Page 41 of Zodiac Hybrids

But she had to be part shifter, since no other magic being carried Alpha, Beta, or Omega scents, but I was at a total loss as to what order she might hail from.

Still, the fact that I’d not scented this on her last month was still troubling. What changed?

Maybe I’d only missed it before because I had only encountered her indoors. I’d not let myself even partially take on the lunar surge in the month of the Capricorn, so my shifters senses were dull and unfocused. Was the sudden strength of her scent hitting me because I’d marked her?

No, that wouldn’t make sense. That armadillo shifter put off her vanilla fragrance all day. And even Adrian’s weird mix of rosemary and tobacco was prevalent when I pissed him off enough—and he was a male and a fellow Alpha, so I had no reason to need his scent in my brain.

So then, why? Why were Lila’s pheromones fucking digging into my brain right now?

I glanced at my brother, whose need for restraint was visible if you knew what to look for. Then I glanced at the girl who went about the lesson totally oblivious. If she was an Omega, she’d be hitting some kind of heat right now. She was more than old enough, considering first shift usually came around the time of puberty, and the first heat was at eighteen. The moon would be projecting the need to be bred to every shifter in the vicinity.

But apples and cinnamon wasn’t what a heat smelled like. Linda over there, whose vanilla scent was spiked with habaneros, was what a heat smelled like, and yet neither of us were drawn to her like we were this pretty little mystery. I’d been around these things my whole life, and this was innately different. Her very existence was madness inducing—not simply intriguing. Is this what Adrian had felt that first night?

So was she a Beta? An Alpha? Was this smell something not shifter at all? Something I didn’t even know about?

Baffling.

It was no wonder Adrian had completely lost it around her. Hell, it was no wonder I hadn’t been able to wait to take her myself. I won’t say I wouldn’t have marked her, but I possibly wouldn’t have felt the need to go so far.

I rubbed the back of my neck, like I could massage sanity into my brain, then I latched hard onto my vampire side in hopes that I could lessen the impact she was having on me if I focused on bloodlust instead of mating instincts.

Who was I kidding? Her blood smelled even more delicious than her decadent dessert, and I’d been feeding off disgusting humans for weeks now. Every side of me was ready to jump her bones, and it was only the most distant rationale in my brain that was telling me not to go through with it in front of everyone.

I wasn’t fond of this. I was here to taunt Adrian, not fall for my own trap. But just like when I’d taken her on that date and she’d drawn my thoughts out of me, this was something I wasn’t strong enough to fight without all of my focus on resistance.

“Oh whoops.” Lila’s voice sent lightning through my brain, as she bumped the telescope out of place. Fucking devil, I hated full moons right now. I’d always had a tumultuous relationship with the moon, but this was worse. Usually I was happy to embrace my urges, but tonight, I was trying to be good. I was actually starting to kind of genuinely like Lila, so I needed to not just throw her down and shove my teeth into her.

“Here, let me help you.” Adrian responded, the sweat on his brow visible as he tried to re-point the telescope. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat when he brushed her hand with his, and he jerked back suddenly as if she was radiating electricity.

“She’s definitely not human.” I sent him a telepathic message, and he nodded subtly. My vampiric gifts meant I could only send information to someone’s mind ordinarily, but thanks to the mark I’d placed on Lila, I could receive her thoughts when her defenses were low. I’d always heard that mated shifters also had the ability to communicate that way, but my mixed blood meant I might never technically be able to separate what was shifter and what was vampire. Whatever the case, shifters I’d neither marked nor mated with, like my brother, obviously, were closed books. Which meant Adrian would still have to communicate physically if he wanted to respond to me, and I had no idea what went on in his mind, outside his usual expressive tells.

“Would you like to look next, Marcus?” Adrian’s voice helped me concentrate on anything but Lila’s draw. Fuck, it’s a good thing it isn’t the month of the Leo.

“N-no.” My words shook when I said them out loud, and I hated that weakness. “No, I’ve already seen it.” I tried again. I didn’t want to get any closer to her right now.

Adrian paused for several moments, and we stared at each other in silent communication. Our shared understanding of the direness of this situation was my only life raft.

“I insist.” And then he pushed me right into shark infested waters, just like I would have done to him. He presented the telescope, and now I was the one sweating.

“No, I think I’ll just—”

“You came all the way out here. They’re just stars, Marcus.” This fuck. I didn’t like it when he used my own torture methods against me.

“You’re a bastard?” I shot over silently. That made him smirk, and I hated that too.

“It’s really cool.” Lila chimed in next, and my whole stomach turned. Or fluttered? Or… fuck, it did something.

With a silent sneer, I approached the telescope that now also smelled like Lila. I leaned over and peeked through, not caring if it was in focus, then I righted myself and took a step back. “Wow, super cool.” I said in a case of the worst acting ever. Lila frowned, and I stepped away.

I took it all back now—every threat and every little jab I made at Adrian. I wouldn’t be triggering anything more tonight. I’d even be a good boy and sleep in my own bed. If her presence was hitting me this hard, I could only imagine what it was doing to his self-righteous incubus brain, and I almost felt guilty for sicking her on him.

I started this whole thing feeling like I was the master manipulator, and now I felt like a weak simpleton, drooling over the pretty girl with the great ass.

Fuck me sideways.

Chapter 25

As dumb as I thought Astrology was, I loved everything about this. I felt so charged up and excited, and I couldn’t think of a time I’d ever felt this confident in my own skin. Maybe Marcus had been onto something when he said the full moon affected everyone in some way or another, because I felt like a totally different woman right now. I was making friends, watching the stars, and as much as I shouldn’t admit it, watching Adrian talk about the constellations was straight up enchanting. Just like in Physics, he was so passionate about it. Time and again, my heart skipped a beat as his deep voice recited facts and theory, myth and legend.