Page 21 of Defiant Princess

“It matters to him. Because he’s got it bad for you,” she says, giving my arm a soft squeeze. “He was already on his way into the woods when I was running out. Almost like he knew you were in trouble.”

I exhale. “I’m always in trouble lately so it was probably just a good guess. And he doesn’t have it bad for me, we just…have history. Weird history.”

“Weird history like how?” she asks. “Like he was in love with you when you were still underage and it got kinky when it shouldn’t have and now it’s weird between you two, even though you’re full ass grown?”

I shake my head, shooting her an incredulous look. “Um, no. Not at all. Not even close. Why would you think that?”

She shrugs with a little grin. “Just guessing. I’m getting a strong off-limits vibe with you two. I’m not psychic or anything, but I’m notnotpsychic, if you know what I’m saying. I get feelings. They’re vague a lot of the time, but they’re almost never wrong.”

Great. An almost psychic roommate. Like keeping secrets wasn’t hard enough for me already.

“But you don’t have to talk about it,” she says. “And I won’t pry if you don’t want me to.”

“I don’t,” I say gently, but firmly. “I just want to get this implant out, learn how to shift, and get ready for the trials. Personal stuff can wait.”

“It can. Itdoesn’talways,” she says, watching Diana zoom into our room through the open window, “but I hope for your sake all stays quiet on the interpersonal front.” She shifts a worried look my way. “You think those two in the woods are going to do like Alexander said and leave us alone?”

For a second, I consider lying to her, just to ease her mind. But Layla isn’t stupid, and I need to save my meager lying skills for when it really counts. “Not a chance. But I’ll watch your back.”

“And I’ll watch yours,” Layla says, casting a glance over our shoulders before adding in a more chipper voice. “But at least they can’t fuck with us at a party with the entire staff and all the counselors around. Tonight, we get to relax and have fun.”

“Fun,” I agree, though I’m not sure I even know what that is anymore.

Maybe tonight I’ll find out.

nine

FORD

By the timeI finish a five-mile, head-clearing run, grab a shower in the now mostly empty dorm, and head to the far edge of the lawn, the luau is already in full swing.

There, dozens of tables covered in white cloth and decorated with exotic flowers sit in a circle of flickering tiki torches. On a portable stage at the front, a band in aloha print shirts plays slack guitar and a woman with a beautiful round voice sings in a language that colonizers did their best to wipe out. The Hawaiian language was forbidden in schools for nearly a hundred years and on the verge of extinction at one point, but they refused to let their culture die.

We can do the same thing here at Lost Moon. We can fight to keep this an inclusive place, where Variants are welcome and protected, and dicks like Beck and Ferris are held accountable.

Or, at least, Alexander believes that’s still possible.

This afternoon, he told me that as early as five years ago, when his older brother graduated, people like Beck were very much the exception, not the rule. But he also said the shift in the culture seemed to coincide with the new president taking over a year later.

Before that, Coralie was the dean of the science department, and allegedly a fairly boring figure. After she became president, she was the one who started allowing legacy students to apply. For the first time in Lost Moon history, a student didn’t have to be a pack reject or in some kind of desperate trouble to gain admission. They could simply be the child or grandchild of someone who’d attended in the past.

Alexander thinks that’s the single biggest contributing factor to the rapid change in culture, and that if acceptance practices went back to the way they were before, so would Lost Moon.

I’m not so sure I agree—the shifter world outside Lost Moon’s walls is changing, too, growing more violent and divided than it’s been in decades. I felt that even before I learned about the Parallel and the criminal shifter elements taking over cities in an alternate dimension.

For whatever reason, we’re at an inflection point in our history, a place where things are going to change rapidly. They could get better, or they could get much worse. It all depends on what people are willing to tolerate, and what they’re willing to fight for.

I know what I’ll be fighting for…

My gaze lands on Juliet instantly, locking on her in the crowd of hundreds even though she’s wearing a simple blue sundress and flats. She barely reaches the shoulders of most of the students milling around under the tiki torches, sipping drinks out of hollowed-out pineapples, and making get-to-know-you chitchat. She might not stand out in a crowd to anyone else, but to me she shines.

And Beck almost raped her today.

He and Ferris both.

Every time I think about it, I taste blood and the urge to rip those shit stains apart becomes almost unmanageable. That’s why I went for the run. But as I see the two of them laughing near one side of the stage, like this afternoon never happened, I wish I’d run twice as far and three times as fast.

Pretending to be buddy-buddy with those pieces of human garbage was going to be hard enough before they put hands on Juliet. Now, it might very well be impossible.

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