Page 45 of Let Us Prey

Rufus morphs back to human first, plopping back down on the boards like nothing happened. “Shit, girl. I haven’t lost my cool like that for non-business reasons for months. You really have the damsel in distress thing on lock.”

The enormous bear heavily sits on its haunches next to me, leaning in to lick my hair. I blink. “Uh...”

“Don’t worry. It’ll take Coco a mo’. She’s not an alpha/pack leader/what have you. Shift control is much harder to learn when you’re not destined to take the throne. I, however, already look fabulous in a crown,” Rufus drawls, winking at me.

I turn to look at the polar bear, blinking again when she places a paw on my shoulder like she’s comforting me. “Ooookay. That's not weird at all.” We go back to paging through the books in silence, and after a few minutes, our curvy friend is back to normal. Of course, that’s when I realize they’re both naked and my eyes widen. “Um, guys… clothes?”

Cori laughs, her rainbow curls shaking as she clutches her chest. “You were definitely raised by weird shifters, Dolly. It’s perfectly normal for us to be naked after we shift. Most of us learned that the hard way as kids, when our parents hulked out and went ‘animal’ when we were bad.”

I feel like the dumbest person in the room.

Lucille and Bruno shift all the time—though usually what people here call ‘half-shift,’ so it never causes a clothing problem. Their control must be superb, which matches up with their claims of importance within their families. The Heathers never invited me over to their homes, so I have no baseline to judge other shifter households. My new friends are telling me full shifts and nudity are basically so normal they’re blasé, and I had no idea.

Hera, help me, I’ve been so sheltered I may never fit into this society—bunny or not.

Frowning, I wonder what other parts of ‘normal’ life I’ve missed, and how stupid I’m going to look as they get revealed. My confusion will be prime gossip material if the Heathers figure out I don’t have a clue what ‘real’ shifters do when they’re not in public.

“Dollface, whatever you’re sweating about, stop. Every clan, pack, or whatever does things differently. You don’t have to know everything right away—that’s what classes are for. The curriculum may be half-bullshit and half-reality, but you’ll figure it out. Stop making a face like Coco murdered your yappy dog.”

Great. Now they think I’m a cloistered little rich girl with a pocketYorkie.

So much for being a badass at Apex.

I sigh, reminding myself that Rufus and Cori are just looking out for me. “Thank you for sharing, but I’m really concerned the tiny sphere Lucille kept me in will hurt me. I don’t even know what things might get me in trouble.”

“Eh, we’ll help you learn. Besides, you can’t look any stupider than the dimwits you used to hang out with.They’re barely able to string five words together without their brains melting, and I heard they all joined the school paper yesterday,” Cori says, her eyes dancing with mirth. “Can you imagine? Trust me, Professor Cormac will not let them get away with whatever they have planned. That platypus is fierce.”

A giggle escapes before I know it. She might be a social justice warrior, but Cori can be as catty as the rest of us when she’s not in public. “I know! I was going to major in English first, so I visited the paper during my tour and her spurs were no joke. That’s why I used the office for the change of major form; I was afraid she’d come after me!”

What Cori doesn’t realize is Pink doesn’t need the school paper to spread rumors and lies—her father owns the legitimate news outlets and most of the social media platforms. She can spew her venom anytime, anywhere, without fear of reprisal. Their plans for the paper have to be Apex-specific, and I’m not sure what would warrant making it one of their extracurriculars. They can’t be cheer-monkeys because post-secondary Pred Games don’t have squads. Professional ones do, but none of the Heathers are good enough dancers or tumblers to get picked for that level of performance, no matter how much money their parents throw at the Leonidas family.

Why the school newspaper?What am I missing?

I look over at my friends, giving them a shrug. “It’s hard to predict what those girls are planning. They aren’t book smart, but their cunning lies in being raised to be so ruthlessly ambitious thatthey’ll do anything and everything to win. They don’t care if you’re not playing their games; their parents expect them to be victorious, so they willmakeyou play so you can lose. Their drive to prove they deserve their Council seats is completely ingrained in their personalities; hell, it mightbetheir personalities.”

“They don’t scare me a bit,” Rufus says, leaning back on his hands again. “They might play rich girl games, but in my family, the games aren’t so civilized. Let them show their hand. I won’t hesitate to show them how real gangsters operate.”

The toothy smirk would make me shiver if I wasn’t beginning to trust him. I don’t doubt that whatever his family does, Rufus is tattooed-neck deep in it. Still, I nibble my lip in concern. “If we’re waiting for them to make a move, what do you suggest we do in the meantime?”

“Maybe we should talk about why you think all of your professors hate you when five of them clearly want to chase your fluffy cottontail,” he replies. “Outside of Abel, the Asexual Asshole, you’ve got all the hotties trying to peek at your panties.”

“What?” I blurt. “Rufus!Don’t say that kind of stuff where people can hear. What if someone told them I’m crushing? It would be humiliating.”

Cori looks at us for a moment before dissolving into giggles. “Shit, Ruf, she doesn’t know!”

His head tilts as his smirk grows wider. “Oh, now that’s adorable! Dolly Bear thinks they’re being mean to her because they don’t like her.”

I smack my foot on the ground next to him. “They don’t! I mean, okay, except for Fitz—he’s clearly being a perv. A sweet perv, but a perv. You can’t possibly think Felix or Renard or Aubrey…?” They look at one another and burst into laughter again, making me crinkle my nose.

What in the hell is goddamn funny?

“Dollface, you don’t realize because you’re new here. Big kitty’s brother is known for being allergic to students—period. That he put you under Khan protection in front of the entire staff is shaking the grapevine something fierce.”

“And, and... " Cori cuts in excitedly. “The other two never let students call them anything but professor or… well, to be honest, people don’t call the librarian anything because he roars and kicks them out before they can open their mouths. His assistant handles everything because his temper is like…legendary.There’s never been a student aide that made it through their first week in the library. They always get kicked out with bellows and flames.”

What? Are they serious?

They have to be pulling my leg. I mean, yeah, the guys are all pretty stand-offish, but it’s not like I’ve worried they’re going to roast me or anything. And Felix probably said the Khan protection thing because Fitz would lose his shit if people messed with me. After I kicked Gold’s ass in the ring, her family might have bribed people to hurt me, and he knew that.

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