Chapter 161: Someone Save Her

Like sisters who could fight over the smallest thing and still remain inseparable, Trisha and Brittney were back to being buddies. They chattered away that evening until dinner was delivered.

Turns out until the dining hall was repaired, food would be supplied to all the students in their respective Houses. So they ate between jokes and conversations, and before Aria knew it, it was time for bed.

Ready for the night, Aria walked over to the balcony door and lingered there. She was supposed to lock it as she had every night since arriving at Bestiaris, determined to keep any "sneaky" beasts from finding their way into her room.

But tonight, she found herself wondering what the point was. She was safe in House Therion, after all — and certainly wasn’t because she was anticipating a certain professor visiting her in the middle of the night.

At least, that was what she told herself.

So Aria merely closed the balcony door without locking it and went to her bed, tucking herself beneath the covers.

"Goodnight, Aria," she murmured to herself. "Not today either." It had become something of a mantra, a quiet reminder that she had survived yet another day in this damned academy.

With that, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

It felt as if she had barely been asleep when something pulled her awake. Aria’s eyes opened slowly at first, but the strange feeling that something was wrong sharpened so quickly that she sat upright at once, her gaze sweeping across the dark room.

Two purple eyes were glowing in the darkness.

A scream nearly rent from her throat, but the familiar shade of purple stopped her just long enough to make her hesitate. Aria reached blindly for the bedside lamp and switched it on.

There he was.

Maverick Nightshade.

He stood in the middle of her room like some creep from a horror movie, completely still, while the purple glow in his eyes vanished beneath the light so quickly that Aria almost wondered if she had imagined it.

"Are you kidding me?" Aria cursed under her breath. It was beginning to seem like this guy somehow got off on sneaking into her bedroom in the middle of the night and scaring the life out of her.

Suddenly, her phone beeped with a message. Aria picked it up from the bedside table and frowned when she saw Dimitri’s name. She opened it.

[Be careful with Maverick tonight.]

Aria didn’t know which was more concerning: the fact that Dimitri somehow knew Maverick was in her room right now, or that he was warning her to be careful around him. A blush crept up her cheeks for reasons she refused to examine, but caution quickly won out as she narrowed her eyes.

She was just about to type, Did the two of you plan this? when a gravelly voice spoke from across the room.

"You didn’t lock your door this time, little prey."

The words little prey had Aria lifting her head at once.

Seriously? After everything that had happened earlier, after he’d practically handed her an eternal sentence by announcing she was his mate, he was going back to calling her prey? Moreover, the last time he’d dared call her that, she’d driven her crown straight into his head. Surely, he hadn’t forgotten how that felt.

"You wanted me to come to you, didn’t you?" he continued in that deep, gravelly voice of his that might have melted Aria into the mattress had his attitude right now not been getting on her nerves.

Aria gestured toward him with her fingers. "Is this some sort of payback for earlier? You’re trying to prove that my rejection didn’t bother you, so now you’re going to stand there acting like an arrogant asshole?"

Maverick didn’t answer, and before Aria could demand one, her phone beeped again. Another message from Dimitri appeared on the screen.

[Maverick isn’t himself tonight. Don’t take anything he says or does to heart. Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you.]

What the fuck?

Aria’s heart missed a beat as every bit of irritation disappeared beneath a sudden rush of caution. She read the message again, slower this time, before lifting her eyes toward the man standing in the middle of her bedroom. Something was definitely wrong here.

Aria studied Maverick more carefully, and now that she knew to look, the differences were impossible to miss. Maverick had always possessed an almost infuriating amount of restraint. Even when angry, there was control beneath it. The man standing before her had none of that. He carried Maverick’s confidence without his discipline, and there was something almost reckless about the way he stood there, like he wasn’t scared of the consequences.

"I’m guessing the chirping of a Beta is trying to fill you in," he said with a confident smirk.

And that was all it took for Aria to know with absolute certainty that this wasn’t the Maverick Nightshade she knew. Or rather, Maverick wasn’t the one currently in control of his body. The real Maverick respected Dimitri far too much to speak about him with such casual contempt.

Aria slowly lowered her phone. Looking him dead in the eye, she asked, "Who are you?"

Some sort of delight spread across Feral’s face, pleased she had finally asked the right question. He had waited long enough for her to recognize him as someone separate from Maverick instead of treating them as if they were one and the same.

"You know who I am, Aria." He spoke her name in a way that sent goosebumps spreading across her skin despite the distance between them.

Aria managed to find enough of her voice to say, "Stop playing games with me."

Feral sighed. "You’re suddenly so chatty, little prey. I liked you better this morning when you didn’t want to talk."

And just like that, Aria was reminded of the very, very vivid dream she’d had about Maverick that morning.

Perhaps it was the shock of realizing he knew about the dream, or the sheer embarrassment of it, but Aria threw off the covers, jumped from the bed and made straight for the door.

Someone save her. This was absolutely not what she’d bargained for!