Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
She set the other alpha leaders off laughing. Everyone except for Mara, but even she was losing her patience.
“Okay, enough!” I held my hands out over the crowd, wishing right then I was a forest wolf who could summon clumps of dirt and stuff their mouths! “This is a waste of time, sit d—”
“Shut the fuck up! This is our one chance to be heard, and of course you fucking alpha assholes are ruining it!”
“Who the fuck are you calling an asshole, fish!”
“Your mama’s a fucking fish! She glub-glub-glubs on this dick all night long!”
His friends howled at the comeback until said alpha asshole leaped out of his chair, launching at them.
“Shut up!”
A tidal wave of water appeared in the air and splattered the alphas and betas, washing half of them bellowing out of their seats.
The lines turned on each other. Yellow eyes, dripping fangs, lethal claws, flames, water, vines, and all the powers at their fingers clashed in a furious mob of growls and snarls.
“Stop it!” I screamed. “Ava! Melisent!”
My epsilons shot out of their seats, running to break up the fighting.
I spun back on the alpha leaders just as Magnus signed out, leaving his square dark.
“No, wait!”
Shaking her head, Mara’s disappointment was heavy in her eyes before she clicked out too.
The complete and utter satisfaction on Ash’s face was obscene. The woman laughed full in my fucking face.
“Don’t go,” I cried, running to the podium. “Just wait five minutes, and I’ll—”
Boom!
The stage heaved, throwing me off my feet.
I crashed on the floor, ears ringing as the projector went completely dark—wiping away the last five judgmental faces in a blink.
“What the hell is going on?” I shrieked, nose filling with the harsh, acrid sting of smoke.
“It’s the projection equipment,” Edric cried in my ears and my head. “It’s destroyed! Blown up.”
“What! How?!”
“Oh, dear,” Ash tutted. Her shadow fell over me, looming as large as her grin. “It would seem the forum is over. Indefinitely.
“Back to your dorms, students,” she sang, gliding off the stage. “We won’t trouble you with this nonsense again.”
Chapter Five
I groaned, hanging my head in my hands. “That was the most humiliating thing that’s ever happened to me in my whole life, and I once went a whole day walking around with my skirt caught in a pair of granny panties that had very visible stains!”
“Oh, eugh. What kind of stains?”
“Is that really the point!”
Paxton shrugged, gnawing on his oxtail. “It is now.”
“Fuck’s sake, they were strawberry jam stains—if you must know.”
“I now have even more questions.”
“Ugh!” I burst out, flopping back on the grass.
After Ash walked out of the forum from hell, laughing all the way, the epsilons and I were left to break apart the mob while the secret police sat back and watched—also laughing all the way.
Never had I looked like more of a failure than I did at that moment.
Not only did I mess up a massive opportunity for the omegas, but every clan leader just got a glimpse of the “equal and fair Corvin community,” and they saw it was a big, fat, fuckup.
Whatever Ash has been sent by the council to do, I just did it for her. No one who saw a second of that forum wanted it anywhere near their clan.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Edric said.
“I’m in your head, Edric. I know you’re lying!”
I could feel him cringe from all the way in the auditorium. He stayed behind to see if any of the projection equipment could be saved. Going by his dour thoughts, the answer was no.
“At least I turned off the livestream two seconds after Megan started ranting. No one else saw it get really bad.”
“I wish that was cheering me up right now.”
“Well, it would if you’d stop moping over it and just eat it,” Paxton said, moving my plate of oxtail and rice and peas over to me. “Go on. Have some.”
Sniffing, I flopped over and watched the sprites flitting across the pond.
After I finally got everyone out of the auditorium, I took off running and didn’t stop running until I somehow ended up in Paxton’s spot. I didn’t mind that. The little clearing was actually a calm, beautiful place to sit and think for a while.
Or at least it was until Paxton came trotting through the trees an hour later—bold as shit and carrying a blanket and picnic basket like we were meeting for a date.
“I’m sorry, Paxton,” I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut. “You never got a chance to tell the leaders that we need stronger inheritance laws. It’s all my fault.”
“Hey, come on.” A soft, calloused hand stroked my back, sending shivers up my spine. “Don’t say that. You know it’s not your fault. You didn’t tell everyone to spectacularly lose their shit.”
“But I should’ve known they would,” I cried. “The worst part is I looked inside Ash’s folder after she strutted off cackling. She actually had a great plan and a system for how to keep the peace, and organize everyone so they could say their piece, then keep it moving without the conversation getting out of control.