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 looked ridiculous walking out of the hospital in the oversized clothes the infirmary had provided, with a brooding, angry, red-eyed Alpha behind her. Her fear must have been felt for miles around while her body visibly trembled like a leaf. But she held her head high and walked with as much dignity as she could while holding the waist of the Academy tracksuit bottoms up so they wouldn’t fall to her ankles.She saw the disapproving glances when she didn’t look down as she passed the higher-ranked wolves. Heard the whispers. The growls. But they all quietened down when they looked behind her.“Ava!”Though the anger in his voice increased her fear and anxiety, she carried on walking until she came out of the building. The sun was still setting, so at least she hadn’t been unconscious all night as she had been the other day. Unless she had actually missed an entire day, then that was just seriously messed up. “Stop!”What were the consequences of disobeying an Alpha? She faltered a
Zeke didn’t give a shit that the Omegas sitting in the common room downstairs were all startled when he crashed the doors open and marched in. Claire’s scent was all over the place. He wrinkled his nose and followed it down the hallway to Ava’s room. He had finally managed to push Shadow back where he belonged while he had been distracted with Ava, but now the beast was howling to be let out again.What was she even doing here? Was she trying to take her vendetta outside the training centre? He growled at the thought but then realised he should have expected this. This was Claire. She had always been a calculating bitch; this was not beyond her.He opened the door, but he had already sensed that Claire had left, and not too long ago if her scent was this strong. Shadow wanted to go and hunt, but he had regained enough strength to shove him back so hard that, with the silver still in his system, Shadow wouldn’t come out again soon. The fact that it was Ava who had calmed the beast down
“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