Dimitri goes on a morning walk without Rose one day and comes back with a cat. The cat hates Rose and glares at her all the time while it loves Dimitri.
Rose is confused and asks, “How the hell does that cat like you?”
Dimitri tilts his head, glancing up at her from the ground and he pats the cat’s stomach. “What do you mean?”
“Animals hate dhampirs,” Rose points out, pulling at face that he doesn’t remember such common knowledge. Dimitri is even more perplexed.
“No, they don’t.” He stares at her for a moment, and then a smile breaks out on his face. “Oh, I forgot about that.”
Rose crosses her arms, growing irritated. “Forgot about what?”
His face softens. “Alberta told you that animals hate dhampirs.”
“Yeah,” she shrugs, not understanding where he was going with it.
Rose blinks at him for a second, and then exclaims, “What?”
“She lied,” Dimitri repeated, still playing with the cat. “She mentioned a stray once getting into the school and that if refused to go near you but loved Lissa, so she lied that animals dislike dhampirs.” His brows drew together as he peered up at her, “You never asked anyone else?”
Rose’s jaw was open, small sounds coming out but never forming into words. Finally, she replied, “I asked Stan, and he said...”
“Stan hated students hiding animals in their dorms, so he probably went along with it so you didn’t get ideas.”