Zack came jogging over to me with a grim look. “We need to move. Now.” He handed over Mel’s tablet, and I saw the comment that upset him.
“Hey, Underground, didn’t you want to nab that whore? You know where she is, so go get her so we don’t have to fucking deal with her shit anymore. Do you need the address of the hotel? Please, please, go right ahead and do your thing.”
“I can’t just leave when he’s inviting them here to get me,” I growled.
“Yes you can, because the manager just posted a thank-you to everyone who helped with the shoot, and said it was a great success,” he said as he took my arm and guided me along. “We’ve got a Rothchild with the glamour charm of you about to be caught at a popular lunch spot, but you need to get out of here just in case. The Silvas sent people to come guard the staff here today and tomorrow.”
I nodded and didn’t fight him. That was more than enough covering of our bases and keeping people safe. It was better I left then.
“Claudia is already filing charges against the death threats and knows about this one,” Mel informed me as she read her phone. “That should keep the councils busy instead of doing nothing for a while. Overflood their asses with filings and paperwork.”
“And the hobgoblins?” I worried.
She snorted. “Assholes are getting their whole families banned until apologies come in, but any threats are permanent bans for the person, and families can get off the blacklist if they grovel.”
“I shouldn’t love that, but I really, really do.”
“We all do, Tams,” Zack chuckled before practically shoving me through the activated portal after his cousin.
On the bright side, I didn’t have to see Hudson again. I had another month and a half to get over them before school started.
That should be enough time. Right?
6
I was so busy the rest of summer, I felt like I blinked and it was time to pack up and go back to school. And no, a month and a half wasn’t enough time to finish healing, but I would pretend it was. It needed to be. I’d done a lot of healing of Faerie over summer, and I had to believe I did myself too.
I might not have found animals yet, but plant life was regrowing with the sun coming back and all the energy that I was pumping into the world. I had been so, so relieved when I had found new sprouts growing crazy fast. It made me realize it hadn’t been that I didn’t find anything yet; it had just died. White and I had theories about the world draining what it could to not wither, but we simply didn’t know.
We wouldn’t until we found fairies and learned what the fuck had happened. When we found them, we would know.
When. I couldn’t deal with the idea of if we did. When.
My birthday had passed without any fanfare. That was the way I had wanted it. The hobgoblins made a huge feast, and we had a chill night with everyone I’d wanted there and tons of treats. It was almost perfect.
I went back several days before my classes started, a couple before even the freshmen arrived, since Mel, Zack, and Ray had to be there then as staff. It was Izzy who was railing the hardest about going back, having fallen in love with Spain and not wanting to leave. Only after I reminded her several times I owned the place and it wasn’t a rental we would never see again, did she finally pack.
It would be better since I could wade back into being there and slowly take in the changes to my life since last semester. I pulled into my spot in the faculty parking lot and realized I was completely wrong, as I had people waiting for me.
The four I planned to avoid most. I didn’t turn off my bike, honestly considering pulling right back out and going for a drive. Ray and Zack had a security meeting, or else I might really have. So they weren’t going to let me avoid them anymore.
Did they really have to come together and corner me? The four of them standing there was like any woman’s dream.
First, was Darby Moore, my ex-boyfriend, ex-tutor, and the now senior I’d given my prize of a full year’s ride to. He had the sexy geek thing on lock with gorgeous gray eyes hidden somewhat by his rimless glasses he pushed up his nose when he was nervous. With shaggy red hair that fell into a natural bedhead guys tried to recreate and six feet of ripped swimmers build, he had a fan club.
Then, the sexy professor and stylish, chic Brit, Dr. Craftsman. He had a fan club too.
Next, was Lucca Von Thann, a junior with perfect grades and an asshole father that was head of the school board and wanted to control me. At six-six, he was buffer than Craftsman and taller too. He was walking, talking sex, with those hazel eyes and light mocha skin any woman would want to lick. And just to push us all over the edge, he had soft brown hair that hung in his face that helped him look impish.
Finally, there was Hudson Vogel, a junior, my mate—according to him—and the next ruler of the North American dragons. Any woman would get lost in his vibrant blue eyes and feel petite next to his almost seven foot frame that was completely filled in like a fucking sexy statue that should be made to commemorate such a physique. With his chiseled features and sexy hair, he was the ultimate panty soaker.
And they all
