Jared was waiting outside as he had promised. He was leaning against his car, eating an apple. Ava had to wonder why he was doing this. So far, he’d shown no prejudice and helped her several times. Was this still because of the person he hadn’t been able to help? What had happened to them? Had they died?Jared aimed his unfinished apple at a nearby trashcan when he saw her approaching, and then walked around to open the passenger side door. Though it was past dinner time, many people were hanging around, and many stopped to stare.“I see you’ve made it out in one piece today,” Jared said as he started the car.His tie was loose as it always was, and he had released his hair, so he looked like one of those human actors that females went crazy for. This was the type of guy she wanted kissing her. Not angry, irrational wolves. “They didn’t make me fight today,” she answered. “You sound disappointed.”“I really want to punch something,” she admitted. “It’s best to avoid conflict around
Zeke went to the library before sunrise the following day. Not that it mattered. He hadn’t slept for... Shit, he couldn’t even remember now. The librarian seemed surprised to see him, but she didn’t comment when he walked over to a shelf to start browsing. The library was open twenty-four hours a day to allow students to keep up with their studies on top of their training schedules. It was the biggest structure on campus, with a vast atrium structure and several floors around it. It was usually full of students after training, but at this time, he had known it would be empty. Most people were still asleep or resting before the start of another gruelling schedule. Lucky bastards.The night after Ava had been attacked, he had gone back to wait in the woods behind her room, switching between hoping Claire and her friends would come back and hoping he could get into Ava’s room to finish what he had started. He’d only gone home once he had followed Ava to her duties and made sure she had
The following day, Jared dropped her off at the kitchen for her duties because she had further to walk from his house. She was still so tired from her restless night that she hadn’t declined the offer. But she knew she couldn’t ask him to drop her off again, not if the looks she had gotten when he had picked her up last night were anything to go by.She seemed to be breaking rules all over the place. Maybe she needed confirmation from the dean or the Student Welfare Coordinator, Mrs. Benton, that it was alright that she was living with Jared. “I won’t be coming to the dining hall for my meals today, so I’ll pick you up after your detention,” Jared said.“Oh, there’s no need to do that,” she answered quickly as she took her seatbelt off and grabbed her bag. “You’re already doing a lot for me; I wouldn’t want you to get into any trouble with the school.” “Let me worry about that,” Jared answered. “Keep your head down. I hear someone’s pissed that you didn’t stay in the infirmary long
“Listen up,” Coach Baxter shouted after she finished her warm-up jog. “Because of the evaluations earlier in the semester, you all have to meet certain standards by the time we do the mock evaluations. So we’re moving on to weapons training.”Ava let out a breath of relief at that news. She had been hoping that was the case when she saw the massive wall of weapons set up at the front when she came in. Weapons were her thing. She had mastered quite a few of them before they had known that she wouldn’t shift, and she had doubled her efforts when she realised this was the only way she could defend herself.She was glad to see that Claire and the rest of the Intermediary class hadn’t joined them today. Though she had no proper explanation for her calm mood, she was sure that if Claire had been in here, her rage would have built back up. And if the coach had put them in a match again, weapons would have been used to hurt her.“Though I expect you to be as shit at that as you were in hand-t
Zeke watched Jared’s house from the woods. He had known Ava would come here from when he followed her scent that morning and heard her conversation with Jared.Jared had looked right at him that morning, as he had last night. Did he know what was going on here? Was he going to use Ava to hurt him? Not once had Jared asked why he had been at his party that first night. And he had stood in this spot in the woods so many times that Jared would have known he had been there the moment he had gone for a run into the woods.And last night, being on Ava’s balcony had been the riskiest thing he had done. He had crossed into Jared’s territory without an invitation. Jared would have sensed him or caught his scent. But it had been a full day, and there hadn’t been any retaliation.He didn’t trust that snake as far as he could throw him. Jared knew something; he had a bad feeling that snake was about to do something messed up.Why else would he have Ava alone in his house? Where were his Beta, Gam
It had been a strange morning.Ava had seen people whispering about her every time she had passed them, and no one had shoved or pushed her yet. It felt a lot like just before Claire knocked her out the first time. They would whisper and then look at her or go still as if they were mind-linking each other. Then, they would get a certain excited look that made her worry. What were they planning now? The fact that she had yet to see Claire was worrying in itself, but now she was being paranoid about everything.Instead of being angry as usual, she was jumpy. She had more needle pricks on her fingers than usual because she couldn’t concentrate on anything in Needlework, and she probably had to refold the table napkins a hundred times in Housekeeping. And for a change, she didn’t get any detentions at all.By lunchtime, she was a wreck. She couldn’t handle going to the dining hall to face the crowds even though she was starving, so she hid in one of the bathrooms.She was being a coward.
Ava made so many mistakes in training that she was surprised she had only come out of it with a few cuts and bruises. Claire managed to ruin the one thing she had felt confident about in this academy. Not letting emotions take her over while fighting was her thing. But the whole afternoon, she’d been too nervous and distracted, and her paranoia was back in full force.Her classmates were looking at her differently. And the coach... She didn’t think he had even paid attention to anyone else; he had been too intent on giving her sparring partner after sparring partner as if he was testing her limits. She’d had to rely on muscle memory to get her through, but if her partners had been any good, she would have been in the infirmary again. It seemed to have pissed the coach off that she had lasted the whole training session without being knocked out.The moment her panic attack had abated, Ezekiel had rushed out of the bathroom. He hadn’t turned up for training, and she’d felt disappointed.
Zeke got out of the car and looked at the Vampire Prince’s residence. This place always made his skin crawl. The building was just like any other, but there was always this aura of death around it because of its undead residents. And though they had electricity like every other dormitory, they never had their lights on when the sun set. They preferred the darkness, even though they all had charmed rings.He could sense that almost all of Gideon’s nest and a few of their human donors were home. The scent of fresh blood was strong in the air, almost like the Prince had told them all to feed and be at their strongest. Maybe Gideon was expecting trouble. “Should we have called the rest of the pack?” Derek asked as he looked at the building, too,There were many wolves from their pack on campus, all of whom were commanded to be available to him whenever he needed them. Tensions were so high, and he knew his father was waiting for any excuse to start a war with the Vampire King after the c
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 wi
“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