Monday was even worse than anything she could have imagined. Being shoved against walls by supernatural beings was a lot like being hit by a car, she imagined. By the time lunch rolled around, she was already bruised and in pain, even though Jared’s cream had worked wonders on her previous bruises.Emily joined her as she had done most lunchtimes now.“I thought you would look worse than that today.”Sundays were the only days the Omegas got off to catch up on their own things. Since she had hung out with Jared the whole weekend, she hadn’t come to the dining hall and hadn’t seen Emily since Friday’s training.“I would have if Jared hadn’t helped me,” she said between bites of her food.Emily tensed and then quickly looked around. What had she done wrong now?“It’s Alpha or Mr Anderson,” Emily whispered urgently. “You can’t refer to the future Alphas by their name. You need to understand the rules, Ava.”Seriously?“Do they want me to call him Master, too,” she snorted. Emily clearl
Screams. Blood. The crunching sounds. Screams. Blood. The crunching sounds. Ava sat up in bed with her heart in her mouth. She expected the same excruciating pain she had every time she moved her body so roughly, but there was nothing.Not even a headache from the insane girl’s punches.Her heart was still pounding when she looked around, and she realised she was in a hospital bed. The curtains were drawn around her, but she could hear beeping machines not too far away. They must have brought her to the infirmary when Claire knocked her out. That was a first. Usually, they just made sure she came to and then left her on the mat in the training hall to go about the rest of her day. Whatever magic they did to her at the infirmary was excellent because she felt better than she had in a long time. Why hadn’t she thought to come here last week? It would have saved her a lot of energy. Being in constant pain was mentally draining.The medication they had given her made her feel like she c
Zeke parked his car on the driveway and gripped the wheel tightly. He could feel the change coming as Ava’s scent overwhelmed him again. The heat of her mouth, the little whimpers she’d made as he’d tasted her, how responsive she had been to his touch, the way she had moulded her body to his as he had urgently ground himself against her. He had been so close to marking her.He groaned and closed his eyes. And then the scent of Ava’s blood hit him all over again; it was so strong in the confines of his car that his rage returned. He’d been fighting that constantly since he first saw Ava unconscious at the Training Centre.So many strong emotions were raging inside him that he didn’t think he could hold Shadow back this time.Pain. Rage. This inexplicable bond to Ava, calling for him constantly, pulling him towards her, making him want to be with her all the time.The whole time he waited outside the infirmary, his senses had been tuned to her beating heart, and Shadow had thrashed ins
When Ava arrived at the kitchen for her duties, the supervisor seemed surprised to see her as she assigned the jobs. Whether it was because she was on time for the first time or because she had heard about her disastrous training session, she didn’t know. As she pulled out all the equipment needed to keep the kitchen clean, her mind was still stuck on Ezekiel and his kiss. Why was she reacting like this to him? She had no control whatsoever. One touch and he could have done whatever he wanted to her. She wouldn’t have stopped him. It was disturbing.Her first kiss and it had been with that arrogant Alpha. She would never get that first back.She ignored the looks and whispers until she finished her assigned jobs. Then she changed into her uniform to go into the dining hall for breakfast. There was a hush as she walked out from the back as if it wasn’t obvious that they were all talking about her. She rolled her eyes as she grabbed a tray and joined the queue.“You!”Claire. Why was s
Waiting for the shoe to drop was excruciating. No one had shoved or insulted Ava all day, but she heard them whispering. This was one of those times she wished she was a wolf so she could hear what they were saying about her.In Housekeeping, they were being taught to fold napkins, and even that failed to get her usual angry reaction. Her stomach got tighter with every second that passed as her fear of what was coming increased. She did everything she was told like a robot, and it was possibly the first Housekeeping lesson that hadn’t ended with a detention.At lunchtime, she made her way to sit in the quad. The thought of eating anything was making her feel sick.The dean had taken one look at her and told her to get out of his office. Since she had no cuts or bruises, she had nothing to argue about how severely she had been hurt in the last training and was warned to stop taking up his valuable time. Penelope had cancelled all her pre-booked appointments. Her only hope of leaving h
Zeke sat perfectly still on a sofa in his lounge, staring at the wall. His head was in turmoil.For the first time in his academic career, he lied to the dean and said he had an emergency call with his father. As future leaders, this was the only valid reason to miss out on their education. Pack business was serious business and could affect even the relationships and allies in the academy, and the academy valued its principles too much to allow that to happen.He had almost killed her today. Claire. He’d seen her leaving the dining hall and partially shifted to go after her, but Ava’s scent from the dining hall had pulled him out of it. It was only Shadow’s fixation with his mate that had saved his ex-girlfriend. Even though it hadn’t happened, he could see clearly in Shadow’s mind how that scene would have looked. Blood. Limbs. Screams. Because Shadow kept playing those images in his head. Claire was at death’s door, and she didn’t even know it.And then he had gone to see Ava, onl
Zeke felt the pain as the silver cut into his body, but Shadow didn’t care. He tried to shift but the silver already in his system stopped him. Thank the Goddess for that! The last thing anyone wanted was a deranged beast running through the campus. Shadow managed a partial shift as Derek and Myles came forward with extra chains. He growled and snapped his teeth at them as he struggled against the chains. The smell of burnt flesh was worse now, and the silver weakened him even more. But Shadow was stronger than most wolves. It would take more silver than that to keep him down.“Release me!” Shadow growled again.‘Use your head, you maniac! You will destroy everything!’ he shouted angrily in his head.It was the worst feeling, being trapped in his mind while Shadow did whatever he wanted. Derek and Myles dropped their chains. Shadow was not their Alpha, but his power surpassed his father’s. His commands could bring even the mightiest warriors among them to their knees. Derek and Myle
Ava opened her eyes slowly. Groggy and confused, she turned her head to look around. It was the infirmary again, but she was in a room this time. All sorts of beeping machines were hooked up to her, and an IV needle was in her arm.“I’m alive,” she whispered.How the hell had that happened? Dexter and Claire had attacked her as if they were on an actual battlefield. Every punch, kick and knee had been excruciatingly painful as her bravado deserted her. She’d lost count of the number of times they had thrown her across the training hall, the number of times she had smashed into the walls. And she had lost count of how often she had heard something break. She was pretty sure she left all her teeth on the mat.The way those two had been going, she had a feeling they’d continued attacking her long after she lost consciousness. That bastard coach wouldn’t have stopped them.She moved her arm. It had bent the wrong way when she had landed after Dexter had smashed her into a wall and just be
Ava came out of the Administration building, and the first person she saw was Zeke. She had felt him there even before the guards opened the doors for her to leave. She made her decision the moment she saw the way the guards stood at attention with their hands on their weapons, ready to hurt him. Zeke's eyes were red, and his fists clenched at his sides. He stood like a statue, but she could sense the danger emanating from him as if one wrong move would end everything. She knew he'd been waiting to save her. He would put himself on the line if she were in danger. She'd condemned him to her fate. She lowered her gaze and started walking down the steps. "I'm fine," she told him quietly. "No, Ava. You're not 'fine'," he growled. So she wasn't hiding it as well as she thought. "I will be," she said truthfully. Whatever was going to happen next was her fight. Zeke needed to stay out of it to stay safe. At least he would have a chance that way."What did he want?""I've been removed
Ava closed her eyes when she felt Zeke's pain mixing with her own. "Move."The guard behind her nudged her, causing her to stumble, but she righted herself quickly and continued walking down the hallway. "Faster, human," the guard said, and then he grabbed her arm and half pulled, half dragged her the rest of the way.This was no school. The Council could dress the academy up all they wanted, but it took more pride in the training than the academic side. And now, with the Council soldiers manhandling students, there was no way they could hide it.When she entered the dean's offices, Penelope was already looking right at her. She wasn't typing and ignoring her as she usually did. Her allure felt different. It was still strong; it still drew her towards the woman, but it didn't feel threatening. Penelope looked at the guard who came in beside her and then at his tight grip on her arm. And that was when she felt the full force of the vampire's nature."That's unnecessary. Let her go,"
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