Page 23 of Zodiac Beasts

The thought “I’ll make sure you stay that way” entered directly into my mind, before sleep and darkness reclaimed me.

I had no idea how much time had passed when I finally came back into consciousness.

I wrenched myself upright, only to find I was somehow back in my dorm room. My head told me it may have just been a dream, but my body knew it wasn’t. I forced myself up, and I stumbled into the bathroom so I could see myself in the mirror. I was dressed in an oversized shirt—one I knew was his—and Marcus’ mark remained clear and prominent on my neck. It appeared the same as it always had, and yet I innately knew it wasn’t the same at all.

My attention moved to my lip, where Adrian’s mark remained.

I bit into the Capricorn symbol and knitted my brows together.

Why was his mark still there?

I shook my head. I’d not performed a rejection ceremony with Adrian, so why wouldn’t it be?

I guess I hadn’t performed a rejection ceremony with Marcus either.

Were they different? Did Marcus trick me into sealing our pact, or was the ritual for rejection and acceptance exactly the same?

I wished he’d explained, but it didn’t take much of a leap to assume that exchanging blood and fluids, saying ‘yes,’ and writhing on his lap wasn’t going to tear us apart.

Was the difference between rejection and acceptance simply a matter of yes or no? Of consent or denial?

But then, if that was the only way to break the connection—nonconsensual sex, biting, and blood—then I didn’t think I’d be able to reject the professor’s mark either.

I grabbed my phone from the charger, and put on my impressively clean glasses—something I could now 100% confirm was Marcus’ post coital M.O.—and I glanced at a message he’d left me.

Marcus: I’m yours now, and you are mine. I will never make you regret that choice.

Chapter 12

I was in the middle of moving props out to our picnic spot for the following morning when a faint tingling rolled down my spine, settling at the base of my tailbone, then radiating heat up through my gut. A quick surge of magic popped so suddenly, I couldn’t keep myself from partial shifting my Capricorn horns and sprouting my Incubus wings.

What the fuck was that?

I shook off the feeling, and retracted my beast back into my body, grateful I was among staff and faculty instead of students. If there were any humans employed at Graves, they’d likely already been indoctrinated into our reality.

“Mate troubles?” Jun Shen, the head of mathematics and a long trusted friend, asked from the next spot over. He wasn’t heading any clubs this year, but he was out in the fields setting up a booth just the same. As far as I knew, he often helped out High Warlock Wong, who owned the local bakery when he wasn’t fixing broken dragon fountains for wayward hybrids. The Wongs were a legacy family of Graves, and Toast of the Magi catered most of Graves’ events. Jun, however, was simply a colleague in the STEM department and a fellow shifter.

I shook my head, refusing to acknowledge the obvious. “I have no idea what that was.”

“It was mate troubles,” Jun said definitively. “I’ve had a few of my own, so it’s easy to recognize. Though you never struck me as much for dating.”

“I’m in more of a situationship.” I frowned, as I set down my tool box. “More Incubus problems, and less mate problems.”

“I forget you’re a half breed sometimes.” My Zodiac Snake shifter coworker looked me up and down. “Though that seems to be becoming increasingly common. Mate troubles seem to be a universal experience among all species though. Even humans.”

“It should be easy for a Chinese Zodiac shifter, considering you have fated mates. You already know who you’re supposed to be with. The rest of us are just trying to find the single grain of not poisoned rice from a thousand pound sack.” I half smirked, though I was feeling rather dejected about the whole thing in actuality.

Jun shook his head. “Having a fated mate is worse. Never discount the value of having choice, because fate doesn’t necessarily choose well.”

“Choice.” I repeated the word, just for myself. At this point, I wasn’t certain which one of us had been robbed of the most choice. Somehow I now lived in a world where my psychotic half-brother held all of the cards, and I hadn’t realized he was the dealer until he’d taken all of my chips.

I thought on that as I began piecing together the kissing booth. Linda and Evelyn were both excited about this one. Lila wasn’t, however, which was a bit of a relief. The thought of Lila kissing random students for fun flashed through my mind, and I tried to ignore the vague sense of irritation that settled in me.

Absurd.

I wouldn’t be choosing anyone if I’d not been on campus that night. Maybe fate wasn’t only for the Eastern Zodiac shifters. It was simply more subtle for the rest of us.

I picked up my phone and opened my messages to Lila. I ignored the video that I still hadn’t deleted, and I hovered my thumb over the text box. I hesitated.