Madison sighed.

“He . . . let's just say I took his anthropology course a year ago as an elective, and he made his disdain pretty obvious."

That stung Heda a bit. She, like many others, tended to put the monarchies up on pedestals, though each shifter had different reasons for doing so. She liked to think that Kings and Queens were wiser than your average person, though part of her realized that was an irrational assumption.

"What did he do?"

"He . . . listen, let's just forget it. You still have a future in the community. No need to screw with that by getting you in trouble with the ALL Mighty Reichert."

“Please, just tell me."

Madison was looking very uncomfortable.

"He told me the class would probably be too hard for ‘someone like me,' and kept encouraging me to drop out until the due date was passed. I aced all the homework and the first test, but he kept after me until he realized I wasn't leaving. Then it seemed I had to work twice as hard as anyone else.

I decided I was going to get the best grade in the class, just to show him up, but I almost lost out due to a bullshit point deduction on the final."

"What did he deduct for?" Heda asked.

“Penmanship. I took it before the department head, who was pure human, and challenged it. I managed to get the point back, though I wound up tying for the high score. With, of all people, Alvin Hannity."

Heda was feeling a bit uncomfortable herself. The pedestal she had already put Reichert on was showing some cracks, if what Madison had said was true. Madison seemed to sense that discomfort.

"Sorry," she said, backing away as she felt the wind in her sails die down.

"I keep forgetting that no one is supposed to question the monarchy."

“No, you should. Just . . . carefully," Heda said.

“Listen, we can go after class on Friday and talk to him. He talked about not preying on other shifters as part of his welcome-to-the-neighborhood speech. He'd lose face if he didn't back that up."

Madison really did not want to go, but she nodded anyway. Heda would just have to see for herself.

"Okay." She was saved by Billy poking his head in and telling her it was almost time to go on.

"Gotta work."

"And I'm doing a late practice tonight," Heda replied. The environment had changed a lot from when she had walked in, with Madison going from hot to cool over the span of one conversation.

She placed one hand on the girl's shoulder and the other on the back of her head, pulling Madison closer and upward and planting a slow, gentle kiss on those wonderful lips.

Madison felt that the kiss was just an attempt to buy off her affections after getting her upset. After about half a second, she did not care, melting into Heda's body like a human-sized tube of goo. Her skin was warm with desire and her brain was short-circuiting.

"Ten seconds," Sasha said, poking her head in the door and grinning.

"I'll talk to you later," Heda said, giving Madison's firm butt a quick squeeze before walking out of the booth. Upon the door closing, Billy turned up the speakers so that they could all hear the beginning of the show.

"Hello," Madison started, drawing out the "Ul" sound with that voice that made Heda's heart go pitter-patt.