by Sophie Stern
“Except the name of it, apparently,” she looks at me. “What is this place called, anyway?”
“Wolf Pack Academy,” I tell her.
“Really?”
“No,” my father glares at me and turns to Heather. “It’s called Greystone Academy. We’re the Greystone Pack. Welcome to the academy, Heather. Until we find out who your mate is, consider yourself enrolled.”
Chapter Seven
Heather
Enrolled at a shifter academy?
Is this guy for real?
Only, the big guy isn’t laughing, so he must be for real. Shit. Shit shit shit. This cannot be happening. I have books to write and deadlines to meet. I have events to go to and places to be. I mean, my latest novel is supposed to release like, really soon, and I don’t want to disappoint my readers. What if I totally tank my career? It’s really just taking off.
Shit.
I grimace and stare at the two big, burly men. They are so unlike Flynn. They look older and harder in some ways, but they also look like they’re a little more patient. Strange. These guys are the ones in charge of everything, and although they look familiar, I can’t quite place where I’ve seen them.
Unless what they’re telling me is true and I’ve been having mating dreams. Have these guys appeared in my dreams? Is one of them my mate? As soon as I think this, I realize it’s not true, though. It can’t possibly be true. Besides, I kind of get the vibe that the two of them might be involved. I don’t have anything to actually pin that on except that I’ve caught a few wayward glances that seem strangely intimate.
“No thanks,” I finally say, standing up.
“No thanks?” The main guy, the one I’m guessing is the alpha, looks at me in surprise. Apparently, he’s not used to people telling him, no.
“Nobody tells the Greystone Alpha no,” the other man says.
“Maxwell,” Flynn says, looking at that guy. His voice holds a hint of a warning, but I have no idea what he’s getting at. Still, just no. I’m not interesting.
“Well, consider me the first, Maxwell.”
“I will do no such thing.”
“Tough shit,” I spit. “Look, no offense, but I didn’t exactly sign up to be kidnapped, and your mating dreams theory is great, but it’s just a theory, and guess what? I don’t want to marry one of your shifters, okay? So if you’ll be so kind as to show me the door and give me back my fucking cell phone, I’ll call an Uber and be on my damn way.”
I don’t actually want to think about how much an Uber from Nowhere, USA back to my house would cost, but right now the only thing I care about is getting out of here.
“The dreams aren’t going to stop,” the big guy speaks again.
“Dad...”
Wait, dad?
This guy is Flynn’s dad?
Okay, I can see the resemblance now. They’re both tall and have the same nose. I probably should have seen that before. This guy seems to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, though, and Flynn...well, Flynn seems a little freer.
“No, she needs to know this, Flynn,” Alpha Dad says.
“What do I need to know?” I whisper. Suddenly, I have a sinking feeling that I’m not going to like whatever he says next. A feeling of dread settles in the pit of my stomach, and I silently remind myself that no matter what he says, it’s going to be fine.
After all, I’m a successful, independent author.
I’m a successful, independent woman.
I’m a successful, independent mother to two beautiful cats.
I’m totally fine.
“The dreams aren’t going to stop until you find your mate.” This time, it’s Maxwell who speaks. He looks at the alpha. “I’m sorry, Gerald. I should have let you tell her.”
“It’s fine.”
“Uh, Gerald? Alpha? I mean, what are you saying?”
“The dreams are going to get stronger,” Gerald says. “Have they been worse recently?”
So much worse.
When I was a teenager, they only came sporadically. In fact, sometimes the dreams were so faint I couldn’t remember them. Now, though, I often wake up screaming, crying, or in a cold sweat. Sometimes I wake up feeling so scared that I’m shaking.
They aren’t all bad, though.
Sometimes I wake up in the throes of an orgasm.
Ignoring Gerald’s question, I ask one of my own.
“What do you mean they’re going to get worse?”
“Mating dreams are designed to lead you to your one true mate,” he tells me. “Both you and the person you’re destined to be with will have these dreams. The secret is going to be to find who your mate is before it’s too late.”
“Too late?”
For what?
My fertility?
“Since you’re human, I don’t know how the dreams are going to affect you long-term,” he warns me. “But wolves aren’t designed to have these dreams forever. The dreams are simply a guide: a resource for finding one’s true mate. The dreams will grow stronger and stronger until they completely take over the shifter’s life.”
Ah, now I understand what he’s saying.
“You want me to mate one of your wolves.”
“It’s fated.”
“I think I should have a choice in who I love. I’m not interested in some sort of weird arranged marriage,” I snap.
Seriously, could this day get any worse?
Gerald stands up.
“I will not allow my wolf to suffer simply because you’re too stubborn to do the right thing.”
“Fuck you,” I spit, and Flynn steps in front of me before Maxwell can dive at me.
“Never speak to the alpha like that!” He screams. Flynn is muttering something, and now they’re all shouting, and they’re all screaming at each other about wolves and responsibilities and duties.
Well, fuck that!
I’m not a wolf.
I didn’t agree to be mated to one of them.
I don’t even want that.
They can all just totally, completely forget about using me as wolf meat. Besides, if someone really has been capturing “their kind,” then I think they have bigger problems than whether or not I want to marry a shifter.
The three men are yelling so much that suddenly, I realize I’m not being actively watched. I’m not exactly a fighter. I’m not particularly brave and I’m definitely not smart or clever, but I’m scrappy, and right now, that’ll have to do. I don’t exactly think I can sneak out of the school. I mean, I wouldn’t do that without my cats, anyway, but I can go find my pets and get the hell out of here.
I don’t want to be trapped in animal land a minute longer than I have to.
So I back up.
Up.
Up.
My hands touch the door and silently, I turn the knob and step outside. I don’t bother closing the door behind me, I just take off quickly down the hallway, past all the closed doors, and back to the staircase we came up to get here. They haven’t seemed to notice that I’m gone yet, which is great because it’ll give me some time to get away.
Where am I going to go?
I have no idea.
It’s not like I can just go home.
The guys are still yelling and screaming. They’re still fighting with one another. Their yelling becomes more and more unmanageable, but then I finally reach the bottom of the staircase and step into the outside hallway. When I do, I close the door behind me and look around.
I’m free.
And I take off running.
I make my way back to the main hallway. I’ve never been particularly good with directions, but luckily for me, I’ve dreamt about this place enough times to know the exact layout of the school. It just figures that my psychotic dreams would come in handy one day. Great. I avoid the main hallway – the one with all of the classrooms – and instead take a side hallway that intersects with one more.
Gaston has my cats, and he likely took them to his quarters. If
he’s best friends with the alpha’s son, then they all probably have bedrooms close together. If I had to guess, they’re in a shared outbuilding on the campus. I try to think of the different places I’ve explored in my dreams. The students stay in dormitories, at least if my visions are true here, but where do the adults stay?
Suddenly, an alarm starts blaring.
Shit.
So they realized I’m gone.
Whatever.
They’re going to shut the exits down and lock up the building. This happened in one of my dreams, too, but when that happened, I took a secret passageway that only me and my lover knew about. I’m almost to the entrance to the passageway. It’s just up ahead. If I can get there without being seen by anyone, I’ll be able to make it out of the building and then into the woods. There should be apartments and other places out there.
There have to be.
I’m just about to reach the painting that holds the hidden passageway when I feel his presence. I can’t smell Flynn – I’m not a wolf, after all – but his anger is so palpable that I can sense it. I turn around and there he is.
“Stop,” he whispers.
“Never.”
“We need your help,” he says.
Neither one of us moves. There’s probably only twenty feet between us, and I know he could clear that distance instantly if he wanted to.
“No.”
He looks shocked and a little hurt, but not surprised.
“I’m sorry for the way things started between us,” he tells me.
“You should have fucking thought about that before you kidnapped me!” I slam the little tiny button next to the painting. It’s so small that it just looks like a ridge in the wall. Instantly, the painting slides to the side and I jump into the hidden passageway behind it. I push the button on the inside that slides the painting back in place, and then I take off running in the darkness.
It’s a stupid thing to do, but then again, I never said I was smart.
Chapter Eight
Flynn
I’m not sure whether I’m more shocked that Heather had the balls to sneak out my dad’s office or that she knows about the secret passageway behind my mother’s painting. To my knowledge, I’m the only person at the academy who knows about that. Not even my dad knows about the passageway. My mother had it built into the first floor of the academy years ago so she could have a private place to spend her time. She showed it to me when I was just a kid, back before she passed away, and I never told anyone.
But in my dreams – my own mating visions – I take my mate there.
Only, I never thought my mate could be a human.
And I never thought my mate could be someone like Heather.
Could she be?
I don’t have time to spare. My father completely freaked out when we realized Heather was gone. He’s beyond worried that she’s going to go to the authorities and report that she was kidnapped. He can’t have that. He doesn’t care that I did it, but now that he knows she’s got insider knowledge about the vanishing pack members, he wants in. He wants to know what she knows, only something tells me that my dad might use a bit more force than me to get it.
Well, fuck that.
Heather is mine.
I move to the painting quickly and push the button to open it. Instantly, the painting slides over and I step behind it. I push the button inside the little hallway and the painting once more slides into place. Now I’m alone in the passageway, but Heather is here somewhere.
There are no lights here.
I don’t need them.
After all, I’m a damn wolf. I can see just as well in the darkness as I can in the light, and Heather would do well to remember that. Only, something tells me the little human isn’t thinking clearly. She was aroused by me earlier, and I was aroused by her, too. I hate being attracted to a human. Yeah, she might be luscious and cute and my inner-wolf might be begging me to mark her, but I need answers from her before anything else can happen.
The hidden passageway is dark, and empty, but I can smell her. She ran down it, which was brave of her. Running in the darkness? Most humans wouldn’t have the courage.
I don’t dare call out her name. Although my father and the other shifters in the Greystone Pack don’t know about this place, they can still hear.
And if they notice me hollering to Heather?
They’ll tear the walls down.
Instead of yelling, I run silently, padding quietly down the hallway. Then I turn once and keep running. Then I turn again. It doesn’t take me long to catch up with her, but I’m surprised at how far down the passageway I find her.
She’s standing perfectly still in the center of the hall, and she’s looking toward me. Obviously, she can’t see me, but I think that she can sense me.
“So it’s you,” she says.
“It’s me.”
“You think we’re mates.”
Not a lot gets past little Heather.
“I don’t think we are. My father does.”
“He doesn’t care if you’re with a human.”
“He wants the dreams to stop.”
“Why?” She asks. “What’s so bad about the dreams?”
“They’re getting worse,” I tell her. “Aren’t yours?”
Sometimes I wake up in a cold sweat, tearful that I can’t find my mate. In my dreams, I run, chasing her, over and over, and she’s always just out of my reach.
“Yes. I don’t see why that means we need to get married. You don’t even know me. You don’t even like me,” she scoffs.
“I want to keep you safe.”
“That’s not the same thing as love, Flynn.”
“I’m not saying it is, but...”
“But what?”
I sigh. An unmated shifter is someone who will never be happy. Failing to mate curses a shifter to a life of solitude. Nobody likes a lone wolf, but it’s not because they’re grumpy. It’s because lone wolves eventually go crazy. Failing to find and connect with their mate is powerful enough that it drives most wolves to insanity.
My father knows this, and he’s fearful for me. He worries that this will become my fate if I don’t wed my bride. He also knows that I’m one of the few single wolves in the pack, and although I haven’t mentioned my dreams to him, he’s not an idiot. Our housing units are side-by-side. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s heard me screaming in my sleep.
He’s been polite not to say anything, but if Heather really is the one, then maybe we should mate. Maybe it would solve both of our problems. Maybe it would give us hope.
“We both need this,” I say.
“Excuse me, but no. Neither one of us needs this. I definitely don’t. You don’t even know me, Flynn. How can you say you want to marry me? And I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be your nightmare juice.”
I was afraid she’d say this, and unfortunately, I can still hear the alarms going off in the school. I’ve found Heather, and I’ve caught her, and it’s time to bring her back inside. As much as I don’t want to, it’s time.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“For what?”
“For this.”
I step forward and grab her before she can run.
“No! Not again! Let me go!”
She kicks and screams, yelling. I toss her over my shoulder and Heather kicks and yells, hitting me with her tiny fists. The pain doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, it doesn’t hurt. Not even a little bit. The only thing that hurts is my heart because unlike last time, I’ve kind of gotten to know her a little bit, and I know that she’s fierce and fiery and fun.
I know that she’s passionate about writing and crazy about her cats.
And I know that she might, just might, be my destiny.
I haul her out from behind the painting, but despite feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, I’m still clear-headed enough to remember to put the painting back in place. I don’t want anyone else discovering that secret place.
That’
s ours.
I carry her down several hallways until I finally reach the one that holds my father and Maxwell. The students who attend the school are nowhere to be seen. I raise an eyebrow.
“You found her,” my father says.
“So I did. Where are the students?”
“They’re in their classrooms,” Maxwell says.
“You can shut off the alarms and let them free,” I tell the men. “I’ve found the girl.”
“She needs to be locked up,” my father looks pissed. He looks royally, completely, pissed, and suddenly, Heather seems to fall silent. Smart girl. No, she doesn’t want to be locked up by the wolf pack. First of all, I don’t even know where my father would lock someone up. I mean, we live in the middle of the forest and despite the fact that the school is held in a huge castle, it doesn’t exactly have a dungeon.
“Consider it taken care of,” I say, and I turn and walk away.
“Flynn!” He calls out, and I stop and turn back.
“Where are you taking her?”
“My room.”
Both my father and Maxwell stare at me hard. Yeah, they know this is a terrible idea, but is either one of them actually going to stop me? I didn’t think so.
“We’ll need to find out more about what she knows. Even if she’s just having mating dreams and she isn’t involved in the abductions, she may have information we can use.”
“Consider it done.”
Then I turn and walk away, and I wonder what the hell I’ve gotten myself into.
Chapter Nine
Heather
He takes me out of the building and walks through the woods a short distance. As I suspected, there are many different little homes around here. There are a couple of duplexes and I even saw a set of townhouses, but the place he brings me to looks more like a miniature replica of the original castle. It’s only two stories high and it’s less than a quarter of the size of the main castle, but it’s still got fucking turrets and everything.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Heather, shut your mouth until we get inside.”