Chapter 204

Shade reached us and I scowled at him, even though he looked as hot as ever with a few strands of loose blond locks hanging over his bedroom eyes.

“What’s wrong, Catnip?” he asked. “Why did you grimace? Do you have a toothache? The Academy has a good dental plan.”

“It wasn’t a grimace,” I said, rearranging my facial expression. “You glowered at me, so I was returning the favor.”

“Yeah? Well, I wasn’t happy with you,” he said, resuming his glare. “Now everyone knows I’m Canary!”

I looked at the girls, but they all turned away their faces, trying to appear innocent.

Busted! They were the ones who spread the rumor about his pet name.

I sighed. “It could be worse, Canary. Being popular with the ladies isn’t all perks.”

He slapped the back of my head, but it was more playful than punishment, so I didn’t take it personally.

“How was class, Pip?” he asked. “Did you stir up more shit?”

“Me?” I said, frowning at him deeply before I gestured at the girls. “I don’t stir shit, especially now that I have perfect role models who don’t shamelessly fart.”

The girls gasped, and Shade let out a strangled sound that was close to a chuckle.

“Be careful, Catnip.” Shade lowered his voice. “Just don’t go so far that you can’t come back from it. You don’t want your adversaries to connect the dots and then go on a witch hunt.”

He was warning me. Sideburns might piece together the incident of his and his girlfriend’s ridiculous farting and the accident of the tent falling on him. That would force the Alpha Heir to punish me, which was the last thing I wanted.

“Fine,” I agreed, then turned to Danielle for introductions. “You know Princess Danielle already. The other two chicks are her fierce minions. The honey-haired one is Summer. She’s a keeper. The delicious dark-skinned henchwoman is Paris, and she’s a catch.”

 Shade nodded at Danielle and flashed the girls his perfect white teeth, displaying his bright smile. He just couldn’t help but dazzle women.

“Then what are you, Catnip?” he joked.

I knew he was still attracted to me, but he’d never step between his brother and me. It didn’t matter that Sideburns had chosen another.

“I reserved a table for us,” Danielle chimed in, gazing at Shade. “Are you joining us, Cana—Prince Shade?”

Shade slanted me a hard look before turning to the princess with a softer, rueful expression. “Unfortunately, I can’t, Princess. I’m part of the faculty now. It’s frowned upon for a teacher to fraternize with students. I’ll be your training coach in battle class this afternoon.” He turned back to me. “I’ll need to talk to you after the class, Pip.”

“But you just said no fraternization,” I reminded him.

He shook his head in frustration and stalked away.

“His loss,” I grunted, “by refusing to fraternize with us, we have one

less mouth to feed.”

“You’ll never need to worry about not having enough food, Pip,”

Danielle said. “We don’t let any shifter go hungry.”