And getting a dog.
She came to me now, slithering up onto the bed in abject apology for deserting me while I thrashed in the covers.
“It’s okay, Trix,” I whispered. “I would have left, too.” My fingers stroked through her soft fur. Which was when I noticed she had white hairs around her muzzle.
Was she going gray? The rescue organization had thought she was between two and three when I adopted her. Surely too young to be getting a white muzzle, now? Maybe I just hadn’t noticed it before—she had a blaze, so some stray hairs would be normal.
Even though I was awake, I flinched violently at the strident ringing of the alarm. Bloody thing. Mari groaned and flung a massive arm over her face.
My heart accelerated. Today was the first official day of classes. I didn’t know whether to be terrified or excited.
I settled forawakeas a qualifier, as I rose and dug through the drawer for my official Shade-recruit apparel.
* * *
I reapplied myself at breakfast, determined to yank our team into some semblance of order. Our assessments yesterday gave me something to elicit comment on.
I targeted the Dragon to start. He’d seated himself next to me with the obvious intent of eating fast and vanishing.
“I thought the choices of weapons for the assessment were interesting. Do they really use mostly swords across the realms?”
He swallowed his mouthful and glanced sideways at me, the merest flash of blue. “Yes.”
Okay, I wasn’t going to let him get away with monosyllabic replies. “Why don’t they use guns?”
He arched a brow at me.
“You’re a weapons dealer. Or, you used to be,” Aaron sneered from across the table. “Don’t you have an answer?”
Talakai refused to look at the beta Dire shifter, but he did answer me in his deep, rumbling voice. “They do use guns. But the ingredients used to generate the propellants are not freely available in many realms. Swords and knives are cheaper, easier to maintain, more readily available, and more useful in close quarters.”
That was the longest speech I’d ever heard from him. Or might ever hear from him. He returned to his breakfast with single-minded focus.
I turned to Darius and schooled my features to mild interest. “How did your fight assessment go?”
The alpha’s eyes gleamed at me. “Proved I have what they’re looking for. How about you, Babydoll? Did they like your sweet ass? Or did you impress them with your footwork?”
I gritted my teeth. “I’m a fast learner.”
Aaron snorted, and Matt stiffened. Which is when Mari sailed into the discussion. “I brought down a cliff. Almost buried Bess.”
We all stared at her. She wouldn’t meet my eyes, which was a pretty good indicator of how upset she actually was.
“They will train you. That’s why you are here, Mari.”
Her orange eyes finally met mine. “That is what Bess said, too.”
“You are a Shaker, aren’t you?” Darius asked.
“They can be bloody dangerous,” Aaron muttered.
I ignored Aaron, and said, “They can be a major asset on a team.”
Our team leader shrugged as he stood. “Of course. But she’d better learn control. Or she’ll be a liability.”
With those sterling words of encouragement, he left and took his asshole beta with him.
I smiled at Mari. “Today, we start to learn about that stuff.”
