Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“What do they usually serve you?” Nyx asked the window.
Strong assumption he was talking to Nia, but he wasn’t looking at her. Nyx was flexing and fixing his reflection’s hair—preening like a red-bottomed baboon.
Nia answered back, telling him they get nothing more than cereal, oatmeal, and toast, while I scanned the row of handsome faces—all so different.
It was hard to get to know my fates, because they were too busy bullying and sneering at me for proper conversation, but pictures of the five of them were beginning to clear.
Nyx was the vain, clownish one. Edric was the silent, but deadly one. Orion was the misunderstood bad boy who beneath it all, just wants a hug. Paxton was the arrogant, confident one. And Badr was the angry one.
I told them as much over Ava’s continued bleating for me to go away. Except for Badr. There was no reason to antagonize the guy when I knew why he was angry. Seeing your brother slaughtered right in front of you will do that to a person.
Edric’s brow twitched. “Did you just compare me to a fart?”
I shrugged, stifling a laugh. “Fitting for a wind wolf, wouldn’t you say? Especially one that slips out of cracks and stinks up the place with his lies.”
“What’s she talking about?” Orion pounced. “What lies?”
“Why are you asking me what the hell she’s raving about?” Edric leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes. “She’s finally got our attention, so she’s using it to stir up shit. Don’t fall for it.”
Oooh, he’s good. Expert deflection if I do say so myself.
“We’re not falling for it,” Nyx said, turning to Nia. “So, Nia, what else is different on the omega side? Do you have the same basic classes? Were you able to get set design back on the—? What the fuck do you mean vain!” Nyx spun on me, popping my brows up. “You don’t even know me. Where the hell do you get off calling me a vain clown?”
“And Paxton’s the confident one?” Orion blurted. “Paxton?”
“Real nice with the tone of surprise,” Paxton shot back.
“What are you basing these conclusions on?” Orion went on. “Your shroom-induced fever dreams?”
I laughed. “Glad you guys aren’t letting me get to you, or I’d be having too much fun right now.”
Nyx and Orion bared their canines at me—stuck between wanting an answer, and not wanting to play my game.
“What about me?” Badr’s hate-burnt eyes wiped away my grin. “Which am I?”
The reply came to my lips unbidden. There was only ever one answer. “You’re the one who’ll trick me into watching my back, because you’ll be coming from the front.”
For the second time on so early and dreary a morning, Badr smiled. “You’re good, Volana.
“You got it in one.”
THE REST OF THE DAY was like a scene from someone else’s life.
My fates were so kind and considerate to Nia, it bordered on surreal. They held open doors for her, pulled out her chair, shouted down anyone who called her fish, and didn’t land her in detention by way of sabotaging me.
All the thoughtfulness heaped on her only further chilled the freezing winds blasting in my direction.
After rising to my bait about how I saw them, the guys didn’t make the same mistake again. Instead, they flat-out wiped me from existence. They didn’t look at me. They didn’t speak to me. They didn’t breathe in my direction. Whenever we were around them, it was all Nia, Nia, Nia—
—and I hated it.
No, not me! Her!
My wolf hated it. She was filled with such hate and jealousy for all the attention and care they were showering on another woman, that she had my hand twitching for a weapon whenever Nia was within two feet of me—which was all the time.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was all a part of their plan to torture me, and even though I didn’t believe they’d sink that low as to use Nia again after what she’d been through, it was still working!
I hated it. I hated them. I hated Nia. I hated my petty-ass wolf. And I hated myself because all the insecure pettiness was all me, no matter how much I wanted to blame it on my furry other half.
“—and Nyx said the funniest thing the other day,” Nia was blathering on, unaware of the hole my glare was drilling in the back of her head. “We were sitting on the bleachers, talking about the monsters in the demigod dominion and he said— Well, you were there,” she said, laughing again. “You know.”
My brow twitched. I was there in the physical sense of the word, but I didn’t know what he said because Ava was sitting on Nyx’s lap at the time, howling like a hyena at everything he said, and drowning out even my wolf hearing. Easy to do since I long since stopped acting like a fucking barnacle on Nia’s hull, and went back to sitting at my own table and keeping my distance.