“What the fuck happened?” Dylan asked me.
“I gave the Princess a bracelet, and Orion said Lord Halvorsen has a limp dick,” I answered him distractedly. I watched, terrified, as Selene approached the fighting bears.
“No, you don’t. You stay here,” Dylan told me as he wrapped his arms around me from behind. I had made to go to her, to stop her. It was dangerous to approach an angry beast shifter.
I had never known a pureblood shifter before Selene came for me. I didn’t know they could shift so swiftly. I had seen my father shift only a couple of times, and it was an agonising few minutes, sickly to witness. Lord Halvorsen and his brother had shifted, it seemed instantly.
“But she’s going to get too close,” I argued, trying to pry him away from me. “Let me go, Dylan! Ma’am! Ma’am! Stop!” I called to her desperately.
The larger bear charged the smaller one, knocking him with such force that he was lifted from the ground and into the air, crashing down onto an abandoned table and destroying it into splintered wood and bent metal.
“She knows what she’s doing,” Ana said, appearing beside me.
I would have replied, if Selene hadn’t reached the larger bear. The whole room seemed to silence. “Oskar,” she called. The larger bear turned to her, and my heart stopped. “Are you so fragile that one slanderous comment from your younger brother is enough to lose your control?” she continued.
The bear, Lord Halvorsen, turned more fully to her, eyes narrowed.
“Make your next move carefully, dear,” she said, tone severe, mocking, challenging.
Lord Halvorsen lowered his head submissively, turning back to Orion, who struggled to stand from the mess of table around him.
Orion shifted back, naked, twisting his body pitifully, still unable to stand, howling out in pain. Half of him was red from the wound down his face that bled profusely.
Lord Halvorsen shifted in a scarily fluid manner as he walked to his brother.
“I should kill you,” Lord Halvorsen said before hawking and spitting on his brother. “But I would not hurt our mother so, this time,” he said, leaning down and dragging Orion to his feet.
He dragged Orion, naked and broken, to Selene, dropping him at her feet. “Apologise,” he demanded of his groaning brother.
“Sorry, my Royal Highness, for my brother’s inability to get it up,” he laughed almost manically. Lord Halvorsen lifted his hand as if to strike his brother down. Selene’s hand darted out stopping Lord Halvorsen.
“Send your brother home to your House; do not cause your family more grief. Your brother is embarrassment enough,” she commanded.
Lord Halvorsen growled while dragging his giggling brother back to his feet and from the café.
“The administration will not be happy about this,” Justin said. “What a mess. I hope the café isn’t closed tomorrow. I don’t want to have to hike to the Science building for lunch.”
“Percy, what happened?” Ana asked me, smacking at Dylan’s hands. “Let her go.”
“Halvorsen has a limp dick, apparently,” Dylan answered for me as he released me from his arms.
“According to his brother,” Selene added. As she walked toward us, her voice sounded loud in the still silent room. “Not that his brother is in our bed,” she said loud enough for those she passed to hear. I felt my face scrunch up at her words. I didn’t think she had been with him like that, but her words suggested otherwise.
“Pet, we’re going home now,” she told me. I stepped forward, away from my friends and towards her. She took my hand and led me from the café through the same doors Lord Halvorsen had left by.
We walked home silently.
“I’m sorry that the bracelet isn’t fancy,” I told her when she turned to me.
“Percy, I have never worried for money. I have not asked about the cost of any item I have ever purchased. Price is of no value to me. What does have value to me is meaning. Your bracelet, imbued with your scent, derived from your blood, is the most valuable item I own,” she told me seriously, grabbing my hips and pulling me towards her.
I turned my head from her kiss, refusing her lips. She growled, her hand moving from my hip to grip my jaw and turn me back to her.
“Why do you turn away from me?” she asked.
“You’ve slept with him,” I stated, finding it difficult to meet her angry silver eyes. Her face softened into a smile on her lips.
“Pet, I haven’t fucked him,” she told me.