Page 61 of Zodiac Beasts

Don’t panic. Keep it together. You knew this might happen. You knew.

I said all those things to myself, but now that I was confronting the reality of the situation, I felt no such diplomacy.

“What did you do?” I demanded of him, directly into his mind so as not to startle the surely traumatized woman in my arms. I looked back and forth between them, as a cold sweat washed over my entire being. He couldn’t answer me in my head, but still I wanted to ask this silently before I completely exploded on him.

Ceto took a deep breath. He remained on the opposite side of the shop, his arms crossed, but his eyes trained on the floor. He said nothing, not acknowledging our line of communication out loud.

Good boy.

“Do you want to grab your gear, and I’ll give you a ride home?” I asked Lila, only keeping my cool in thanks to a small miracle.

“Sure, it’s in the back.” She said brightly. So fucking cheerful and lackadaisical after she’d just let an Omega come inside her.

She walked into the back, and I waited for the door to close. Tense silence filled the shop for the fractions of a second before I had Ceto against the wall with his neck in my fist.

“What the fuck happened?”

He swallowed in my grip, and I couldn’t help but notice that it wasn’t provocation or arrogance that was dancing in his eyes. There was no smugness, no pride, and no anger.

All I saw reflecting in his crystalline gaze was guilt… and fear.

“I think I’m going to need your help.”

Chapter 34

My signals had been muddled all weekend, which had been a grace as I had to finish preparing for finals week. I was glad the semester was at its end. Though I knew I still had another semester of Lila in my class, and at least three-and-a-half more years of her attending Graves, the prospect of getting a few months off from seeing her near daily was a mercy I desperately needed. Provided I didn’t go completely insane, come summer break, I could reset, breathe, and try to think about anything other than the fact that she was mated to my brother.

I’d already scheduled a day at the Succubus Den in hopes that I could stave off the possessed need that I knew would hit me soon, having managed yet another month of abstinence.

However often I fed on her remote pleasure, it was starting to feel like throwing bread crumbs into a swimming pool and expecting it to turn into a bakery.

The Thursday prior to the moon had been the final Astrology Club of the semester. I’d handed out in depth fact sheets to the class for every zodiac sign we’d covered thus far, including the two they would miss over the summer. Marcus had showed up, but he was suspiciously silent and no-contact since the moon over the weekend.

I issued my Physics final on Friday morning, and Lila sat in her usual spot. I watched her from the corner of my eye as I remained behind my desk in a classroom filled with the sound of pencils dragging over paper. She was one of the first to finish, obvious by the way she worked through the last page then set down her pencil. I waited patiently for her to come up and turn in her test. With the rest of the class still working, she could leave silently and without confrontation or conversation.

And yet, she stayed at her desk, staring down at the packet and playing with her fingers. She chewed her lip, always hitting my mark in a way that made my skin crawl, but she didn’t stand up.

The next student to finish turned in his test. Then the next and the next. One by one, students filtered out of the classroom, often exhaling loudly as the stress of the semester left their bodies, and the excitement over summer filled their lungs in its place.

But Lila continued to stare at that test like it had an indecipherable riddle on its back.

Nerves crept through me, knowing too well what was coming next. Another student turned in her test, and even Bored Brian in the back corner had finished and left. The timer on my desk buzzed. The last students placed their papers on the pile. The door shut behind them. Only Lila remained.

I drew in the deepest of breaths through my nose, then I addressed her. “You’ve been finished for over twenty minutes, Miss Denton.”

“I have.” She admitted immediately, not pretending for even a second that she’d been struggling or needed help.

“You know I could give you a zero for failing to turn in your test in time.” I said.

“But you won’t.” She said.

I had to wrangle back the grin that crossed my lips. “Because you’re going to blackmail me for a passing grade?”

“That test was made for children who just discovered gravity because the family dog bowled over their block tower. That would be a waste of a felony.” Her smile was sweetly vicious, and I huffed a laugh against my will. Though I could sense some unease and nervousness in her, the tiny sarcastic quips seemed to calm her down.

“Is my brother channeling his attitude through that pact of yours?” I rolled my eyes in her direction.

“Is that a real thing? Because it would be really helpful when I get a rude customer at work.” She spoke so casually, and I liked when we could have these moments. I wanted to lean into it, but we both knew she wasn’t sitting there, long after the test had finished, to make some cheap jokes.