Apologies for missing a day. I'll upload extra chapters to make up for it x
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
The rage in him was indescribable.He felt his own anger mix with Shadow’s as he barreled into Claire and clamped his jaws down on her hind leg just as she launched herself at Ava. Claire’s father was a Beta, and Claire had taken after him, so she was almost as big as an alpha. She whimpered and tried to snap at him, but he caught her in the middle and tossed her the way she had done to Ava.Blood lust took over him when he saw the blood trickling down her fur. She had almost killed Ava. Blood for blood. He didn’t give a shit when she whimpered and tried to roll onto her stomach. Her submission meant nothing to him and Shadow. They were ready to finish Claire on the spot when several enemy wolves surrounded him. His rage increased, and he knew the bloodbath wouldn’t end with just Claire.He released the wolf’s throat and snarled in warning at Jared’s pack and friends. They were no match for him, and they knew it. The stench of their fear was heavy in the air as they took several steps
The bed felt so comfortable that Ava snuggled in further when she slowly started to wake. She couldn’t remember the last time she slept so well. It felt like she’d been hit with a dose of magic to get rid of all her tiredness and worry. She wriggled a little more under the covers. And then froze.She opened her eyes, which widened when she saw the unfamiliar room in the early morning light. And that meant the warm, hard wall that was currently spooning her was indeed another person.Her heart pounded out of her chest as she shot out of the bed and turned around, and then horror filled her when she realised she was standing in front of Ezekiel with no top on. She covered her bra quickly.Why was she in his bed?Ezekiel was leaning on his elbow as if he had been watching her sleep. As if he had let her wriggle against him on purpose. With his hair tousled and his shirtless chest exposed, he took her breath away. If there was ever a person blessed by the Goddess it was this man. Every i
Ava didn’t wait to finish her breakfast. She asked Emily if they could go straight away, and before she knew it, they had visited Mrs Benton’s office in the main building and acquired two passes. The Welfare Coordinator didn’t even bat an eyelid or look away from her screen when she made the passes appear on her desk and even when she stamped them.“Don’t you need anything from your room first?” Emily asked as they walked down to a side of the campus she had never been to. “I already have my purse.”It seemed darker here, somehow, even though the buildings looked the same as the others. The air felt different, almost as if it was colder, making a shiver go down her spine.“No, I just want to walk around a bit,” she answered.Besides, she didn’t want to see Jared or Ezekiel. She’d had her breakfast earlier than usual, so hopefully, Ezekiel hadn’t come to pick her up yet like he had threatened to do.“How do you know Claire is gone?” she asked as they approached a gate smaller and less
It was the wrong time to have a panic attack, but Ava couldn’t stop it.As Claire advanced, the pressure built in her head. She’d thought she could escape somehow if she came out of the academy gates to find a way out of town; she could have been on her way home before the end of the day. But here she was, about to face death for the second time in a few hours.“Alpha Ezekiel is too good for a human like you,” Claire continued. “He will be Alpha of the biggest pack in the world in a few short months, and I will be his Luna. I don’t know why you thought you could compete with me. I mean, look at you.”Ava began to tremble as she stepped back.“You’re pathetic and can’t fight your own battles. You’re the last thing that Zeke needs right now.”“I’m not trying to compete or be a Luna. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”“Zeke’s late-night visits to your room? Stalking you? Reeking of your scent every time? He doesn’t take his eyes off you, but you think I’ll believe you don’t kn
Zeke’s father called just as he prepared to pick up Ava. Zeke normally called him when he was ready for the weekly check-in calls, usually after lunch, but his father had called an emergency conference meeting because the rogue attacks had increased in the past couple of weeks.It pissed Shadow off. He had marked the whole territory because he considered it his. No one in the pack dared to dispute that, even though the current Alpha was alive and well. The rogues didn’t dare attack when he was home; it only happened when he was too far away.That was one of the reasons he was anxious to graduate and take over from his father. Nobody feared Ezra Michelson anymore, but they were fucking terrified of Shadow. He paced the room while his father and his Beta and Gamma, Derek’s and Myle’s fathers, filled them in. They had been lucky that no one had been injured, and the warriors had quickly taken care of the rogues. But they had come too far into the territory and too close to the pack resi
Ava was sure her head would fall off when Ezekiel set her down. It was cleaving into itself and jumbling all her thoughts. Her energy seemed to have been sucked from her body; she couldn’t understand why she felt so sluggish. It took her a moment to realise she was alone. Ezekiel left her. Again.What was wrong with that guy?With a tired sigh, she limped to the bathroom. There was a basket of toiletries on the counter that hadn’t been there that morning, as if Ezekiel had spent his time preparing for her to move in with him, but she only glossed over it as she went straight to the shower. She would have loved to soak in the giant tub in this room, but she didn’t know if she could stay awake long enough to enjoy it. It took a while to remove her ruined clothes, and then she finally stood under the cooling spray. She was sure she was sunburnt on top of everything else. She loved being outdoors, but her skin was not made for that.She felt only marginally better when she finally stepped
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