A COURT OF SHIFTERS AND SECRETS

T W E N T Y - O N E

Phoenix

I was on my way to Headmaster Cortez's office, to discuss the possible repercussions of Atlas' outburst, when I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

Shit.

That could only mean one thing...or specifically...one person.

"Phoenix my boy!" His dreaded voiced called out from behind me "How wonderful it is to see you!"

The students that lingered in the halls quickly scattered, shooting small but nervous smiles our way as they scurried away.

"Alpha Heir Fenrir" I bowed my head, acknowledging his status "What a lovely surprise."

He reached out to fix my tie, nearly making me flinch at his close presence.

Nothing ever good came from him being this close to me.

"Oh son, you know you can call me Dad now that I've passed my title onto you."

I almost snorted at his words, knowing that while his mouth said one thing, his eyes were saying something completely different.

His words meant absolutely nothing to me considering that this whole conversation was a farce.

Even when I was a young child I was never allowed to call him father or dad or any other paternal term of endearment because, according to him, it was a sign of weakness and disrespect for the male Fenrir Heir to address his father and Alpha Heir in such a way.

"What do I owe the pleasure Alpha?" I asked, barely managing to conceal my surge of annoyance.

Because if he was here, visiting me, that only meant one of two things.

Either another unscheduled Heir meeting was about to occur or he wanted whatever intel I had on Nova, even though it's been less then two weeks since he commanded me to spy on her.

My bet would be the latter option.

And while I would tell him the truth about the Lupine Heir, they would only be small fractions of the truth.

Because as hard as I tried to deny it for not only the sake of my friendship but also my Pack, I couldn't shake the feelings that evoked in me from my best friends spoken words yesterday.

Nova managed somehow to worm her annoyingly beautiful and stubborn self underneath my icy defenses.

I...felt something for her whether it be love or lust, I didn't know, but what I did know was that if the man in front of me caught wind of my newfound feelings for her, he'd use those feelings I had for her to control me.

To regain control of my Pack.

A Pack that was never his to begin with in the first place.

A Pack he never wanted to handover to me by choice but was forced to by council law.

"I just wanted to stop by and see how my son's doing" he said suavely, smoothing out my collar "Let's take a walk."

~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as we were out of earshot from the other students, in a very secluded part of the Academy grounds, my Father whirled on me with venom in his eyes.