Stray: A Shifter Academy Romance (Cats of Felidae Academy Book 1)

by River Ramsey

  Now she was always going to wonder what he was about to say.

  “The headmaster has requested her presence in his office,” she said, glancing nervously between them.

  “Give us a moment,” said Mr. Bryant.

  The secretary seemed startled by the order, but she followed it nonetheless. Ella got the feeling that Sterling Bryant was not a man who was accustomed to being refused anything.

  When the secretary shut the door, she turned back to him, her heart racing with apprehension once more. He moved closer, and for a split second, she found herself wondering if he was going to proposition her. As absurd as it seemed, there was no mistaking the lust she’d seen earlier in his eyes. In fact, if she really looked, she could see a glimmer of it even now, simmering behind his cold intensity.

  “What is it?” Ella asked, her voice breathier and weaker than she had hoped.

  Mr. Bryant stopped just short of being close enough to trigger her instincts all over again. His mere presence was doing that enough as it was.

  “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” he began, his voice low and gentle. “If you want to leave this place, I know that Natalia would make arrangements for you. You don’t have to go back to the Hills.”

  His words took Ella by surprise. “But you said —”

  “Some things are more important than academics,” he answered. “If I knew you had settled for wasting your first time on someone you didn’t care about in a place like this, because of my words, I would never forgive myself.”

  She was left staring at him like a deer caught in the headlights. No one had ever said anything like that to her. Certainly not someone like him. And somehow, she could tell that he meant every word. It was a kind of knowing that just resonated deeply within her, unmistakable even though she scarcely understood it.

  “I want to stay,” she finally answered. “I can’t say this is how I thought it would happen, but… I don’t want to run away again. I just want to get through this, for me.”

  He watched her for another moment, as if trying to discern whether or not she was telling him the truth. He finally nodded. “In that case, we had better see what the headmaster has to say,” he said, opening the door.

  Ella followed him out, and she realized that that the hungry glances of the other toms they passed on the way were no longer at the forefront of her mind. Next to Sterling, she felt safe, no matter who was around. She felt safer than she ever had.

  Chapter 12

  Ella

  Ella had been sitting in the waiting room outside the headmaster’s office for the last hour and a half. To her absolute horror, she was just about the only person in that room who hadn’t been called in, including Natalia and Emily.

  Mr. Bryant was still in there with them, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. It was bizarre to have so many people discussing her own wellbeing without her, and there were several times when she wanted nothing more than to burst into the room and put an end to it.

  Of course, nothing was ever that simple where cats were concerned.

  All she could do was sit and wait. She looked down at her phone and saw the unread messages from Beatrice, who was dying to know how things at the Academy were going. She felt guilty for not responding, but she didn’t want to lie and wasn’t ready to get into everything that had transpired over the last few hours.

  Halfway through her texts, Ella realized one of them was from a number she didn’t recognize. Nonetheless, the sender seemed perfectly familiar with her.

  “Where the fuck are you? We need to talk”

  She frowned, tempted to ignore it, but she had gotten the phone pretty recently. What if it was urgent?

  “Sorry, I think you have the wrong number.”

  Dots appeared on the screen immediately.

  “Don’t bullshit me. It’s Axel.”

  Her heart plummeted in her chest. Axel? For once, she realized he’d been the furthest thing from her mind with everything else she’d had to deal with over the last day and a half. Now she was even more certain ignoring him was the best course of action, but another message appeared on her screen.

  “Where are you?”

  She scowled down at the phone. Even in text, he was a demanding asshole.

  No. Especially in text.

  Not that she’d even expected him to want to talk to her after she’d embarrassed him in the hallway. No matter how many times she told herself she’d done nothing wrong, and that he deserved all that and more, she couldn’t escape the guilt.

  Was this Stockholm syndrome? She wasn’t sure if it was even possible to feel that with someone who’d wanted her out of his life from the beginning, but she couldn’t think of anything else that fit, either.

  She finally decided to respond, if only because she had nothing better to do. And when she inevitably had to return home with him on break, she didn’t want it to be pure torture.

  “How did you even get this number?”

  He started responding immediately. At least in text, she knew he had to read what she’d said in order to have something to respond to, unlike in person.

  “It’s on your profile for the school portal,” he wrote back. She was both surprised he’d responded and annoyed that she’d given the school the number in the first place. The last thing she wanted was Axel having a direct line to harass her. “Where. Are. You.”

  “I can read. If I wanted to answer, I would have told you the first two times you asked.”

  She tapped her foot on the floor, waiting for him to respond. Her mouth twisted into a small smile. She’d never have the guts to say that to him in person, but after their encounter in the hall, she was feeling bold. It was a hell of a lot easier in text, too.

  He started typing, then stopped, then started again.

  “We can talk here,” she said, hurrying to send the message before he could say anything. “What do you want?”

  More typing. In fact, he typed for so long she was sure he was working on a way to jump through the screen and ream her out himself.

  “I just beat the shit out of Brad Long and I want to know if it was justified.”

  She blinked at the screen a few times, trying to make sense of the message. “What are you talking about?”

  “He said you were in heat and you went off to fuck that smugass professor Bryant.”

  As the realization set in, Ella felt her stomach churn. She could hear the voices in the conference room growing louder, which meant they had probably come to a decision, whatever the hell it was they were trying to decide in the first place. She hastily typed out a reply.

  “I don’t know what Brad is talking about. I’m not ‘fucking’ anyone.”

  Not yet, at least. Now she knew the name of one of those creeps from the hall, so that was something. Why Axel had cared to defend her honor, however, was beyond her ability to fathom.

  She immediately dismissed the assessment. He’d already made it clear he only wanted her now that she was of some practical use to him. He probably just wanted to defend his “claim.”

  If word was getting out about her heat, though, that could only spell trouble.

  Another text appeared on the screen, but before she could read it, the door opened. Ella quickly stashed her phone in the pocket of her blazer and stood as the headmaster came out, followed by Natalia, Emily, the doctor, and Sterling. Tessa was there, too, and Ella couldn’t hide her shock. Where had she come from?

  “Don’t just sit there staring at me like I’m a ghost,” Tessa said in a lightly scolding tone, her eyes glimmering with amusement. “There’s another door in the hall.”

  Ella felt like an idiot. At least now she knew the seemingly immortal priestess didn’t have the power of teleportation.

  She glanced Sterling’s way, afraid to linger for too long. He was unreadable, as usual. Emily, on the other hand…

  There was no mistaking the look on the woman’s face. Ella had seen it plenty of times be
fore. She was embarrassed, and flustered at having been put in her place, just as she’d been the night Tessa came to dinner.

  Ella found herself wondering how much of a shield her new status would really be now that the Matriarch’s ego had been bruised on her account.

  The worst part was, Axel was sure to get a detailed account of everything that had transpired within that boardroom, plus his mother’s dramatizations, no matter how much Ella herself kept from him. Her phone kept buzzing, and she realized he was trying to call her, but she flipped it on silent and ignored it.

  “What’s going on?” she asked before she lost the courage. It had been a long, exhausting day and it wasn’t even half over yet.

  “This is a rather unusual predicament, so I called in some people more qualified to give a second opinion,” the headmaster said stiffly, refusing to look directly at her. He was a surprisingly demure fellow for someone in his position. A cheetah shifter, if rumor was to be believed.

  “And of course, we wanted to get Emily’s explanation for how all this transpired,” Tessa said pointedly. There was no questioning the fact that it was a dig, and Emily’s glare turned icy in response.

  “As I explained earlier, I assumed this matter would be taken care of when she visited the Academy,” Emily answered. “That’s how things were done in my day.”

  “In your day, they were still using condoms made out of sheep intestines,” Tessa scoffed.

  Ella pursed her lips to fight the temptation to burst out laughing, and judging from the looks on the doctor’s and Natalia’s faces, they were having the same problem.

  “In any case, we’ve all come to the agreement that tradition can be bent slightly for the sake of practicality,” Natalia said, obviously trying to be the peacemaker. Ella could tell Emily was fuming nonetheless.

  The older Empress turned to Ella, her expression softening with sympathy. If anyone understood the pressure she was under, it was Natalia, even though Ella doubted the refined woman had ever been the subject of such a scandal.

  “Ella, dear, are you sure you want to stay here? Mr. Bryant and I were discussing the option of you coming to the family’s beach house. I’d be happy to stay with you. It’s quite remote, and well-guarded, so there’s no need to worry about safety.”

  Ella felt her horror at the whole situation mingling with the fact that she was strangely touched by the Empress’ offer. She still couldn’t understand why Natalia was so kind to her. Her whole family, for that matter. And the fact that Mr. Bryant was the one who’d brought it up just made her more confident that he was unlike the others. Even the other members of the faculty.

  The effect he exerted on her heart, among other things, was certainly novel enough.

  “Thank you. I appreciate the offer more than I can say,” she answered, choosing her words carefully. She glanced Emily’s way, and for the moment, she seemed to have calmed down. If anything, she seemed almost as eager to leave the horribly awkward situation as Ella was. “But I’m already so far behind. I know there’s no hope of ever catching up if I leave now.”

  “That brings me to my next question,” Natalia said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. It was obvious she was uncomfortable about whatever subject matter lay ahead of her, but she began to scan the crowd around her pointedly.

  Ella wasn’t sure what she was getting at, but Sterling seemed to understand. He quickly sidestepped the others. “I believe this sort of thing should be left for the queens to sort out amongst themselves, gentlemen.”

  Ella didn’t miss the fact that he took the long way around just to avoid brushing into her. It made her heart ache, which made her feel even more foolish.

  He was just trying to be proper. She knew that, and yet, the idea that she disgusted him was constantly in the back of her mind, teasing and taunting.

  Surely she had imagined the lust in his gaze before. Why on earth would he feel that way toward her? Not only was she his student, but a stray as well. The man was the epitome of good breeding, and even being the Empress wouldn’t be enough incentive to mix his prestigious line with such commonness.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” the headmaster said, clearly relieved for the excuse to leave, even though it was his office. He seemed to realize that as he was halfway through the door. “Take your time. I’ll be in the cafe if you need me.”

  Ella watched as the males filed out, but she was far from comfortable in Emily’s company. She turned back toward the others, waiting expectantly for whatever it was that Natalia didn’t feel comfortable sharing in front of the men.

  “If that’s your choice, then there are a few things we need to discuss,” Natalia said, only slightly more at ease than she’d been earlier. “Namely, whom you’ll be taking as consorts to tend to your heat.”

  Ella’s cheeks grew red hot once more. “I’m allowed to choose?”

  “Of course,” said Tessa, slipping a small package from the pocket of her robes. “Before we had implants, it was standard for a queen entering her first heat to choose two to four males to help her through the heat, and then choose one or more of them as her mates. She would typically bond with each of them, and from that point on, they would be considered mated.”

  Ella’s eyes widened as the priestess spoke. Emily gave a derisive scoff, making it clear what she thought of the antiquated practice.

  “Pride law has changed since then,” Tessa said, ignoring her. “Given the nature of the marking process, it was deemed more responsible to have a queen choose her mate or mates first, prior to mating. That’s why we have the implant in the first place.”

  She cast another seething glance in Emily’s direction, which the other queen pretended not to see.

  “Be that as it may, the current circumstances warrant an exception,” Natalia said gently. “No one expects you to choose your life mate right now, and following tradition isn’t worth rushing into something with such dire consequences. However, the old ways provide something of a template to go off of.”

  Tessa opened the small package in her hand, and inside of it were three silver rings. The bands were too thick to be for a woman, and there were engravings on the surface that looked like runes. She handed the rings to Ella, and the featherlight pieces of metal felt like massive stones in her palms.

  “The practice is to give each of these to a male you choose to be intimate with,” said Tessa.

  “But these look like… Engagement rings,” Ella blurted out.

  The priestess chuckled. “In a sense, they are. At least, that’s what they used to mean. In your case, it isn’t the binding agreement it once was, as long as you don’t choose to bond with any of them.”

  “And I have to choose three?” Ella asked, doubting that she could find three males in school willing to have a conversation with her, let alone wear one of those rings.

  “Not at all,” Tessa answered. “Technically, you could choose one if you liked, but it’s rare for that to be enough to end a first heat.”

  Ella gulped. This was all so new, so much information to take in. Here she was, never even having had a boyfriend, or anything resembling a real relationship, and she was expected to do something like this.

  “I know it’s overwhelming,” Natalia said sympathetically. “It’s alright if you have questions.”

  She did. Plenty of them, but most weren’t anything she felt comfortable voicing out loud. Certainly not in front of Emily.

  “What if he doesn’t accept it?” she finally asked. It was the foremost question on her mind, the one that seemed like it would have the most devastating of an impact.

  Not only was it humiliating enough to have to ask something like this of a male she barely knew, but there was no guarantee he would even want to participate.

  How was she supposed to attend class every day with someone who had seen her in such a vulnerable, compromising position?

  It didn’t help that her mind immediately sprang up with three promising candidates. At least by her inner
cat’s standards. For two things that were so integral to the life of a feline shifter, instinct and custom always seemed to be in direct opposition to each other.

  “Don’t be absurd,” Emily snapped. It seemed she was too flustered to hold onto her veneer of motherly kindness any longer. “The obvious choice is Axel. It’s only a matter of time before they’re mated anyway.”

  Ella was surprised to hear her speaking so candidly. This was certainly the first time Emily had even hinted that she would support such a union, and Ella knew for a fact that she would’ve been adamantly opposed to it before, even if by some wild turn of events Axel had taken an interest in her back then.

  She figured it had at least crossed the Matriarch’s mind, considering how differently she had treated Ella since finding out she was the future Empress, but to hear her say it out loud was bizarre.

  Ella had spent so long pining for Axel that she had never really given any thought to how strange it would be if things were ever to blossom into romance between them. After all, they had known each other nearly their entire lives. They had shared a home, even though their worlds were as far apart as two people’s could be.

  In fact, Emily’s suggestion was so decisive that Ella couldn’t help but wonder if she and Axel had discussed it in advance. Considering that she was his mother, the flippant nature with which she broached the subject was more unnerving than anything.

  Natalia gave her a disgusted look, but Tessa was the first to respond.

  “My, that’s a change of tune,” she remarked. “Especially considering that you told me you would never consider allowing a stray to be your precious son’s second, let alone his mate.”

  Ella stared at both women in disbelief. It took a moment to process what Tessa had just said, and she thought back to that night at dinner. It was one of the most awkward nights of her life, but there had been so many moments since then that it was hard to keep track. Emily looked like she had seen a ghost, which suggested the priestess’s words were true.