Page 10 of Wings of Ashes
Bael fucking hated enchantresses.Lie to my face to get what you want, and I’ll cut your tongue out, baby.
Meanwhile, the stoic and grumpy dragon shifter, Ryker, who Bael had claimed as his only friend at the academy, appeared to be falling for Blondie’s act.Pityingher.
Each time she accidentally hurt herself on rocks or fallen branches in the forest, Ryker’s lips thinned, his jaw clenched, and he looked ready to attack the inanimate objects for getting in her way.
The grunting, unimpressed-by-everyoneRykerpitied her. Ryker had never pitied anyone more than himself.
Bael cursed when Nix slimly avoided tripping over thick, risen tree roots. “The bird is slowing us down, Mara,” Bael said.
“My name is Nix,” the platinum blonde grumbled under her breath.
“Your complaints aren’t making us any faster, Bael,” Mara shot back.
The only reason Bael had allowed Mara to join their little group was because Professor Bowen said a class group had to have a minimum of three. Mara was the least aggravating of the rest of their classmates.
Bael asked her, “Did you think this through at all before you claimed a clumsy, accident-prone cygnus for our group? Or was your brain consumed with thoughts of ‘another woman, rah rah, the sisterhood, rah rah’ when you volunteered for our group to take her?”
A rock collided with the back of Bael’s head. “Fuck!” He rubbed at the spot where she attempted to pierce his skull.
Mara shrugged and dusted off her rock-throwing hand. Okay, fine, he still liked Mara.
“You just want to sleep with her,” Bael remarked to his lesbian friend. “Admit it. The ‘help me’ act gets you going.”
Mara rolled her eyes and said pointedly, “I’mnot the one who wants to sleep with her.”
Bael frowned. “Why did you emphasize that word? It implies someone else here wants to sleep with her.”
“Excuse me, hi, hello, I do in fact have ears,” Nix said. “And I am not sleeping withanyone.”
“No wonder you seem so pent up,” Bael said.
“Excuse me?”
“I can smell it,” Bael sneered at her. “You ever try an orgasm in the morning to take the edge off?”
Nix gaped at him.Not the usual way women open their mouths for me, Bael thought to himself.
“Sort this out between yourselves,” Mara said, turning to walk further into the forest, away from them. “Ryker and I are going to keep looking for the ingredients.”
Mara and Ryker disappeared behind the trees and went back to looking for yarrow, mugwort, and sage.
Nix crossed her arms and glared at Bael.
Her glare was adorable. Enticing. Tempting.That suckable pouting lower lip… But the longer he stared at her face, the blurrier it got, appearing almost distorted.
Aspell.
“What’s wrong with your face?” Bael bluntly asked her with a straight face.
Nix’s simmering rage, a rage that maybe she thought she kept hidden—but Bael could practically see angry steam pouring out of her pores—blazed. “What?”
“Your face,” Bael replied plainly. “There is something wrong with it. Why?”
“Fuck you!”
Bael blinked at her curse word. It was so unlike a cygnus shifter to curse… They did not do anything “unladylike.” Bael preferred his women to curse as much as they fucking wanted.
“Don’t they teach you better manners when speaking with alphas?” He snorted. “Isn’t there an entire class on how to ‘please’ us that you all take?” How would Nix try to “please” him?
