Rebels and Runaways: Eden Academy Book One

by Grace McGinty

  Lulu laughed. “It’s Mouse. She should always expect trouble. But nothing that she can’t put down easily, you know?” There was envy in her tone now, and I stopped, reaching out to grab Lulu and pull her into my arms.

  I was her Alpha, and Pack was Pack. Touch was comfort, especially if you added in my Alpha vibes. “Lulu, you are one of the strongest women I know. You mightn’t throw punches or kick ass, but you have a steel backbone and balls of solid gold. And when I’m Alpha, I’m going to make you one of my Enforcers.”

  She reared back, her face comically horrified. “Are you fucking insane, Bobby?” She slapped a hand on my chest and shoved me. “I can’t be a fucking Enforcer,” she hissed.

  I bundled her back into my arms and squeezed her tightly before releasing her. “You’re my oldest friend, Lulu. Better get used to the idea.”

  “You need your head examined. Love is making you loopy.” She flipped me the bird and started jogging away, and I couldn't help my laughter.

  “Just think about it,” I yelled after her, and bounded up the steps of the Alpha’s office here. Ghost was lazing in the foyer, half asleep on a couch in the sun. I didn’t fool myself though—Brody’s head Enforcer would be on his feet with my throat torn out in a second if I was a threat to his Alpha.

  I knocked on the office door, and Brody called me in. I bowed my head deferentially. Here, he was all Alpha and not my girlfriend's dad. “Alpha.”

  “Alpha-Heir,” he said, dipping his chin back. He motioned to a chair across from him, and I sat down. “How is my daughter?”

  Eesh. I swallowed hard and held his eyes briefly. I wasn’t convinced that he didn’t know I’d taken her virginity. Maybe he could read it in my body language?

  Shit, think of something else.

  “Uh, she’s good. Chafing at being stuck inside a fence. You know what she’s like.”

  He just hummed his agreement. “There are too many strangers in our Packlands for my liking at the moment. This Rook is elusive, despite X and Lucius being out for blood, and half the members of your little fight ring are still loitering around, including the Wendigo.”

  I frowned. “Monster’s still here?”

  Brody nodded. “Lucius picked him up in the outskirts of Dark River last week. Gave chase, but this guy just disappeared into the woods. The former Matriarch was of the old school that believed that Wendigos were bad luck.” He lifted a shoulder as he frowned. “The old superstitions are just that, but still, sometimes it’s hard to shake these old prejudices. What do you know about this Monster?”

  What did I know really? When I took Mouse to those fights, I was solely focused on getting her out of there alive. But I’d picked up a bit from Rat and his guards. “Not much. He’s a bit of a legend in the underground circuit apparently. Only takes on the baddest, most brutal fighters. The undefeated ones that were dripping in blood basically. And then he’d toy with them. His thing though, the thing that makes him so infamous, is that he eats the hearts of almost all his opponents.”

  I mean, we shapeshifters had a pretty brutal history, and I was sure that there was more than one Alpha that had eaten the heart of his enemy. But Wendigos were cannibals, and from folklore, they were sustained only by flesh.

  “Where’d he come from? There hasn’t been a Wendigo on tribal lands since before our Pack settled here.”

  I shrugged. “I heard he comes from Nova Scotia, that he just follows the underground fights until he either kills all his opponents or they run him out.”

  Brody frowned. “We’ll keep an eye on him. If he’s just passing through, we’ll leave him be. Now, we’ve had a bit of change in suppliers…”

  Brody droned on about how to find alternate suppliers for basic goods and I listened intently, but still let my brain drift a little back to the Wendigo. Mouse had said he’d helped them when they’d taken Flint, and for that reason I didn’t want to move him along. We kind of owed him one. I wasn’t too proud to admit that I didn’t want to fight him either. I’d seen him in that slaughter ring and I was not keen to be on the other side of those claws.

  I got to school a full hour before I normally did, just so I could see my girl. I was so freaking whipped, but after making love to her and then not seeing her for two whole days, I felt like howling at the moon like a lovesick puppy. I threw my dignity to the wind and basically jogged to her door.

  I frowned when I found it unlocked, but a person would have to be insane to break into my girlfriend’s room. Mouse would say I had an ego the size of Canada, but it was true. I held sway over this Academy, over this area, hell over this country in general. I could make a person’s life really, really uncomfortable. I’d proven that when that little fuck Josh had touched her against her will in junior high.

  If that wasn’t enough? Her family would tip the scales. Not even I would fuck with her family.

  I was quiet as I crept into the room, and I was completely unsurprised to see Flint wrapped around my girl. No. Our girl.

  The Alpha in me reared its head, poking at me to be a jealous fuck. But what both the Alpha and the man agreed on was that they wanted their mate to be happy. No, more than happy. Deliriously content. If these other guys made her happy, then I was okay with that too. I kicked off my shoes and climbed into the bed beside her, pressing her body between mine and his. Her eyes fluttered open and I stared into their sparkling blue depths. She gave me a sleepy smile and I fell in love all over again. Jesus, I needed her to be my mate so I could wake up to that smile every morning.

  “Hey.” Her voice was rough and sleepy, and it instantly made my dick hard. “He has nightmares. I couldn’t leave him to face them alone,” she whispered.

  I nodded, leaning in to kiss her, and hoped she could taste my emotions on my lips. As if to prove her point, Flint’s face screwed up and he whimpered a little in his sleep. He tossed around in his spot, like he was trying to escape whatever invisible thing haunted him.

  Carmen rolled over and pressed her lips to his forehead, murmuring softly. He calmed a little, and when I reached over her, pressing a hand to his shoulder, he eased more. He was wound so tightly I could feel his muscles trembling beneath my palm. What was he dreaming about that made him as scared as a cornered pup? I channelled a little bit of my Alpha power into the room. “Rest, Flint. We’ll guard your dreams,” I whispered, and his body seemed to let go of all its tension like a marionette with its strings cut. It was so fucking sad.

  I stayed where I was, both of them wrapped in my arms, and Mouse wiggled her body back into mine. I bit back a groan as her ass brushed my dick.

  But when she looked over at me, her eyes were wide and shining. “You are the best man, Bobby. I love you.”

  My heart stuttered in my chest. I leaned in and brushed my lips across hers again. “I love you too, Mouse.”

  She made a happy humming noise as she rested her head back against my chest, her hands running soothing strokes up and down Flint’s spine, brushing gently over the raised scars. I knew that some of those long gashes were knife wounds, like someone had taken great pleasure in slicing him open. It made me incredibly angry, but I blew out a breath to release the tension. I was angry, but they both seemed like they needed the rest.

  I nuzzled my face back into her hair, breathing the scent of my mate deep into my lungs. “We have time for a bit more sleep. Sleep, baby.”

  But judging by her soft breaths, she had already dozed. I let my eyes close and slept beside them. My Pack.

  27

  Carmen

  I wouldn’t admit it to anyone else, but this shit with Rook was really fucking with my head. How easy he could have taken me. How helpless I’d been. I swear I could still feel his eyes on me, and a small part of me worried that he’d make good on his threat, because he had to know I’d blabbed to my parents by now.

  The hairs on the back of my neck tingled like I was being watched, and I rubbed my palms over my arms. Sammie had the class outside on the back sports field, doing a com
bination of archery and throwing daggers. Well, not just daggers. You could throw ninja stars, axes, javelins or even freaking tridents. Where the hell Sammie had gotten a flying fork was beyond me, but you bet your ass I lined up to throw that bastard like I was freaking Aquaman. Cara was beside me, casually throwing daggers at the target, hitting the bullseye every time.

  “I think I might murder your brother and bury him in a shallow grave. On a scale of one to ten, how upset would you be?”

  I shrugged. “I mean, is it on a day when he’s being a pissy bitch, or when he does something really sweet, like make me coffee before school?”

  She turned toward me, not looking as she threw her dagger but still hitting the bullseye. This bitch was a freak of nature. “You mean he has a setting that isn't ‘pissy bitch’? Huh. I’m yet to see it.”

  I just laughed, my eyes eating Sammie alive as he corrected Teesha and she fluttered her eyelashes like she was stupid. I wondered if I could accidentally let my flying fork slip and spear her in the thigh?

  “Stop eyefucking my brother and listen to me whine about yours,” Cara grumbled.

  I dragged my eyes back to Cara. “I’m kind of attached to him. We shared a womb, you know. But if you want to just generally fuck with him, I have a mountain of ideas and years of experience. I’m your girl.”

  She laughed, grabbing a handful of throwing stars and interspersing them perfectly between her dagger strikes.

  “Are you like some kind of dagger-throwing savant? What the hell, girl?”

  She gave me a crooked smile. “Knives are my thing.”

  Obviously. Honestly, she kind of gave me a ladyboner, and I was strictly D. But she was all ink-covered attitude, and that was a pretty hot combination. No wonder Christopher was all twisted up about her. Flint was on the other side of the sports field, entertaining the rest of the class as he threw fireballs at clay pigeons, while one of the juniors ran around putting out spot fires with an extinguisher. I wasn’t sure that was following the school-assigned safety handbook, but everyone seemed to be enjoying the activity if the laughter and whooping was any indication.

  I walked over to grab the daggers, when something beyond the security fencing caught my eye. A shadow or a movement. Something. I grabbed the daggers and drifted closer, though they’d be useless from this side of the fence. The boundary fence had super-special electrified mesh, so if something wanted to cross it, they’d have to be made of rubber and resistant to wards.

  Something moved again, and I could hear Cara calling my name. I didn’t stop though.

  I had to see.

  When I reached the wall, I could hear the low hum of its voltage. I looked through the dark undergrowth, but whatever was there was gone. Probably just a bear or deer or something.

  I turned back to the group, and Sammie’s horrified face made time slow.

  “Carmen.”

  I spun around on my heel and screamed.

  In the next second, a flaming body was between me and the fence, Flint in full Ifrit mode, his whole body covered in flames.

  Monster the Wendigo flinched away from the dripping flames.

  “Get the fuck out of here,” Flaming Flint growled. It was kind of hot. My brain was obviously broken because I half smiled at the good alliteration, coupled with a pun. Ten points for Gryffindor.

  I stepped around Flint, my knives held loosely in my palms like Cara had shown me. “What are you doing here?” I hissed, but my voice wavered in fear.

  I hadn’t seen him since the night he fought Flint and almost killed him. He looked gaunter, like he’d been sleeping rough.

  His black eyes watched me intently, like he was trying to pick me apart piece by piece, and a shiver ran over my skin. “I need to speak with you.”

  “Oh, fuck no,” Flint shouted, and then suddenly there were two large Lycanthropes there, snarling at the fence, and Sammie was dragging me away from the wall.

  I watched Monster shift into his Wendigo, his pink bone antlers jagged, and shook my head. But he never took his eyes from mine, even as they dragged me away. His face was desperately sad and his eyes implored me for… something.

  I couldn’t sleep. I was restless.

  I slipped from the blankets, shifting a pillow under Flint’s arm, and he snuggled it into his chest. I slid his hoodie over my head, and pushed my feet into my boots. Tiptoeing down the hall, I didn’t walk normally until I was out the front door of the dorms, and heading toward the field.

  I had to find out what Monster wanted. It kept swirling in my brain, until my mind was a jumble. Was it Wendigo magic? I didn’t know anything about what Wendigo were, exactly. But I know the Matriarch had paled every time one was mentioned.

  “Bobby said you wouldn’t be able to help yourself. Said curiosity would be your downfall.”

  I let out a small scream as Sammie stepped from the shadows, his lips tipped up in a dark smirk.

  “Jesus H. Christ, Sammie. You scared the shit out of me.” I stepped into his space and let him wrap his arms around me. “Are you here to make me go back to my room?”

  He shook his head. “I’m coming with you. If you argue, I’ll take you and handcuff you to my headboard. Flint left them when he stayed over.”

  I quirked an eyebrow at him. “He left his handcuffs on your headboard. Anything you wanna tell me there, Mr. Richards?”

  He just kissed me quickly. “Nope. Let’s go before Flint wakes up and flames on.”

  I grabbed his hand and we walked off the path and into the inky darkness. I’d never been scared of the dark, probably because I’d grown up in the darkness. Being raised by the night’s scariest creatures had that effect. There were a few of the nocturnal students roaming around, and I knew they had at least one class while everyone else slept. Moon Rituals or something like that.

  I stepped on the slightly crispy patches of grass where Flint’s fireballs had landed during this afternoon's weapons class.

  “What do you think he wants?” Sammie whispered, and I honestly had no idea.

  “No clue. I haven’t had a single conversation with him in my life. I don’t even think I’ve ever heard him speak before today.” I’d seen him fight a little, and heard the stories even more. I didn’t know who he associated with, if anyone, and I didn’t know where he slept or what he ate. Or who he ate. Wendigo were cannibals, that much I knew. He deserved his moniker. He was a monster in the truest definition of the word.

  Sammie frowned, but didn’t say anything else. My hand brushed across the gun in its holster under his jacket, and I worried at my lip. I didn’t think a bullet could kill a Wendigo. It would probably hurt like a bitch though. Didn’t matter. I was confident that he couldn’t get across the wards.

  I reached the fence, but there was nothing there. I don’t know why I thought he would be. I had no doubt that Micah and Alistair had chased him off this afternoon. You didn’t fuck with Lycans.

  But in the next moment, Monster just appeared. I bit back the scream that burst from my chest.

  “What the hell is wrong with you? You can’t just appear out of the darkness like that,” I hissed, and he cocked his head at me like I was insane. I huffed, glad I couldn’t see those abyss eyes in this darkness. I got trapped in those eyes. “You wanted to talk to me? Here I am.”

  His eyes flicked to Sammie, and then back to me. “I wish to join your Pack.”

  I wrapped my arms around my body as I frowned. His clothes were shabby, a dark fleece-lined jacket wrapped around his body. But his face was clean, his hair combed, and I think his beard was trimmed since the last time I saw him. He looked like he was making an effort despite how gaunt he looked, as if he was starving.

  How did a Wendigo starve?

  I shuddered. “You’re asking the wrong person. If you want to join the Nîso Pack, you’ll have to make an appointment with the Pack Alpha, Brody. But I should warn you, seventy percent of the town is First Nation people, and they still have certain beliefs in regard to, uh, your kind.�
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  He inclined his head. “That I’m cursed by evil spirits. They aren’t wrong.”

  I swallowed hard. “That you're bad luck. That you are a mindless monster in your other form. There is a lot of folklore around your kind.”

  He didn’t dispute any of it, sadness dragging down the lines of his face and my heart broke for him a little. The loneliness hung around him like a cloak, choking me with a darkness that had nothing to do with the moon.

  He stepped closer to the fence, and I stepped forward too. I wanted to look into his eyes just once more. Sammie tensed beside me, his hand going to his gun.

  Monster looked back at my boyfriend, his lip curling. “I’m not going to hurt her.”

  Sammie didn’t move his hand. Words didn’t matter. Shaking his head, Monster looked back toward me. “I don’t want to join the Nîso pack. I want to join your Pack.”

  I threw my hands up. “I’m a part of the Nîso Pack. They are my Pack.” I tried saying it slowly in case he’d taken one too many punches to the head. It happened sometimes, though I’d never seen it in a supernatural fighter.

  “No. Your Pack. The young Alpha, the broken fighter, the MC outcast.” I stepped back like he’d struck me, but he continued. “You are my fated mate, Carmen Baxter, and I’ve waited a century for you. I’m ready to join your Pack.”

  I… he what? I shook my head like if I whipped it back and forward fast enough, what he just said would make sense. His eyes implored me to give him a chance, and Sammie had pulled his gun and was pointing it through the fence. Monster didn’t even spare him a glance, his face so full of hope yet still tainted with despair. I could feel the weight of it on my chest, crushing me.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, and then turned on my heel and ran all the way back to the dorm rooms. I didn’t stop until I was climbing into bed beside Flint. The guilt that I’d left Sammie in the dark with a killer ate at me until I made Flint get up and make sure he got home okay.