Page 92 of Wings of Ashes
36
CHAPTER
“Thisis where you live?” Thierry criticized as they entered the off-campus house.
Blankets and shirts were strewn about the floor of the living room, but it was not as unclean as human males in their twenties kept their living spaces. There were no crumbs on the couch, after all.
Hating the stereotypes about dragon shifters being messy, violent slobs and meatheads, Ryker always ate with slow precision.
His father had warned Ryker before he left for the academy, “Do not give them any reason to believe you the villain they’ve painted all of us.” And of course, the loudest speaker of anti-dragon shifter propaganda was Nix Oadess’s father. The council president.
“Try soundinglessjealous,” Bael said sarcastically.
“Why do you not live on campus?” Thierry asked.
Tuning out the others, Ryker watched Nix’s beautiful face as she walked around the small living room. Ryker wanted to know whatshethought of it.
“As if the dean would allow an incubus to sleep under the same roof as other precious, innocent shifters,” Bael said.
Thierry’s nose scrunched, and he pushed his glasses higher on his nose. “He refused you housing due to yourspecies?” Thierry asked, alarmed at the disturbing fact. “That’s against—”
“The dean thinks he can do whatever he wants.” Bael shrugged.
“You’re okay with it?”
Bael smiled sinisterly. “I know where he’ll be in a few years.” He pointed down. Hell.
“You expect the dean to die in a few years? You can’t know that.”
“Oh, there are rumblings down below of a lot of upcoming changes, Stoney.”
“Do not call me ‘Stoney.’”
“Why not?”
“It’s disrespectful,” Thierry grated.
“To stones?”
Ryker stepped over to where Nix examined the photo sitting on the side table. The photo depicted Ryker, his parents, and his seven brothers, all smiling at the camera. It was taken a few years before they had faced their worst tragedy.
“Place is…okay?” Ryker grunted to Nix. He was still getting used to needing to speak aloud instead of telepathically like the dragon clan did.
“You have a big family,” Nix said, touching the picture frame. “Must be nice.”
“More to lose,” Ryker said lowly, pain practically leaking from each syllable.
Nix glanced up with furrowed eyebrows of concern. “What do you mean—”
“Shower?” Ryker asked, trying to change the subject from his family issues. With Nix’s questionable history of losing herparents to dragons, Ryker did not want to dwell on what non-dragons had done to his family.
“Yes, please. I, uh, will also need a change of clothes.”
Ryker nodded. He would find something for her, even if he had to wash and shrink some of his own clothes so they did not slip right off of her. Hell, one of Ryker’s shirts might cover her to her knees.
He gestured for her to follow him up the stairs, and she did.Does she trust me? Could she?Ryker wondered to himself. Over the last few days, Ryker had replayed the way she recoiled from him when she first learned he was a dragon shifter.
“Hey,” Bael exclaimed, rushing toward the stairs. “You are not getting her naked without me.”
