Chapter 12: Eudora

I wake up in my bed and reach out for Aren's body, but my hand only finds empty space. Hazy memories from the night before flood into me. James leaning over me, Aren carrying me home, me confessing my crush, kissing him, and finally him rejecting me, but still staying to comfort me. My face feels hot and I am so embarrassed. I can't believe I told him I liked him. I try to remember his reaction to that revelation, but it's all a blur. Gia's bed is empty, so I hope she had a better night than me.

I slowly drag myself out of bed. I'm still in my dress from last night. I pull off the dress and throw on some cotton shorts and the first t-shirt I can find, which happens to be the shirt Aren left after the bonfire. His shirt smells like him mixed with fire and it comforts me. I think I can smell coffee coming from the kitchen. Maybe Gia is back. I rub the sleep from my eyes and shuffle my feet out into the common area. It's not Gia who is standing in the kitchen, it's Madison and her lackeys. I'm disappointed that Olivia is still hanging out with them. My mind wander's back to the night I saw Olivia getting coffee with Aren. I wonder if the reason Aren keeps rejecting me, is because he is in love with Olivia. I shake that thought out of my head not wanting to jump to conclusions.

"Oh the slut is awake." Madison says from her place in the kitchen.

"What are you talking about, Madison?" I'm too hungover to deal with her bullshit.

"The whole school is talking about how you slept with James last night." She smugly looks at me.

"Well it's not true." I say and brush past Madison heading for the coffee maker. As I pull out a mug Madison continues.

"Who cares if it's true or not. What matters is that everyone believes it. You are ruined. Jayden is not going to waste any more time on a shifter who's ruined her potential mate strings." Madison gives me a satisfied smile. 

I spin to face Madison, "Why won't you leave me alone? You know Jayden will never be with you. Ruining me won't make him want you." I see Madison's hand move, but I'm not fast enough to dodge. My skin burns as hot coffee splashes across my chest. "What the fuck Madison."

"I can't have Jayden, so one one else can." She shouts at me.

Before I can react our door slams open and the man of the hour walks in. Jayden's eyes darken as he takes in the scene.

Madison immediately stands up straight and plasters a fake smile on her face. "Jayden, honey, I didn't know you were stopping by." She walks towards him with her arms open, as if she expects a hug. Jayden dodges her arms and he rushes over to me. 

"Ora are you okay?"

"I guess you've heard the rumors." I respond.

"We heard the rumors and we took care of it. Aren made James confess that he was lying." Jayden hugs me. "No one thinks any differently of you. They think pretty poorly of James now though." 

"She slept with James. I have proof." Madison cries.

"You do? Show me." Jayden demands. Madison snaps her fingers and Camille steps forwards holding out a dark photograph. The photograph is of my bed and in it you can see two distinctive lumps under the blanket. 

"See. Photographic proof of her and James in bed together." Shit this is bad. I can't tell my brother it was Aren in my bed, but if I don't say anything, people will think that James wasn't lying after all. I study the photo again and notice Arens bloody shirt on the floor. Fuck. I hope no one else notices that or we are screwed. 

Jayden turns to me, "Who was in bed with you last night?"

"I didn't have sex with anyone." I blurt out defensively.

"That's not what I'm asking Ora. Who is in your bed?" Jayden seems annoyed. I open my mouth to answer, but before I can, someone answers first.

"It was me. I slept in Ora's bed with her last night." I look up shocked to see that Charlotte is the one speaking. I didn't even notice her exit her room. "When she got home she was really drunk and I was worried about her, so I stayed with her to make sure she was okay." Charlotte gives Aren a meaningful look. Madison and Camille look shocked, but Olivia looks relieved. 

"She's lying." Madison accuses. She turns to Olivia. "Wasn't Charlotte in her own bed last night."

Olivia responds, "Actually, no." Charlotte relaxes once Olivia backs up her lie.

"I'm glad that has been settled." Jayden says, then turns to Madison. "I don't appreciate you trying to ruin my sister's reputation."

Madison's eyes go wide, "I didn't know, please Jay, I wouldn't have told James to go out with her if I knew she was your sister."

"You orchestrated the whole thing?" Jayden roars at Madison. "Why does it matter if Ora is my sister? No one I would ever consider being with, would ever do what you have done to another human." 

Madison seathes and looks at me. "You bitch, you didn't tell me Jayden is your brother on purpose to make me look bad. I am going to kill you!" Before she can even move, Jayden has her by the neck. 

"You're threatening my sister right in front of me? If you do anything at all to harm Ora, I will make sure you never graduate from this academy." Madison falls to her knees crying and Jayden just looks at her in disgust, then turns to me. 

"Ora are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Just hungover." I respond.

"Why don't you come up to our suite for breakfast? We have bacon." Aren offers. I smile at the thought of the greasy food. 

"Yeah, I think that is just what I need. Can you give me a minute? I want to talk to Charlotte alone."

"Yeah of course. We will wait right here." 

I grab Charlotte's hand and pull her into the study room closing the door behind us. "Thank you so much for covering for me. How did you know I needed help?"

"I'm quiet, not deaf." Charlotte smiles. "It's amazing how much you learn when people don't notice you. By the way, Olivia has spent every night in our room and she has never brought a guy around."

"Okay." I say, confused about why she shared that information with me. 

"I know you've been worried about her and Aren, so I just wanted to ease your worries." Holy shit, how did Charlotte know that. If her special magic ability wasn't a mental one I would think she was psychic.

"Thanks." I smile. It is a relief to know that Aren at least isn't hooking up with one of my suitemates. I exit the study room and join Jayden and the rest of his suitemates. We all walk together up to their suite. Jayden and I chat while we walk together at the front of the group.

"Thanks for handling the James situation."

"You should be thanking Aren, he did most of the work. He got James to confess in front of the Dean." Jayden says.

"What are you going to do now? Are you going to keep trying to date?"

"Well they say when you fall off the horse, you need to get back on. Jayden, you need to stop scaring guys away from me."

"After what just happened, you can't expect me to let you go out on dates with strangers."

"I can, and I do. If you don't stop this protective bullshit, I am going to tell mom."

"You wouldn't dare."

"You want to test me?"

"Fine, I'll back off of keeping guys from you."

"Thank you." I smile at my brother and then let myself into his suite.

…

It's amazing how my love life can blow up, but classes still continue. Just as Jayden predicted, James was expelled. Unfortunately, Madison didn't get in trouble for her part in the event. Since Madison denied knowing anything about James drugging me, and we had no proof she was involved, she got away with it. Apparently, Madison and James grew up in the same pack, and he has been in love with her his whole life. When on the first day, Jayden challenged a guy for me, Madison decided she needed to do something to get me out of her way. She told James that if he dated me, and then slept with me, she would go out with him. The way Madison uses people and then throws them away, makes me sad.

As the week progresses news goes around that Jayden is no longer fighting guys who talk to me. It's not too long before a brave shifter asks me on a date. The date is less than stellar. For the next couple weeks I go to class, study, and I continue to go out on disappointing dates. One guy talked for two hours straight without asking me a single question. Another guy wouldn't stop talking about how I was a female shifter. I tried to ask him if there was anything else he liked about me, and he couldn't think of a single thing.

"What caused the creation of the five Kingdoms?" Professor Ricklin asks the class and I am taken out of my musings. A few students raise their hands, and Professor Ricklin calls on one.

"After the human-shifter war, many shifters were afraid, and they returned to lands that were familiar to their animal sides. They stuck together in smaller groups eventually forming five different packs. These packs grew over the centuries and now they are kingdoms made up of many packs." Professor Ricklin writes 'fear/hide' and 'familiarity' on the board, then calls on another student.

"It could also have been the disappearance of the moon goddess that caused it. She's what bound the shifters together in one city. Once she was gone, they had no reason to stay." The professor writes 'lost connection' on the board.

"Good, now how did these new kingdoms regain a connection?" More hands are raised. The professor calls on Kaden.

"The Emperor." He says gruffly.

"What did the Emperor do exactly?" She asks him.

"He rallied the shifters left behind, to create a new shifter city, then he created communication pathways with the packs." Professor Ricklin writes 'Communication' on the board.

"What else did the Emperor do?" I raise my hand and the professor calls on me.

"He used those communication pathways to learn what each Kingdom needed and created trade between them." I answer. She writes 'Trade' on the board and then calls on another student.

"He sent reinforcements to any pack that was attacked." Professor Ricklin writes 'military', then she starts to speak. 

"He also moved his shifters to a new city that was more centrally located to the packs. Unfortunately, the location of the original city has been lost to time, but we have some drawings of what it looked like." Professor Ricklin pulls down the screen and turns on the projector, showing an image of a stone archway with an ancient script on it. The script looks similar to the designs on my locket.

I raise my hand again and the professor calls on me. "What does that say?" I ask.

"Unfortunately, just like the city, the ancient language has been lost. No one has been able to translate it. It is believed that magic was involved in reading the language."

Throughout the rest of class I am left wondering why my locket has a lost ancient language inscribed on it?

…

"I can't believe he tried to put his hands down my pants on the first date!" I exclaim as I burst into my brother's common room after another disastrous date. He and his six suitemates are all playing video games together. "Just because I'm a shifter, doesn't mean I'm horny enough to get it on right there in the movie theater."

"So I guess the date went poorly?" Leon asks as he pauses the game and puts down his controller. 

"I hope you broke his hand when he tried to touch you." Aren responds.

"It doesn't matter if she broke his fist, because I'm going to break his whole body." Kaden states as he cracks his knuckles and stands up. Kaden has become very protective of me since the dance. His twin Koda, puts a calming hand on his shoulder.

"I think the lesson here is that you shouldn't date anymore. What is this, your 3rd bad date this week?" Jayden asks, a little too perky at the idea of my dating life coming to a halt. 

I sigh and respond, "Yeah, so I've had bad luck with dating. Are there any guys at this school who don't want to go out with me just to hook up or because I am a female shifter?" 

"Maybe you're the problem, not the guys. Didn't you say you started reading a book while on a date this week?" Jayden teases me.

I give him a disparaging look. "I only took it out to keep me entertained while he was in the bathroom."

"Yeah but you didn't stop reading once he got back."

"The book was really good! I'm sure you've screwed up a handful of dates yourself."

"No, I am a perfect gentleman." Jayden grins up at me from his seated position on the couch. There aren't any open seats, so I sit on the floor, leaning my back against Aren's legs.

"I accidentally shifted during a date once." Max shocks me by speaking up. I turn to him and gape. 

"What happened?"

"The guys in my troop convinced me to take a girl dancing."

"But you hate crowded spaces!" I exclaim.

"Yeah." Max rubs the back of his neck. 

"So what happened?" I push him for more details.

"I got so nervous about having to touch her while we danced, and there were so many people and so many pheromones in the crowded club, and well… I panicked and accidentally shifted."

"Wait, your shift is an elephant. That must have been explosive." Kaden says, cracking the firm smile I've seen from him.

"That poor girl must have been so scared when you turned into an elephant." Koda giggles.

Max hangs his head in shame. "People were knocking each other over trying to flee from me. That date was so much of a disaster that it was my first and last date." 

"Max is not the only one who's taken a girl on a bad first date. Kaden yelled at a girl for taking his last french fry." Koda states stepping up for Max. 

"That's on her. I was really hungry and I warned her I get territorial over food." Kaden responds. "Leon fell asleep in the carriage on his date!" 

"Hey! You know carriage rides lull me to sleep!" Leon retorts in fake outrage. 

Kaden quickly shoots back, "Yeah carriage rides lull you to sleep because you are a baby." 

"Eudora, Kaden is picking on me!" Leon whines.

"What about you Aren? Do you have a bad date story?" I ask.

"I am not discussing my love life with you."

"Oh come on, the rest of us shared our stories."

"Fine, during my time in the military, I met a female shifter. We hadn't turned 22 yet, so we didn't know if we would get a string, but we went out anyway. She spent the whole date bragging about how she was so unique and that I was lucky to be out with her. She asked me if I had ever met a female shifter before, so I told her about Ora. She was pissed that I was friends with another female shifter and she spent the rest of the date insulting Ora and other female shifters. I got so frustrated that I just walked out. I never saw her again." 

We all sit in silence for a few moments until Kaden breaks the silence. "That girl sounds stuck up. You dodged a bullet."

"Yeah, if being a female shifter was the only thing she had going for her, I feel sorry for her." I state.

"Why do you bother with going on dates at this point? In a few weeks you'll be 22 and your potential mate strings will appear." Leon asks with his cute smile and sincere eyes. "You'll be guided to guys who suit you then. I'm sure the guys you have strings with will be much better dates." He seems to think for a moment and then he shoots up from his seat. "Hey! I have a great idea. Since we all aren't great at taking girls on dates, and Eudora needs more experience, why don't we all take her on a date?" Leon asks, bouncing from foot to foot.

"HAHAHAHA very funny. Why would we waste our time taking Ora on a date?" Kaden says. I give him my signature death glare.

"I think it's a great idea" Ryland says, standing and walking to me. He gets down on one knee besides me and takes my hand, looking me in the eyes as he kisses it. He softly says, "We would all be lucky to get the chance to go on a date with you." I blush embarrassed by his over the top flirting. 

"No one is taking Ora out." Jayden says.

"I think it would be a good idea to take Ora out, because it would be really educational and helpful to get feedback from a woman about a date. Maybe, we should reach out to past dates as well and see how they would rate it." Max says. 

"I don't think you should reach out to women to rate your dates. There are some things it's better not to know." Aren says and the rest of the guys nod in agreement. 

"I agree about the educational part though!" Leon adds. "And It would be a lot of fun to spend some more time with you." 

"So it's settled!" Ryland says "we will all take Eudora on a date. She gets safe dating experience, and she will help us improve our dating technique. Although, in my case, I don't know if perfection can be improved." He looks at me and winks.

"Fine, but you will all keep your hands to yourselves, and respect my sister." Jayden says, resigned to the fact that his friends are going to be taking his sister out.