“Ayyy, badass bitch,” Sarasa cheered her on. The others gaped at Sarasa, but she just shrugged and said, “Atticus Graeves is an asshole.”
“Excuse me.” One of the girls raised her hand as if the lunch table were a classroom or a council meeting with votingmembers. “But I don’t feel comfortable eating lunch with a dragon shifter who is prone to violent rampages—”
“Rampages?” Nix echoed.
“YoubrokeElle’s wrist. Elle—the only one who actually likes you here.”
“I like Nix,” Sarasa muttered.
Thank you, Sarasa, Nix thought.
“Think of what she’d do to us,” the girl at the table spread fear and uncertainty into the others.
The other cygnus females bit their lips and looked nervously at Nix. Even when Nix was trapped in a cage and experimented on, in this moment, she had never felt more studied and examined.
“You all have called me Ugly Fuckling for years, and I’ve never fought back,” Nix reminded them. “You think just because you know now that I am a dragon shifter, that somehow changes me?”
One of the girls stated, “Dragons are thoughtless, savage, abhorrent threats to innocent lives—”
Ryker’s arms leaned in front of Nix’s vision as he lowered a food-filled lunch tray down for his mate.
Having heard the hurtful generalizations about dragons, Ryker dropped the tray a littletooloudly, and every cygnus shifter at the table stopped breathing.
CHAPTER 7
Standing behind Nix, Ryker’s bulking body cast a shadow onto the table that had just been discussing how violent and meat-headed dragon shifters were.
The gossiping cygnus shifters waited, silent and wide-eyed. Scared. Were they waiting to witness some stereotypical dragon violence? Waiting for Ryker to lose control of his fire or threaten them?
Nix stood from the table and slapped the top of it. The wood shuddered, shaking the lunch trays there. “Savage? Out of all the words, you choose that one?”
The cygnus shifter sputtered, “Dragons live in the mountains. They don’t even have electricity—”
“Oh, why don’t you demean dragon shifters as an entire species some more,” Nix said plainly. “I dare you.”
The girl visibly swallowed.
“Not all dragon shifters are violent.” Nix raised her voice so everyone at the table, and maybe even other tables, could hear her. “If we lived in a world where stereotypes were true, I could say every cygnus shifter is a self-righteous bitch, but Sarasa exists, so I guess that wouldn’t be factual.”
Sarasa grinned and tipped an invisible hat to Nix, showing her appreciation.
“Elle, did you hear what she just said to us?” one of the girls shrieked. “She is a minute away from burning us to a crisp.”
“Would you shut up andlisten? Look with your own two eyes. Have you ever actuallyseena dragon shifter being rough and violent with you?” Nix questioned them. “Huh?”
“We know the stories—”
“Fuck your curated stories,” Nix shot back. Bael proudly whistled through a sly smile. “Being born into a specific shifter species doesn’t make someone more or less prone to violence. The man standing behind me is kind and thoughtful and patient and protective—and he is my mate.”
She told them, “You can call me whatever you want, but donot—ever—insinuate that he is a villain or worth less than you or somehow ‘harming’ you with his existence.”
Ryker’s exhale shot out over the back of Nix’s hair as she stood at the table and scolded the cygnus shifters. The heat of his presence seeped into her back, fueling her.
“If you ever make him feel bad for the wings and abilities he was born with, I will show youexactlyhow savage and ferocious dragon shifters can be,” Nix threatened them.
“See?” one squealed. “She is going to hurt us, Elle! Do something.”
“Out of everyone in this school, guess who is more likely to hurt you?” Nix asked the women. “Because it’s not me.”
