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
“But, sir, if you ask any of my teachers and the coach, they’ll tell you the same thing. I’m human. You can smell that I’m human,” she argued. “Miss Morgan, I told you this yesterday,” the Dean said as he flipped through his paperwork. “What the Council says goes.”“They made a mistake,” she growled.Of course, her growl was ineffective because she was human.It made the dean stop what he was doing and look at her sharply. His eyes glowed blue, and he growled at her—a real, hair-raising, threatening growl.Shit. Her heart started pounding, but she calmed it down as she looked at her shoes. She had completely forgotten who she was talking to.“I’m sorry, sir,” she whispered.She wasn’t. She was seething. But it was better not to push an angry Alpha.“Your teachers said you fit in just fine, and you even excelled in your combat class yesterday,” the Alpha said. “This is the last time I will hear of this matter, Miss Morgan. Do I make myself clear?”Had he been checking up on her? For w
When Zeke walked into his house, the first thing he could smell was fear. It had been only a day with these Omegas, but he was already tired of them. He hadn’t even talked to them except for when they arrived. He could also smell dinner, but he wasn’t hungry—not for food, anyway. He had no idea why he had even gone to Ava’s dorm, but after the conversation he overheard at breakfast, something drove him to confirm that she was alone in her room.Shadow didn’t like that she was on the ground floor and had such a wide window with a flimsy lock. He had accessed her room so easily from the back. But he told the wolf to back off; she was not their concern. He’d told her to lock her window, and that was all the advice he would give her. Hence all the growling in his head. Shadow was beyond pissed off, just as he had been when she had been sparing in combat class. Her little body had been thrown about like a ragdoll, and Shadow had been ready to rip people’s heads off. He would never have g
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
Zeke watched Ava go back into the house and then shifted into his human form. These people were part of his pack. The people he had protected since his father had put him in that position. And they had come here to kill his mate? Even after he had shown them who their true Alpha was?Shadow tried to force another shift so he could teach them all a lesson and end the bastard still unconscious on the driveway. But killing an Alpha in cold blood would bring the Council there much sooner than expected, and they weren't ready for that. He was disappointed. Not every member of his pack had come, but there were enough to make him wonder how many of these he would have to get rid of if he finally took his rightful place. Myles, Derek and their fathers were not among them, which meant his father had only gone to those he knew would agree to this act of treason. Or those he could manipulate with his lies. He took note of all of them. The crowd parted for him and the white wolf behind him as
"Ah... Yes, Ava has done very well so far," Coach Baxter stuttered. "She..." His voice trailed off as he watched Alpha Morgan pick up two daggers from the wall of weapons proudly displayed at the side of the room. The very same daggers that his daughter had been drawn to.He did a few moves, showcasing where Ava had got her skills before he carefully put them back in their place. Zeke watched a drop of sweat roll down the coach's face before he wiped it and pretended to shuffle through the paperwork in front of him. So far, Ava's dad hadn't said a word. It had become clear in the very first minute that he was watching a master of mind games at work. He'd never seen the coach so riled up. He leaned back in his seat in the bleachers where he'd been watching the show. "She showed so much improvement in each training session," the coach continued. Alpha Morgan picked up a small axe and inspected the sharp edge. He heard the coach swallow before shuffling the papers again. "She... U
Jared was an Alpha! Did she really command him to stop?No, that was impossible. She couldn't feel anything different inside her, though she had no idea what her wolf was supposed to feel like. Maybe he'd heard the panic in her voice, and as an Alpha, he'd been able to pull himself back. She knew that she was grasping at straws because she could see how weak Jared was. He wasn't like Zeke or her father. She'd never needed a wolf to know they were stronger than most; it was quite evident in how they held themselves and their auras.Jared was still a future Alpha of his pack, though, so for the Alpha of another pack to use his Alpha command on him was an insult. His pack would never respect him if they heard about this. Jared had already suffered enough after being attacked by Zeke; why did this have to happen to him, too?"I said kill her!"This time, Jared remained in control. She could see it in his eyes even as he took another step forward, and she took one back. "Make it bloody
"Who is it?" Ava whispered as she peeked through the window. She still couldn't see anything, but there was someone there. "Stay back from the window. And I don't know why you're whispering; they can hear you."Mr Patrick was calm as he sat on the floor, his eyes closed, meditating. But he had been scared when he'd called her back in. She'd felt it—a moment of sheer panic that had made her realise what a dangerous situation she was in. "I wasn't scared."That was a lie. She could feel that, too.Mr Patrick opened his eyes and looked at her with open fascination."What else can you feel?" he asked."What?"Why was he thinking about that and not that they could be attacked at any minute, but Zeke and her father were not there to protect them? "If you close your eyes and focus, can you sense them in the woods?" he asked. Her heart hammered. "Them? What do you mean by 'them'? How many are there?" she asked.It wasn't getting attacked that was terrifying her. What if it happened agai