going home to keep an eye on Bethany. The summer hadn’t gone as well as Bethany let on. There was a lot of bullshit, especially from some of the male lions, and Cody didn’t want Bethany to go home alone anymore without backup.

He didn’t blame Cody at all. If things were different, he would be right at Bethany’s and Cody’s side when they went home. The more he learned about their families, the more he worried. There was so much pressure put on both of their shoulders, and the expectations were unrealistic for anyone to be able to shoulder alone. Add in the pressure from their families to be looking for a ‘good match’ and knowing that Bethany was Cody’s mate…

Yeah, he worried about them. A lot.

He hadn’t expected either one of them, but after spending all last year with them, Zack couldn’t help falling for the feisty lioness and the playfully protective wolf. Bethany was fiercely loyal and protective over their group and made Zack’s stomach flutter when she turned her green eyes his way. Cody acted like a goof but was hiding a quiet intelligence in his playful brown eyes. He and Cody had continued their quiet flirtation, but outside a few makeout sessions, it hadn’t gone very far. He was okay with that, though. Most of their attention was on Bethany as she pushed herself to be everything her mother wanted her to be.

Zack huffed out a laugh and rolled his eyes. He was in so deep with the two of them. Pushing open the doors to the dining hall, he searched the half empty room for their usual table. His steps faltered. Desmond was sitting next to Claire. Interesting.

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