We stepped through a partially glass door and into the bookstore. Once inside, Xinyi continued as if she’d never stopped.
“Not that she wants me to be around other supes, you know? She’s protective of me that way. At least, the vampires respecteach other’s human servants. The werewolves consider us less than less. So don’t feel bad if one of them calls you something rude. They’re just jealous.”
I chuckled. Been there, done that.
“At least the witches couldn’t give two shits about us.” Xinyi covered her mouth and glanced around with wide eyes. “Oops. Sorry, I’m not supposed to curse. Iris says I have a potty mouth, and I’ll get punished if I don’t learn to curb my tongue.”
“How will she even know?” My brow rose, side-stepping someone to get to the bookshelves. I pulled my schedule out of my pocket and skimmed the shelves that listed what books belonged to each class.
“Oh, I’m horrible at hiding my feelings. She likely felt the guilt the moment I said it.” Xinyi reached for the same Econ 101 book that I did. “Hey, we’re taking the same class! When is yours?”
She pulled at my arm to lower my schedule to her eye level. Her gaze skimmed over the paper before pouting.
“Well, sh — I mean, poop. We have it at different times. But hey!” She pointed at another class. “We have History of Vampirism together at eight. Thank fuck — I mean, frick. Geez, this is hard.”
She sighed and went back to searching for her books. “Thankfully, they follow a nighttime schedule instead of a normal college schedule. I mean even the werewolves and witches like to live nocturnally, so it only makes sense to keep with the majority, even if some of the human servants prefer to keep the opposite schedule of their masters.”
“Why would they want to do that?” I questioned while piling more books onto my stack. It was becoming a juggling act with my helmet in one hand and my books in the other, my schedule pinched between two fingers.
“You know, for, like, running errands and being their daytime person.” Xinyi turned to me with a frown. “How long have you been a human servant?”
“Uh…” I drew out, trying to keep everything in hand. We hadn’t really discussed it. I supposed they wanted me to just ad lib things as they came up, like now. “Only a few months.”
“Wow.” Xinyi blinked at me, then shook her head. “Sorry, it’s just hard to remember when I was first bonded. It’s been twenty years for me, and I still feel like a baby compared to some of the others.”
I opened my mouth to ask more except my luck ran out as my pile of books tipped to one side. Before they could crash to the floor, a dark figure appeared above, grabbing the books with an, “I’ve got it.”
My head lifted… and lifted even further before my eyes locked with the dark brown eyes of the same werewolf from before. This time, close up and not in defensive mode, I took the time to look him over.
Built like he spent hours in the gym, his white t-shirt was fitted against his muscled biceps and torso, a shocking contract to the dark brown shade of his skin. Going with the gym theme, he wore grey sweatpants that showed off his tapered waist and thick thighs.
The shadow of a beard hugged his jawline, framing the broad smile on his lips. I had the sudden urge to trace those lips, to finger the silver hoop decorating one side. A matching barbell pierced his eyebrow, the same eyebrow that lifted the longer I stared at him.
As someone who had been around a lot of gorgeous men, my dads included, he had to be one of the prettiest I’d ever seen in my life.
“You again,” I said dumbly, trying to take my books back, but he held them out of my reach. Which, at five six, was hard to doin most cases, but I barely reached this guy’s chest. I suddenly imagined having to push up on my toes to kiss him. Shaking the thought away, I cleared my throat and held my hand out. “Can I have my books please?”
His lips jumped up even higher. “What kind of gentleman would I be if I let the princess carry her own books?”
“The kind that doesn’t want to get throat punched in the bookstore,” I retorted, choosing violence over the twisting attraction in my stomach.
“Jack! You didn’t tell me you knew Tate!” Xinyi pressed up next to us. “You’ve been here for a hot minute, and you’ve already met one of the most important people on campus,” she practically gushed and, if she were a cartoon, she’d have animated stars in her eyes.
Tate didn’t even try to act like it wasn’t true. In fact, he puffed up his chest and smirked. “So your name is Jack, huh? I think I like princess better.”
Not wanting to cause a scene with the campus’s resident wolf-in-prince’s-clothing, I took a deep breath and shoved down all the parts of me that demanded I stab first and ask questions later.
“You can call me whatever you want. Can I please have my books back?”
Tate held my books in one arm and threw the other around my shoulders, making me tense. “Would you look at that? She can say please! And here I thought you were just as hot-headed as the wolves.”
“You would know,” I snapped back before I could think better of it.
“There she is,” Tate crooned, as if it pleased him to no end when I lashed out at him. “I’ll tell you what, princess, you let me carry this to the checkout and then I’ll give them back.”
I paused, giving him a wary side eye. “Just to the checkout?”
“Yep,” he popped the letter, practically vibrating with energy.
