Page 20 of Moon Kissed

“Why is he in the alpha track in the first place?”

“Why are you?” she shot back.

I laughed. “Touché.” I dropped the conversation. There was no such thing as a whisper in a room full of wolves. I didn’t need my fates thinking I was overly interested in any one of them. “So what’s good here?”

Nia shrugged. “Everything they served us yesterday was pretty yummy, but it’s my first year too.”

“It is? So why did Dagem hand me off to you?”

“We’re in the same clan.” Nia was conversing with me so easily, one could almost believe she was becoming comfortable with me. But that would mean one missed that her chair and feet were pointed away from the table—in case she needed to make a quick getaway. “She already knew you couldn’t hurt me.”

“But I thought omegas were allowed to enter the academy at sixteen?”

“We can and most do,” she replied, “but my folks were killed by vampires when I was seven. I had to look after my younger brothers, so I couldn’t join until Jason was sixteen and we could all enter together.”

I nodded. “Sorry about your folks. That’s rough.”

She gave me a look I didn’t understand. “Are you really sorry? Or are you just parroting the appropriate response?”

“Wow. Someone read a book on psychopaths last night.”

“So what if I did?” Her eyes were hard. “I don’t like pity, but I hate fake pity even more. If you don’t mean it, don’t bother.”

My expression didn’t change. “My mother was killed by vampires, Nia. I don’t have to fake it. I know exactly what it’s like when a soul-sucking leech takes away one of the few people who ever loved you for you. It’s not an emotion that can be faked, so you don’t have to ask me if I’m being real. You already know.”

Nia looked at me for a long time. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t disagree with me either.

A wave of noise shattered the awkward tension. I peered over my shoulder as another wave of students strolled into the mess hall. One of them looked right at us.

“Nia! Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you’re here!” A tall, gangly girl with thick dreads and a rainbow top came running.

Nia popped off the seat and jumped into her hug—the both of them squealing and giggling like the super summer slumber party had officially started.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Nia said. “I didn’t see you at orientation yesterday.”

“Got in late,” the newcomer replied. “Went straight to my dorm and crashed.”

“But what’s this?” Nia looked around. “Why are the omega and beta classes here?”

“A notice was posted in the dorm hall. Didn’t you see it?”

Nia shook her head.

“New rules,” Newcomer said. “Classes are still split, but everything else—mealtimes, events, and sports—are mixed from now on. Something about a security risk and us needing to be together and in groups as much as possible.”

I heaved a sigh. What did Dagem think I was going to do? Hunt down a limping straggler who stayed too late in the library? I wasn’t a fricking serial killer. I mean, well—not yet.

“What were you doing in here if you didn’t know that?” Newcomer continued. “And who’s that you’re sitting with?”

“Tracy,” Nia hissed. “Shh.”

“What? What’s wrong? Is she your new girlfriend or something? Because I told you, we’re good. I’m over you ripping out my sister’s heart and eating it whole.”

“It wasn’t like that!” Nia sputtered while I smothered a laugh.

Nia the heartbreaker. Who knew? Maybe no one can hurt her, but that’s not stopping her from devouring hearts.

“We just didn’t work out and— Wait, no, she’s not my girlfriend!”

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