by S. L. Morgan
“Well, you’re picking up on something I have no idea about. I also know that Dom brought more attention to me than I wanted. It’s BS, but I guess it’s the price you pay when you’re with a guy like that.”
“It is. Trust me, you can handle the jealous queens at this school, but you won’t be able to handle the others who might see you as a threat.” She became more serious, “It’s probably smart if you keep your free, wolf spirit low until your three years is up at this school.”
Is she part of this murder crap too?
“Or else what? What! Immortals can’t be killed, so I think I’m safe.”
“Why would you suggest such a ridiculous theory?” she laughed. “I’m just warning you of the ones kept in the dark rooms underground, chained up, and starved to supernatural desiccation. That’s where you’ll end up, kiddo.”
“Then I’ll heed your advice.”
“It’s probably the best advice I could offer you.” She clapped me on the shoulder, “Good luck with Dom, and no, I’m not the jealous ex-girlfriend. I just know that Dom has no intentions of being with anyone until he selfishly gets what he wants. Don’t want your heart broken by thinking he would actually want you. There’s a reason for the game he’s playing.”
“Well, when he’s done with his games and ready for true love, I’m sure he’ll find his way back to your arms.”
“No,” she laughed. “That ship has long sailed.”
She walked off, leaving me to think about how bizarrely that conversation went and how weird she was to have it with me. I was more confused about everything now, and especially on her picking up on more than me being a shifter. Why, because I wasn’t the perfect little humble beta wolf?
I had to make a note to punch Dom in his face once I got him alone too. He literally set me up to be watched by this stupid school, masters, and staff. Now, if this chick was right, I could be a threat and possibly thrown to starve and live a life in the dungeons?
Finley acted like she knew more than she was letting on, but after she thought I’d be thrown into the pits of this school, it showed that she was possibly on the fairy crack too. She was just as delusional as everyone else here, or she did know about the fact immortals have died at this school, and Jess was one of them?
I rubbed my forehead, feeling a headache nagging at me. I was exhausted. I wanted to scream at everyone to get the hell out of here, but I couldn’t. My temper was the number one reason for my bad decisions, and I could sense my anger was trying to run my plans. I wanted to feel normal again. I wanted to laugh and joke with my friends like I did before coming to this place of horrors.
Elite Academy my ass. This was a school that had a lot more to it. It was something dark, and I didn’t know who it was or why this was happening. Good grief, couldn’t we just have a standard three years here, move on with our supernatural lives, and be done with school?
No, I was at the school that seemed to breed nightmares for fun, but I wasn’t giving up for Jess’s sake and for my friends’ sake. I felt like I was their only hope.
A strong feeling slammed into my chest, sucking the wind out of me instantly. This school would take them too. This school would take me. This wasn’t an ordinary school at all. It felt like we were all here to be harvested, not schooled to live with humans.
I had to get on that mission. Damn it. I had to kiss Dom’s ass and get this done. I wasn’t stopping until I was out of here.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I sat numbly next to my overzealous friends, their personalities completely changed now. I didn’t want to act like this, but the truth was, I didn’t belong around these people. Tanner was acting like he was on something while feeding berries one-by-one to Emma, and Vannah was nonstop, high-pitched squealing while slapping her boyfriend Nick’s hand away from her knee.
“Stop it,” she said in a daring voice. “Not in here.” She kept it at a low whisper, but being a wolf shifter, I heard it like it was in her regular voice.
I honestly didn’t care that they were both over the top in love with their fairy friends, but this wasn’t like either of them. It was making my skin crawl, and I knew it had something to do with this school casting them all under some spell. A spell I was obviously immune to.
“How ya doing?” Dominic asked, placing his food tray down in front of me. “You did well today.”
“Didn’t she? OMG!” Vannah said, prompting me to gag down the piece of steak I had shoved into my mouth.
I looked at her like she was one of Dom’s groupies. Vannah never talked like that…OMG? When did that term make its way into Miss Grammar Police’s vocabulary?
Dom smiled at her and started cutting into his steak as all the masters filtered in around him and joined us at the table. New girls graced us with their annoying presence, and part of me wondered if they were under the same spell as my friends.
My eyes were drawn to Finley, who sat at Dom’s left. She carefully slid her knife across her steak and ate it like it was a delicacy. She’s the one who noticed something was different about me. Actually, Dom seemed to be the very first to notice the first time I didn’t follow his alpha command.
Even if I had alpha blood in me, I already had a peek at his wolf, and that wolf was more alpha than I could ever dream of being. I should have heard his commands like a siren in my head, but instead, I heard nothing. I did nothing after he tried to pull more alpha moves on me, where I should have done whatever he said like a robot being controlled by someone.
Now, it seemed the school of terrors had no effect on me with this weird spell it had all my friends under. Freaking weird.
“Jenna?” Dom questioned. “You seem upset.”
“She should have heard you the first time, Dom,” Finley said, studying me now. “He just used an alpha tone. Odd how you didn’t hear that.”
I glanced at her. “I heard it,” I answered. “I was just…”
Crap, I had nothing.
“I didn’t use an alpha tone on my girl. That is rude, and you know it,” Dom said to Finley as he bailed my butt out. He winked at me and went back to his food, giving me a break.
“That’s strange because I felt the alpha call out,” she said.
“No, you just hear what you want,” Dom defended me again. “Eat your lunch before I really do pull an alpha command on you,” he teased her with a smile.
“I’m getting some pie,” I said, standing up.
“Oh, man, I forgot you would want that,” Tanner said.
“You forgot?” I looked at my friend, his arm draped over Emma’s shoulder. “Well, I guess true love would do that to someone.”
I wasn’t about to alert Dom and Co. to the weird mannerisms I was noticing with my friends who were on Immortal Academy crack right now. I didn’t want to bring any unneeded attention to anyone at this point.
I let the aromas from the dessert area soothe my nerves like a tranquilizer. It felt like my favorite comfort food had been withheld from me for months, that’s how bad I needed the two slices of fresh apple pie I snatched up.
“You should try that with vanilla ice cream, Jenna,” Scott, the jerk master, said from behind me.
“And ruin it? Yeah, no,” I said, walking out of the dessert room.
I was shocked when I saw Ethan sitting next to where I had been. He was back, but was he normal again?
“Son of a—” I was stopped while I recovered from red nails who decided to go for the grade-school bully tactic and trip me again.
I managed to keep my feet under me, but the pies met the floor with a resounding crash.
“Oops.” I turned back to see the panther bitch covering her smile. “Sorry.”
I went to scrape up the pies, but Dom was already there and beat me to it. He rose up and pinched his lips together. “I’ll grab some more,” he said nicely.
“I’ve got it.” I took the slop of pies Dom had plated.
Dom looked over at the girls who silenced themselves, and their red cheeks
were brighter than this chick’s stupid painted nails. “What are you, four years old?” Dom said to Kat, the one chick who had it out for me since this whole fake Dom affair began. “You know you make yourselves all look more ridiculous when you bully up on someone, right?”
“I was stretching my leg. Kicking her friend Tanner’s butt today really—”
I went to smear my pie slop in her snobby face, but Dom cut her off.
“Since you’re still in my group,” he narrowed his eyes in Master Dominic form at her, “It looks like you’ll be doing push-ups and physical training while we’re all in our animal forms. I won’t tolerate any form of bully behavior. In fact, I think I’ll have a talk with Headmaster Samson and Dean Edgewater and get you transferred to Finley’s unit. It takes more than just skill to be on the head master’s unit.”
“What?” She placed her hand over her heart, “Seriously, it was an accident.”
“You’re off my unit. Lying doesn’t help.” Dom looked at me, “I’ll get you some more.”
Dom disappeared into the dessert room. I started to leave with my two smashed up pies, but the chick had to take another dig.
“Must be nice to have the hottest, strongest, and now Head Master on your side. I knew that’s how you’d pop out number one today,” she shot off.
I wanted to punch her in her perfect face, I was that freaking mad. Instead, I opted for the less hostile option and dumped my busted up pies over the salad she was eating. “You should probably eat more than a salad.” I shook off the last of the plastered pie over her food, “You eat like a damn rabbit shifter.”
“Cursing?” she glared at me, and her closed lips pulled up in one corner. “I wonder if your boyfriend will hold you back with me now. You know, cursing is not accepted at this school.”
“Listen, bitch,” I pressed both hands on the table, “A lot of things aren’t accepted at this school. I would think bullying would be a stronger offense than a curse word here and there.”
“Oh, please,” her annoyed friend said. “You feel bullied up on, precious Jenna?”
“No,” I smiled at her pissed off expression. “My pies were victims today because your friend can’t keep her emotions under control. Trust me, at this point there’s honestly nothing you could do to make me feel bullied. You just succeeded in pissing me off, and now I have to go before I act on my anger and am forced back to do PT today instead of letting my wolf run.”
“Let’s go, babe,” Dom said a little too loud from behind me.
I walked toward my table and slid next to Ethan, forcing a smile to Dom for snagging some more pie to replace the others.
“Thanks.” I smiled at him, then took the needed bite. My taste buds were singing praises for the oversized piece of pie I crammed into my mouth.
“Dang, you do love your pie,” Dom said, smiling down at me.
“Always has,” Tanner met my eyes with his stoned-out ones. “You’re a great guy to take care of her like this.”
“Tan!” I snapped, mouth half full. “Please?” I swallowed, “We’re not like you and your fairy girl. Keep the mushy wedding day stuff to yourself.”
“I’m headed off to have a talk with the dean and Samson about the incident. I don’t mess around when it comes to stuff like what Kat did,” he said in a low voice before he looked at Finley. “I want her on your unit starting tomorrow. Make her work for her skill.”
“Never a problem. You know me, I love the troubled ones.”
“The troubled one is in love with your ex,” I advised her, only to get a questioning stare from Dom as he sauntered away with his usual stature of perfection.
“Even better,” she smiled warmly at me. “I saw what she did. No call for it. She’ll earn her status the hard way with me.”
“I really don’t care,” I answered.
“That’s the thing,” she crossed her arms and stared into my eyes, “You say you don’t care, but I find people who use that phrase really do care. It bothered you.”
“Fine.” I swallowed another bite of pie. “I was upset she took her problems with me out on my pie.”
Finley stood up. “Very funny,” she mused.
I looked over at Vannah who was utterly oblivious to anything going on around her but Nick. This was just bizarre.
“I have to get out of here and on the masters’ quest,” I whispered to myself.
“The only way out is death,” Ethan startled me with his obscure response.
I looked over at my friend who I knew in my heart had to be innocent of what I felt he was part of. “What does that mean?”
“You are noticed. Don’t go on the quest,” he stated.
“Ethan, what do you know?” I whispered in urgency to him. “Let me help you.”
“I don’t need help.” His matter of fact voice returned. Then his stark blue eyes met mine. “You do. You won’t escape. Death is the only way out.”
“Immortals don’t die,” I said, remembering his chant from the night he shifted in the dorm hall.
His eyes never left mine when he recited the same cryptic words he used when he was spun out and shifted. “Immortals do die. Immortals will die.”
I felt my stomach cinch into knots. What the heck. This school had a hold on my friends, stoning them out on something. Now, it had an innocent, sweet owl as its victim—doing its freaking bidding. I had no idea why Dom and I were still pretending to be an item, that was the next explanation I needed. If Dom was onto this crap too, then we could work together.
Did I trust my fake boyfriend enough to bring up what I thought this place was doing? I mean, we were in a fake relationship and Dom was playing the loving man part well. Crap, dude was probably on the fairy dust too.
Chapter Twenty-Four
It seemed as though weeks had flown by, and yet, I had little recollection of them. I didn’t know if something was happening to me at this place, but try as I might, I couldn’t fill in the blanks of my memories. Days blurred as fast as vampires’ rapid movements, and I didn’t know what to make of it. All I knew was that it was making me more and more suspicious of this place.
Lusa had returned from whatever quest the vamps had been sent on, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t for the life of me remember the day she returned or her telling me anything about it. One thing I did know was that her state of mind seemed completely different than it had before she left. Something was off.
The small talk we shared previously was over, and overall, she seemed annoyed with me. Even after a month of this charade of the Dom and Jenna showmance, she still wasn’t a fan of it. In fact, she was actually a bit hateful toward me for thinking I could distract her brother from his goal of becoming the ultimate Master Shifter.
“Lusa.” I stopped her from her usual morning routine of throwing me a half-smile, chin nod, then vamping in a blur out the door. “I need to talk to you about Dom and me,” I said, standing up, boot laces still untied.
“You need to finish getting ready,” she flatly returned. Crap, even her beautiful irises were zoned out.
“Lusa. Come on. This wasn’t my idea. Dom asked me to…” I stopped myself, I couldn’t trust Lusa in this Immortal Academy drugged-up state.
“Asked you to what, Jenna? You’re holding him back. How can you not see that?”
“I get you’re his sister, and you care about him, but I’m not doing anything to hold him back. Where are you getting this stupid idea from?”
“He’s not the same. Something changed from the moment I left for my blood-thirst quest until I walked back onto this campus.”
“Where’d you guys go anyway?”
“You already know I’m not allowed to share that information with a first-year student.”
“Fine. I’m getting nowhere with you again. Just know that I would never do anything to hold Dominic back.”
“Whatever you say.”
And just like that, I got nowhere with my dorm mate who seemed to have grown to despise me. This
freaking sucked. I went out, did my training, went through all my classes, and as usual, the day vamp-sped by and the next thing I was doing was getting ready to shift into my wolf form.
I pranced out to where Dominic waited in his huge, black wolf form for the last of his shifter unit to join him. Tanner had replaced Kat after Dom kicked her out of the unit for tripping me and murdering my precious slices of pie. Even Tan was more messed up than the day he was feeding berries to Emma like newlyweds at their wedding reception. This place managed to get progressively weirder.
Dom was the most massive wolf on campus. The sight of his wolf made mine cower, but she still claimed him like that strong freaking wolf was hers. Unfortunately for her, she was up for a heartbreak pretty soon because I was done playing Dom’s games. Who knew, I probably tried to dump him and question him a million times about why we were doing this crap, but hell if I remembered doing it. The black holes of memory loss were obvious and annoying.
Dom took us on a punishing run with challenging cliffs to leap, long trees to balance on over rushing rivers, and steep, slick rock faces to climb. The feline shifters and foxes loved this challenge. They were so agile and steady with their paw pads that they usually soared past the rest of us while we struggled to keep our momentum to make it up the rock faces without sliding down and failing the obstacle courses.
Dom, however, wasn’t beaten by anything. His wolf seemed to thrive the harder the challenge. Today, I forced my wolf to stay on his flanks. I had to prove myself. In the month of blur, I did recall asking him to take me on the quest they were leaving on in a week, and his answer was the obvious no. So with that in mind, I let that drive me. I had to get out of here.
Dom lunged up and up like he was on a flat surface while leading up the face of a smooth, wet rock. I was on his flanks and could swear my wolf was going to kill me for this later—if I could walk. Dom was more fierce today than he’d ever been, and I was shocked I was right there alongside him. I could faintly hear the others behind us. They should have been closer, especially the feline shifters, but this seemed to be a personal challenge between Dom and me now.