Chapter 3

I watched a s Knight’s eyes trailed down my shirt. He’d worked three of my shirt buttons open and the top of my bandage was starting to make itself visible. His eyes lingered on it and I needed to get him distracted and fast.

I reared my hand back and punched him square in the jaw. Knight staggered backwards, hand going to the spot where I’d punched him. He looked down at me with this blank expression.

“The hell are you doing?” I hissed.

“You passed out,” Knight said softly. “I was checking to make sure you were okay.”

I shifted myself to sit up in the bed. “By looking at my chest?”

“Your injuries were severe,” Knight deadpanned.

“My heart’s fine, thanks,” I snapped.

I buttoned back up my shirt buttons and swung my legs out of the bed I was in. My head was throbbing still and my entire body felt like it was heavy with exertion. I brought my hand to my head and rubbed at it.

“I feel like I’ve been run over by a pack of wolves,” I mumbled.

“Just one,” Knight chimed in. I gave him a sideways glare and saw he was smirking again. He chuffed a half a laugh then stood up straight.

“You did good for a first-year,” he said. “Just unlucky in that you were paired with someone who’d been training since he was eight.”

I snorted. “I’ve been training since I was ten,” I said. “I should’ve held my own better.”

“I can tell,” Knight said. I jerked my head to look at him. He caught my eye. “Truly.”

“Yet, you knocked me out,” I mumbled.

“I did,” Knight said. “And so you were eliminated. And wound up ranked last of the first years.”

I groaned and slammed my second hand over my face. My head felt like it had a pulse. “No one else passed out?” I mumbled.

“Unfortunately, no,” Knight said. “This is the the best class we’ve had in years. About half of them beat the third years they were sparring against.”

Great. Just great.

“This is hopeless,” I grunted.

“Not hopeless,” Knight corrected. “There’s a second ranking competition at the end of the semester. As long as you don’t come last, you’ll be fine.”

I turned to face Knight. “And if I do come last?”

“You’ll be expelled,” Knight said, matter-of-factly.

I swallowed thickly. “Right,” I said. “So, don’t suck.”

“Don’t suck,” Knight repeated. “But I’ll help you get up to speed.”

“You will?” I jerked to sit up right. “Why?”

“Our packs are merging,” Knight crossed his arms over his chest. “What good would it do to inherit a bunch of wolves who don’t know how to fight?”

“I guess, that’s fair,” I mused.

Knight clapped his hand on my shoulder again and I winced. My body was still stiff. On top of that, the lurch of lust in my stomach started up again. I tried to shrug out of his grasp but his fingers dug into me.

“Come to lunch with me and my mates,” he said.

“I — I shouldn’t,” I stuttered, trying to come up with an excuse to get the hell away from him. “I probably have to like… set up my room or something. How long was I out?”

“Thirty minutes,” Knight said before launching into another invitation. “I insist.”

“No, really, I—“

Knight yanked me to my feet and steered me out of the infirmary. He dragged me down the hall of the old building and into a large room with high ceilings. It was filled with a bunch of other students. They seemed to be grouped by the type of Alpha they were.

Sons of Alphas all had golden yellow eyes. They were bigger and stronger looking than the rest of the student body. They were all Knight’s friends. Only two tables were filled with these types of students.

There were double the table of students with non-gold eyes. These were the other Alphas. They weren’t likely to rise to as high of a ranking as the Sons of Alphas. They were less strong than the sons. But had the blood of an Alpha in their veins.

Then, there were the non-Alpha wolves. These were wolves that attended Alpha Academy to study wolf politics and history. They were small, lanky and unsocial. There was a few scattered table filled with these wolves.

Knight steered us to his table of friends. He clapped me on the shoulder once again. The men at the table turned around to stare at me. I felt my cheeks flush with the feeling of their eyes on me.

“Lads,” Knight addressed them. “This is Ethan Blueheart. He’s Anderson Blueheart’s son and my future brother-in-law. I respect we will treat him as such.”

“Welcome,” said another Son. He had sandy blonde hair and deep, almost black-yellow eyes. “I’m Badger Highmoon. Have a seat.”

Knight shoved my shoulder and I took that as my sign to sit down. I slunk down in between two other men and found myself sitting directly across from Badger. His eyes bore into me as he tried to study me. He pointed to my left.

“Ash Light,” then he pointed to my right. “Blade Silverspear.”

“Hello,” I mumbled. Both men responded with a grunt. I slunk in on myself then turned my face back to look at Badger. He smirked then threw a potato in his mouth. He looked back down at his tray then spoke.

“So your cousin’s fit?” He said.

Blade and Ash snickered. I looked at Knight, further down the table. He was completely unfazed. I looked back up and met Badger’s eyes.

“She got good tits?” He went on.

“She’s my cousin,” I bit out. “I’m not exactly looking at her chest.”

Badger hummed before throwing another potato in his mouth. “You seen her Knight? You know if she’s got big tits?”

Knight laughed and I felt a shiver of disgust run down my spine. He couldn’t think this was funny, could he?

“Nah, mate,” he said. “But Wesley saw her. Said she’s blonde with blue eyes.”

“Blondes are fit,” Ash grunted from my left. Another shiver of disgust. “I like blondes.”

“Paws off,” Knight snapped.

“What if she’s an ugly blonde?” Badger went on. “Some blondes are fake blondes too. You know there’s potions for that stuff.”

Knight shrugged. “It’s a political marriage,” he said. “We have a duty to fulfill and that’s it. You get it right, Ethan?”

I licked my lips. “Right,”

“What about you, big guy?” Badger teased. “How are you with the women?”

“Very popular,” Blade teased. “I can tell. You have the air of a virgin about you that I’m sure women love.”

“How many ladies you bedded, bud?” Badger teased.

I’d had enough. I shoved myself away from the table and stood up. All four of the men looked at me, interested in what I’d say next.

“Probably a hundred,” I snapped. “Because unlike you, I know how to respect women and don’t talk about them behind their backs.”

Without a pause to hear them out, I stood up and left them in the dining hall.