Blood poured from her opened mouth, and the two guys who had stood next to her in an attempt to taunt me stumbled back from both of us with wide eyes. She choked on the blood, falling to the hard ground with another audible snap.
Ice filled my veins, and my shadow snapped itself at the rest of the students, flinging Mirella’s blood onto them before pulling back into Damien’s mark.
I blinked slowly at the broken woman in front of me, not comprehending that I had done that.
A maniacal laugh broke through the eerie silence of the room, and warm arms snaked around my waist and pulled me into an equally warm chest. “That was the most exciting display of your strength yet, little bird.”
He held an arm up as he pointed toward the two guys who had been standing next to Mirella. Shadows came from behind them and wrapped around their throats before suspending them in the air.
“To set the record straight,” Damien started with glee in his tone. “Wren’s mine. She’s my mate. The Fates also mated her with six others. The bitch with a hole in her stomach had a point. Wearepowerful men, but Wren didn’t do anything to make us notice her. We did that all on our own. And I swear to Kalista, if anyone talks to my little bird like that again, I’ll peel your skin off and feed it to you.”
The guys struggled against his shadows, making awful choking noises—but my focus was on Mirella, who laid face down in her own blood.
I did that to her.I just wanted her to stop talking, and I supposed in the end, she did.
Everything in the room was static.
“What in Kalista happened in here?”Alister’s sharp voice hit my ears as two sets of footsteps rushed inside, and then everything faded out.
FIFTEEN
Alister
Mysweet,uniquerubyhad protected herself physically for the first time that I was aware of. Walking back into my classroom with Rhett behind me that day had been harrowing. I smelled the blood first, and when I scented Damien, I knew something fucked had happened. I didn’t expect Wren to have been the one to strike Mirella, and if it had been fully in her control, I didn’t think she would’ve.
I was immensely proud of her, as were her other mates, but she’d been guilt-ridden over hurting the girl. She thought she’d killed her, and I did too, at first. She’d snapped her spine when the shadow penetrated her, and that was impressive. If our healer wasn’t in, she wouldn’t have been saved, even with her advanced healing.
To be honest, I never thought I’d be as happy as I was that she had mated Damien. The shadow he embedded inside her had protected her.
From what Damien told me, Mirella deserved to be killed, not just injured. He said he wanted nothing more than to slaughter my entire class, but he needed to let Wren have the chance to stand up for herself. He was watching from the shadows the entire time, like always.
The way they had gathered with the mob-mentality wasn’t normal, even with tensions from the war being high. I had suspected something deeper was going on since Damien and Thorn had been getting rid of students since the first term, as they posed a threat to Wren. At first, I thought they were overreacting. But, now, I wasn’t so sure. There had to be an influence for the hatred of such a pure soul to be so intense, but why would Wren be targeted by anyone?
“Damien’s pouting,” Wren told me as she took a hesitant step inside my room. I’d met her in Rowan’s office and walked her to my room since I didn’t trust her being alone for even a second.
All professors had an option to live in the Fated Dormitory in a closed off wing from the students. It was set up like an apartment with a small kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living room.
As I pushed my thoughts away, I shut the door behind us. I’d talk to Rowan about it later, but the point of her coming to spend time with me was to take her mind off everything. “I’m surprised he’s actually giving us time alone, although it wouldn’t surprise me if he was watching us now.”
She hummed in agreement. Her eyes scanned the room, glossing over my living area. It was an open floor plan, so she could see the majority of my space from the door.
“It’s… nice,” she said, kicking off her shoes by the door. “Are you here much?”
I shook my head, watching her carefully. She’d been trying to be polite, but I knew what she was thinking. It really wasn’t a home. I didn’t add anything to the furnishings that came with it. A neutral set-up with a brown sofa, wooden cabinets, and plain white counters.
I’d worked for Rowan for thirty years, but I’d only lived here for ten. It wasn’t much, but it was somewhere we could be alone.
The only thing I had of value were my gemstones, but those were all kept on a few shelves in my bedroom. “Not much.”
“I can tell.”
There was a beat of silence, and I held out my arm to guide her toward the couch. She followed, and I scratched the back of my head as nerves flooded through me.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t been alone with her before. I’d had my fangs embedded in her neck, and my mouth on her pussy. What was wrong with me?
“How has reading auras been?” I asked her, knowing she’d been having some issues with it. Kian had been helping her since our first lesson, but she had yet to see a color. It wasn’t unusual for that to happen in a supernatural who hadn’t been taught it before. I knew she’d get the hang of it, eventually.
She scowled. “I was able to see a hint of color last time, but it was gone as fast as it came.”
