Page 12 of Zodiac Demons

I didn’t think a single damn thing, until that student sat beside me and said, casual as can be, “Marcus Emery, Twenty-five, Leo.”

Present Day

I’d fully settled into the first week of summer, when a letter arrived at the shop, postmarked from the Graves Academy Event Committee. The shop was currently empty in a brief moment between customers, while Lila had the week off so she could spend more time with her mother and less time with me. I walked over to the cash register and opened the envelope, not sure what Graves would be sending me.

Inside was a dark blue card with a bright red ‘Congratulations’ written across its face. I opened the card and read through the explanation with a scrunch of my nose.

The sewing club had apparently won the first prize for the most popular booth during the Spring Picnic, which I’d completely forgotten about amidst everything else that had gone on since then. Inside were two tickets for the ferry, and a voucher for two nights at the Resort on Fazer Island. A getaway on an island in the middle of summer, with sandy beaches, food, and drinks included, might sound romantic if not for the fact that the Graves Committee chose to book this night to coincide with the famous Full Moon Party that happened on every Cardinal month.

That must have been why that memory was eating at me.

The memories.

The five, ten… thirty memories.

Fuck, I did not want to think about him right now.

Why did they always have to schedule everything around the damn moon? Dances, parties, festivals—it was always paired with Purnima.

I understood that most species in Graves drew strength from the moon, and it was only the were-animals and the Hybrids among us who were burdened and enslaved by forced transformations on such nights, and I painfully understood that the comfort of infectious were-animals and abominations like myself were not prioritized or considered when making decisions, especially when up against centuries of tradition. Actually, I might even go so far as to say that a diseased beast like a werewolf or a were-tiger were actually more accepted and accommodated by the administration than those of us who had the audacity to be born from our irresponsible parents fornicating outside their species. But at this point, this was all starting to feel intentional.

All of that considered, I would absolutely not be going on this retreat.

Lila would probably want to go though. She’d surely never been to Fazer Island, and it was a very nice resort. I’d gone as a kid before I hit the shifting years, and had actually found it quite peaceful.

I shook my head. It didn’t matter if Lila would want to go. It wasn’t like I could take her. Asking her on a romantic getaway after she’d seen who I became under the Gemini moon would not only be insane and unrealistic, but there was no way she would agree to it. Up until a couple weeks ago, we were just friends and colleagues. We hadn’t even discussed this whole debacle with my mate mark, and a locked room with a comfortable bed, while my monster was knocking on the door of my mind, was not the place to do that.

My cheeks heated at the thought, and I forced that tingling feeling down into the depths of hell where it belonged.

Even if she might say yes, again, she was Marcus’ mate, and that was a level of volatile I was still trying not to think about. I had no idea what new territory I was crossing into now, having never sealed a mate pact before and having never shared a single person who bore multiple marks, let alone multiple Alpha marks. I just needed to let all of this go, and move on with my life for a lonely eternity. That was all I wanted.

Unfortunately, the only way to do that would be to reject her mark, and as an Omega, I had to have her Alpha’s permission to do that, or I wouldn’t be able to reject it at all.

…And having completed that pact, not only would that make us rejected mates, where I would be permanently unmateable—something my parents would either disown me for, or would give them even more power in choosing my future breeding partner—but if I couldn’t reject the mark by this moon, I was now going to be prone to mate sickness if we were too far apart that night.

Marcus and I would both have to stay in proximity to her.

The level of horror that realization sent through me could not be understated.

I was completely at Marcus’ mercy right now, and I was sure he wouldn’t let me forget it. I did this to myself. I knew better, but I still chose to play with a fire sign.

Fuck me. What were the chances he would even let me reject this mark at all? He did once before between the two of us, but to expect him to do it twice? And with her? Knowing that the consequences weren’t reversible, no less?

The bell over the door chimed, and I looked up to greet a customer, hoping to get all of this off my mind for four seconds.

An unrealistic hope, however, as I met a set of warm brown eyes flecked in rosy pink on a woman that looked strikingly similar to… the girl who was following sheepishly behind her.

“This is where I work,” Lila said, not making eye contact while awkwardly greeting me with a wave. “And this is my… coworker.” The pause did not help make that introduction any less suspicious. “Ceto, this is my mom. Mom, this is Ceto,” she facilitated the introduction, and I held it together strikingly well as I took the woman’s hand in a shake.

“You can call me Lane. My last name is Denton now, but your parents will know me better as Lane Rodanthe.” Rodanthe. If she’d kept her maiden name, not one person in this entire city would have had to question who and what Lila was. “You were barely more than a newborn the last time I was here, actually, so it’s so fun to see you all grown up.”

So this was the Lamia, in the flesh. She wasn’t a true shifter—rather she was a disguised Demon, much like my own Basilisk lineage—which meant she shouldn’t smell the distinct shifter scents we bore. It was possible and even likely that she wouldn’t pick up on the shared scents of a mate bond either. At best, she might notice an overlapping magical signature, but it took a shifter to recognize the bond of another shifter.

“A pleasure.” I tipped my chin in a partial bow. “Your daughter has been a great asset to the shop.”

“Thank you for hiring her,” Lane said with a broad and friendly smile. “I never would have guessed she’d be working for the Arya family. And for your clothing boutique no less.” She turned toward her daughter, grinning playfully. “Sadly, you definitely inherited my fashion sense, but fortunately you also inherited my mathematical prowess, so I’m sure you’re great when it’s time to take inventory.”

Heat filled my face, and Lila’s turned a new shade of red, and I hoped it wasn’t as visibly obvious on me as it was on her, because that was the worst way she could have finished that sentence.