Reluctantly getting dressed and heading towards my remaining classes I told myself it was a good thing Dex left the way he did. It took all my willpower to break that link, to remind myself I had more to myself than falling into his bed. I need to pass this Assessment. Because while Dex likes me now, I could lose everything if I were to gamble on him and let the Assessment slide. His dark eyes glimmered with emotion, his body tensed as if he could tear down the walls in one stroke. Through his soaked t-shirt I had finally made out the pattern of his tattoo. I had assumed it was small, peeping out of his sleeve hem, however a huge swirling intricate black pattern of snakes, moon, stars, and a dozen other tiny little features travelled down across shoulder blades. I’m never going to get to ask about that now. Little things like that made me wince with regret. I was torn between my brain, logic and reason and the very depths of my soul. Tenderly wrapping the towel around my body,
I don’t give a shit about what Kate thinks she has going on with Alpha Dex. She has no idea what passed between us at that bonfire. How close I came to making those night-time fantasies a reality. When I finally felt the heat of his gaze, his eyes and smile only for me my core practically exploded in longing. I was ready to go, there and then, fluttering my eyelashes, his gaze floating down my curves. He fucking loved it. He did. Had his stupid Beta with the hair like a shaggy dog not whisked him away who knows where the night would have taken us. Kate is being ridiculous to suggest she has been seeing him. Maybe she's saying it just to hurt my feelings. /But why would she lie? Kate doesn’t lie/ Bree whined annoyingly. I enjoy my chats with Berlarot a lot more these days. I sometimes shift, head the far borders of the pack and just vent to him. His oozing black form is bigger than a large dog now, leaving a slick trail of oil behind. Curiously he still has no face, in the bla
The only good thing about getting chewed out by my father so viciously was that I got to miss Rose’s dinner party. Honestly she doesn’t realise the whole bunch of them are only there to suck up to her. It’s a competitive, bloodthirsty world up at the top of the rankings, all hoping the right words of flattery will seal the deal. It was at that dinner party last year that Seraphine made her move if I recall. I had been talking to Rose when she suddenly became quite ill. I offered to escort her to the bathroom, as soon as we were out of sight she grabbed me and pulled my lips to hers. Who was I to say no? As she expertly sucked my cock in the packhouse bathroom I thought of it as a win. Her blue eyes had gazed up at me as I twisted her dark brown ponytail around my fingers. it makes me cringe. I expect everyone in the compound to respect me as yet I have acted pretty shabbily. If anything good at all can come of Kate breaking things off, it’s me improving as an Alpha. Shaping up.
I’ve fallen out with Roxie in the past but never for this long. A full week of silent treatment, neither of us ready to say a single word. In the orphanage it was impossible, we slept in the same room, had limited places to go. In the Compound I could quite easily avoid her completely apart from the classes we shared. I was relentless in my note taking and revising. I lived in the library, its white plastered walls and long lines of shelves as familiar to me as the damp, depressing walls of my new home. I knew where I could quietly be left alone, free from the whispers and pointing of others. I’d revised so hard. I am even fairly competent at some Dark Arts now. The next exam focused on witchcraft. The differences between them and shifters. How a shifter using the natural, Moon Goddess approved spirits that surrounds us was different to the manipulation used by witches. Although called Dark Arts, it is more a form of meditation, connecting to the Moon Goddess on a higher level for
Another scalding hot outdoor session of fighting beckoned. This was our first exam to involve shifting. I’ve spent the past week avoiding the orchard, instead allowing Raya to just go nuts in the opposite direction. Heading out of the compound the way we hiked on our second day, getting right into the heat and dust. Seeing as I had nobody to spar with, nor had I ever fought in wolf-form beyond the training sessions the best I could do was improve our fitness. Raya was a lovely little wolf, all brown fur and honey-coloured eyes. /We are getting stronger, you never know we might do well/ she had crowed happily, enjoying being in her natural, spiritual state. Shifted, I understood the Dark Arts a lot more as well. Embodying a wolf pushes you infinitely closer to nature. Every scent, echo, swirling cloud of dust catches the senses more intensely. So of course, why wouldn’t one want to encourage that bond, to get closer to nature. Standing in my training gear with everyone else we await
Fighting back tears I silently allowed Glenn to pick me up, wincing as he dragged towards a grassy knoll. “Carry the fuck on then you bunch of sick animals,” he growled at the crowd as he fashioned a splint for my leg out some thick branches and the first aid kit Coach Grantley produced. Where did that first aid kit appear from? How long was he planning to mindlessly gape at my naked woe before Beta Glenn? My mind was a whirlwind of flashing anger towards those who failed to offer the most basic human sympathy, embarrassment at my latest failure and sadness at the crushing realisation weighing on my chest like a dumbbell. This is too much for me to bear. Even if I pass the Assessment would I even be happy to stay here after this? “Can I lift you, it’s going to hurt like fuck but you’re best off at your home.” “Can you take me to Healing, I have an exam there this afternoon?” “Sure thing,” he said, his face twisted in concentration as he lifted me bridal style, my broken lower leg
It was the best decision I could have made, getting out of Fyrestone, a change of scenery. Rooting through the library crypt, assessing Eduardo's records I uncovered some facts that made my stomach churn. Eduardo had adopted the Humbling practice from Greenway, after Alpha Austin’s father bragged about its effectiveness on criminals. Five years ago, Eduardo ‘humbled’ eight smugglers. The sheer cliff faces of Cliffril would have meant almost instant death once they were turned out from his high-rise packhouse. Considering they had their sight and hearing ripped away with hot pokers, that fact was probably a blessing. The realisation Alpha Eduardo, with his easy manners and wide smiles, was not as good natured as I always assumed, meant all the hugs, the camaraderie and sly mocking of the other pack members left a bitter taste. Naive fool I had been. A fallen idol. One I had looked up instead of my father for the last few years. Observing him having fun, living an expansive, caref
The days were as boring as possible. If Luna Gwyneth was trying to hide the more interesting features of her pack from me she certainly succeeded. I found nothing but grey, owl-eyed accountants willing to argue down to the last hundred grams of grain. Boring bastards. Still I told myself that Father expected me to get a result. So I played hardball. For three days I argued back, pointed out deficiencies and miscalculations. I rose up, threatened to head south to Alpha Frank’s Juro Pack for all our comparable resources and be done with his foolishness. As my boots clipped smartly along her wooden floorboards, my hand resting on the ebony carved door handle he squawked, calling me back. We came away with the best rates in years. The grey, limp man shook my hand with all the enthusiasm of a condemned man on his way to the gallows. I smiled pleasantly and thanked him for his time. Serves him right for thinking I would sign up to anything. /Which in the past you probably would have d