“If you figure that out, please let me know. I’m stuck in this constant tug-of-war between drop-kicking her and hugging her.”
Nia shook her head, handing it back. “She’s weird, but she’s not our biggest problem right now. The omegas are learning nothing in the revision classes because the alphas are so obnoxious, and everyone wants to know if the forum will be back on tonight.”
“The projector is still a hunk of burned, twisted metal, and I’ve tried ordering a new one online, but the company keeps mysteriously losing my order. We’re cooked.”
Nia gave me a pinched, tight-lipped look. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. Seeing me beaten by a busted projector and reclaimed popular table wasn’t giving the omegas much faith in me.
They wanted change, but they didn’t believe I could make it happen.
A sharp stab of pain went through my skull, making me cry out. The truth was it was a little hard to come up with a plan of attack against these assholes, when my brain was in the middle of liquefying and pouring out of a hole in my head. All week I’ve felt like I was fighting and clawing my way out of brain fog, or straining to keep my eyes open. The human me was beginning to feel as slow and sluggish as the wolf, and neither of those adjectives describes a leader of a revolution.
Even though I was pouring Nyx’s mom’s medicine down my throat like syrup on pancakes, it was getting less and less effective like Paxton feared, and with Nyx gone, I couldn’t contact her to find out if there was more I could do.
“Ugh,” I groaned, giving up on the food I wasn’t eating anyway. “I’ll figure this out, Nia, I promise. I just need to... lie down... for a minute and then...”
I might’ve been about to say more, but I had already pushed back from the table and trudged off. I made it to the door and reached for the handle.
“Oh, let me get that for you.”
He was already opening the door and throwing his arm around my shoulder before his voice rang the alarm bells.
“Get off me, Orion.”
“Don’t be like that. I’m just trying to help.” The man practically dragged me along after him, his grip on me was so firm. “Everyone can see you’re not feeling too well. Wouldn’t want our illustrious headmistress to fall on her face in front of everyone? How wond— embarrassing would that be?”
I growled at the obvious word slip. “Not as embarrassing as you strutting around like you own the place when we all know you’ll be back squatting over a prison toilet within the next week—crying and whining because all the mwean inmates keep laughing at your tiny peen.”
Orion busted up. “You always were quick with the comebacks, Volana. Clever enough, though they’re nothing but wrong.
“I won’t be going back to prison. Didn’t someone tell you? The secret police cleared me yesterday. Turns out, they’re on to another suspect.”
I didn’t react. “I wouldn’t celebrate just yet. You’ll be back in the frame after I tell them your motive. Of course you wanted Dagem dead after the part she played in what happened to your mother.”
Orion stumbled. Just the slightest hitch in his step, but I caught it with a vindictive glee that concerned even me. Constant, mind-numbing pain was bringing out my evil side, and Orion really didn’t want to meet her.
“She didn’t have anything to do with my mother,” he barked. “They weren’t even in the same clan! You never stop with your lies and manipulation, do you? You just keep stabbing blindly until you hit something. You don’t even care what. You—”
“Blah, blah, blah,” I carried on. “Before you accuse me of lying, why don’t you look up a picture of Corvin Academy’s graduating class of 1995, and see who’s standing beside Dagem with their arms around each other.” I smiled up at him and that deliciously dumbfounded expression. “Or not. I’m sure the secret police will show it to you the next time they haul you into the interrogation room.”
“Argh!” Grabbing my shoulders, Orion shoved me up against the wall. “Enough of this, if you know something about my mom—”
“—I wouldn’t tell you because you made your choice,” I sliced in. “You’d rather torture me than help her, and that right there says everything about who you are as a man.”
“Help her?” His fury crumbled. “What do you mean help her? She’s alive? She’s in trouble?” He shook me. “Tell me!”
“Join me.” I smiled serenely into his eyes—mostly because trying to work up stronger emotions made my head ache. “Help me take over Wolf Nation instead of sabotaging me, and I’ll give you exactly what you want.”
His orbs tinged gold. “Never.”
“Then you and I have nothing more to stay to each other.” I threw him off me. “Have a wonderful day, Orion, and thank you so much for guiding me and opening my doors. It’s good to know some people around here know how to treat their queen.”
His growls were kicking up a racket in my jangled head. I turned to leave, and got a split-second look at her ring-covered knuckles before they were flying at me.
Wham!
Pain exploded in my face. The force of the punch knocked me off my feet and dropped me flat on my ass. And Orion made zero effort to catch me.
“Oh my gods,” the blurry figure standing over me screamed. “Daciana, are you okay?”