Dean Felling stammered, “Excuse me?”
“Her mates are in the room. Under shifter law, nothing can separate mates.”
“It’s just a meeting…”
Bael continued, palming his blade, “I also can’t help but think that the only reason the big, strong dean would be upset over others attending a meeting with a young woman is because he planned to manipulate or intimidate her in some way during said meeting. Otherwise, why would you care if people who care about her are in the room while you talk to her? Seems suspicious.”
Nix gaped at Bael. He sounded like one of those word-twisting human attorneys. It was hot as hell.
Even Thierry nodded at him and prodded his black-rimmed glasses higher on the bridge of his nose to listen in on the dean’s reply.
“Miss Oadess, will you please dismiss them so we can speak?” Dean Felling requested, folded his hands over the desk, and waited for her to comply.
“Actually…I agree that there is no reason you should have to meet alone with me. Mates are protected from separation under shifter law. Anyone who is responsible for the separation of mates where the mates do not agree with such can be held—”
“Fine,” Dean Felling hissed. “I see now where some of the bad influence has come from. Miss Oadess, we have received a formal complaint about you from one of our most esteemed students.”
HadEllecomplained about her? After her yelling fit and violent wrist-breaking act this morning?
The Dean added, “As you know, a formal complaint can be grounds for an immediate, permanent expulsion.”
CHAPTER 5
“As you know, a formal complaint can be grounds for an immediate, permanent expulsion.”
Expelled?Nix gaped. In her past life at the academy, she had been a goodie-goodie student who played by every rule, spoken or unspoken. Was there actually a chance she could be expelled in this new life?
“No,” Ryker said.
“Now, wait a moment—” Thierry started.
“No fucking way,” Bael remarked.
Nixshh-ed her mates’ reactions. They obeyed. She smirked and thought,Good boys get treats later. “What was this complaint?”
“Well, it had several points,” Dean Felling stated. “The first being that as a cygnus shifter, you are supposed to be taking classes with your fellow species.”
Dean Felling clarified, “Classes like potions, combat, and history are for the alphas who graduate to lead packs or clans, and having a cygnus shifter in the classroom takes a seat away from a possible young leader. Your presence can also lead to distraction.”
She bit back a retort on his implication that she could not be a “possibleyoung leader” and focused on the last part of his sentence. “Distraction…how?” Nix asked in a voice as sharp as the edge of Bael’s knife.
“You know that prolonged presence around alpha pheromones can lead to prey shifters going into—” The dean cleared his throat. “—heat.”
Right. Nix had never gone into heat before because, in her past life, she was never around alphas as much as she was now. But…she was a dragon shifter. Since she was not a prey, did that mean she did not have a heat cycle to worry about?
The idea of becoming mindless with lust, to the point that she would fall to her knees and beg to be fucked…
“More than that, your mere scent can be a distraction to our male students.”
“That sounds like athemproblem.”
“The…” The dean glanced around at the young alphas in the room. He straightened his tie and said, “The seduction of fellow students is all well and good when the rules are being followed, but—”
“What the fuck did you just say to her?” Bael asked, twirling his blade in his fingers so quickly that it blurred as a flash of silver.
“There is only one reason a cygnus shifter enrolls in classes like those,” the dean said pointedly.
“Yes,” Nix replied. “To learn subjects that are specifically withheld from me to keep me ignorant and submissive and compliant.”
