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Chapter Seven

The murmuring started up the moment I emerged from the trees into the clearing where our shifter lessons were held. Well, I say ‘our' lessons—what I meant was where the rest of the shifter students had their lesson, while I hung around like a spare part. It was becoming a theme of my day. I hesitated for a heartbeat by Cole's side and he squeezed my hand and glared at the rest of them.

"They can stare all they want," he said loudly enough that none of them could miss his words, shifter hearing being what it was. "As far as I'm concerned, nothing's changed."

Oh, how I wished that were true…and those were words I never imagined I'd be thinking. Cole cut a nod of greeting to Jax, his packmate and closest ally in the academy aside from Thaden.

"Jax. Sorry I missed you this morning." He flicked a glance at the other shifters before dropping his voice lower. "Things might get rough this year. We good?"

Jax eyed me tightly.

"A dhampir?"

I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Apparently."

Jax ignored me. "You're fated to a fucking dhampir."

"Oh joy, here we go again…" I muttered under my breath.

"You know what trouble this is going to bring for the pack?" Jax asked.

Cole exhaled slowly and nodded. "I do. And it doesn't change anything for me."

"I stood by you after she did that weird-ass half shift last year," he said.

"And we're grateful," Cole replied. "Both of us."

I'd bitch about him speaking for me if I wasn't more concerned about all the things the two of them weren't saying right now. The tension was thick enough that you'd never have got a knife through it, and if you had, I couldn't be sure it wouldn't wind up sticking in my back.

"That was different, though," Jax said. "That was shifter stuff. This is…vampiric."

"Well, if it helps, the vampires hate me, too," I put in, not without a trace of snark.

"You just have a talent for making friends, don't you?" he asked, shaking his head, and then one corner of his mouth lifted in something that was almost a smile.

"What can I say? I have an infectious personality."

"You've got something, alright."

"Uh…thanks?"

His expression hardened again, and he shook his head, as though trying to clear it—which was a stretch, because I was pretty sure Jax hadn't had a clear head for a day in his entire life—and turned back to Cole.

"I don't know," he said. "This is…I don't know what this is. Fucked up."

"Again, thanks," I said, but he didn't so much as glance my way.

"This could make our pack a target—and they're not going to be willing to fight for a halfbreed vampire."

"People said the same thing about her being a human last year."

"And they'd still be saying it now if they hadn't found out she's something worse."

"Have they?" I asked, a shiver running through me. "Found out. The pack, I mean."

"No," Jax said grudgingly. "Not as far as I know. Alpha Cain will try to keep it under wraps until he can figure out what to do."

"Do?" I demanded. "There's nothing to be done, I'm—"

Cole squeezed my hand and I fell silent, settling for directing a glare at no-one in particular.

"I need to know, Jax," he said. "Are you with us?"

"It's a big ask," Jax said.

"I know."

"But you're still asking?"

"I am."

Jax toed the dirt, avoiding looking at either of us for a moment.

"Well, well, if it isn't the blood whore freak and her mate."

Right. Just when I'd thought my day couldn't get any worse.

"Watch your mouth, Kallan," Cole snarled.

"Or what?" Kallan asked, swaggering our way with Harvey and Eva flanking him, as ever.

"Or I'll let Cali finish what she started in our end of year assessments."

Kallan scoffed. "A lucky shot. Now that I know what a freak of nature she is, she won't get lucky again. But no, you're right. I shouldn't call her a blood whore." His gaze snapped to me and he looked me up and down. "After all, I hear she's something much worse than that."

Cole tensed, and I planted my hand on his chest.

"Leave it, Cole. He's not worth it. Besides, he already knows either of us could best him in a fight. Why else is he scared to go anywhere without his two little friends?"

Harvey surged forward, but Kallan lifted a hand and waved him back with a smirk.

"You've got a big mouth, Ellis."

"So everyone keeps telling me. Seems to me they don't have a problem with my mouth so much as hearing the truth coming out of it."

"The truth?" He turned his head to one side and spat on the floor. "The truth is that no-one wanted you here last year, and now? Now they'd rather see you dead than sullying the academy."

I applauded several times. "Oh, great speech, Kallan. Really insightful. But maybe try coming out with something original, because I've heard the same thing all morning."

"Okay, well try this, then. It's bad enough you being here where you don't belong, instead of with your own kind." He closed the gap between us. "But you're dragging your mate down into the dirt with you. And really, I should be thanking you. By the time word of this gets out, Iron Shadow won't have a single ally left in the country. And there'll be no-one left to stop Black Wind destroying them all."

"Back the fuck up," Jax snapped, shoving Kallan back and putting himself between us. "It'll take more than a yapping pup to bring down the Iron Shadows. But you're welcome to try."

Kallan curled his upper lip. "Your time is done. All of you. You'd best sleep with one eye open."

"Keep walking," Cole ground out, "while you still can."

Kallan smirked and swaggered away, and we watched them go for a long moment.

"Does this mean you don't completely hate me?" I ventured, arching a brow. Jax shrugged.

"Like you said, the vamps hate you. Figure that makes you one of us." Then he grinned. "Besides, you still hang out with that fit girl, Ling, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes. And she still has too much taste to hook up with you."

"No-one can resist this," he gestured himself up and down, "forever, don't try to kid yourself."

"I think we have bigger problems than whether Cali's friend has questionable taste," Cole said, his eyes roving between the gathered students.

Shit. He wasn't wrong. Most of them were still staring our way, gathered in small clusters and talking in harsh whispers as they tried to work each other up to do something about me being here. And since every single one of them could shift, and I couldn't, plus the whole being wildly outnumbered thing, I wasn't a fan of our chances if a fight broke out.

"Bloodshed on the first day?" Jax said, clicking his neck. "At least life with you two is never dull."

"What are you worthless bunch of curs whimpering about?" Ryker snapped as he stalked into the clearing from the treeline, moving with an effortless strength that demanded deference.

The sullen muttering of the other shifters died down. Ryker was their alpha for as long as they were inside the academy walls, and they knew better than to show disrespect. Also, he was constantly in a bad mood, and had a penchant for taking it out on the nearest student.

Which was not, apparently, enough to convince Wes to keep his thoughts to himself.

"Cali shouldn't be here. She's not a shifter."

Ryker looked around with a deliberately confused expression until his eyes landed on me.

"That Cali? Cole's mate?"

"Yeah," Wes replied. "She's half vampire. You should kick her out."

Ryker whirled on his heel and was in Wes's face before I could blink. He grabbed the student's wrist with one hand and twisted it up behind him, forcing him onto his knees without exerting any effort.

Wes grunted in pain but Ryker didn't let up his grip.

"First, pup, I am your alpha inside these walls, and you will address me as such. Understand?"

"Yes, alpha," Wes gasped, looking like he was regretting every life choice he'd made up to this point, which I couldn't help but feel the teeniest bit smug about, since a good number of those choices had involved making life hard for me.

"Second, you pitiful little mutt, last I checked, this was my lesson, not yours. And if I say Cali is in this lesson, then she's in this lesson. Is that clear?"

"Ah! Yes, alpha!"

Ryker scowled at him for a long moment, then glanced at Wes's twisted limb like he was contemplating breaking it—and no-one in their right mind would test his resolve. I'd seen him do far worse to students who crossed him last year.

Wes kept his head down and his chest heaved as he breathed though the pain of the restraint and having his arm held at near-breaking. Then with a grunt, Ryker shoved him away.

Wes rolled and came up in a crouch, holding his arm against his chest.

"Question me again, and I won't be so lenient."

"Yes, alpha."

"And that goes for the rest of you, too." He turned his eyes on the rest of the students, who abruptly all took an interest in their own footwear. "Now, why the fuck are you all still in human form? Stop wasting my time and shift."

There was no alpha compulsion in the command, but even so, the seventy or so students shed their clothing in a matter of seconds, and started shifting.

Good to know that whatever most of the student body and the instructors here thought of me, I still had one or two allies. Cole would be relieved to know Jax intended to stand by his side. The guy might be an idiot—and ‘might' was being generous—but he was Cole's second for a reason: he was strong, he was loyal, and he was exactly the kind of shifter you wanted watching your back when the shit hit the fan—which pretty much described our current situation. The whole academy against me, but Cole and Jax on my side…Well, those still weren't great odds, I had to admit. And Ryker, apparently. Couldn't forget him. And if I was going to have any instructor in my corner, I sure as shit wanted it to be Ryker. He was badass, and stronger than anyone I knew.

"Don't just stand there gawping like a mute banshee, Ellis," he snapped at me. "Get your mongrel ass in your usual spot under the tree and figure out how the fuck to make your arm shift again."

Of course, he was also a total dick, so there was that. Ah well, I'd still rather him on my side, even in his own cranky way. I had enough enemies around here, and I'd take whatever allies I could get. I was going to need them.

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