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
Ava took a quick shower in the ensuite. Her bruises and cuts from training had already healed. She forgot to ask Jared about his cream the other night, but surely the effects should have started to fade by now?She had no time to worry about it as she went to her wardrobe. The only clothes Claire hadn’t ruined were already in the wash and not suitable for a party. Jared knew her situation. Had he not thought of this? She felt a little bit ungrateful for thinking he was selfish; he probably had a lot on his mind, too. She was about to pull her old sweats and T-shirt from the bottom of the laundry basket when she remembered the shopping bags she had found with her suitcase on her first night. She pulled them from the bottom of her wardrobe and emptied the contents on her bed.Her eyes widened. Jared had bought her clothes, and not the off-the-rack ones she was used to. The labels made her eyes bulge out, and just thinking of how much he had spent made her eyes water. He was insane! W
Ava slept in her own room and silently made her way downstairs before Zeke woke up. The Omegas were the only ones awake when she went into the kitchen to grab a piece of fruit. She would have breakfast in the dining hall before going to the arena for the second day.The Omegas were just standing around, and the moment she walked in, they tensed and looked down.“What are you doing?” she asked with a frown, keeping her voice to a whisper so she wouldn’t wake anyone up. And why were they lowering their eyes?“Alpha Ezekiel keeps ordering us not to cook, but we have to. We don’t know what we should do,” one of the Omegas said. Samantha, if she remembered correctly. This Omega was usually the one bold enough to answer Ezekiel.“I would do what he says. Prepare your own food and then go to train and get ready for today, or whatever. I won’t say anything,” she said, reaching for a banana. She ate it quickly before grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and putting it in her bag. The p
The infirmary. Ava had missed it. As she slowly blinked the sleep out of her eyes, she heard the beeping of the machines and realised she was hooked up to some IVs. The curtains were drawn around her bed, so she knew she wasn’t in a private room this time. She could hear faint moaning from one side of her. It made her wonder what had happened to that poor student for them to be in that much pain because all the students healed quickly, and the Infirmary had their fancy potions to help them.She gingerly lifted herself onto her elbows and looked around, trying to judge the time. The dim lights were on, so it was nighttime, but whether it was still the same day was up for debate. She hoped so. This would be a brilliant time to be unconscious for days so she wouldn’t have to participate in the rest of the evaluation.There was a slight commotion somewhere in the ward, and a female voice saying, “We told you to come back during visiting hours. There are too many patients tonight; you can
“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