Chapter 3 Facing Rebecca

After he left, I couldn’t stop thinking about the man—and the more I thought about him, the more I realized just how weird the entire situation was. 

My mind wouldn’t stop drifting to why he was at the Academy in the first place. His age really stood out as we walked the halls together—he looked nothing like the people I passed as I walked to my actual dorm.

Soon enough, my thoughts were overtaken by the beauty of the Academy. The buildings were stunning, with their gothic-style architecture and surrounding forestry to compliment. The south was much warmer than the north, which meant that the gardens were now in full bloom. I smelled the flowers as I walked by, inhaling deeply. I couldn’t wait to get back out there one day. 

I paused on the sidewalk and looked around. The area I was in didn’t look familiar; in fact, it was a lot different than I remembered from the tour. It took a minute to realize I was lost. A blonde girl was walking toward me, so I stopped her. She sighed as she took her earbuds out. 

“Hi, I’m sorry,” I started. “I’m a little lost and was hoping you could help. I thought the B dorms were this way, but I think I was mistaken.” 

I pointed in the direction I had been walking. The girl was a beautiful blonde with fashionable clothes. She was staring at her phone while one hand playing with her curled hair. When I talked to her she seemed not very patient. She looked at me up and down then she pointed behind me, her ponytail swaying behind her as she moved. 

“You just went by them. Go back and then turn left.” 

I opened my mouth to thank her, but she was gone before I could even speak. So much for a warm welcome, I thought. 

I followed her directions and after much searching, I finally found the right dorm building. I followed the instructions on the sheet and was quick to find my room not long after. 

I opened the door. It had two rooms in it, but one already had bags by the chest at the end of the bed. There was a large window between them and outside of it, I saw a large arena. I wondered who my roommate would be. 

I put down my bags and looked at my schedule. There were lots of classes and tests. I was excited but nervous. The Academy was known for being challenging. Only shifters from rich and powerful families could get in. Other shifters of different classes would occasionally be let in, but they had to be the best of the best. It was elite, after all. 

I didn’t know whether the north had a similar school, but I didn’t think there was one. Most of the country was run by the packs in the south, the one my father was trying to become the king Alpha of. The rest of the country was left to the Blood Storm Pack to the north. 

They were independent and didn’t participate in Alpha elections because they believed their king was the true king. I couldn’t imagine anyone but my father being the next Alpha King. 

As I read my schedule, all of the classes seemed easy. I was a straight-A student, after all. I would still work hard because my family was great and had always had high expectations but as far as academics went, I was going to have it easy. 

The only disappointing thing was the fact that I hadn’t, and may never, find my wolf. I saw my first class of the day was battle class and cursed the Moon Goddess. I knew I’d have to tell my professor that I hadn’t found my wolf yet. 

I tried to think of something as I made my way to the arena. It was huge—bigger than the one we had on our territory.

The grounds were a lawn with some areas dedicated to different types of training and weapons. Some of the students were already warming up with punching bags and spears. I walked in and saw the rest of the class already gathered there together. 

My jaw tightened when I saw Rebecca and her clique in the corner, watching everyone else and whispering to one another. Of course, she’d be here. She was one of the best fighters. 

I put on my hood and stood behind other werewolves. She’d find out it was me eventually, but at least I could get a few more minutes of peace. 

As I walked further in, I noticed that Arthur was also there. I’d never met him officially, but I’d seen pictures of him with his father. His father was Alpha Brandon, my father’s biggest running mate. He was another person I was surprised to find I was nervous about. If he learned that I didn’t have my wolf… it’d be nothing short of a disaster, but the good thing was Arthur seemed to never really care about what his father was doing. From what I knew, he spent most of his time having fun, but in the most dangerous way. If I remember correctly, there was a rumor that not long ago he killed a man just because he felt bored but no one knew if it was true or false.

I wondered whether he had seen pictures of me with my parents. 

He took a glance at me when I got in and his eyes stopped on my face like he was trying to figure out if he had seen me before but soon he lost interest and stopped paying attention to me. I guess he didn’t know who I was or you can say he didn’t really care.

Nobody was paying any mind except for Rebecca, who I noticed was eyeing me from across the arena. She narrowed her eyes on me. 

I walked around the students, trying to find the professor, thinking that maybe I could pull him aside before class started and make up an excuse. 

The school couldn’t know too much. The principal's family was a part of Alpha Jackson’s pack—one of the richest Alphas—so I had to keep my excuse close to the truth, but not enough to harm my image… or that of my parents.

My eyes scanned the people in the arena, but nobody looked like a professor. They were all around my age. Some of them were practicing already and others were chatting among themselves. 

I hoped that whoever was teaching the battle class was reasonable. Maybe they would be able to help me find my wolf. The thought filled me with hope but I didn’t want to get carried away. As I scanned the crowd, the blonde girl from earlier stood out to me. 

She was coming my way and stood next to me. This time, I didn’t offer to shake her hand and instead, offered her a small wave. 

Her face softened and she gave me a tight-lipped smile. “I take it you found your way to class,” she said. 

She seemed nice, so I smiled. “Yes, thank you for your help. I guess we have a class together.”

She opened her mouth like she was going to speak again, but closed it again as she glanced over my shoulder. 

Before I could ask her what was wrong, I was stopped by an ice-cold hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see who it was and when I saw them, I thought, that’s just perfect. 

Rebecca was standing behind me with a proud and mocking expression. Her made-up lips curled into a wicked smile and her eyeliner looked positively predatory. She was wearing a red blouse and a pair of black shorts. Her knee-high boots had a small heel to them. It wasn’t a very practical outfit for a battle class, I thought.

“I guess they’ll let anyone into the Academy these days,” Rebecca said coolly and the girls around her giggled. I frowned and crossed my arms. She mirrored my body language. “Must be your grades. There’s no way you passed the battle entrance exam.” 

It had been easy, actually, especially after practicing with my mother. But Rebecca didn’t need to know that. When we had fought in high school, she had always won. Physical competitions were the only ones she could ever win against me so they came up often. Despite me being taller and more nimble than Rebecca, she had an edge over me. She got her wolf earlier than most, as well as a special ability—a double rarity among shifters. I never backed down though. Whatever fights she started, I was going to do my best to finish. 

“Rebecca, I don’t think it’s the right time for you to pick up a fight with me,” I offered, trying to avoid a fight. The moment the words came out of my mouth, I knew it wouldn’t help. There was no sense in trying to appeal to Rebecca’s sense of civility… because it didn’t exist. 

But I had to try something. If we started fighting and she shifted and I didn’t, people would have questions. 

Maybe there was a different battle class I could transfer to, I thought.

As expected, she cackled at my words and shook her head. “No way, Aria. You aren’t getting away that easily. We have unfinished business.” 

Rebecca’s lip curled into a snarl and her canines extended. The girls behind her stepped back, giving us space. The blonde girl did the same and the other students started circling around us. 

This was going very, very wrong, very fast, I thought. I wasn’t going to get out of this with excuses, so I was going to need to fight my hardest, this time with the whole class watching. It was hard to think, but I took a deep breath and stared at Rebecca, in case I was fully prepared when she tried to attack me.

Rebecca was staring me down like I was going to be her last meal.