Page 9 of Zodiac Demons

Half siblings, maybe. Perhaps I wasn’t the only hybrid in the school.

I would venture a guess that the shifter scent belonged to the smaller man, who came off as a quintessential Omega in the fact that he looked a bit soft and easy to dominate, yet entirely too interesting to be a forgettable and disposable Beta. If he wasn’t the shifter between them, I’d be questioning my entire life’s worth of experience with our kind.

The larger man grabbed the flier off the bulletin board and handed it to the other. “You’ll be going to this.” He stated without any room for argument. “Beau wants his girl to meet you, and some other guys on the team have been curious about my little brother, and when better to make some new friends than a full moon night?” The smirk on his face was antagonistic on a level that rivaled my own pettiness. I didn’t like it as much on other people.

The Omega frowned. He opened his mouth, but hesitated to speak, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d planned to say. As a Hybrid, I found full moons rather volatile, but if this smaller man really was an Omega as I suspected, full moon heats were volatile even for a full breed. Interesting choice for him to make friends, but who was I to argue with these strangers.

After an awkward pause, the Omega settled on sating, “I need to do inventory that night. I really can’t.”

“I wasn’t asking. I already told Dad, and he’s all for you ‘getting out into the world.’ No one is going to let you lock yourself in a store room that night.” The non-shifter was notably aggressive.

The smaller man looked down, but held his expression. I could practically smell the stress from here.

“F-fine.” He relented to the man who I was safely assuming was an older brother, either adopted or half-blooded, then the older one offered a condescending pat on the younger one’s head, and headed off alone. The Omega stared at the flier with bewilderment for several moments. I was about to approach him and ask for his name, when he crumpled the page, threw it into a bin, and left in the other direction.

That was weird. But it was also the one and only thing that could convince me to go to that stupid fucking party.

I could do without that pushy demon, but this frightened little omega had very much piqued my interest.

Present Day

Oh, it’s been a good fucking year.

I stretched my arms to the sky, as I leaned against my motorcycle at a scenic viewpoint that looked down over the city of Graves. I had Lila as my mate, she had Ceto as her second mate, thus meaning I got to have Ceto as my second mate, and Adrian was out suffering somewhere.

How did I get so lucky? Who would have thought that coming back to Graves was going to be one of the best things to ever happen to me? I’d been dreading every minute of this college experience when my dearest father demanded I come home, but somehow it turned into the best time of my life.

I’d thank him, but his ego didn’t need the help, and I didn’t need to hear the gloating.

The sunshine of late June felt fantastic on my cheeks, and I sat in the glow, letting myself bask in the first time anything had been going right for as long as I could remember. On top of all of that, one more full moon, then it would finally be the month of the Leo, and I’d been dying to experience the full strength of my lion now that I was in control under transformation. Maybe we’d have a little hunt through the woods on my birthday. Or maybe a couple’s getaway.

Oh, but my poor little serpent couldn’t be away from his mate on a full moon without his whole body wanting to destroy itself, so I guess it would have to be a three way getaway. How terribly inconvenient. If only I could think of a thousand deliciously filthy ways to enjoy the company of a third wheel with paralysis magic.

If only.

I was walking among the fucking stars and the moons and the planets and the clouds as I pulled back on my helmet to get back to the first ride of summer break. Lila’s mother should be in town by now. I might just have to stop by and introduce myself. I’d have to meet the in laws at some point, after all.

The thought hit me, echoing through my brain in a loud and violent record scratch.

Would she have to meet my parents at some point too? Oh no, I didn’t like that idea at all. Mother would be all over her, wanting to dress her up and gossip and asking all manner of inappropriate questions. Father would want to know her bloodline, which I didn’t even know yet, and he would make her feel like the smallest person to ever exist if it wasn’t to his standards. Or he’d make me feel like the smallest person to ever exist if I wasn’t to her standards.

And then she would meet Adrian’s dad, because Devil forbid our parents do anything separately ever, and I’d have to explain to all three of them why mother was inevitably sensing and loudly asking about the second and third marks on her body. She may or may not pick out Ceto’s mark, but there was no way in hell she wouldn’t scent Adrian on her.

Right, yes. Avoid. If we could never, ever have a family dinner, it would be too soon.

That did, however, beg the question: How much does Lila’s mother know about Graves, and what were the chances that she already knew the renowned Hidalgo Emery? All I knew at this point was that she’d allegedly attended Graves Academy for college, but I didn’t know how deep or surface level her tie might be. While it was always possible that she was completely removed from Graves culture—there were plenty of Shifters and magic-kind born far from here who never ventured to this little oasis—that seemed unlikely for anyone who was interbreeding. This place had only very recently started to be even one percent forward thinking in terms of race relations, so to assume there were zodiac shifters and… whatever the hell she was, just out and about, happily falling in love without any hang ups over species all over the world didn’t track for my lived experience. Even on the backpacking circuit, I had to choose between presenting my shifter half or my vampire half with potential hook ups, but never both.

NEVER both. I think the first time anyone had ever been okay with both halves of my existence was when I happened upon, well, another hybrid.

A very emotionally complicated hybrid.

I made an effort not to linger too long on old, less-fun memories, especially when I was now in a position to make new, much-more-fun memories with that same half-Basilisk. I just needed to sort out a few things first.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and hit dial, then waited through one ring, then two, then the angelic voice of Lila Denton came through the line.

“Marcus? What’s up?” She asked with a tinge of not-quite-calm-or-collected.

“Not a lot. I was just hoping we could finally get together and talk. I’ve hardly seen you since I picked you up after the last full moon, and I’m starting to miss my Baby Doll.”