Chapter 5 – Familiar
I sigh with happiness, looking around at the elegant suite as I step inside. Bright and sunny with dual doors that open onto a pretty rounded balcony. A huge fluffy bed and an elaborate ensuite bathroom beyond.
Yes. Yes, this will do just fine.
“Thank you so much,” I say, turning to the Headmistress at the door, my eyes wide and my voice all stupid and breathy. “It’s so much prettier than I could have imagined –“
She nods sharply, looking around. “Well, it should be, for our second-finest suite. You know, we gave it to another student when you didn’t appear as scheduled and it was quite a bother, asking them to move out again on sudden notice –“
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I say, tucking my little fists beneath my chin and giving her big puppy-dog eyes. Who the hell does this woman think she is, trying to make a Celestial of Elizabeth’s status feel guilty about anything? But, I know how to play this. “If the other student really needs it then I can surely take another suite – I won’t even ask for a refund –“
The Headmistress scowls at me, not at all liking that I’ve turned the tables and obliged her to her feel guilty instead – all while passively pointing out that Alpha Spencer is not going to be happy about his daughter being put in a lesser suite. “That’s quite all right, Celestial,” she says, nodding to me. A brief knock comes at the door and she turns to it, waving in the page who has a tiny golden book pinned to his shirt.
I grin, genuinely pleased to see the books in his hands.
“Already?” The Headmistress asks, reaching for the three books and then waving the page off when he hands them to her. She looks through them one by one as she hands them to me. “Most take a day to settle in before they begin their studies –“
“Oh, I want to get started,” I say, stepping forward and reaching for the books. I do my very best not to rip them out of her hands. Witloch has one of the finest libraries in the country and has resources I’ve been dying to look at for months.
She raises an eyebrow at me and I give her a silly little book-worm grin.
“I love books,” I whisper, reverent. Which is true. But I’m playing it up for her sake.
“Fine,” she says, waving at me as she strides back to the door. “I’ll notify your advisor that you’ve arrived – you’ll develop your study program with him. Dinner is at seven – inform me if there’s anything you’ll need.”
I wait for her to turn away.
“Headmistress?”
She pauses and then turns back to me, annoyed. I give her my sweetest smile. “As you know, all of my luggage was lost in the storm on the way here. I’ll need you to provide an appropriate wardrobe and all the basics necessary for my study. A computer by this evening would be so helpful.” I hoist my books a little higher. “For my notes.”
She openly sneers at me. “Your bursary hasn’t come in yet, Celestial. It will be impossible to order you anything until we confirm sufficient funds.”
“Oh, daddy’s good for it.” I just blink at her, innocent as a kitten. “And I’d like my dinner sent here so that I can make up for lost time.” I look around at my pretty room, the little desk in the corner that will do just fine.
“Students are not allowed to –“
“Just…a little crust of bread?” I say, turning my most pitiful gaze back to her, letting my lip tremble. “Maybe some soup? I don’t feel very well after my fall…and daddy says it’s important to rest so that I can keep my strength up.”
I shrug my shoulders and giggle, looking up at the Headmistress like she’s both my savior and my confidant.
Inwardly, my wolf flops to her side and howls, kicking her feet in the air, entertained as hell at the sight of me giggling.
The Headmistress just stares at me but I keep the smile pasted to my face, almost daring her to call my bluff.
After a long moment, she simply nods as she turns again, striding out into the hall and closing the door behind her.
The second she’s gone the smile falls from my face and I groan, tilting my head back, so grateful that I don’t have to be cutesy and sweet for at least five minutes. The last three hours of answering the Headmistress’s barrage of questions was…agony.
Of course, I had an answer already prepared for every inquiry she threw at me. The paperwork went through, of course – Elizabeth Spencer filed it herself, after all. And, of course, the snowstorm story checked out – much to the Headmistress’s displeasure.
I am, above all things, thorough. I did my homework for this, as my father taught me. As I always do.
I sigh, closing my eyes for a second, checking in with myself and my wolf. But when she gives a little huff and rights herself in my soul, sitting calmly again, I take a deep breath and turn, looking around the room again, quite pleased with it.
Then I head for the balcony, which I know overlooks the gardens.
“Okay, wolfie,” I murmur aloud. My eyes alight on a pretty brown head down in the garden, the sun flashing off its gorgeous blonde highlights. “You ready for part two?”
She yips, turning an eager circle in my soul, and we head for the door.
Ten minutes later I wander through the garden with a single book clutched to my chest. I walk slowly and let my eyes wander, both because it’s what Betty would do and because…well. It’s very pretty here, isn’t it?
Winter has just turned to spring and the tall bushes that rise around me are putting out their tightly curled leaves, all eager to burst to life. Everything smells like freshly turned dirt and the crisp keen scent of the first flowers – snowbells and crocuses and hyacinths.
And after the past two weeks…honestly, I could use some nice.
But I push the memories of my father’s capture and arrest from my mind as they start to reply. Such dark thoughts won’t let me fully embody Betty – Betty would never think about such things.
I smirk a little, thinking that the elaborate backstory I’ve made up for Betty in my mind certainly is convenient. Even if she is a naïve little idiot, it’s nice not to have to worry so much when I’m pretending to be an empty-headed girl.
Sighing happily, I turn right onto a new part of the path when the gravel comes to a crossroad.
My wolf’s ears perk up, my lips curling into a smile when I see him there – sitting on the stone bench next to Kai, a slim book laid across his right thigh. Maxwell – the nation’s perfect Prince, all sweetness and light packed into a gigantic, dangerous, and well-toned Alpha body.
My eyes sweep over him and for a second I look at him as Sabrina, not Betty.
Because Betty is too innocent to notice, but Sabrina does not at all mind the way his shoulders fill out that camel blazer. The long length of his legs, his muscled thighs…
Max lifts his head and I sigh inwardly as I push those pleasant thoughts away, shifting my stance, letting my toes turn inward as I become the shy little nobody perfectly tailored to Max’s tastes.
“Betty!” he calls, his face bursting into a gorgeous smile.
I like that, my wolf whispers. He has a nice smile – I like it when he smiles just for us.
For Betty, I correct, stepping forward.
Whatever, my wolf sighs, melting at the way Max stands and reaches out a hand, all eagerness and gentility.
I step forward, my smile growing, when suddenly a huge dark form steps out in front of me.
I genuinely gasp, my head whipping up as I meet the dark gaze of a gigantic Alpha.
“Who the hell are you?” he growls, his body rigid, hands clenched at his side.
My mouth falls open as I stare up into his face, my eyes flicking over his black eyes – his dark hair – his die-cut jaw and firmly set mouth –
“Rhett!” Max calls, striding over. “It’s fine – she’s another student –“
“Who the hell enrolls two weeks late?” Rhett snaps, still glaring down at me.
“Seriously, Rhett, back off,” Max says, snatching the larger man’s arm and pulling him a step away. “This is Betty, she enrolled this morning -”
Rhett turns his eyes back to me, narrowing them like he doubts every bit of my story.
And, I mean, he’s right.
But even as every impulse within me screams at me to shut my mouth, to stop staring at him and do something typically Betty like crying, or shrieking, or fainting with fear –
I can’t.
All I can do is just…stare.
My wolf howls within me, scratching wildly at the dirt of my soul. We know him, she insists, we know his scent – we know his bones – we know his mind his heart we know we know –
Impossible, I whisper, shaking my head, bowled over by the twisted, uncanny familiarity of him. My heart pounds in my chest as his scent curls in my nostrils – black pepper and sage, bergamot and clove –
God, fuck – I know that, but – where?
My wolf snarls, frantic, continuing to howl and bite, scratching at me and insisting again and again we know him, we know him – he’s –
I grab her scruff with a mental hand, breaking her frenzy.
It’s impossible! I insist, giving her a shake. We’ve – we’ve never laid eyes on this man in our life!
She simply lifts her nose to the sky, emitting an agonized whimper.
Because I can deny it all I want – deep down we both know it’s true.
This man is somehow, impossibly, written within us. Imprinted on our memory.
I stare up into his face, horrified at this truth.
He glares down at me, suspicion and hatred curling behind his eyes like smoke.