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
Screams. Blood. The crunching sounds. Screams. Blood. The crunching sounds. That same scene repeated over and over again until Ava jolted awake. There was nothing but the pitch black around her and the shadows receding from her dreams. The sudden movement made her groan and close her eyes as she lay back and curled into a fetal position. Breathing hurt, but she had to take deep breaths to calm herself. As usual these days, her nightmares were accompanied by a panic attack. With her body in so much pain, she felt frozen in place, all her muscles seizing up. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe... This was really where she died. In this school, alone, with people who played with her like she was a piece of meat. She tried all her usual techniques—counting, focusing on drawing deep breaths, thinking of something else. It wasn’t working. Her lungs started to burn as all the chaotic thoughts in her head told her she was dying. Her heart's loud, erratic beating was the only sound i
“Can we even do that? Can we yield?” Ava asked again as she paced Zeke’s dressing room floor.Her anxiety levels were through the roof, and she didn’t think even Zeke could get her out of this.What the hell was happening today? She'd expected her day to be over by now. She’d expected to be recovering in the infirmary by now or Zeke’s bed, where she usually woke up after something like this. But here she was, about to fight expert fighters—Zeke’s equals who were probably as ruthless as he was.“It’s against the rules. You invalidate all your progress for the term and get a day in Isolation,” Zeke said quietly. She whirled around to face him, horror filling every part of her. Even Jared warned her about Isolation and how it broke someone. Zeke seemed to have come out unscathed, but she knew how much pain he had been in. How could someone like her survive that? And why would anyone do that to themselves on purpose?“Is that vampire crazy? Does he have a history of doing such messed up
The moment it sunk in that she won, she was in Zeke’s fancy dressing room, and her three housemates were looking at her as if she had grown another head. She sat stiffly on a sofa, looking at them as that thought kept going round and round in her head. She won.She beat Douche Dexter.And then something else occurred to her. She was going to have to fight again. She was going to have to fight a student at the advanced level.“What the hell have I just done?” she whispered.Zeke, Derek and Myles looked at each other and then back at her. Goddess knew what they were mind-linking each other, but they all probably also realised she had just screwed herself. There was no way she could fight anyone more advanced than Dexter. That was a death sentence!“How did you do that?” Derek asked.“I don’t know,” she answered, rubbing her temples. “I just got angry, he’s always an asshole... What have I done?” As the adrenaline had worn off, she had expected the pain from his blow to return, but the
Ava walked straight into the ring, and everyone in the arena started to quieten down. She told herself to breathe. This match would be her real test after fighting the beginners, so she had to let all her fear drain away as she had been taught to do. She told herself she didn’t need that vampire’s blood; she could fight under her own steam. In the silence of the arena, with all the students and faculty looking on, she concentrated on counting her breaths so she wouldn’t have an anxiety attack. To be more effective, she had to do what she told Robert that morning. She had to pretend no one else was in this room except her opponent, whoever that would be.As she waited, she started her stretches. She was lucky that she was flexible, but sometimes fear made her body freeze up. That couldn’t happen today. She had no idea how much longer she would be in this school, so she could have just lost all her matches earlier and avoided all of this. But she had her pride. She could admit that. A
Ava hadn’t managed to eat anything, and Zeke sat in the dining hall opposite her, not even pretending to eat. He sat so still as he watched her that she wondered what scheme he was hatching in his head. Would it get him sent to Isolation again? Or much worse?Zeke’s gaze only shifted from her when his body tensed, and he looked at the entrance. Moments later, a group of students entered the dining hall. She recognised a few of them as the vampires who had visited Zeke last night.The whole dining hall quietened down as they stopped to look around. Since vampires didn’t eat solid food, she had never seen any in the dining hall before, and those, in particular, she would have remembered. Like last night, she was struck by how powerful their allure was. Not as strong as the dean’s secretary or the Councillor, but such strength was rare in people so young. Wolves and vampires were natural enemies, even if the Council forced everyone to co-exist. She hadn’t imagined they would willingly i
Ava wasn’t surprised when she heard Coach Baxter’s booming voice calling her name. She met his gaze and saw the cruel smile on the man’s lips. He would enjoy every hit she took as if he was delivering it himself. She stood slowly and lowered her gaze. It was one thing to antagonise the coach during training, but there was an entirely different atmosphere in the arena and hundreds of people watching. She couldn’t openly break the rules. She felt hundreds of pairs of eyes on her as she walked into the wrestling ring and stood in one corner. Silence descended in the arena. She was sure the only sound they could hear was her loud heartbeat. Were they all waiting to watch her get her butt kicked? The whole school had to know by now how many times that had happened in training. Would it be the same now?She risked looking up and then had to look down again. The coach hadn’t announced her opponent and seemed to be enjoying making a spectacle out of her. The other levels hadn’t started yet;
Zeke led Ava into the Assembly Hall. He didn’t make an entrance like Jared had done on the first day of school, but the students who had already arrived turned around to watch them walk in anyway.Ava kept her eyes down and only looked up to look around for a seat. When she started to walk to a group of Omegas, he pulled her back and led her to his section. She didn’t protest, but once they sat down, she looked at him as if to ask what he was doing. Maybe Ava finally realised that Jared had purposely sat her in the Alpha section on her first day. But she wasn’t scared as she had been that first day. All he could sense from her was anxiousness.Jared walked in last with a few of his pack mates and didn’t even meet his gaze as he found a seat behind him. He’d yet to speak to that asshole, but he had expected that by now, there would be whispers around the campus of his activities in the training room. There had been nothing.An Alpha being with a human was unheard of. It was one thing
Ava tried to stay awake because she was curious about what Zeke had to say. Would he try to justify his rotten attitude? And if he did, would she mindlessly follow everything he said?And she was constantly thinking of when she would be able to see Mr Patrick again. With Zeke moving her detentions and being around her all the time, she couldn’t get away to find him. How could he help her get out of this? How was she supposed to prepare for the Council?Could anyone prepare for the Council?But her tiredness caught up with her, and she drifted off to sleep.When she woke, dawn was breaking, and she was nestled against a warm, hard body. She felt the tingles start in her body and shot out of bed immediately.That was not happening again!Zeke’s eyes were open, and he popped himself up onto his elbow to look at her. He had an amused smile on his stupidly handsome face.“Your bed is too small for me. You really need to move into my room,” he said.Sleep made his voice huskier, and parts o
Zeke stood just inside the glass doors and watched Ava sitting by the pool with her knees drawn. She had showered and then prepared her own food, which she had eaten in her room as she had done the other night.She was still pissed off with him. Her calling him Master and pretending to be submissive was a dead giveaway. How long was she going to keep this up? ‘She’s completely messed you up.’ He turned to watch Derek approach and then looked back at his little human. Though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders when he told Derek and Myles who she was, it was still irritating him that they were here to witness all this. A little human had felled the mighty Ezekiel.‘What are you two even fighting about?’ Derek asked in the mind link as he came to stand next to him.‘I don’t know,’ he answered honestly.He was frustrated. After waking up in Ava’s bed the other morning and embarrassing himself after he’d dry-humped her like a human teenager, he’d expected she would at least let h
Ava went to her lessons that day and the day after with all her anger fuelling her. She was grateful that the other students left her alone since that display by Zeke and his pack in the cafeteria the other day, but even that was pissing her off.So she had begged them to stop making her life hell and they didn’t listen, but one word out of Ezekiel’s mouth and suddenly even the teachers weren’t saying anything to her? In training, the coach hadn’t insulted her a single time, even though she could see in his beady little eyes that he was itching to do so. Then Ezekiel informed her that her detentions had been moved to allow her to train a little longer for the mocks. The dean had supposedly agreed. Bullshit. Utter bullshit. When the coach blew his whistle to signal the end of the session, he told them to try not to die during the mocks and left the room. She shook her head as she headed to grab some water. “Ava.”She turned to watch Zeke approach. It was funny how she had become les