“Wait. Say that again,” Ava said.He looked down at their entwined fingers and brought her hand to his lips. He should have told her before he marked her. Told her he was bonding them for life. But there had been no other choice for either of them. "You're my true mate, Ava. The perfect half of me," he said. "It's why our bond was so strong before I even marked you. I only had to catch your scent for Shadow to know you were ours.""So when you say my fate is your fate, what exactly do you mean?"This would be the most challenging part for her, as much as it hurt him to admit that. When Mr Patrick told him about True Mates, it had been easy to accept because he wouldn't want to live without her, anyway. He and Shadow agreed on that. But Ava's wolf was complicated. She and Ava were at odds, and he didn't know how that would affect their bond. "If you die, I die," he said simply. Ava gasped and pulled her hand out of his. Her shock and disappointment shot through him. It felt like sh
Ava felt the difference in the air when she stepped into the First-Year block the following day. It wasn't just the rush in her body from Mr Patrick’s magic still surging inside her or the way the students avoided her and lowered their gazes. It wasn't even because she could sense the dark void she usually felt around Claire and her friends was muted. It was because she could feel the Head of the Council as if he was right next to her. All around her. Watching her. She could feel the prickling all over her body, and unease filled her body.She kept her mind purposefully blank as she walked into her Cooking class because she knew Mr Patrick’s magic was nowhere near as strong as Mr Hansson’s. Too much was riding on her ability to shield.It wasn’t until she’d sat down in her usual spot next to the window that she realised the whole class had stopped talking, and the teacher stood with her eyes lowered at the front of the room. And then the things she was trying to forget pushed back t
“So, has she rejected you?”Zeke glanced sideways at the Alpha walking beside him and then back at the pavement. He felt juiced up on Mr Patrick’s magic and didn’t want to say anything wrong, but he had no idea why Alpha Diego had offered to get him for his meeting.He didn’t respond. “I mean, I was sure she was going to rip you apart,” Alpha Diego continued. “How did you manage to mate her in the first place? Was it because she hadn’t shifted yet?”His fists clenched, but again, he said nothing.“Do you think the mark will start to fade now?”Zeke started to walk a little faster even though where they were going was a lot worse than enduring this mind fuck. He knew there was no chance of the bond being broken because Ava was his true mate, but what if...“This is why I’ve never marked anyone,” Alpha Diego continued, keeping up with him easily.The councillor talked to him as if they were friends instead of a prison guard and prisoner. “Wolves like you, me and Ava were not meant to
Ava felt the odd sensation of the magic around her as Mr Hansson talked. And behind her, she could sense the three Council members.It was like everything was heightened out here. The forest leading to the school had been her first introduction to the evil that surrounded her daily, but it felt more threatening here than around the school.Almost as if what resided here was never meant to be seen.She could sense it, whatever it was. Creatures like the ones she had seen? Or something much worse? There were so many sounds, living things prowling the forest behind her. She heard a growl in the distance, and the hair rose on the back of her neck. Goosebumps rose on her arms under her blazer. Whatever that was was not something she had seen before. She didn’t dare to look back.“Do you know why this campus is my favourite?” Mr. Hansson continued. “It’s not just because I send all the future leaders here. And it’s not just because the security is so impenetrable.”The way he said it made
Ava tried not to react, but she could still feel Zeke’s rising anger. They had a job to do here, which wouldn’t be done if they both gave in to their true natures. "Don't hurt her," Zeke growled. "Then answer my question. We can’t proceed until I know what the fuck is going on.”She had not expected Mr Hansson to swear, but she could feel the frustration in his words. He really didn’t know what was going on. His forest wasn’t working as well as he said it was, and that calmed her down a little, even though the magic was restricting her breathing.And when she calmed, she felt Zeke calm, too. Whatever Mr Hansson did to her mark was not enough to break the bond. “How did someone so young tame their beast? You're in perfect control. Even now, I have your mate by the neck, but you’re not reacting,” he said, cocking his head to the side. “Do you know how long it took Diego? Decades. Decades of destruction and bloodshed.”Zeke remained silent again; this time, when the magic squeezed her
Zeke was by Ava’s side the instant the magic released him. Ava had her arm over her ribs and her teeth clenched to stop her from screaming out, but he could sense how much pain she was in. He helped her to her feet and fought to calm Shadow down when he gently held her in his arms. The contact was only mildly soothing, and Shadow still growled in his head, still close to losing control. ‘You should have ripped his head off,’ the beast said.He should have. When he had agreed to this plan, he had thought this meeting would merely be a conversation where they would finally get to know what the fuck the Council wanted. Nothing had prepared him for this. Feeling Ava in pain and not being able to do anything about it had been torture on a different level. But he knew he couldn’t beat the Head of the Council, not by himself. Not yet. He would have paid the price with his life, and Ava would have died, too. ‘I can beat him,’ Shadow snarled. ‘Stick to the plan, Shadow. You only have one
Ava struggled to keep her thoughts at bay.Seeing Emily’s parents like that had broken her heart, and she was expected to do the same to several other parents. If she didn’t, her father would pay the price.And she already knew she would burn the world down just to save him.She would become the Council’s bitch with a smile on her face if she had to. She was as selfish as she had accused Emily of being. A terrible person. And she was the wrong person to be a part of this revolution.“Can I help you?”Pulled out of her thoughts, Ava concentrated on what she was there to do. She walked over to the woman at the front desk and said she was there to see the dean. The head of the Council was in his office, so she had no idea where to look for him. The woman looked up from her work when she spoke and then quickly reached for the phone. There was a flash of fear in her eyes, and she knew now more than ever that she had to get used to it. It would only get worse from here.“Right away. Pleas
Ava didn’t know what to think.Her anxiety had hit the roof as she had waited for them to do whatever they had brought her there to do, but the Council members had just been drinking and talking about people and things she had no idea about.Like normal people. It was as if in this house, they weren’t the psychotic people who’d clapped when she'd stood in the puddles of blood.This was a mind game; she was sure of it. To make her drop her guard before they swooped in? Make her trust them and spill her secrets? It would never happen. She could still feel Mr Patrick’s magic protecting her from their probing, but she didn’t think they had even tried.“Hey, you haven’t touched your drink,” Andrei said, pulling himself away from Iulia. They had been disgustingly affectionate with each other the whole time.“I... I don’t really drink, and it’s still too early in the day.”Plus, she wasn’t going to put anything from them into her mouth.“There’s no one here to see you break any rules, Ava.
Zeke sat through what felt like hours of awkward conversations and a lot of food. He noticed Ava didn’t mingle as much as her brothers with the rest of the pack and kept her answers very vague about why she was home early. He’d heard a few of them whisper that she had probably been kicked out for being a handful and disgraced the pack. He wanted to throttle them for being so disrespectful. But this was Ava’s pack, so he couldn’t pick a fight.Not when they were all looking at him like he was about to murder them all.He now understood why Ava had a hard time following the rules. There was nothing like that here. Omegas mingled and joked with Alphas, and he was sure the man cooking all the food had Alpha blood running through his veins. The children were running freely in and out. He’d been observing it all from a bench outside the backyard of the small house Ava had grown up in.Okay, it wasn’t small, but where the hell was he going to sleep? And how was he going to touch his mate w
“How is this even fair? When I came to the academy, I was squashed under someone’s armpit in a small plane for a whole freaking day,” Ava said. “And you travelled alone in this huge private jet. You even drove yourself from the airport.”Zeke grinned as he sipped on a beer. “I wasn’t alone. I had Derek and Myles.”Ava looked at all the empty seats and rolled her eyes.“Yes, you had two other people. That makes it so much better,” she said sarcastically. “You know, I liked you better when you used to tremble in fear when you spoke to me. This new you is just too mouthy for me.”She threw a magazine at him and watched him throw his head back and laugh.The sight of it took her breath away. She hadn’t seen Zeke laugh many times, but now they had no darkness hanging over their heads. They could laugh and hang out like a normal couple. She could feel the absence of the burden that had been lifted from their shoulders as if it had been a tangible weight, and she could sense the same in he
Zeke walked up the road to the Infirmary with his arm around Ava.Everything still felt so surreal. He sensed the numbness all around him as everyone came to terms with the fact that they all could have died. Alpha Roland walked by Ava’s side, holding onto her hand. They hadn’t let go of each other since they had finally left the mess they had made at the Administration block to go home. He didn’t mind it, really he didn’t, but he wanted his mate all to himself. That morning, he had little hope that they would win, but now all he wanted to do was bury himself in his mate and forget about Hansson and the Council.With a sigh, he looked at the three councillors walking ahead of them. For some reason, they, too, had decided to recuperate at his house like they didn’t have a whole fucking mansion over at the guest houses. But they were still waiting for transport so they could leave and check on their families, so he didn’t say anything.He still didn’t like the three of them, but Ava s
Nyx finally stopped attacking when the screams stopped. When there was no heartbeat. When the light faded from those evil purple eyes that she would remember for the rest of her life.The eyes she would see every time in her wolf’s and Shadow’s eyes.Everyone stood as still as she did, taking in the destruction. Was this the end? Could she finally have the life she had hoped for with her mate by her side?Nyx retreated and allowed her to shift back. Her body was sore and bruised, and she could still feel the effects of almost being hit by the lightning. She limped over to Shadow, put her arms as far around him as she could, and closed her eyes. They were okay. They had done it.When she let go, Shadow shifted, and the man she loved took his place. Zeke engulfed her in his embrace, lifting her off her feet before he crashed his lips into hers. He could feel his relief and his hope. They were free. They could be themselves. Zeke finally put her down, and they looked back at the damage
Of course, they would hide something so important in plain sight. Zeke felt the change immediately the moment nothing was left of the fountain. It was like a bond had been broken. He remembered the morning he had come out to look for the councillors after their first visit, and Iulia had been messing with the fountain. He’d sensed something then; he should have put it together sooner. The beasts sniffed around the smashed fountain, at the water gushing freely from the pipes before they walked away from the rubble and started circling them. “You fools!” Hansson screamed as he picked up a piece of the sculpture. Shadow walked over to their mate and Diego, and they stood together, watching the man meltdown. They were not out of the woods yet. Though Hansson felt considerably weaker, he was still Fae and could hurt them and Alpha Roland.He looked up to see Ava’s father breathing better and his eyes glowing. The hold on him was weakening.‘We need to keep him busy to give your dad tim
Ava’s frustration boiled over, and she told Samantha to get Julie and stay close to Myles and Derek. Then she shifted and lowered her head. All she wanted was to get to her father, but the guards were in her way. Nyx growled. She hadn’t known Nyx long enough to know if it was a standard growl, but it felt different. It felt right. She could feel it in her whole body as Nyx took over again. And when Shadow came to stand beside her, and the growl came from deep within him, she felt the strength of their bond. One by one, the people in front of them stopped and lowered their gazes, soldiers and students alike. It was not something she usually liked, but she understood her wolf now, and this was the only way they would get to her father. They had to show their dominance.She felt something else. It was more than the darkness she felt in Nyx’s soul; it was all around them. She felt it the same way she felt the evil in the forest both times that she had gone in. It was the same darkness s
There was a shift in the air.Zeke guessed it was because Iulia was not focusing her magic as she wept over her lover. Was he dead? It felt like it, but he didn’t give a shit. What caught his attention was that the councillors’ strength was noticeably reduced. ‘We can take them now,’ Shadow growled. But there was another scream, and this one hit him in the heart again.He shifted and was by Ava’s side in seconds, taking her into his arms as he tried to figure out what happened. Mr Patrick was struggling to sit up with Jared’s help. But Alpha Roland was gone. He knew what had happened, but they had to be still at the academy. Hansson was a sadistic asshole; he would make sure Ava witnessed whatever he had in mind for Alpha Roland before he killed them all.“We’ll find him,” he whispered, tightening his hold on his mate. They had to go before Iulia and Diego calmed down and did as they were told. He looked back at the trio and saw Alpha Diego was still standing over the other two. W
Nyx took a bite of Hansson’s shoulder before he realised what had happened. She tasted his blood on her tongue, and it was putrid. Vile like the man himself.Before she could sink her teeth in further, Hansson disappeared into thin air and appeared on the other side of the stage. The men he had been holding hostage fell to the stage, released in that moment of confusion. But she knew it wouldn’t be for long. Hansson would get his bearings and take his anger out on all of them. She stood in front of them to protect them and ignored the panic and commotion she felt and heard from the imprisoned students.Nothing filled her mind now except the rage. The need for revenge.Nyx lowered her snout to the ground, ready to attack again, when she saw the beast standing beside her. It was Shadow, but... Something was different. He seemed bigger. His head was lowered, and his hackles raised as he snarled at the councillors, frothing at the lips as if rabid. And his eyes were purple. “What is th
“Let’s play a little game.”Ava couldn’t move her head, so she was stuck looking at the faces of the people who would die today if she didn’t pick five of them to sacrifice. They had all been forced back from the top of the road to witness the next murder. She sensed desperation. Terror. They were all looking above her at Jared, waiting for his life to be taken like Dexter’s. Even the teachers stood helplessly by. She had never seen the dean looking so scared.Nobody should have to live with this kind of fear hanging over them. Fear that one wrong move and someone stronger than them would swoop in and end them.Dexter had been innocent, and now his parents would have to come to collect his body as Emily’s parents had done.Innocent. Gone all because of her. ‘It’s not your fault. It’s Hansson’s fault.’Zeke’s voice was so clear in her head as if he had been listening to all her thoughts, but she couldn’t get anything from him except what he wanted her to hear. “How many of these will