I excused myself to go back to the manor after dinner. Lucius caught me by the elbow before I left.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s just a stupid rumor. They get started all the time for absolutely no reason here.”
I nodded, trying to press down the urge to cry or scream in the middle of a buzzing dining hall. The last thing I needed was for my classmates to ogle at my weirdness yet again. The late-shifter girl is at it again; I could imagine them saying. Jokes on them, I wasn’t even a late-shifter, according to my last heart-to-heart talk with the Council boys.
“I will be fine. Eventually.” He let me go, and I went on my way, putting on a calm face until I got to the courtyard. It was deserted. I felt bad for leaving him behind, but I needed to get out of that dining hall.
I groaned and threw myself down on a stone bench. Fantastic. No wonder that girl had glared at me after she slapped Enrique. Was that rumor what their fight was about? My heart sped up as I remembered helping Enrique in the kitchen.
Do you think love changes a person?
I slapped my hands to my face. No, no, no. They had it all wrong. There was no way that Enrique had any more feelings than casual lust for me, just like the other women at school. I was no different. He was born to be a player. I bet I could set him up with one of Priscilla’s friends…Hell, maybe even Priscilla. I could throw pretty girls into his face until it was clear that he didn’t like me. The rumors would vanish. Everything would be fine.
“Are you talking to yourself?”
I tore my gaze from the ground to see Jasper, standing a few feet away from me. Oops. I might have been talking out loud about my foolish plans. He was carrying his violin case in one hand. I cleared my throat and tried to compose myself.
“How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough. You look like hell,” Jasper said in a voice far more chipper than I would have liked.
“I feel like hell,” I muttered and pointed to the instrument case in his hand. “Are you staying late for extra practice?”
“Yes,” he replied easily, glancing at the castle. The fox-shifter’s gaze fell on me again. “Nobody has bothered you again, right?”
“No, no,” I muttered, “not unless you count stupid school rumors.”
His easy cocky half-smile said that he didn’t. I sighed.
“See you around, Jasper.”
On the walk back, I played matchmaker in my brain the entire way. There were dozens of girls that Enrique probably didn’t know. I brought out my phone to check the time since I’d forgotten my watch this morning. My face reflected in the screen briefly in the dim light of the evening. I looked haggard. Shit. Jasper had been right.
Who was I kidding? I was better off leaving Enrique alone. He didn’t need my help to get women, and he wasn’t in love with me. I dragged myself through the gardens and stopped short when I heard a series of bangs ring out. I stopped in my tracks. It sounded like someone was hitting something.
Time to put my detective hat on again. I crept hurriedly around the house. The sound was coming from the back of the house. Behind the manor, there was a small green space and a pond that I had once seen a terrifying snapping turtle in. Last week, the turtle had come up to me while I was doing homework on a blanket and stole my homework to chomp on. Needless to say, I didn’t go back there a lot.
A fist struck a cushioned dummy, fashioned in the rough shape of a man. The target was affixed to the wall.
Ren. Shirtless, sweating, looking far too glorious than should be allowed for someone with an attitude like that. A pair of athletic shorts hung low around his hips. He swore as he slammed another fist into the dummy.
“Is that your best friend?” I called out. He wheeled around on me with such a speed that it tore the breath from my lungs. His hands, wrapped for striking practice, stopped before they grabbed me. Anger had bloomed in his face, but it quickly faded. I willed my knees not to shake wildly. He pulled back a step and tossed his sweaty hair.
Typical Ren. Anger first, questions later.
“Come to stalk me?” he asked. He went over to a small box on the ground and pulled something out. A water bottle. I watched as he chugged the whole bottle in one go. Some of the water dribbled out of the side and fell down his mouth, streaming down his chest, onto the defined muscles of his chest—
I pinched myself behind my back.
“Not a chance,” I said quickly. “I wanted to see what the strange sounds were. It sounded as if someone was being beaten. Guess I was somewhat right.”
He smirked wickedly. “You’re always on the lookout for something to discover, aren’t you? That’ll get you in trouble.”
I shrugged. “Can you blame me?” He set the empty water bottle back down in his box. From my vantage point, I could see a pair of gloves, belts (possibly weighted), and a small athletic towel.
“Why do you work out here instead of the underground gym?” I asked.
“Because if I go down there, then Theo will try to get me to spar. I hate sparring with him. He’s a giant.” He wiped the sweat off his forehead.
“So, he beats you when you guys fight?”
A wolfish expression came to Ren’s face. His eyes glittered hard like stones. “Not a chance,” he said in a voice that was a shade too husky. “I win too easily because he’s so big. He’s far too slow for someone like me. Jasper is a much better match.”
I raised an eyebrow. While Dracus had been teaching me Dragon Fist, which allowed an opponent to utilize another opponent’s weight against them, I still couldn’t imagine watching Ren fight Theo.
“You’re doubtful,” he said in an acidic voice. His charming irritation was blooming to the surface as usual. I shivered.
“I’m not trying to be rude. I’m just thinking about it!”
He chuckled darkly. “Typical of a human. You think size will determine everything. Brute strength only gets you so far in a fight.” He spun around and delivered a fierce roundhouse kick to the dummy. It nearly tore the stuffed fellow’s head off.
Okay, that was convincing.
I thought back to some friendly battles I’d seen between Enrique and Theo. It was true that Enrique was fairly good at fighting Theo even if he was slightly smaller. Ren dragged the towel across his chest. I tried not to stare and snapped my mouth shut when it tried to lower in awe. No lusting after the anti-social lone wolf today.
“I asked Dracus about that this morning,” I confessed. “It seems like there are a lot of advantages in being a wolf or a fox over the larger creatures.”
“Wolves can get big,” he explained. My heart lifted. I was surprised he was actually explaining something to me. He continued, “It depends on where you are from. My line comes from the North. We tend to be smaller with greater speed. It benefits us greatly in fights.” His eyes glazed over. I wondered if he was thinking back to a battle of his. Or perhaps his clan, who had been viciously killed by an unknown murderer.
He smirked. I must have been staring.
“Why are you so interested in shifters lately?” he asked. His handsome eyes narrowed as his lips curled into a neutral snarl.
“I’m always interested in shifters,” I said forcefully and then realized how it sounded. He smirked. “Not romantically interested, interested out of curiosity. Since I’m not a late-shifter and all.”
“Sure,” he muttered and turned back to his training dummy. “If you don’t mind, I’m getting back to work.”
“Right, right.” I stepped away to leave him. He and the snapping turtle would make a great pair. Something scratched at the back of my neck. I hesitated before turning the corner.
“Ren, what do you do if people spread rumors about you?” I asked. There were plenty of rumors about Ren thanks to his tragic history, which was publicly known by everyone. His hard gaze found me. A flicker of something came over his face. It was hard to tell what. I wondered if he smiled, it would break his face.
“Has anyone bothered you?” he asked in a dark voice.
I shook my head. “No. I’m asking for advice. I’m not asking for you to beat someone up.”
“Advice?” he echoed as if he’d never been consulted on anything before. Maybe that wasn’t out of the question. He brushed his thumb across his nose.
Finally, he said, “I’d ignore them. Who cares what anybody thinks about you? The most important opinion is yourself.”
“That was actually good advice.”
He glared. “Don’t sound surprised.”
I left him to wail on his dummy, feeling bad for the poor stuffed thing