Rage filled his eyes instantly and his hand shook with the need to probably smack me.
He was such fun to fuck with, but I didn’t stop, turning to find Pillay. “Professor, do you want me to set up a station so you can help Instructor McGrath?”
I thought Professor Pillay was going to burst out laughing, long having figured out on her own McGrath was full of shit and targeting me. She’d pulled me off to the side about a month before midterms to ask if I was okay and warn me. To say she’d found it amusing I was messing with him, and knew, was an understatement.
“Does he need that much help?” she asked me, ignoring when McGrath tried to object. “What was the problem with his ingredients?”
I gave her a rundown, and that was when McGrath lost it.
“You are exaggerating matters again, Ms. Vale. I worry about your mental faculties and—”
“Over potions ingredients?” I asked, my eyes going wide. “I’m not sure that’s something to get hysterical over, Instructor. I could be mistaken in my assessment, but I have extras from the assignment in my room. I’ll get them to Professor Pillay during lunch, and she can decide if you wish. Either way, I believe your specialty is potions, not psychology, so it’s best not to give decrees on my mental anything, right?”
“And the setting is highly inappropriate,” Professor Pillay added, giving McGrath a disgusted look. “She was not harsh in her assessment, even if wrong. What does that have to do with her mental faculties? She’s crazy for criticizing ingredients? This is a place of education, McGrath. This is the appropriate setting for her to raise such questions and give those remarks.”
“Oh geez, maybe someone will try to have me declared crazy or mentally unfit again so they can try and seize all my assets and name me as a dependent to control my power,” I drawled. I couldn’t even hide my amusement as McGrath’s face went pale, fear in his eyes.
Professor Pillay did a double take. “Again?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, after the huge power clap and people found out I inherited a big, unnamed estate, someone tried something Geiger squashed before I really got the details. Now I have way better protections in place. I’m a helpless, stupid female, so of course it would be super simple to just declare me mentally unstable and take me over.”
And just to put the cherry on top, I gave McGrath a wink no one else could see. Let him get paranoid how much I’d heard and knew.
Fucker.
It worked from his thoughts, and he didn’t stick around after making some crap excuses. Pillay shot me an amused glance and started class.
Lunch was more of me pointing out people to Darby who wanted him. He was completely gobsmacked by the end, his thoughts almost static as I overloaded him. He truly didn’t see himself as he was and couldn’t comprehend the sheer amount and levels of people who wanted him.
And that wasn’t even a slight against me. He valued me as the highest quality of woman. He meant the caste system, the supes “elite” wanting him. That shocked him when so many had treated him like dirt.
I stopped when I saw it was actually bothering him. There wasn’t really anyone left, but the point was more than made. I wasn’t even pushing this for the point or to be a shit. He deserved to know his value.
Not that other people made our value… It was complicated. It made sense in my head. He didn’t see himself accurately—none of us did—and knowing more people valued him than he thought should help.
After he got over the shock.
“I ordered those IPAs you like,” I mumbled as I snuggled up to him. “Irma said she made your favorite stew you just have to put in the slow cooker to reheat. Why don’t you just start on those research books and have a night?”
“Sounds like heaven if you were there as well, but I will take almost heaven and have a quiet night,” he agreed after a few moments. “You’ll be safe, yeah?”
“Always.”
And that wasn’t a lie. I always did the absolute best I could to be safe. Yes, I went into dangerous situations and I always had—I always would—but I bailed when I needed to, didn’t fuck around, and was ready with the nuclear route, so I stayed alive. That was a lot better than most.
So yeah, I stood by “always,” even if I jumped into the fire a lot.
I’d rather do that, and rescue thousands of hobgoblins from dozens of estates instead of going to a dinner with three councilmen and their posses. Funny how that might never change, no matter how high up on the supe food chain I was being pushed.
My last class of the day was Shifter Culture I with Professor Puth, who I didn’t know well. Zack and Ray liked him, and he appreciated the wolf Alphas as he was a Beta and had been getting hassled by the boss of the guards, who was a wolf Alpha—and an asshole—Glen. Zack and Ray had put a stop to that, so they got along, and Professor Puth credited me for it as well as I’d brought them here.
Or his thoughts did. He didn’t really act towards me any differently than any other student, but it was nice that someone gave me the benefit of the doubt for once.
And that paid off because before class started he approached me, clearly having heard about the meeting too.
He cleared his throat and moved his hands behind his back, rocking on his heels. “It might not be my place,
