Page 48 of Zodiac Hybrids

Maybe it didn’t matter. She wanted a monster, and I certainly was one. This was, ironically, a more perfect match than I’d even realized. It was okay that I’d lost control, and that was the most powerful statement I could make to myself.

I turned around in the pool, just in time to hear a slow and steady clap. My gaze lifted to my half-brother, who stood outside the safe boundaries of the water.

“Good job, Marcus.” Adrian said, his eyes filled with judgment that I’d perhaps earned. “Not so easy to keep your mind around her in shifted form now is it?”

I scoffed as I climbed out of the water. “She practically begged for it. I’m not going to apologize for getting her off. If you’d like, I’ll shove you in here and you can fuck her next. She seemed to like jet stream vibration, if you need some pointers on how to please a woman.”

Adrian tossed me a towel with a disapproving shake of his head, and I wrapped it tightly around my waist.

He ignored my taunts, always so serious, when he noted, “You shifted back immediately, too.”

Wait, what? “You mean after I…” finished. I didn’t need to voice that, since it was more awkward to acknowledge such a thing opposed to simply comprehending the silent implication. “I did.” I spoke idly and dumbfounded. “I was only vaguely conscious of what I was doing while shifted. But now my head was more clear than it had been at the beginning of the night. It’s almost like—”

“Her body negates the moon?” His tone was that of a question, and not one that had any understanding or certainty behind it.

“Is it stronger than the lunar pull, or is it something else entirely?” I stared back over my shoulder at the pretty, naked, freshly fucked princess on the edge of the hot spring. “I’ve never shifted back after fucking only one person on a full moon night.”

“Right.” Adrian nodded. “And I’ve never shifted back before sunrise once the shift had been initiated. Have you?”

“No.” I shoved a hand through my hair, slicking back the wet strands, while being careful not to shake any on my brother. “Sex has never affected my transformation.” I blinked, trying to process what the hell that could possibly mean.

I licked my lips, treasuring that unusual flavor that still lingered. Pondering this new development, I looked at him, then I looked back at her before adding, “And her baiting scent is still just as strong, despite the fact that I just put my scent in her.”

“I think she’s in shifted form right now.”

“I think she is, too.”

“A half breed?” Adrian said without making eye contact.

“One whose transformation was triggered by the water when she bathed earlier?” I offered.

“Yet looks exactly the same as her human form.” He supplied next.

“What kind of hybrid reacts like that?”

We both frowned, before I walked over to our little mystery, and crouched down beside her. I brushed the wet strands from her forehead and studied her facial structure, hoping to figure out what kind of creature I might be looking at. Touching the water again had no effect this time.

“The fact that we’re both so drawn to her tells me she must be part of the Zodiac order.” Adrian presented a logical assumption, and I nodded.

“A Virgo Shifter.” I inspected her ears that had the slightest unnatural point to them. Though she hadn’t shifted into the Aquarius. If she did, it was very different than the Alpha version. Or at least the vampire or incubus version. “Do we have any way to contact her parents?”

“If they hadn’t included her species on the transcripts, then they likely wouldn’t tell us anything even if we did.” Adrian shook his head. He was more privy to the paperwork side of things, and I trusted his insight on that.

“Then we just need to find some way to convince her that she isn’t human so she’ll ask herself. Now that I’ve revealed myself to her, I’m sure she won’t mind being open with her sweet, friendly classmate.”

Adrian snorted at that. It was intended as a joke, so I didn’t mind the mockery behind that laugh. My intentions around Lila and my façade around Lila were two very different things, and I supposed that was obvious to the man I grew up with. How cute that he’d noticed. It was as if Lila was somehow accidentally bringing us together.

“I just don’t understand why she didn’t shift like this during the last full moon. She had a scent that drew me in, but barely. And it wasn’t nearly so distinct. This is night and day.” He tilted his head slightly to the side, and I stopped to think on it.

“Because she didn’t hit her Capricorn trigger?” I supplied. “I only shift on that night if I make a demand of someone while exposed to the full moon.” Then I paused at that realization. “Actually, she texted me to open the door while she was outside, so that would have likely counted to trigger her transformation. She definitely wasn’t in this form when I brought her back to her dorm. Maybe the magic doesn’t acknowledge text message requests.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. The moon would have acknowledged a text request, considering it was about the demand for control going through your mind and not a physical action, so it didn’t really matter the medium. I’d learned that one the hard way.

Adrian frowned, while I examined her for more signs of being shifted. “Even if somehow that didn’t count, had she really gone her whole life without noticing a change on the Virgo moon? Even this—had she conveniently never made the mistake of showering during an Aquarius moon? She’s twenty-two, so she’s more than old enough. She should have gone through four Virgo moon’s by now.”

“But she was a virgin until last month.” I spoke without thinking. Adrian stared at me wide-eyed.

“Definitely a Virgo Shifter.” We both agreed in unison.

“Taking her virginity was the one trigger she needed to awaken her magic. What a cruel joke.” Adrian added, quiet and somber.