Rebels and Runaways: Eden Academy Book One

by Grace McGinty

  She was so fucking perfect.

  Way too good for you, but the fates always had a funny sense of humor, Hew snarked, but not even the voices in my head could bring down my mood.

  The medical staff had kept her in the hospital for five days, long enough for her shifter healing to mend her bones enough that she could walk around in a full leg cast, and an arm cast. They wouldn’t have been able to keep her a day longer. She was bouncing off the walls, giving Alistair hell, and refused to let Flint out of her sight even after he’d healed enough to leave.

  So they’d strapped and plastered her body, and she didn’t complain for a moment. We were driving her home, back to Dark River, and she’d insisted that I come too. She’d talked to her parents about giving me an apartment before the accident, and someone had made that happen.

  I was… nervous. It was the first home I’d had in nearly a century. It didn’t even matter that it was in a town filled with vampires and basically run by my fated mate’s parents. An innocent kind of anxiety welled up. I hadn’t seen her parents since that night, and I was freaking out.

  So you can rend someone limb from limb, but you can’t meet the parents? Wati scoffed. That was another problem. I’d have to tell Mouse about Hew and Wati, and what if she thought I was crazy? Not Wendigo crazy, but actually insane?

  One of the voices snorted, but I couldn’t be sure which one.

  “Just go straight to the diner, Sammie. They’re giving Monster the apartment above the diner that used to belong to my dad,” Mouse said, and I swear, she sounded excited. Actually excited.

  Flint was beside her, curled at her side, and when she wasn’t looking he stared at her like she was the reason the sun rose. He was devoted to her, and I wasn’t sure she understood the extent of that devotion yet, but she would one day.

  When Rook had died—which had taken hours because Lucius was a master of his craft—Flint’s slave cuffs had fallen off, and had been quickly taken away by the Lycanthropes of Eden Academy to be locked in a safe somewhere. They seemed like good people, but still, I watched them. Having something like that was an incredibly powerful tool.

  But neither Flint nor Mouse seemed worried so I kept it to myself, but I would watch. I would always watch over them both. Because despite my connection to the group being through Mouse, I felt quite… fond of the rest of the Pack. Bobby with his Alpha dependability had taken a little while to adjust to, because I’d been without those structures for so fucking long. But he didn’t try to make me submit for fun, and I deferred to his judgement on most things. What did I know about what a woman needed? Or how to run a Pack?

  Fucking nothing and then some.

  Sammie was steady and dependable too, and it made sense. Flint and Mouse were wild and unpredictable, and they needed that balance. Sammie was quickly coming to terms with being a panther shifter, and I was glad that my mate’s heart wouldn’t be broken in sixty years when he would have died of human frailties. He accepted me without reservation. It didn’t matter what I was, or even what I’d done to become Wendigo, he was so sure I deserved to be loved that he’d stepped in for me. For that he had my loyalty for life.

  Flint I was more in tune with. That wild violence. The unpredictable nature of his moods. He was both deadly and innocent in ways I didn’t think possible. He could fight and kill, knew how to drop a man into the dirt in seconds. But when Mouse had suggested we camp out one day and make s’mores, his eyes had gotten so wide and hopeful that it’d almost broken my newly rediscovered heart. He’d missed so much, and the anger I felt at that made me want to raise Rook from the dead and shred his chest all over again.

  “Do you not wish to go home first?” I said softly, and she shook her head.

  “No, they’ll all be at the diner anyway, and maybe, eventually, the apartment with you would be our home too.”

  The whole car went silent. “What do you mean, Mouse?” Bobby asked softly from her other side.

  She shrugged, which looked weird with her cast. “I mean, we’re a Pack right? You’re my mates. Eventually, we are going to live together in a big Pack house and maybe, you know, after a year or so, we’ll bond.”

  My heart beat so loud in my chest, I was pretty sure it would explode. As if seeing the hopeful panic on my face, she smiled. “Not yet though. We need to get to know each other more, work out if we can actually live together. Because I leave towels on the floor, and it drives my siblings crazy. Gotta know what you’re saddling yourself with for the next century or so.”

  I shook my head in amazement, and Bobby snorted. “Mouse, you're my fated mate. I don’t know if Monster feels the same way, but you could throw every towel on the floor every day and roll around on them like a pig in mud, and I’d still love the hell out of you.”

  I wet my suddenly dry lips with my tongue. “I do.”

  She gave us both the most radiant smile I’d ever seen. “We’ll see.”

  She was saved from saying anything else by Sammie pulling the car into a spot at the front of a diner. It looked straight out of a retro painting with its red and white striped awnings. I unfolded myself from the car and stretched. I could feel eyes on me from everywhere, and I kind of wanted to find a shadow to hide in. But this was a town of vampires, and shadows wouldn’t save me.

  Bobby climbed out from the backseat, and Mouse reached out her good arm to stop him. “I think it's probably best if Monster carries me in.”

  Bobby raised an eyebrow, but nodded. He slapped me on the back. “You get the lumpy cargo. I swear all that plaster is made from lead.”

  Mouse scowled at him. “Are you calling me fat? Because I could still kick your ass with only one arm and one leg.”

  I chuckled beneath my breath as I reached in and she wrapped an arm around my neck. I managed to maneuver her into my arms so I was supporting her weight and not jostling anything that was still sore. It wasn’t an easy task, but I’d rather take an hour to extract her from the car than cause her pain. When I stood, she was only inches from my face, and her scent was all over me. I wanted to kiss her, but I hadn’t earned the right yet. I would soon though.

  I should have known better than to think I had any say in the matter.

  Using the hand she had around my neck, she pulled me closer and kissed me softly on the lips. Her lips tasted like strawberries and were so unbelievably soft. Did women always have lips that soft? I pulled back and stared down at her.

  You’re staring at her like a dumbass, stop it, Wati coached.

  Hew muttered something derogatory, but I wasn’t paying attention. I swallowed hard and blurted, “I hear voices in my head. The evil spirits that make me Wendigo.”

  She went stiff in my arms as she pulled back in shock. “What?”

  I swallowed hard and felt like beating myself up. It was out now though. “I felt like we should go in there with complete honesty.”

  Nice save, Douche Canoe, Hew sneered. Well, he would have sneered if he had a face.

  “Their names are Hew and Wati. They have long traditional names, but we all separated from the people we used to be a long time ago. They are the evil spirits that possessed me when I asked for the Wendigo. They are… not terrible. Our definitions of good and evil have changed a lot.”

  Eh, I’ll take it, Wati said, always the more even-tempered of the two.

  Mouse frowned, and I went to pass her to Bobby, but she clung to my neck. “Wait, we aren’t done here. What does that mean for you?”

  I shrugged. “Mostly, they are like having an annoying commentary track running all the time, except when I’m Wendigo.”

  She nodded once. “Are they a danger to our Pack?” What she meant was, would I be a danger to our Pack?

  I shook my head. “No, you’re their last chance at salvation too.”

  More frowning and I was pretty sure I was fucking this up. This wasn’t conversation for the sidewalk, but it was too late now. “You better explain that comment, Monster.”

  I gripped her tigh
ter. “Wati and Hew are attached to my soul, like a symbiote. When, I mean if, we bond and our souls join, then by extension, so do theirs. I’m immortal until I find my fated mate, and then when we bond, my immortality is tied to your mortality. When you pass on, I will too. And so will Wati and Hew. They have been around a hell of a lot longer than either of us. They’ve been waiting.” I looked at the guys, who were all listening intently with various degrees of frowning.

  Bobby chewed his lip. “So we are all safe, because they won’t want to piss off Mouse since she’s their only chance at an afterlife?”

  I nodded. “That, plus they aren’t bad really. Do they like eating hearts? Yes. But they don’t make me do anything and we don’t kill indiscriminately. They were happy to starve until we found an opponent that really needed to be ended.”

  I didn't think about the guy from the gym the other day. I mightn’t have done my research, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t a boy scout.

  Mouse cocked her head to the side. “Do they like me?”

  I stared at her, blinking rapidly. “What?”

  “Hew and Wati, do they like me? What do they like to do? Do they have a bucket list that doesn’t involve killing people?”

  I’d like to fuck again, even vicariously through you, Hew jeered.

  I’d like to swim beneath a waterfall one more time, Wati answered, and I relayed that one to Mouse.

  “We can do that, once the casts are off.”

  I like her more than you already, Wati snarked and I couldn’t help my smile as I looked down into the sparkling blue eyes of my mate. I apologized to every deity I’d cursed for giving me this half-life. If this was the kind of person I was waiting for, well, it was all worth it.

  I leaned forward and kissed her, because now I’d started I wasn’t sure I could stop. But I was still extremely conscious that we were out in the open and her parents, as well as half of Dark River, were probably watching. “Thank you.”

  She winked at me. “No, thank you. Now stop procrastinating. It’s time to meet the firing line.”

  Flint laughed, probably more in empathy than anything else. Sammie grabbed the door and held it open as I sidestepped into the diner, careful not to bump so much as a single hair on Mouse’s head.

  I was concentrating so hard on my task, that the lack of noise didn’t register until I was standing halfway into the room, Bobby beside me, Flint and Sammie flanking us.

  Everyone stared. I didn’t know if they were staring at me, or at the beaten up Mouse, or the equally beaten up Flint.

  We probably made an interesting group.

  I recognized the vampire that appeared in front of us. The Not-Lucius. The other twin, and according to Bobby’s coaching, that was Nico. He reached out and touched Mouse’s cheek, and I saw the primal rage behind his eyes, but he kept a better lid on it than his twin.

  “How are you feeling, Squeak?”

  She rested her cheek in his palm. “Good. Annoyed by these damn casts though.”

  He gave her a crooked grin. “I bet. But X says you have another three weeks of them, so try to take it easy okay? No ‘accidentally’ breaking the plaster.”

  She gave him a mock innocent look, and he scoffed. He looked at me then. “I am Nico, you must be Monster. It is nice to see you under better circumstances.”

  I inclined my head. He was ancient, this vampire. As old as Wati and Hew, that was for sure, even if this wasn’t his native soil. “Nice to meet you.”

  He shook hands with Bobby, Flint and Sammie. “It’s good to see you all in one piece as well.” Nico looked back at Mouse. “Raine and Tex are with Enit. X is with Christopher at home, because he is such a terrible patient. I kind of want to accidentally break his cast for him, just so he can run off some of that aggression.” He turned and walked human-slow toward the back of the diner.

  We only made it another few feet before a round woman with ruddy cheeks was accosting us. “Oh my poor sweet bairn, are ye better?”

  Mouse accepted the woman’s kisses and fussing with a fond smile. “Much better, Beatrice.”

  Beatrice raised an eyebrow, taking me in with appraising eyes. “I ken see that, lass. I tell you, they didn’t have such handsome nurses when I was young.” She waggled her eyebrows at me.

  Mouse held me a little tighter. “Beatrice, this is Monster. He is moving into the upstairs apartment. He’s also one of my fated mates.” You could hear the rapid inhale of breaths around the room. She craned her neck so she could see over my shoulder. “The sexy redhead is Flint. And the handsome brunette is Sammie.”

  “Well, there's more of Raine in you than you’d think,” Beatrice said with a wink. “Go on back, I’ll bring you the key and something to eat as well.”

  She disappeared back into the kitchen and I carried Mouse to the table that currently had a Sheriff, a third brooding vampire and if I wasn’t mistaken, the shapeshifter Alpha.

  The latter eyeballed me, like he was trying to decide if I was going to go feral and eat the hearts of everyone in this room.

  The Sheriff stood up, and moved toward us. He leaned down and kissed Mouse’s forehead. “I have to get back to the station. Eugene stole Ruby’s gnomes and decapitated them, so she wants to file a report. I wanted to stay and say hi first though. I’m glad you’re home, baby girl.” He looked at me. “I’m always watching.”

  He said it pleasantly, but there was an undertone of threat, and I could respect that. The Alpha stood up and swaggered toward us with that air of someone who was confident of his power and his station in life. He held Mouse’s hand.

  “I need to go too, but I wanted to say welcome home.” His eyes met mine, and I dropped my own gaze instinctively. “I also wanted to say welcome to the family. I’m sorry our first meeting was so… rough.”

  I shrugged. “It’s understandable.”

  The other vampire, Bobby had told me that his name was Judge, laughed. “You made quite the impression on Lucius though. He really likes you.”

  Brody shook his head. “That’s a worry.” He kissed Mouse’s cheek. “Be good, Mouse. I’m getting old and my heart can’t take all the worry.”

  Mouse snorted it. “You’re fitter than a man half your age. Don’t pull that shit on me.”

  He just grinned, said his goodbyes, and left. Beatrice bustled up with a plastic carry-out bag of sandwiches and a shiny red key. “You go right up. It’s probably going to need a good airing out, it's been closed up since this one moved out all those years ago.” She lifted her chin at Judge. “But it should be clean and furnished. Just let us know if you need anything.”

  Mouse was wiggling in my arms. “Mush, mush, let’s go.” She pointed to a door at the back of the diner. She looked past me at her dads. “Are you guys coming?”

  It was Judge who shook his head. “No, you should go and check it out as a Pack.”

  I swallowed hard, my heart doing that weird flip-flopping it always did when someone called us a Pack. I was back in a Pack.

  We walked up the stairs together, and Flint grabbed the key from Mouse, opening the front door to the apartment. I didn’t really care what it looked like, all I knew was that with a roof and these four people, it was the closest thing to a home I’d had in a century.

  As if she sensed my thoughts, Mouse grabbed my chin gently and turned my face to hers. “Welcome home, Monster.”

  Home was in my arms, but this was close.

  Epilogue

  Carmen - One Month Later

  I danced around Monster’s living room to the Arctic Monkeys telling me I’d look good on the dance floor. Fuck yeah, I would, especially now I was out of my cast and I could move properly. I didn’t need a lot of rehab because, well I was a wolf shifter and that kind of stopped processes such as muscle wastage.

  Jumping around to the music, I turned to look at Monster where he was sitting on his couch. The town had accepted his presence here reasonably easily. I guess they weren’t mired with the superstitions of the Pack, and he was
n’t really a threat to them. Well, at least they didn’t think so. They’d given him a job at the gas station during the day, because his Resting Dick Face was so epic, the rare tourists who came through here during the day wouldn’t even consider stopping.

  He said all he did was read for most of the day, but he seemed content. We could worry about the rest later, after we all found our feet. I smiled at him and he opened his arms wide.

  I was helpless to resist. Like I was magnetized, I walked toward him and sat down in his lap, rubbing my cheek all over his like I was a cat. We were waiting for the rest of the guys to arrive so we could go for our very first run as a Pack. I was almost giddy, I was that excited. Today felt just as important as the first time I spoke with Monster, or the first time I fought Flint. It seemed like an age ago, because they were already so ingrained in my life, but it had been only months.

  Monster was waiting patiently for me to make my move, so I leaned over and kissed him. It was quite addictive, kissing my Wendigo. He kissed me back gently, but as I deepened the kiss so did he. His beard scratched at my chin, and it felt delicious.

  We’d been taking it slow, because the guy was like ancient, and as much as I’d been through, I was still nineteen. My birthday had come and gone, unremarked because Enit had still been in a coma and no one had felt like celebrating. But Monster, he might have been in his twenties when he was turned, but he was centuries old. And that was kind of weird if you thought about it for too long. So he let me take the reins completely, and quite frankly, I was enjoying the slow, teasing build.

  I straddled his lap and his hands gripped my hips with a groan. My fingers threaded in his hair, gripping it tightly as I held him to me. He growled as my tongue slipped past his lips, and I could feel the growing bulge of his dick beneath me.

  “Mouse,” he groaned, and I grinned against his lips.

  Then Flint barreled through the front door, a wide smile on his face. “Should we come back?” he said, but his voice was pure mischievousness. But both Sammie and Bobby were close behind him.