Page 93 of Vicious Kings
Isabella's hand connects with my cheek before I see it coming. The slap echoes through the empty classroom, hard enough to split my cheek on one of her rings.
Olivia gasps. "What the fuck, Isabella? You can't?—"
"Shut up, drab." Isabella doesn't even look at her, those dark eyes fixed on mine with an intensity that would probably be terrifying if I hadn't stared down actual monsters before. "This doesn't concern you."
The other omegas move in closer, forming a circle around us. One grabs my arm, nails digging in hard enough to break skin.Another yanks my hair, pulling my head back at an angle that makes my neck strain.
I could break free. Could use the training I've spent twenty years perfecting to put all of them on the floor before they even knew what hit them.
And I still fucking might.
But if I'm going to make this plan work, I need Corvinus and his pack to think I'm vulnerable.
Besides, if I go full hunter on these bitches and end up in whatever padded pink cell that passes for solitary in this place, it's going to be hard to complete my mission.
So I grit my teeth and take it as they shove me between them like a rag doll, their perfectly manicured nails leaving scratches across my arms. One of them trips me and I hit the floor hard, my palms scraping against the stone.
"This is what happens," Isabella says, standing over me like a conquering queen, "when you forget your place."
Olivia pushes one of the girls who shoved me, only to receive a backhand to the face that sends her to the floor with a yelp.Thatmotivates me more than anything they've done to me, but two of the omegas grab me and hold me back before I can launch at her attacker.
I could break their hold, but I'd probably snap their dainty little wrists in the process.
I'm about to say fuck it and start breaking bitches' bones when a voice cuts through the chaos.
"Get your hands off her."
Every omega in the room goes completely still, including me. It's a familiar voice, but there's nothing familiar about the deep growl underneath it, or the current that runs up my spine in response to it.
An alpha bark.
I've never had one used on me, never experienced it beyond what my hunter training prepared me for in the event that I encountered an alpha on the field, but I recognize it instinctively.
Oh, fuck.
Twenty-Seven
BILLIE
Evidently, I'm not the only one affected by the bark.
The hands on me release immediately, and I look up to find Tallon standing in the doorway with an expression I've never seen on his usually friendly face.
He looks pissed.
Genuinelypissed, with his green eyes blazing and his shoulders squared. He usually resembles a golden retriever, but right now, he's a rabid wolf ready to attack. The easy-going shifter is gone, replaced by something that makes my omega instincts want to crawl under the nearest desk and hide.
Not going to happen.
"Tallon," Isabella says, and for the first time since I've met her, she sounds uncertain. "We were just?—"
"Assaulting another student?" He sweeps into the classroom, and the omegas scatter like leaves, including the ones who were holding Olivia down. "In broad daylight? Are you little harpiestryingto get expelled? Because I assure you, I can make that happen."
Isabella looks mortified. I'd almost feel bad for her, if she wasn't such a stone cold bitch who's been set on making my life hell from the moment I stepped on campus.
"She started it," the brunette squeaks, pointing at me. "She's been?—"
"I don't give a shit." Tallon's voice drops to something that makes the hair on my arms stand up. Not quite a bark this time, but like a hunter's resonance, the echoes of it leave traces in the air. "Touch her again, and you'll answer to me. All of you."
