Page 11 of Come Out & Prey

Hell, if it did, I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have been able to hold back on losing my V-card.

No, I know I’ve never felt like this before, even the time that Silver swiped the password to her older brother’s PredHubaccount and we spent all night watching porn. It was a useful learning experience regarding other methods of calming my hormones, so it wasn’t a complete write off.

Talk about things you have to hide in the least likely place that anyone in your nosy ass household would ever look—my vibrator is stashed where even the Council’s investigators couldn’t find it.

When I finally catch my breath, I notice that I’ve walked all the way around the building and past the large copse of trees surrounding the shifter training area. Shivering, I wrap my arms around myself. I shouldn’t have wondered about my animal earlier. Without fail, worry about what pred I’ll be and if it will please my father sends me into a panic spiral. I wish I could say that it won’t matter, but deep in my bones, I know that isn’t true.

If I’m not dominant in every way, Bruno is going to arrange for something horrible to happen to me; I just know it.

I stop for a moment, pulling the map out to study it. It wouldn’t hurt to veer over and take a peek at where they will train us. Maybe it will ease my fears a little? That’s not likely, but it’s the excuse I used to assuage my curiosity about how Apex shifters master their forms.

As I approach the area delineated on the map, I hear loud noises coming from the clearing. They sound like grunts, snarls, and growls, but not the... kind I saw earlier. This sounds like fighting between several shifters. I pause, wondering if I’m asking for trouble by spying on whoever is having a lesson or one hell of a brawl. My foot lands on a branch, the soft crack making my entire frame tense—well, if they heard me, I’m screwed.

That’s all there is to it.

My breathing resumes when I hear the battle sounds continue, and I creep forward to peek through the heavy bushes that fill the tree line. The fighting ring is an enormous carved stone with sigils and runes on it, and there are bleachers surrounding the circle, set up in the grass. They clearly use this as both a classroom and an arena, though I’m uncertain why they would need the second application here. On the opposite side of the clearing from me, I see a huge carved stone mountain that confirms this space as ‘The Khan Ambush Battle Training Arena.’

I study the three shifters in the ring. Ignoring the forest for the trees, that’s me every time. The earth shaking roars are coming from an enormous lion in half-shifted form—it’s a female and a pretty aggressive one. Growls of frustration are escaping from a fully shifted black bear that seems to bide her time.

The most infuriated snarls are coming from the enormous orange Bengal tiger facing the two of them. He’s fully shifted, his fangs stained with blood, and there are surface wounds dripping onto the stone beneath his massive paws. He’s eyeing the bear, and I don’t know enough about pred instincts to say for certain, but I think he’s considering taking that one out of the fight first. The tiger throws his head back and roars into the sky, the sound both threatening and mournful at the same time.

I hope this school doesn’t allow death matches onsite.

My father goes to that sort of thing on Thursday nights while Lucille is off banging her golf instructor—I mean, taking lessons. Neither of them know that I’ve followed them occasionally to see just what the hell they are up to and how it might affect me later on. I’ll never forget the cage matches until the day I die. Those Khan thugs probably run that horror show, too. They use DeathIsland as a base for their operations, but their influence is felt all over the world.

A breath catches on my throat as the cat suddenly leaps at the bear, fiercely knocking the larger shifter to the ground. The lumbering bear bats its giant paws at the tiger, trying to knock it aside. Turning to look at the lion, I notice she’s now fully shifted, prowling along the outer circle with narrowed eyes. She’s looking for an opening, and if either of the two furry combatants on the ground give it to her, she’ll strike. As if he can hear me thinking, the big feline lifts his head, snapping his jaws in the lioness's direction threateningly.

Seems like he wants her to wait her turn.

Something very troubling occurs to me and I put my hand on my chest. My heart is racing, and though I don’t have an inner animal yet, I’ve heard stories about how preds frequently use fighting as foreplay. Did I just stumble upon another teacher hump session in progress? I barely made it through the last incident without embarrassing myself; I don’t know if I can do that again. I mean, I assume its professors because students are clearly in class throughout the campus, and I’m uncertain if they’re allowed to... co-mingle that way.

My thoughts flash back to the professor in the art room, and I close my eyes as I try to control my reaction. Even after being separated from both him and the location it took place in, I’m still transfixed by the memory of the intimacy and the reaction of my body.

Being a teenager sucks big hairy goat balls.

“Submit!”

The snarled command brings me back to reality, and I look over at the arena in shock. While I was reminiscing about my tryst, the tiger tapped the black bear out and is standing on top of the lioness. His massive paws hold her shoulders to the ground, and his dark eyes glare down at her as she... That doesnotlook like struggling. Oh, that saucy minx is trying to use this battle to turn the cat on. The bear might be as well, because she’s licking blood off her paw about as slowly as one can without looking like a goddamned psycho.

Scratch that, she definitely looks like a psycho—a big-assed furry bear psycho.

“Zhenga, I’ve told you more times than I care to count that I am no longer interested in your... kitty,” the tiger says as he seamlessly transforms into a human again with a look of pure disgust. “Find someone new to lap your cream.”

Frustrated roars echo out of both of the female shifters as they shift from animal to half-form to human. Their shifts are not even close to mastery like the large feline has, and they both pout while he pulls his clothes on. I’m also staring because I’m suddenly head to head with a man who looks eerily similar to the other half of the hottie duo I saw humping in the library.

I say head to head because his cock is so large it’s practically poking me from where I’m hiding in the bush. Dragging my gaze above his waist, I realize he has to be related to Chess’ dominating top. His thick, obsidian hair is cut short compared to the other man's long and wild hair, but they have the same square jaw, olive-toned skin, and dangerously dark eyes. They may even be twins, which, of course, sends a bolt of lust to my pussy like a road flare on the desperation highway.

I don’t know what they’re feeding the professors in the dining hall, but the Silver’s family should package it and make another fortune off it. The diet the cooks are feeding these guys should be sold in bulk. Out of the three male professors I’ve seen today, no one isn’t drool-worthy, and if I’m honest, the females aren’t bad looking either. The only exception is my poison-wielding English chair and her cohort, the giant bulldog bat.

These chicks must teach something physically intensive. They’re both much younger and clearly fitter than the geriatrics in the English department.

Using the angry snarling now emanating from the center of the ring as my cue to escape, I slip away from my hideout in the bushes. Heading east towards the lake, I tuck the map in my bag and prepare for the scolding Gold will give me for how long I’ve been gone.

Maybe I should have let the scary tiger dude catch me watching. I could use some lessons in self-defense.

Halfway around theback edge of the lake, I stop to peer at the water shifters in awe. I said I didn’t want to emerge as one of them, and that is definitely true. However, no one can deny how beautiful the orcas look, leaping through the air as they chase one another. A pod of leopard seals is busy sunning themselves on the shore, and a herd of sea lions are making a fuss near the dock. Squinting, I walk closer to the edge of the lake, holding my hand up to shade my view more.

I’ll be a mangy hyena shifter. If I hadn't seen this with my own eyes, I’d never have believed it to be true.

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