***Thyra’s POV***I try to hide that I am sniffing at this stranger, so I pick up my napkin to wipe my nose. The stronger sent was more sandalwood than forest. My nose must be turning as sensitive as Kenny’s. This movement does catch Mak’s eye though, and she sends me a concerned look. I shake my head indicating I am alright.“I apologize, I must have been so struck by your beauty that I forgot to introduce myself earlier. I’m Axel Grist, Pro-,” he starts making eyes at Ana then coughs interrupting his introduction. “Um, proudly at your service.” He ends his introduction with a small bow while stumbling over his words.“Well, Axel,” Ana says trying out another more courteous look that matched his bow. “These are my friends, that in fact can call me Ana.” She starts nodding toward each of us as she provides an introduction. “Mak is my roommate and unofficial little sister. Kenny who is in fact my official brother but don’t hold that against me. And Thyra, the friend that is leaving nex

***Thyra’s POV*** “I’m good now,” I turn to face Kenny and see him flinch when my breath hits his face. “Give me a moment, I am going to brush my teeth.” I rinse out the sink in front of me and then move to the bathroom to brush the acid out of my mouth. When I am looking in the mirror, I realize that Kenny wasn’t in time to fully save my hair from vomit. After rinsing the toothpaste down the drain I lower my head under the faucet to clean up my hair. I looked as sick as I felt. My skin was paler than normal, and there was no color in my lips. It was as if I hadn’t slept for a week and had the flu the entire time. I grabbed a towel to wrap up my hair, it will need to be washed but right now I need to figure out what I saw. I walk back into the commons area, and other than Kenny everyone is in the exact same spot they were when I ran to the sink. Ana looks at me from the couch and jumps up. She rushed over to me grabbing my hand and dragging me to Mak. There she wrapped her short arm

***Thyra’s POV*** Getting settled into a new area by myself was new to me. After we had to leave the pack lands, I always had Ana and Kenny with me. I spent the weekend learning about the area of Capitol City where I had an apartment. It is too far to link with my friends so my phone spent the weekend having notifications pop up from all three of them. Maybe I wasn’t really alone? Ana has been texting with that creature from lunch last week. He promised her that he would look out for me while we are here. I let her send him my phone number and he has already reached out to make sure I had the information I needed to get to the academy this morning. Sunday, I did some recon, so I knew where I was going. Now, I am sitting at a café across the street from the main lecture hall of the academy waiting until it was a quarter to 8am so that I wasn’t there too early waiting in the halls by myself. Then I would go to the auditorium for orientation. There are already a lot of creatures in the

***Thyra’s POV*** “You have to be kidding me?” I respond to the most ludicrous question of the day. “I am being serious Thyra, what do you know about fated mates?” Reed questions again. Hearing him say my name sends shivers of pleasure through me. “Only the fairy tales that parents would tell children so they would behave. One, how twisted is that, telling a bunch of pups you don’t act good enough to have a Goddess blessed mate. Two, I still hear the stories about how much it was a double standard against females. Overentitled males thinking they can tell their fated mates what to do in the name of the mate bond. How many females were shamed if they were not as pure as the day they were born, but males could run off f*****g anyone they liked,” I respond with disgust. This can’t be true. “Not ignoring the fact that, there hasn’t been a fated mate since before The Darkness if you believe all of those tales.” “Have you heard the story of King Oren and Queen Ayla?” He continues his qu

***Thyra’s POV*** We arrive at the auditorium, and almost like they planned it Axel and Reed flank me in the seats. I don’t have the energy to argue with their overbearing behavior. I guess I don’t need to as long as they don’t distract from my training. We still have a few moments before the instructors will start breaking us all out into our squads. I feel tingles run across the back of my shoulders as Reed stretches his arm around resting on top of my chair. Before I even realize what I am doing, I lean into him. I really need to pay attention to this, so I don’t let these weird impulses become a problem too. I feel my phone buzz, and pull it out to see an alert from Ana. Dr. Ana Medical Extraordinaire: Axel says you two look like the cutest couple. Give him a chance, maybe it all fits in with your plans. 😉 Me: Don’t make me change your name to Dr. Ana Love Therapist Disappointment. Gotta go training is starting. I look up from my phone to see Reed reading the text as wel