Page 23 of Make Me

“Please don’t thank me,” Bethany muttered. “I wish I could do more.”

“This is more than enough,” Calen said.

Bethany jerked her head in a nod before scooping up the rest of the boxes and practically running from the kitchen.

Cody waited till they were outside away from prying ears before asking “What was that?”

“What was what?” Bethany kept her gaze straight ahead, a clear tell she was avoiding the question.

“What was that you gave him?”

“A letter.”

“A letter from who? His mate?” Cody knew Nita called him mate, but he was poking at Bethany to try to get her to answer. Were cats not as opposed to intermixed matings as they seemed?

“No. Nita is his mate,” Bethany answered sharply.

“I didn’t know they were mates. Intermixed species matings are rare, especially after the Council forbade them. I didn’t think cats approved of them.”

“They don’t.” Bethany’s voice was so quiet that he almost didn’t hear it.

She glanced at him and sighed at the look on his face. Cody arched an eyebrow at her. He wasn’t going to let this go.

“They don’t approve. Why do you think they’re working here instead of in a pride or even a coven, for that matter?”

Cody opened his mouth to ask about the letter again, but she cut him a sharp look. “The letter is from his sister, okay? He had to leave her behind when the pride forced him out. She just had another baby. Another nephew he won’t get to meet.”

Cody didn’t know what to say, and they walked in silence for a few minutes. This whole ‘let’s forbid intermixed matings’ thing was starting to sound like bullshit. So, because Calen found his mate outside the pride, he was exiled from it? Why? He was clearly a warrior and probably a good one. The pride would rather lose a warrior than accept a witch as his mate? Was it Bethany’s mother who’d made that decision? If he broke the Alpha Command his father had given him and claimed Bethany, would the pride and pack accept them, or would they also have to seek sanctuary at the Academy?

He looked at the stubborn set of Bethany’s jaw. He wasn’t going to get any more answers about this, so he changed the subject. “So what’s with all the food? Is it related to why you were stomping around like someone dumped water on your fur earlier?”

Bethany sighed loudly and rolled her eyes at him, but she held the door to her dormitory open with her hip so he could pass through.

“I don’t know, okay? Holly just came to me and said something happened and Claire needed a girl’s night, then asked me to get food. Honestly, the girl’s been through enough with fucking Vivienne lately that it pissed my lion off.”

Cody’s own wolf sat up and took notice. The sweet blind witch had grown on them all, and Cody’s wolf considered her pack already. “Was it Vivienne?”

“I just said I don’t know,” Bethany shot back at him.

They stopped outside the door, and Bethany almost dropped one of the boxes as she knocked on the door. Cody stepped closer to her and caught it with his own stack of boxes.

“Careful there. See aren’t you glad I came now?”

“I didn’t ask for your help.”

“Oh, shut it, Bethany, there was no way those measly feline arms were going to carry all of this. You needed the big bad wolf, admit it,” he teased, trying to lighten her mood.

Holly cleared her throat, and whatever sharp retort Bethany was about to give him died on her tongue. He hadn’t even heard Holly open the door.

“Evening, ladies,” Cody greeted Holly and Claire. “Having a girl’s night?” His tone was light, but his eyes traced over Claire’s puffy cheeks and red-rimmed eyes. The sweet witch looked like she had been crying, and Cody’s wolf was feeling a little murderous about it. “Need anything else from the big bad wolf?”

“Claire, what’s wrong?” Bethany asked bluntly.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I did this to myself.”

Holly sighed exasperatedly, and Claire smiled.

If Holly could growl, Cody was sure she would. “You did not,” Holly said.

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