Fuck, he had been so hard for her last night. He stillwashard for her. Thankfully, the desk blocked sight of his horny erection.
“What did you just say?” Nix froze on her path to her desk and turned to glare at the douchebag student in the class.
Atticus Graeves, a self-proclaimed douchebag, held a sheet of paper and looked up at her. Displeasure claimed his expression after being interrupted with his buddies.
Turning his head, the second he saw thenewnot-blonde Nix, Graeves’ face broke out into a disgusting grin. “Hey there, sexy. Are you new?”
“New hair, new eyes, new face—same utter disdain for you.” Though she looked so different, the sound of Nix’s voice was thesame. A beautifully haunting, velvety voice that clung to Ryker’s ears.
Graeves blinked, his brows furrowing as he muttered, “Ugly Fuckling?” He used the vile nickname, and Ryker wanted to bite Graeves’s head off. “You…don’t look like a cygnus shifter anymore.”
“No?”
“No.”
She asked him, “Want to talk about that list you’re holding again?”
Graeves lifted the piece of paper in his hand. “You mean the rankings?”
“Rankings of?” Nix fumed with rage; she did nothing to hide it. Invisible fury smoked from her ears and mouth as Ryker watched her glare at Graeves.
So…queenly.
“Look, I get that you’re a woman, but you can’t just join a predominantly male class and expect us to cater to your feelings, okay?”
“My feelings about you making a list ranking the female prey shifters by yourenjoyment in fucking them?” she exclaimed.
Ryker’s spine shot straight. He swore he felt her wrath flowing off of her in waves, crashing into him from rows away. A creeping tension rose in him, and his neck prickled withsomethingas he watched her.
“Nix—” Bael started in a calm voice, which was odd because Bael always loved a good fight. Could he sense the dark energy swirling around Nix?
“Look, if it’s jealousy that you’re not on the list, you can easily get on it,” Graeves said. “I just have to do a little taste test.”
Bael whistled out a breath and mumbled, “Really shouldn’t have said that.” Bael’s knife caught a flash of light, but Nix stepped in his way, leaning over Graeves’s desk.
“You think you need to ‘taste test’ the girls at this school?” she asked.
“I’m the one who will have to marry one of them. Shouldn’t I know what I’m getting?”
“And do you plan to marry any of them?” Nix grabbed the list from him, ripping it from his hands.
“Hey!” Graeves protested, reaching for his list.
“Do you plan to commit to one of yourrankings?”
Graeves snorted. “Of course not. I’m not marrying a slut who gives it up that easily.”
The rankings list burst into flames.
As did Nix’s entire body.
CHAPTER 2
The sound of the screams was like background noise to Nix’s ears.
She sneered at Graeves, “Alphas think they can do whatever they want to those without power. You fuck the prey shifters for enjoyment while they fuck you for safety. Isn’t that the way things work here? Well, fuck that. I’m not going to let you—”
“NIX.”
