23. Cassian

TWENTY-THREE

The devilish fae saunters from the room without a backward glance, her ass swaying effortlessly. What the fuck has become of my life? I thought choosing to leave my pack, my father's pack, to join the academy would be the height of my downfall, but it seems I've still got much further to go.

"What was that?" Brody murmurs as I swipe a hand down my face in exasperation.

"A fucking whirlwind," I grunt, exhaustion clinging to me despite my racing heart.

"You're telling me."

I'm telling him? This guy has so many questions to answer, and he's acting just as bewildered as me. Rising from Raiden's bed, I breeze past my least favorite mage. He takes the hint to follow after me as I find Kryll and Raiden seated on the sofa in Raiden's lounge.

A fucking lounge. Addi had every right to be surprised by the size of this place. Even the wolves aren't getting anything like this. It's a joke. I don't mind having access to it, though.

Flopping down onto the sofa with my arms braced on my knees, I level my gaze on Brody, who nervously paces beside me.

"What were you fucking thinking?" Kryll asks, beating me to it.

"What do you?—"

"Don't give me that shit," I interject, all but snarling at him as he tries to give me an innocent look.

He shrugs after a moment, trying to play it off, but I'm not falling for that shit. "I wanted to wow her with some good food. Hoped I'd get in her pants too, but…" His words trail off. There's no need to continue when we all know that definitely didn't happen, and everything else that did happen was far from anything he could have predicted.

"Why the diner?"

"Didn't you hear the part about good food?" he retorts, like that's the only explanation necessary, and I roll my eyes at his dumb thought process.

"How did you even think she was going to be safe?"

This is what my brain is stuck on. How in the ever-loving fuck did he think this was a good idea? He shouldn't have taken anyone there, especially without me, and there was no way in hell I was showing my face yet. But a fae? A fucking fae? Wolves don't need to see pointy ears to know if someone is fae or not; we can smell it. I tried to tell Raiden that the first time we saw the mysterious girl in the forest by the origin houses. He was too fixated on the ears to see my point, but at the diner, everyone knew the instant Brody stepped through the door with her.

"I didn't. I was thinking food and pussy," he admits, running his fingers through his hair as Raiden slinks back in his seat with a snicker.

"You're fucking dumb, man," he bites, an air of ‘I told you so' drifting around him. I don't need his ego added on top of all this.

"Aren't you going to apologize?" Kryll asks, cocking a brow at Brody, who gapes at him in surprise.

"For what? If anything, I did Cass a favor." He aims a finger at me and I rear my head back in shock. This fucker.

"How so?" I ask, eager to understand his thought process—or lack thereof.

"No more Leticia." He says it slowly, like I'm a child, and it only serves to piss me off more.

"That might sound good at first, but it's also going to travel like wildfire around the other wolves at the academy, and Addi is going to be caught on the end of it. You just linked me to the damn fae without even realizing it," I snarl, unable to bite back my anger any longer.

His shoulders slump as he tilts his face to look up at the ceiling. "I'm not going to get laid now, am I?" he mutters with a sigh, a sense of defeat drifting over him, and I shake my head in disbelief.

"I'd assume not," I snap, my hands balling into fists.

"Fuck. My dick was so hard watching her fight, too," he admits, making a show of adjusting himself through his pants.

"Tell me about it." The admission comes from Kryll, which feels more surprising than if Raiden were to say it, but I keep that thought to myself.

"I told you we should have ended her the first day," Raiden grunts, wiping his hands down his thighs as if he's not talking about killing someone so casually.

"Not doing that is the best decision ever. I definitely don't have a chance if she's not breathing," Brody grumbles, and I press my fingers into my temples, trying to calm the raging headache that's taking over from all of this bullshit.

"It's entertaining, at least," Kryll adds, and I sigh.

I don't know what it is. Drama. That's for sure.

"If you guys aren't going to agree with me, then you can get the fuck out," Raiden states, pointing to the door. His brown eyes shimmer with challenge. It's a look I'm all too familiar with when it comes to him.

He wants to purge the adrenaline coursing through his veins by arguing, and I don't have the energy to go toe to toe with him right now. So I stand, heading for the door without another word.

I have no idea what Kryll or Brody decide to do as I make my way down the six flights of stairs. Of course I have to be friends with the vampire who gets the penthouse. I'm sure it's because his mother is working here as the head of the vampires, but even Vallie is on the fourth floor, and her connections link her to The Council.

Thankfully, I don't pass a single vampire as I make my way down and step out into the night air, taking a deep breath as the cool breeze brushes over my skin. I storm down the pathway from the vampires' building, but my pace slows as I turn down the wolf path.

It looms ahead, ominous in the dark sky, with only the moon to light the way.

Everything I'm going through, every ounce of disappointment that comes from my pack, especially my father, is all because I chose to be here, and right now, I'm questioning whether that was the right decision.

Being a Kenner is highly regarded within the wolf community, even among the other packs who fall under The Council's guidance instead. When my father declined a place on The Council to focus solely on his pack, it didn't make him an outsider; it made him a fucking legend. So for his first-born son and true heir to the pack to relinquish his role to find one within the new kingdom that is forming before everyone's eyes is nothing short of a failure to him.

The disappointment in his eyes still flashes in my mind, the damage he caused to our home in his fit of rage following swiftly after. He thought his tantrum would make me fall in line, but all it did was confirm I'm doing the right thing.

Every pack should have an alpha, but when they refuse to see past their own perspective for the good of the people, it will inevitably start to crumble. Besides, when the rumors began that the academy was forming, I swore a pact with my friends that we would face this together and change the future of our kingdom. I swore it before I dedicated anything to my father, not that it matters to him. He shouldn't have to expect me to dedicate myself to him with pacts or other shit.

I'm family, that should be all that matters.

Sighing, I approach the building, and the door opens before I reach it. Two omegas step out, grins quickly spreading on their faces as they catch sight of me. I avert my gaze and try to step past them without a word, but I'm halted by a hand on my chest.

"Hey, Cass. Do you want to?—"

"Don't talk to him. Didn't you hear about the duel?" My spine stiffens as one of the girls cuts the other off, talking about me as if I'm not here.

"Duel? What for?"

"Leticia challenged someone for him and lost."

The gasp echoes in my ears as the hand slips from my body. I try to move around them, but they're both still peering up at me, waiting for confirmation that it's all a lie.

"Who?" The blonde asks, eager to reach back out for me again, but she laces her hands together instead.

"A fae," her friend whisper-shouts. The look of horror on her face is almost laughable. I consider picking her chin up off the floor but think better of it. I don't need to be getting involved in this right now. It only just happened and I need to sleep.

I shoulder past them, relieved when I reach the stairs, but the intense glares from the wolves in the communal area latch onto me, confirming that the news has already begun to spread.

Great. That's fucking great.

I don't know how I make it up to my room without another interruption, but I slam the door shut behind me, leaning against it as I take a deep breath.

Everything is fucked.

Not just for me, but also for Addi. My gut twists with the reality that it's my fault. I'm the reason this mess is unraveling. I can try to blame Brody over and over again, but really, I still let it happen.

Usually, I wouldn't care what ramifications others would face because of my actions, but for some reason, this feels different. Maybe it's because her sweet scent still lingers along my skin. Thoughts of her plague my mind despite my best efforts to squash them all down.

Fuck.

This isn't me, and I can't start acting like I give a shit now.

I need to sleep, get her out of my damn head, and tomorrow will be fine. It has to be. I refuse to accept anything else.