The First Year block seemed miles away. By the time Ava went through the wide doors, she was sweating and sure her eyes were red from holding back her tears. She hadn’t bumped into anyone, so she realised everyone else really followed the tardiness rule. She hoped they would follow the other rules—no fighting, respect for others, etc. The front of the building had several offices, which she assumed were the administration, but she couldn’t see anyone to direct her. She eventually found a map on the papers stuck on the notice board near the door and made her way to the room she was supposed to have gone to straight after the assembly. The welcome pack hadn’t included the academy prospectus, which she had thought was odd, but it said they would enrol in their classes during orientation. She hoped the spots weren’t limited. If she was going to get stuck here for a while longer, she at least wanted to make a start on the Business degree she would have done at a human college. She planne
Ava was seething by the time she was shown her locker in the training centre. She had pricked her fingers so many times during a quick taster lesson in needlework that she was ready to punch someone. How in the world did they think they could do this to her? This was about her future! She was going to run the family business, not sew and clean! She was not an Omega, but the fact that they treated them like this, giving them no choice about their futures, was outrageous! She had a lot of respect for Omegas, but how they even took all of this shit was beyond her. Being submissive didn’t mean being a doormat.If that was what it meant in this place, she would never survive. There was no submissive bone in her body. She would never survive four years doing this. She could have put her head down for a week or two until they saw their mistake, but if they kept her here for four years? No chance! Needlework? Seriously?She slammed her locker, startling the girl next to her.“Sorry,” she mu
Zeke hung his blazer up in his locker and then slammed it shut with more force than necessary. Derek and Myles didn’t say anything. They had been watching him since the assembly and it was pissing him off. How was he supposed to think like this? How was he supposed to prepare?“Maybe you shouldn’t do this today. Take your aggression out somewhere else instead of on the poor First Years,” Derek said finally.He gave Derek a look as he walked over to the fridge to get a bottle of water to cool himself down, and his friend had the good sense to look down. A challenge was the last thing he needed right now. His body was so wired up that he felt like he would explode. He hadn’t been able to concentrate in any lesson because this situation was not like anything he had ever dealt with. Derek was probably right.But he needed to let out some steam, and letting Shadow go for a run was out of the question. His only option was to punch something, and the training centre was the only place wher
Keep your head high. Remember your name.Her father’s advice rang constantly through her mind when she had followed the Alpha, though she wasn’t sure if she could trust anything he had said to her now. But her fake confidence disappeared the moment she turned to lock the door. This was so stupid. Why was she even listening to him? Why had she locked the door instead of opening it and getting to safety? She still had her hand on the lock as she tried to think of a way out of this. The last place she wanted to be was in a locked room with an angry Alpha.“Turn around,” Ezekiel growled. “Don’t even think about running because I’ll catch you, Ava. And we both won’t like the consequences.”With a shaky breath, she turned around to face him, but she didn’t dare look into his eyes this time. She didn’t know if looking anywhere else on him was any better. Her brain fizzled and stopped working when she looked at his body. The guy was huge and built to perfection. He wore sweats that moulded h
The training session was unlike anything Ava had ever seen.Her head had still been a mess when the other students started piling in; she could still feel Ezekiel’s body against hers. It made it hard to concentrate. All the First Years were in this class until they could be evaluated and separated, so they were asked to pick an opponent. Almost everyone wanted to fight her, but the coach told them he would pick an opponent for her. Then he told them to run laps around the gym for a warm-up. That almost killed her. Jogging was not her friend, and it was unfair that she still had to do the same number of laps even after all the others had zoomed past her several times and finished before she had even completed the first lap. She had been wheezing as she completed the second lap, ignoring all the laughter and taunts. Trying to catch her breath had taken all her focus. At least it had taken her mind off Ezekiel.Then, thankfully, the coach had told her to get off his floor with a few cho
Detention was like a break she really needed. The Omegas were constantly on the go with the duties as well as the ‘classes’. She rolled her eyes at that thought as she walked into the room she had been directed to.She was already twenty minutes late. Mr Patrick was overseeing detention, and he shook his head when she arrived. He also picked his tablet up and marked something with a pointed look in her direction. When Ava settled down and pulled her tablet out to try memorising the rules, a notification popped up. She clicked on it and saw another detention had been set for her for being tardy.She looked up at Mr Patrick, who grinned at her before he carried on with the work he had in front of him.She wanted to be upset; she really did. But if the detention was like this, she preferred it to cleaning up the training centre after the whole school. She rubbed her sore shoulder as she looked around. No one else was in the room, so Mr Patrick had been right. She was the only one to g
Zeke should never have touched her. It made everything worse!He slammed the door as he walked into his house, then stopped short when he saw two Omegas with their bags standing near the doorway. Great. Now he had to share his personal space when he was already struggling to control Shadow.Already, the beast was snarling, trying to go back to Ava. As expected, the stench of fear filled his nostrils as he stopped in front of them. If everybody was scared of him, why the fuck did they keep giving him these Omegas in the first place? “Speak,” he growled.They startled, and one of them was visibly shaking. “We’ve been assigned to you, sir,” one of them said. “I know that,” he growled. “What are your names?”It was Shadow making him so irritable, but there was nothing he could do about that. They would have no peace until Ava was out of this school.“Samantha,” the one who had spoken first said. “Julie,” the shaky one said.“Read the rules and stay out of my way,” he told them as he
Ava was shocked when she made it to the kitchen on time at the butt crack of dawn. She was grumpy and had hardly had any sleep, thanks to Ezekiel. What was this now? First, he threatened to kill her, and then now it was what? Bed her to death? Her body still felt tingly, but she didn’t have time to worry about things like that when she was in a completely hostile environment. She looked around the work area as she wiped one surface. There was a mix of people here, not just the First Years. The other First Years were being shown how to prep and cook the meals, but she was relegated to cleaning duties the second she walked into the kitchen. They had magic users here. Why couldn’t they just magic all the rubbish jobs? Why did Omegas have to do it? She wished she could talk to some of them, but there wasn’t a friendly face around. And with the looks they were all giving her as she worked, she knew it was only a matter of time until one of them tried something. By the time breakfast wa
Zeke sat on the bench in the Quad, watching the seven students standing in the middle of it. They weren't talking; they just stood there as if they were waiting for something. Or someone. He tilted his head and focused on each of them. Their wolves were still there, but he could barely sense them. So, did that mean they couldn't shift anymore?The Council had found them when the dean and his guards had failed. Dead or alive? That was what he couldn't figure out. What the hell had been done to them? And was this Ava's doing or the Council? Claire turned her head to look at the building behind them. Then they all turned. Shadow snarled inside him because he knew what they could sense. Ava. Ava was in that building, still in her lessons, and her heart pumping away. Terrified. He had been tracking her all morning, on the verge of shifting at any little thing, waiting to run to her aid the moment she needed him. If she needed him. He pushed thoughts of the forest out of his mind and
Ava felt all the eyes on her as she made her way to her Needlework class. It was back to the same old rubbish again.Only it wasn’t the same now. Over the weekend, she’d gone and got mated, then beat the crap out of an Alpha, and to top it all off, she'd willingly walked into the darkness of the forest. She was not the same person as before. Instead of shoving her, they were moving out of her way. She couldn't be sure whether it was because they had heard what she had done or they had seen her holding hands with Zeke. However, she didn’t think Zeke’s dad would have publicised what she had done to him. But none of that mattered now, anyway.She’d felt something in her chest the moment Claire and her friends had walked in.The first had been the brief joy when she had realised that she hadn’t killed them. She wasn’t a murderer. She didn’t have to hand herself in to the Council.Then came the feeling of dread. The darkness she felt was coming to claim her had been coming from those stu
Zeke pushed down his emotions as much as he could, but Ava could clearly sense some of them. She'd been looking at him since they'd woken up. He hadn't expected Mr Patrick's plan to work at all. He'd thought it would be exactly like the last time when he'd felt her pain and run into the forest raging. But instead...He looked down at the woman sitting next to him and felt like going back home to hide away. Like what Shadow was doing. He hadn't heard anything from the beast since they'd had their heart broken. But it wasn't Ava's fault. He had to keep reminding himself of that. He sensed Ava's fear seconds before he smelled it. The stench of death and decay. The stench of evil darker than anything Shadow had hidden in his soul. His beast unfurled and paid attention. Something wasn't right.This thing was coming closer to the assembly hall. For Ava? For him?And then he caught a scent that he had thought he would never smell again. It was just a hint as if it was fading, but it was
Ava gasped for air and clawed at her throat as she sat up. Something was squeezing her throat, making it hard to breathe. The darkness was inside her. She could feel it. "Shh. It's okay. You're okay." She felt Zeke's warm, hard body against her bare back as his arms circled her. The relief was instant as she greedily inhaled and exhaled deeply. Zeke's large arms tightened around her as he brought his lips down to her mark briefly. The security she always felt in his arms failed to ease her mind. There was danger all around them, danger inside them, and she didn't think she would ever feel safe again. But still, her breathing evened, and her heart rate lowered. Zeke didn't need to say another word, but her body relaxed as if the nightmare hadn’t happened. "My dad?" she asked."Gone. I did what you asked," Zeke said. Her heart squeezed again. She would have wanted a better goodbye. If the pain she’d felt all over her body was anything to go by, her dad would have been traumatised a
It was almost lunchtime when her father returned. She had been on her way downstairs to eat something when Alpha Morgan knocked the broken door out of the way and marched in.She stopped when he noticed her and her heart squeezed in her chest. Her father was in pain. She could sense that as if her wolf senses were helping her, even though she still couldn't feel anything different inside her. "They're all over the boundary," her dad said. "We have to find a hidden place to cross into the forest."He was still saying 'we'. She walked down the rest of the stairs and went into his arms. When his arms tightened around her, she felt him tremble a little, and her heart broke again. This could be the last day she saw her father.But he would have to go. When the car came for him to take him to the airport, he would leave alone. He had the boys and the whole pack to take care of. She'd had the entire morning to come to terms with that. It was the only way. "I will go into the forest, and
On Sunday morning, Ava sat on the steps outside the Administration block with Zeke, Derek and Myles. Guards were standing outside it, guarding the entrance. So many guards. She could feel their eyes on the back of her head. They had met some on their way, patrolling the streets. Those had also looked at them as if they were the targets of this operation. She was willing to bet they were also patrolling the academy's boundaries. Maybe even outside, beyond the woods. Their chances of escape had been cut drastically. It felt like forever, but her father walked out of the administration building not too long after they had sat on the steps. Ava scrambled to her feet and tried to read his expression. She also watched how the guards looked at him like he was also a target.The forest had always kept the students imprisoned here, but the guards made it feel like a real prison. "Let's go and have something to eat, and then we can walk around," Alpha Morgan said. "Also, I've been told I n
"She's already been in that forest, and she was unconscious for days!" Zeke shouted. "We're not going through that shit again."He pulled the food dishes on the table away from Ava when she started looking through them."She didn't have a mate last time. And she didn't have me," Mr Patrick argued. "You keep talking about yourself like some god! I don't know what the fuck you are, and you want me to trust you with my mate," he growled. "I realise I'm asking a lot," Mr Patrick said. "I know what your bond means. You've become one in a way many wolves will never experience."Did Mr Patrick know about true mate bonds? There were only a few books about this in the library that Mrs Donovan had given him to read, but his only interest at the time had been how to break the bond. He hadn't had the chance to go and find out more. Mr Patrick's eyes widened, indicating he had been in his head, so he growled at the invasive fucker. No boundaries at all!"For your future information, that's not
Ava stretched and then slowly opened her eyes. It had been a while since she had woken up so peacefully. Despite everything that had happened, she hadn't had any nightmares, and even though it was nighttime, the shadows were at bay.That had probably been because of Zeke. Her smile stretched, and she buried her face in her pillow to try to stop it. If she weren't dying soon, she would have loved to spend her whole life doing what she had done with Zeke. If she wasn't dying. Her smile disappeared as reality kicked her up the backside. What was she going to do now? She had been set on handing herself in, but after what Mr Patrick said, she wasn't sure what to do now. She didn't want to be the Council's soldier. She didn't want to do their dirty work. But how would she pay for what she had done to Claire and her friends? She didn't even know the names of the other students she had killed, so she couldn't even apologise to their families.With a sigh, she got up to take a quick shower
It was late when Zeke left his mate sleeping to make her something to eat.There was some magic in the air, but he couldn't sense Mr Patrick or Alpha Morgan in the house. He found Derek and Myles in the kitchen, looking at some dishes of food on the table. "Is it poisoned?" he joked as he opened the fridge to get a bottle of water. "Maybe," Derek snorted. "Jared's Omegas brought food for Ava."He paused as he opened the water and sniffed the air before he suspiciously looked at the food, too. First, Jared was in his house, and now his Omegas were sending food?"I'm cooking for her," he decided as he joined them at the table. The urge to throw the food in the trash was strong, but he didn't want Ava to get upset with him. Why had they cooked for her in the first place?"We heard what happened. We were having lunch in the dining hall when they came over, or we would have warned you. I'm sorry, Zeke," Derek said."I'm sure my father planned it that way.""What's going to happen to the