Diamond in the Ruff (Pedigree)

by Jodi Kendrick

  "Is it too late to switch classes?" she whispered back.

  "Shh!" The cadet in front of Corra turned with a scowl.

  She recognized one of the women from the cafeteria that had been eying Darcy, who then noticed that she'd drawn his attention and smiled at him. He gave her a polite nod and turned his attention to the tablet.

  Corra dropped her eyes to her screen with a sigh. Best get it over with.

  By the time she'd finished the last question, the class was nearly finished. The time had flown while she'd unexpectedly become engrossed in the questions and the auto-answers she'd selected.

  That wasn't so bad.

  The results of the exercise told her where her biases were firmly in place. She wasn't surprised.

  "We have a few minutes left before we're done, so we can quickly give a rundown of what some of our top biases are." She nodded to the cadet at the front corner, and the answers worked their way along the rows.

  “Different.”

  “Scruffy.”

  “Homeless.”

  “Loud.”

  “Smelly.”

  “Old."

  And on they went.

  "Humans," Darcy said at his turn, though he wasn't the first. Humans had been mentioned multiple times.

  "Uhm." Corra kept her eyes on the professor when she gave her answer. "Felines."

  Darcy's body jerked next to her. "What's wrong with felines?"

  Corra shrugged. "What's wrong with humans?" She looked at him.

  Darcy's gaze was pinned to her face. He was clearly insulted.

  Columba ignored them and nodded at the next cadets until everyone had given an answer.

  When the class ended, Corra stood to go, and Darcy turned to block her path. The woman who'd been sitting in front of them pulled Darcy's attention from Corra.

  "Will you be attending our yoga class again this week?" She smiled at him.

  Her body language screamed available at him.

  He returned her smile, charm switched on. "Of course, wouldn't miss it."

  As Corra darted around him, Professor Columba caught her before she could make it out the door. "Corra, will you come to my office after classes?"

  “Uhm, sure thing," she said and made her way to her next destination.

  Distracted, Corra’s thoughts went back to Darcy's participation in yoga.

  She recalled his interest in the class when she and Bryah had spent time at the Academy before enrolling. Caleb had mentioned that Darcy liked the class to admire all the yoga-pant-clad ladies and to keep himself limber for date nights—often with said yoga ladies.

  Tomcat.

  It didn't take a brainiac to see that he was popular among the women. That had been clear at breakfast when an entire horde of them preened at his appearance and scowled at her for having his attention for a few seconds.

  Christ, it was beginning to feel like high school all over again. Weren't they all adults? Didn't people ever grow up?

  She sighed.

  "What's the matter?" Bryah's voice cut her thoughts as she suddenly appeared next to her.

  "What? Oh, nothing. High school."

  "Eesh. Glad those days are over."

  "Are they, though?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Nothing," Corra said.

  "Are you coming to Columba's yoga class later?"

  "Undecided."

  "You should come. Good meditative practice and limber up those muscles." She gave Corra's arm a shake. "Loosen you up. You're far too uptight."

  "Hey, I'm loose enough."

  "Really now?" Darcy's voice drawled from her other side.

  Where the hell had he come from?

  "Hey, Darcy, yoga later?" Bryah asked.

  "Wouldn't miss it." He winked.

  "Okay, see ya at role-play class this afternoon. You can be the bad cop." She made a kissy face at Corra and disappeared down another hall.

  "So…"

  Corra could feel Darcy's attention on her face. "So?"

  "What do you have against felines?"

  "What do you care?"

  "What do I care?" he asked, incredulous. "Clearly, I am a feline; therefore I care."

  She stopped walking and turned to look at him. Did he really want an honest answer? He already looked insulted, and she doubted his expression would improve. She had no idea why he was even following her around anyway.

  Curiosity.

  She was the new toy in the room.

  "Self-absorbed. Aloof or in-your-face. No in-between."

  "Well, I—"

  "And tomcats like to piss on everything," she said and turned to continue on.

  "Hey, that's low, man."

  "You asked."

  "I don't piss on anything, ever. Except for that one time my brothers and I were having this contest…"

  "TMI, Darcy, TMI."

  He caught up to her, and she cast him a brief glance. She stopped walking again. He didn't look angry, just deeply offended.

  "Is that what you really think of me?"

  Why did he care what she thought of him?

  "I don't know you, Darcy."

  He studied her face. Then his offended expression cracked into a grin, white teeth bright in his tanned face. "You will."

  7

  Corra tapped lightly on the door to Sylla Columba's office, drawing her attention.

  Looking up over her reading glasses, Professor Columba smiled. "Come in and close the door." Removing her glasses, the professor waved a hand at the heavy chair facing her desk.

  Corra settled in.

  "It's good to see you again. You and Bryah are settled in?"

  Corra nodded.

  "Good. I just wanted to follow up on the sessions we had after the incident with Leonard Couleuvre."

  Corra stiffened.

  "I know you don't like to talk. You know, though, that if you're going to be an agent, assessments are required. I'll be contacting Bryah for a meeting too."

  With a sigh, Corra resigned herself to the impromptu questions.

  "Have the nightmares resumed?"

  Dive right in. Okay.

  "Not the ones about Len and Arnold. The old ones have come back again."

  "The dreams about your mother's abduction?"

  Corra nodded.

  Columba frowned. "Okay." She was silent a few moments. "Will you work with me on this?"

  Corra shrugged. "Do you think it will be an issue in the field, Professor Columba?"

  "In here, call me Sylla. I can't predict that, so it’s best to address it."

  Corra nodded.

  "I recall you couldn't remember your mother’s abductor. He was a looming shadow?" Sylla asked.

  Stomach tight, Corra swallowed the puppy whine building in her chest. Clearing her throat, she said, "No face. Same dream every time, but no face."

  Hazy snapshots. Playing at a park, backpacks nearby. Riding in a car, backpacks at their feet. Backpacks. Every memory had the same ever-present backpacks. She recalled the sense of moving from one place to another that permeated her life right up until she and Bryah shared an apartment for a while. And yet, here they were, uprooted from that life and beginning anew.

  Would that time ever come when she could put down roots somewhere? Find a static place to breathe and relax?

  "Here's what I'd like you to do." Sylla pulled open a drawer, shuffling around the items before holding up a pendant with a thin chain. She reached across the desk to deposit the item in Corra's out-stretched hand. "It has a recording device inside it. Every morning when you wake up, talk through what you remember of your dreams. The more you do it, the more you're telling your brain to remember."

  Corra nodded, inspecting the loonie-sized circular pendant. An open-winged dove was etched on the front. She looked up and smiled at Sylla, who was a dove shifter. "It's pretty."

  "It'll take time. We can meet here on a regular basis."

  Corra glanced at the clock on the professor's desk. "You have a c
lass later."

  "I do. Are you joining?"

  "Maybe," she said, uncommitted, and smiled. "I have to meet my brother at the obstacle course. He's helping me train for time."

  "All right, then maybe I'll see you later on." She offered a wide smile, and Corra returned it.

  Despite the discomfort of inner world exposure, she liked Professor Columba.

  Leaving the office, she turned the pendant over in her hand, fingers sliding along the etched surface.

  Resolved, she grumbled and sighed, dropped the chain over her head, and let it settle under her shirt.

  If this exercise could help her remember something useful about what happened the night her mother disappeared, she'd do it. She didn't like it, but she would do it.

  Darcy's gym bag hung from his fingers as he crossed the green toward the group gathering next to the obstacle course.

  He could see Caleb running the course with Corra and suppressed a pang of regret that she wasn't joining the yoga class. He set his bag down and wandered toward the end of the green to meet them.

  She ran as fast as Caleb, her face strained with concentration. Her gait was as fluid as Caleb's was powerful. He admired her grace.

  He hadn't expected a canine to move as nimbly as a feline.

  Hm. Maybe he had a few more biases than just humans.

  Of course he did. Cats were the top. Cats ruled everyone else, didn't they? At least that was what his family had been raised to believe.

  They were for sure the best; everyone knew it.

  They even had their own goddess. And let his mind quickly slide from the fact that there probably were other shifter gods too.

  Whatever.

  He turned his attention back to the track. They were almost to the wall near the end. Caleb went up and over with his usual ease.

  Corra hesitated.

  He held his breath.

  You couldn’t hesitate before the wall.

  While she didn't face plant, she did launch late, which cut her momentum, and she struggled to top it.

  She dropped back down, shoulders drooped. Caleb came back and gave her a pat on the shoulder.

  "It'll come," he said, trying to offer his sister encouragement.

  "Yeah, maybe, thanks though."

  "Hey, Darcy," Caleb said when he looked up to see him.

  Corra's eyes lifted to him, startled by his presence. Her cheeks turned pink, and she reached for the bag on the bench beside the circuit.

  "Coming for a round?" Caleb asked him before taking a swig from his water bottle.

  "Nah, yoga class is starting soon. Just came by to see how it's going."

  Caleb glanced at his sister. "Great run."

  "Lousy climb," Corra muttered.

  "Just got to loosen up and not over-think it."

  "Are you going to yoga, Corra?" Darcy asked, suddenly really wanting her to go too.

  She shrugged a non-answer.

  "Haven't you had your fill of yoga-butts yet?" Caleb chided.

  "Hey, it wasn't so long ago that it was your favorite distraction too."

  "Sure. And things have changed," Caleb said, his gaze seeking Bryah, who happened to be making her way over to the group.

  "You should go, Caleb," Corra said.

  "Only when ordered. More of a spectator sport for me."

  Corra glanced at the group. "Well, I should change. I may not be able to spring over a wall, but I can do a perfect down-dog." She glanced over at Darcy. "Are you going to the change rooms too?" She raised a brow.

  Lost in the mental image of the pose she'd just mentioned, there was a slight delay in the question reaching his brain. "Me? Why?"

  "Why, to put on your yoga clothes, of course."

  Darcy looked down at himself. “What's wrong with my shorts and tank?"

  "Everyone else is wearing the proper yoga uniform, Darcy. You'll stand out." Her grin turned mischievous. "I have a spare set of clothes in my bag." She glanced him over. "May be a little loose in the hips, but there's a drawstring."

  "Naw, I'm good with my shorts, thanks though." He felt unease creep through his shoulders.

  Corra pulled a folded set of clothing out of her bag and held them out for Darcy.

  "Pussy."

  His spine snapped ramrod straight.

  Had she just issued a challenge?

  Her smug expression was his answer.

  Caleb chuckled.

  "Did he put you up to this?"

  Caleb's hands came up as he stepped back. "Hey, I have nothing to do with this."

  "Not at all. It's only fair, isn't it? If you're coming to class to enjoy the view, then everyone should enjoy the same privilege."

  She was challenging him.

  "I see what you're doing here. Okay then. You want a view too? Sure."

  He dropped his shorts, revealing his slim-fit martini glass boxers. Shucking his shoes, he slid his feet into the legs of the pants, pulling them up. They didn't fit smoothly over the shorts, leaving the bunched fabric crinkled and bumpy underneath no matter how he tried to adjust the two layers.

  "Hmm. Doesn't quite work."

  Corra glanced toward the change room building and shrugged as she glanced at her watch. It was nearly time for the class to start. Pulling another set of clothes from her bag, she dropped her running shorts, revealing a thong that instantly disappeared as she changed in a blur of limbs and fabric. She pulled the T-shirt up over her head to reveal a sports bra, which was also quickly covered by a yoga tank.

  Darcy'd barely had time to blink by the time she was pulling on fresh socks and pulling her shoes back on.

  Well, okay then. He sighed, stripped down to the buff, and pulled the yoga pants back on.

  Corra had reflexively glanced at his movement. "Whoa!" she said, quickly averting her gaze. The creamy skin of her cheeks and throat turned a deep shade of peach.

  What the hell.

  He even pulled the yoga tank on over his wide shoulders. It fit weird, stretched across his pecs. He shrugged. May as well go all in. "All right, let’s go," he said.

  Corra smirked, letting her gaze slide from his feet to his forehead. "Much more appropriate, wouldn't you say, Caleb?"

  "Oh, definitely."

  "Whatever, man. Let's go." Darcy picked up his bag and headed toward the yoga class, Corra striding alongside him.

  "This should be fun," Caleb said, trailing along behind.

  "Shut up," Darcy muttered.

  In the few minutes it took to reach the group, Instructor Columba stood watching his approach, brows raised in surprise.

  Everyone else had followed her gaze and were full-on spectating his approach with little smiles and appreciative glances and winks.

  He felt exposed.

  He stood a little straighter, trying to ignore how the shapely fabric outlined everything. Everything, drawing gazes normally glued to his face down across his body in such a way that he'd normally appreciate in an intimate setting. This was a little less comfortable.

  "Shall we begin?" Columba said, pulling the students' attention.

  Darcy moved to a spot toward the back of the group.

  "Oh no no, you should move up closer to Instructor Columba so you can be sure to catch the right positions."

  Darcy had been doing this for months now. He knew the routine and positions just fine. Or so he’d thought. Truth be told, he usually was a little distracted by the poses of the other participants.

  He sighed.

  Up at the front of the class, he settled in, and they began.

  Corra smirked at him from the back of the group. Nearly everyone else's eyes were glued to him.

  Throughout the class, he could hear little giggles and sighs.

  His neighbors were quick to help him with posture correction.

  Lydia, the student with the best yoga-ass, said to Corra with a laugh, "That is the most brilliant clothing loan ever. Thanks for that." Then she invited her out for drinks.

  All the time he'd been go
ing to this class, he'd never been able to convince Lydia to go out with him for drinks.

  8

  "Corra!"

  She turned her head just in time to stop a Frisbee hurtling for the bridge of her nose with a reflexive swipe of her hand.

  "Jeezus, woman, pay attention."

  "You could have made sure I was looking, Bree," she snapped to divert her distraction. She'd been lost watching the guys run the obstacle course.

  "Why don't you go run with them?" Bryah said, jogging over to Corra's position. "Hm, the view is better from over here," she said with an appreciative gaze at her love interest. "You're obviously into Darcy, and you can't avoid him forever. Especially not here at the Academy."

  "I'm not avoiding him." Corra's voice rose a notch.

  "Right."

  Corra glanced at Bryah, noting the “I see through your bullshit” expression.

  "Well. I am going to move over to that spot right over there. I'm going to plant myself on that lush bit of grass and absorb all the muscle-y goodness with my eyeballs. You're welcome to join."

  Corra's feet were moving along behind Bryah before she'd made the decision. She watched her brother on the course, running amid a clump of other cadets, an even mix of female and male, which included his roommate. Her eyes focused on the tall, dark man and locked in place. She sighed. Darcy Karak was a fine-looking specimen of the male species, even if he was feline. His curly black hair, tied back in a stubby little ponytail, bounced as he ran. He seemed to always have the perfectly shaped five-o'clock shadow. He moved with grace and speed, he and Caleb urging each other along.

  "You should come to the Hub with us tomorrow night." Bryah's voice broke the dream-like state Corra had been slipping into.

  She blinked. "Maybe."

  "I'm going to shower. I have some surveillance techniques theory to review."

  "Do you need help?"

  "Nah, you stay here and ogle the boys…Or, like I said, go run with them." Bryah flipped the Frisbee in her hands and headed toward the dormitories.

  Corra frowned. Dammit, she looked like an idiot standing there by herself staring. She wasn't ready to go back inside yet. The runners were approaching. Screw it.

  Her feet carried her toward them.

  Caleb's surprise turned to a smile when he saw her approach. "It's about time you joined us."