by Rae Foxx
“I feel like it’s my first day all over again,” I said, waving to an openly gossiping pair as Scarlet and I made our way to our last class. “Except Howl’s shirt is Mongolian barbeque free.”
Howl chuckled and looked down at his uniform, as worried about it as I was my phantom toilet paper. “I almost forgot about that.”
“You almost forgot that I took my shirt off in front of everyone and tried to clean you off in a yellow-stained bra?”
“I have better memories to take its place,” Howl said in that dark swoony voice, his jaw scratching against my neck as he whispered in my ear, biting at my earlobe.
I both jumped and shivered simultaneously, the resulting motion making me look like I was batting away a fly while spilling the books I was carrying all over the floor.
Yep, first day all over again.
‘At least you are wearing a shirt,’ Howl whispered into my mind, quickly gathering my books for me. ‘Although I think we should remedy that later.’
“You would,” I teased, grabbing the books from him.
“No, little wolf, I will.” I rolled my eyes at him. The air was dripping with his pheromones. If I focused on it too much I had a feeling we wouldn’t be making it to our last class of the day.
Besides, he had to wait. I already had plans with Saxon.
I had to finish my homework first, but the idea of those fangs…
“Are you guys quite done?” Scarlet grumbled, pulling me out of my would-be fantasy as she shifted her weight, dodging the gaze of yet another pair of gossiping students.
“Hi! I’m Ivy! How are you?” I said in full voice, waving frantically and sending them scattering. Howl chuckled darkly as he threw his arm over my shoulder, Scarlet falling back into place beside us, thankfully less pink than before.
“That may not be the best idea,” Scarlet said, her voice dropping as we turned into a much emptier hall. “Some girl in my last class was trying to convince everyone that you tried to choke Selene to death. Someone else was insistent that I shifted into a raccoon when no one else did and was trying to claw someone’s eyes out. I’m not even a raccoon. Besides, foxes and raccoons aren’t even close, but I don’t care. They all think we are fierce as fuck. So I have no plans on telling them otherwise.”
She grinned, a little bit more of my best friend’s shyness melting away.
Damn. One fight and we had somehow turned into legends. I was with Scarlet, trying to correct all of these outrageous stories were going to get us nowhere.
Besides, it would always be cool to be a bad-ass.
I waved to the members of Pater’s and Jackson’s pack, the two girls instantly turning their noses up and stomping away like toddlers. Every one of the losers I had seen had done the same thing--stared, scowled, and stomped away.
Guess they were pussies in more than one way.
Which would make sense why I hadn’t seen any of them in my classes so far. We had even learned about shifter cloaking earlier, which was more like army level camouflage, but still cool.
They were clearly missing out.
As we turned into our final class of the day, Selene stomped past, her eyes the slits of her wolf as she glared at us. Those big red scars were still torn down her face, but now she was sporting some bruises around one of her eyes and a few around her neck.
No wonder everyone thought I had tried to choke her out.
“Hi, Selene,” I said, unable to help myself as I threw the biggest shit-eating grin her way. “Looking good.”
She winced as she smiled back at me, “Enjoy it now, little bastard, your time is about to come to an end.”
“You a prophet now?” I scoffed, trying not to laugh. “You lost, remember?” I gestured to her eye and she flinched away as if I was going to punch her again. “Clearly, I made an impact.”
“Are we calling that a win?” She stepped closer. “I saw the nets move. Everyone else saw the nets move. I have a feeling that win wasn’t your own, half-breed.”
I flinched, Howl’s hand against my back the only thing that kept me from getting whiplash.
“I know where you belong, Ivy. I know what you really are.” She smiled, stepping closer before ripping herself away and strutting down the hall, waving behind her. “Don’t forget that!”
I was shaking I was so mad. My wolf was growling as she pressed against bones and skin in an attempt to rip herself back into being and destroy Selene and her smug face.
But I couldn’t move, her words had frozen me as much as they had enraged me.
She knew.
They all knew.
I had known at the time that’s why they were all there, but to have it confirmed made the entire win feel tarnished somehow.
‘Don’t let her take that win from you,’ Howl whispered, leading me into the room and to our seats at the back, Scarlet on our heels like some kind of bodyguard.
‘I’m letting her fuel my fire,’ I snarled as I sunk into my desk, Scarlet still glancing around the room before she followed suit.
‘Good. Because I have a feeling we are going to need that sooner rather than later.’
‘Ya think?’
I rolled my eyes as I sunk further into my seat, letting the professor's lecture run over the room as a folded piece of paper appeared on my desk.
Finn.
Sometimes I thought he could read my mind as well as Howl could. These little love notes would appear on my desk at the best times, innuendos and love notes scrawled over the surface.
Today’s was: ‘Saxon and I have something big planned for tonight. Don’t be late.’
My stomach immediately gave a swoop. I scrawled something back, ready to try magic trick number two that Finn had been working with me on.
Teleportation of physical objects.
‘Simple magic,’ he said. It’s a good thing the guy owned a part of my heart or he might get punched for that.
Controlling fire magic while being sexually aroused in the middle of the forest was easier than this.
After a few weeks of working on this, not once had they made it back to him. Somewhere there was a pile of love notes that had never made it back to Finn. Who knew where they ended up, an abandoned hallway in the school, Antarctica, Nicky’s desk?
The last one made me cringe. I quickly crossed out the crude drawing I had been adding to my note.
Glancing up as the teacher paused, I placed my hand over the paper and acted like I had been paying attention the whole time and put all my focus on Finn or Saxon. I didn’t care which one it made it too, as long as it wasn’t Nicky.
“So, class,” Professor Saenger said as he continued his trek up and down the aisles. “If you get hurt in the mortal world and heal quickly, won’t they notice? What do you do?”
He pointed to Owen for an answer, which was good because I was so hyper focused on Finn and Saxon and this damn piece of paper that Howl was giving me a very concerned look.
‘Are you trying to lay an egg?’ he asked. I nearly lost it, my hand slipping as I face-planted into the desk, the sound so loud that everyone turned, more than one person laughing.
“Well, on that note,” Owen said, he wasn’t even trying to restrain his laughter. “Don’t get your face smashed in--simple as that.”
Everyone laughed. I peeled myself off my desk, sure I had a red mark on my forehead with how much it was aching.
“I would second not smashing your face in,” I grinned through the pain, rubbing my head. “I have it on good authority it will have the opposite effect.”
“Just like leaving your red bra hanging out like the trailer trash you are?” A girl I didn’t know spat from the other side of the room, the room flip-flopping as my pack silenced and hers exploded in riotous laughter.
I was one step away from hurling myself across the room, but Howl beat me to it, his desk falling to the ground as he jumped up. He was two steps away from the still laughing girl when Saenger stepped between the two, hand on Howl’s chest.
“Sit down,” he snarled, his own shifter clear in his eyes. “We won’t be having a rematch in my class. You won’t find yourself with the same advantages, Howl.”
Saenger’s said his name as though it was laced with poison. I sunk into my chair. With Danvers in my pack, I should have been quicker to piece one vital bit of information together.
The teachers were shifters too. The teachers were members of a pack. Only Danvers was a member of mine.
“Shit,” I mumbled as Saenger’s turned on me, giving me a smile that was not really appropriate for an old-man teacher with hair flying out of his ears.
“Now, answer the question, how would you disguise yourself amongst the morts.” Clearly, this one was mine with how he was looking at me.
“Hide out.” I was snarling. I doubt I could control it if I tried. My wolf hated the look he was giving me as much as I did.
“That could work. For those of you who didn’t spend your life hiding with the white trash…” more snickers.
‘Do you think anyone would notice if I sent a desk into his head?’ Because I really wanted to send a desk into his head.
‘Calm, little wolf.’
I knew I should, but I didn’t stop myself from growling. I had to let something out before the heat in my hands caught the old man’s pants on fire. That wouldn’t go over well; no one wanted to see burned, old-man dick.
“For those of you who are smart enough to seek out others of your kind,” Saenger’s continued once the laughter died down. “How can you tell if there is another supernatural in your vicinity? For shifters, this is quite easy, correct?”
Saenger’s turned from me to Scarlet. He was clearly going to spend the rest of the class picking on me and my pack. This was doing nothing to help my control.
I nearly slammed myself back down on the desk, if only to have a reason to secretly cleave something apart and release some of the energy building up in my veins.
“Yes,” Scarlet answered. Thank god she had grown up in this world and knew the answer. “By monitoring the smells and hunting patterns in the areas, you should be able to find a pack to grant safe haven. We all know what different creatures smell like, as well as what their hunting patterns are--”
“Fine, fine,” Saenger’s grumbled, having misread Scarlet.
He stomped away, the chalk rattling with each step before he turned on us.
“For homework!” he announced as the bell rang and everyone packed up. “Two thousand words on the different smells of the small hunter animals. I want you all versed in the stink they give off.”
His eyes bounced between me, Scarlet and the twins, everyone laughing around us.
Damn. Lame old man had some grudges to settle. Hopefully, he would be at the next showdown; I think I’d like to take a swipe at him. I hadn’t remembered seeing him at the battle.
He needed a few scars of his own.
None of us spoke as we made our way to Howl’s truck. I wasn’t sure what to say besides swear-filled rants anyway.
Way to put a damper on our strut through the school. Things weren’t nearly as well as I thought. Between Selene and Saenger I was starting to worry that Pater’s retaliation was going to come sooner than we thought.
We were going to need Danvers to do some more modern dance for us or something. We needed to get ready. Fuck. I didn’t entirely trust the new gym teacher, but my options were sparse.
Howl threw the truck into park, everyone throwing open their doors in preparation to dread-walk into the house.
Instead, they went into attack mode, snarling, growling. Scarlet and the twins even shifted and surrounded me as Howl vaulted over the truck to stand in front of me.
“What the fuck?” It all happened so fast that one second I was staring at the car door, the next Howl’s back, as the reason for their freak out finally hit my nose.
That same smell from the training room, from the trailer park, from my past. It was everywhere. It coated the air so thick I could see it, perfect swirls of grey smoke that twisted around the trees like cigarettes.
Smelled like it, too.
Smelled like one specific brand.
“Oh my god,” I said to myself, trying to shift around Howl, who had turned himself into a wall.
“What the fuck are you doing here? I’ll rip your fucking throat out!” Howl screamed toward the house I couldn’t see, toward the person who I could hear step over the porch toward us.
Who laughed with a sound I could recognize anywhere.
I shoved Howl to the side, heart screaming as my magic sparked little fires everywhere and I faced the one person I had never expected to see again.
The man leaned against the wooden post on the edge of the porch, a half-burned cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Except the smell wasn’t coming from the cigarette. It was coming from him.
It was him that Howl was growling at; him that I wanted to run to.
“Tommy.”
Tommy was here. Tommy was a demon.
Chapter 16
“Tommy?” I thought Howl had only heard that name once before, but he had clearly committed it to memory from the night he first found us ‘camping.’. He snarled at the intruder, throwing his arms between me and the quickly approaching man.
Not a man.
Not even human.
Trailer trash demon bastard.
Demon.
Tommy was a demon.
“You’re a fucking demon,” I snarled as loud as Howl, throwing myself past his one arm barricade to face Tommy’s smug smile.
I had never planned on seeing him again. Now that he was here, I was so pissed I couldn’t even see straight.
Tommy took a slow drag on his cigarette before chucking it into the bushes. He didn’t seem afraid, at least not enough to stop approaching us. A plume of dust lifted around him from the impact of his boots, brown dirt and dark smoke mixing together. I could have sworn I saw his legs collapse and reform from that black smoke, his body dissolving and reforming right before my eyes.
I hadn’t seen that before.
I hadn’t seen any of this before.
I may not have known that this whole paranormal world existed, but I was feeling stupid that I hadn’t noticed that he was a freaking demon. Yes, I’d noticed his general nastiness, but if someone from the trailer park had told me Tommy was anything but a deadbeat headed straight in the direction of nowhere, I would’ve laughed them right out of town.
A demon--I’d fucked a demon for years.
Isn’t that something that you should inherently know, human or not?
‘Unless he is really good at concealing himself.’ Howl provided, not that it made me feel any better.
As Tommy slunk forward, a grin wider and more twisted than before spread over his face, his lips curling in a way that I had never seen, that shouldn’t be possible for a human. Okay, maybe Howl was right.
He looked the same, but different enough that I was questioning everything. His body lankier, hair longer and curled at the ends. Long gone was the overpowering body spray smell, replaced by the scent of meth and burning tires--a little like stagnant sewage.
So, he’d probably used all of that body spray to cover up the demon smell.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, seething. Tommy continuing to prowl closer, that damn smile spreading even further as he inhaled. Slow. Meticulous. Deep.
He closed his eyes as Scarlet and the twins took positions beside me, their growling lost in his coke induced snorting impression. All of a sudden Tommy reminded me of the winged dude from Jeepers Creepers.
“Delicious,” he said, sighing as though he had breathed in a twelve-dollar steak and not just the air around him that reeked of rot and pine needles. I would have to thank him for the rot part. His smell was even getting to me now.
“Stop it,” Howl growled, shoving me behind him again. God, this guy really needed to stop trying to save my ass.
Yes, I knew he was my mate and I was still
reeling from the whole Tommy’s a demon thing, but I could take care of myself.
Even if I was getting a bit dizzy.
“Stop what?” Tommy said darkly, inhaling deeply again, his creepy smile twisting into a smirk while one of his eyebrows raised. “You don’t have ownership rights, wolf.”
“She is my mate. I think you will find that I do,” Howl said, grabbing my arm and holding me behind him. This time I couldn’t fight back. My head was spinning and I was starting to understand exactly what was going on.
“Isn’t there something to say for those who found her first?” Tommy laughed again, his eyes dragging up and down my frame, or what he could see of it behind Howl’s larger stature. His lust-filled gaze was as dark as the smoke that kept kicking up from his feet against the ground. “She was mine for years. I would say your claim is null and void, pup.”
“Doesn’t mean you get to feed off her,” Howl growled and I gasped, more for breath than in shock. I had already figured that much out.
“Finn,” I whispered into Howl’s back as I tried to get my head to stop spinning. The power that had been throbbing in my hands a minute ago had all but vanished now. Everything was absent, even the growl of my wolf in my chest.
I felt…human.
“Finn, I need you and Saxon now,” I breathed as Scarlet and the twins padded around from where they had been flanking me to stand between us and the Demon.
Tommy watched their movements and laughed.
“Stop,” Howl’s voice was full-on animal now. I could feel his vertebrae pulse beneath my hand. He was barely keeping his wolf controlled.
Where was my constant companion? The beast inside me? And my magic?
The world had faded, but everything had changed.
I barged around Howl to come face to face with Tommy, his body normal and solid now, even his eyes weren’t as dark as they were a minute ago.
A shiver ripped through me as he winked. “Ivy, babe, you look good. You’ve got some curves on you now. Guess you’ve been eating well. No worries, though, that means there’s more of you to lick. To devour.” He was using that voice that always made me weak in the knees and instantly drop my panties, the dark tone even darker as his eyes lingered on the red bra that was peeking out from behind my shirt.
