Page 61 of Blood on the Ice

Morgana sips her coffee, already perfectly coiffed and outfitted in one of her sexy, badass suits. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to. I can feel you watching me like a damn predator.” Wiping my mouth, I wink at her. The big meeting yesterday laid out all our plans and I could also feel the relief spread through her once we had things settled. My new mate enjoys having specific directions and a structure to follow, though she prefers to come up with it herself.

The family thing will be a learning experience for her.

Her cheeks flush and she flicks her gaze back to her iPad in annoyance. “Fine. I amslightlyconcerned. If there are any issues, please let either me or Channing know, okay? I have bad thoughts about anyone giving you shit about the couple of days’ absence. It’s very odd.”

Covering my chuckle, I pretend to scratch my jaw as she scrolls through the schedule her icy assistant sent her. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t be a shit,” Morgana murmurs as her brows furrow. Something has her attention now, and she doesn’t like it one bit.

“What’s got your tail in a knot?” I ask as I gather the breakfast stuff and put it in the dishwasher. “You look pissed suddenly.”

Sighing heavily, she looks up at me and her expression softens in a way that makes my chest tighten. “Nothing to do with you. I have meetings with several departments that I believe will be contentious. I’m sure Channing tried to space them out, but it was only a matter of time until a bunch of Magnus’ minions wriggled their way onto my calendar. They’re all afraid I’ll cut their budgets—and some of them should be.”

I grin, loving the evil gleam in her eyes. “Show them who’s boss, babe.”

“Oh, I will.” She pauses, then glances back at me. “Not because they’re his old friends or whatever… because the allocations for funding in this place were decided by someone who was more interested in getting his dick wet than actually running the school.”

Pressing my lips together, I wink. “Why not both?”

The look on her face is fucking priceless—I can’t wait to hear what she did tonight.

The Coach kepthis mouth shut about the missed practices, and I’m not sure whether that’s because someone in Morgana’s circle handled it or if the Shark used his resources. Either way, he didn’t take it out on me and, surprisingly, the other players weren’t gunning for me. Practice went smoothly, especially because I dumped my water bottle out at the end to ensure no one caught me unawares again. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel safe leaving my shit in an open space again.

Holy shit, this is what women feel like in bars.

That hits me like a Mack truck and though I’ve never been that kind of douchebag, I feel the need to apologize to every chick I’ve ever met for it. It’s an anxious, sinking sensation in your stomach as you dart your eyes everywhere to watch for malicious intentions. What a load of centaur shit for them to have to deal with everywhere they go. I’m having a conversation with Nana about supporting more survivor charitable groups the secondshe calls. If I’m this big and this antsy, women as petite as Channing probably hide tasers in their damn bras, for fuck’s sake.

“Men suck,” I mutter under my breath as I stalk across campus to my Modern History class. Obviously, I know I’m one, but this revelation is really fucking unsettling and I’m feeling like shit on behalf of my whole damn gender. “But maybe I can help.”

“Who the fuck are you talking to, Wolfenberg?”

My eyes narrow as the loud voice of one of my teammates catches up with me. Brock Slater isthestereotypical jock bro, and I’m definitely not in the mood for him to pitch the winter sports frat again. He’s a sophomore, and I’d lay a fat Benjy that he gets points or some fucking reward for recruiting. “Myself, Slater. What do you want?”

“Bro, it’s not what I want; it’s what I candofor you,” he says. His dark hair is messy from the helmet, and he looks like he stepped out of a Land’s End catalog. His hand lands on my shoulder and I have to struggle not to shake it off. “Tau Ois aperfectfit for you, man. We’re all Society-bound men who have the right credentials. The opportunities are endless.”

I am in no mood to be hard sold a frat quietly referred to as the ‘assault bros.’

“Look, dude. I know I’d be a huge get for you and whatever system they have to push you into recruiting would reward you. But I’m not interested inanyfrat. I’ve got enough on my plate. Besides, wouldn’t this whole ‘murder’ thing make your efforts worthless?”

Brock snorts, then throws his head back and laughs. “Hell, no. Tau men frequently have to defend their honor from haters andslutty bitches. We won’t judge you, man. I mean, that asshole was French, wasn’t he? Serves his cheese eating ass right.”

I have to stop walking to process the many, many things wrong with that little diatribe. There’s so much to unpack that I can’t even move while I’m trying to work out how in the hell anyone is supposed to respond to such blatant…. everything. Misogyny, xenophobia, psychopathy…I mean, Brock Slater hit the fucking trifecta of crazy in three damn sentences.

When my internal outrage is calm enough, I shake my head at the Sasquatch shifter. “Still gonna be a ‘no,’ man. As… interesting… as that sounds, I’m not available for partying and pledging. Between practice, meeting with my legal team, and school, I’m booked up.”

I do my best to smile at him, then turn on my heel to head towards the Beauregard Humanties building. Honestly, I want to put some distance between me and the mythical. I knew he was from the land of dueling banjos, but that was next level bullshit. The difference between his ‘offer’ and the thoughts I was having before it makes me even more adamant about convincing Nana to reallocate some shit. I don’t even fucking care if my name’s on it; I just want it done.

And I’m definitely telling Morgana about that goddamn frat.

My history teacher is a tedious,very monotone sloth shifter that is making me want to shoot myself in the eye. He’s beencovering what led to the time the humans call the Civil War era for forty minutes. It obviouslywasnot the cause they think—or at least, not exactly the cause they think. Nothing in our history is spot-on how the other biggest species on the planet describes it. Supes of all kinds have been working together to mask the magical world from them since time immemorial.

They definitely acted like super fuckwits during that time, but there was also a mass shifter enslavement as well because magic users are dicks. It spanned a lot more than just the US and the Society had its hands full quelling the kidnapping of shifter and mythicals. They were too damn busy saving our people to deal with the humans—who, of course, fucked everything up spectacularly.

Most kids learn this stuff in middle school, so I don’t know why Peabody is going over it with a fine-tooth comb.

“You will find out that my class is based on reconfirming the knowledge you should have been given in your lower form classes, then adding the mature context of adulthood to the situations we discuss.”

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