by Jayme Morse
Werewolf Academy: Year Three
Jody Morse
Jayme Morse
Copyright © 2020 by Jody Morse and Jayme Morse
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
The Werewolf Academy series continues in Year Four
Chapter 1
The sun streamed in through my window, casting its warm golden glow over the bed and right into my face.
Old me used to get annoyed when I was woken up by the sun streaming into my face, but new me was just thankful to see sunlight. I had spent a long three months without seeing the light of day at all.
As my phone alarm started to go off, Theo groaned loudly against my ear. Loosening his hold on me, he stretched, untangling himself from me.
Ever since I had returned, he slept with his arms in a tight embrace around me. It was clear that he wasn’t about to let me go. And honestly? I didn’t want him to.
“Good morning,” he whispered, lowering his mouth to mine.
I kissed him back, allowing my lips to linger on his. “Good morning.”
I ran a hand through his short black hair. His five o’clock shadow was more prominent than usual.
His ocean blue eyes stared into mine for a long moment before he finally sighed. “I really don’t want to leave this bed… or you.”
“Then don’t,” I replied. “I’ll stay here with you all day.”
“As nice as that sounds, we both know we can’t do that. It’s the first day of school.” He kissed me one more time before rolling out of the bed.
As he began to pull his clothes on, I kicked the satin comforter off of me and climbed out of bed, too.
I eyed my closet, deciding on the same black dress I had worn last year. The only difference this year was that I didn’t even want to go to school.
Nope, I hadn’t been kidding about wanting to just stay in bed all day.
But I still pulled the dress on, anyway. Then I headed over to the vanity where I applied mascara and some lip gloss in a completely half-assed attempt at trying to make it look like I had my shit together.
In reality, I didn’t have my shit together. Not even the slightest bit together.
“So, have you given it any thought yet?” Theo asked me.
He didn’t have to explain for me to know what he meant by “it.” He was talking about the decision I still had yet to make.
Which of my mates was I going to choose?
Ever since I had managed to escape from Milos’s dungeon, all of my mates had been pushing me to make a decision.
I understood their reasoning. I had spent three long months without them. It made all of us realize just how precious our time together was. I didn’t want to spend another minute without them again.
But even though all of my mates wanted me to make a decision sooner rather than later, Theo was, by far, the pushiest. He wanted me to choose, once and for all, who I wanted to be with for the rest of my life.
He wanted me to decide which of the Darken I wanted to marry. I still wore the engagement ring the pack had gotten me, with the promise that I would choose one of them to spend the rest of my life with once I was ready.
The problem was that I wasn’t ready. Not yet. And I hated that I wasn’t ready because every part of me wanted to make a decision, too. But there were just too many new factors that complicated things.
Factors like him.
I completely got why Theo wanted me to choose so badly. But what he didn’t realize was that the more he pushed me to choose, the more I wanted to do exactly the opposite. I just wanted to bury my head in the sand and pretend that the problem didn’t exist.
“No, I honestly haven’t even had time to think about it,” I replied with a shrug, trying to play it off coolly as I glanced across the room at him.
Theo nodded, but I could see the disappointment behind his light blue eyes. He wanted me to pick. And he didn’t want me to pick just anyone; he wanted to be the one who I chose to spend forever with.
If only it was that easy.
Once Theo and I were both dressed, we headed down to the kitchen to join the rest of my mates, who were already having breakfast.
“So, you guys, I’ve been giving it some thought, and I don’t think I’m going to school,” I announced as I entered the room.
I wasn’t sure why I had even bothered getting ready today. This feeling wasn’t a new one. For days, I had thought about skipping school. Now that it was almost time to leave, the urge to just stay home was even stronger than it had been before.
A pin-dropping silence filled the room as Colton stopped pouring his cereal, Aiden stopped chugging orange juice straight from the carton, and Rhys nearly spilled the cup of coffee he was carrying across the room.
Theo, who had just entered the kitchen behind me, froze in his tracks. “What do you mean you’re not going to school? You can’t play hooky today. It’s the first day.”
“Actually, what I meant is that I don’t think I should go to school at all this year.”
“You mean you want to drop out?” Rhys ruffled his auburn hair as he stared up at me from behind his dark blue eyes, which had gone really wide.
“Well, no, but I was thinking that maybe I can just defer a year,” I explained as I slid into a chair at the kitchen table.
Aiden’s honey brown eyes, which stood out against his deeply tanned skin, locked on mine. “Werewolf Academy doesn’t work that way, Raven. You can’t just defer a year. You get one chance—one chance only, and that’s it. Werewolf Academy has a long waiting list. If you don’t show up, they’ll just give your spot to someone who will.”
“Well, then I guess someone else can have my spot.” I shrugged.
“No. Absolutely not.” Theo shook his head. “You’re going to school. It’s settled.”
I glanced over at him sharply. “Well, aren’t you bossy? You seem to forget that you’re not the Alpha of this pack.”
As soon as the words slipped out of my mouth, I instantly wished I could take them back. I knew that Theo hated that he wasn’t Alpha anymore.
The worst part of it all was that I wasn’t even Alpha of the Darken pack, either. Not anymore.
This summer, everything had changed… for the worse.
Theo’s bright blue eyes met mine apologetically, and his tone softened as he said, “I’m sorry, Raven. I really wasn’t trying to be bossy or Alpha-like, but your education is more important than you realize. You still have two more years of learning left to do. As tempting as it may seem right now, you can’t just drop out.”
I knew he wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t change the fact that I really wasn’t looking forward to this. “I’m just not ready to go back yet.”
Theo shot a sad look in my direction. “I know. But one of us will be there with you most of the time.”
“But not all of the time,” I whispered.
And the truth was that I needed one of them to be around me always. After everything that had happened this past summer, I needed them more than anything else in the world.
My mind kept drifting back to the fact that Milos had a bracelet with four charms: one that was directly connected to each of my mates’ hearts.
At any moment, Milos could crush any or all of those charms, and ultimately, end their lives.
And living without them for three months had shown me that I didn’t want to have to live without any of them… ever again.
Chapter 2
When my mates and I arrived on campus, I fled from the car, trying to dodge the raindrops that pelted down against me like bullets. A shiver cascaded down my spine at the thought.
War was coming, and I would be at the forefront of it all. That much was certain. The only question was when. None of us knew the answer to that. It was one of the unknowns that was currently plaguing me. Plaguing all of us.
The only thing I did know was that I was ready. Ready to fight, ready to kill. Ready to get my revenge, once and for all.
Spending three months locked in your enemy’s dungeon will do that to you.
The absolute last thing I wanted was to spend my time sitting in a classroom after I had just spent three months locked in a dungeon.
A lump formed in my throat as I tried to push the memory of the dungeon to the depths of my mind. It had been one of the darkest points of my life, something I didn’t ever want to revisit again. And yet, as much as I didn’t want to think about it, it kept rising to the surface like a volcanic eruption. I could never get Milos Santorini off my brain, and I fucking hated it.
Normally, I saw a new school year as a new beginning. It had always symbolized hope, growth, and change. It was a fresh start. Usually, I looked forward to seeing what it had in store for me.
But this year? Well, I was dreading the new school year too much to see any sort of hopefulness in it. I was definitely feeling like the glass was half empty. There had to be a light at the end of the tunnel, but right now, it just felt like the tunnel was going to be never-ending.
As I entered my homeroom classroom, I found an empty desk towards the back of the class.
Setting my backpack down on the floor, I pulled my schedule out and went over it again.
8 a.m. – Werewolf Mating and Marriage Rituals with Professor Theo Rossi (Descendants Room 201)
9 a.m. – Advanced Weaponry with Professor Rhys Anderson (Descendants Room 212)
10 a.m. – Werewolf Medicine with Kesha Washington (Descendants Room 202)
11 a.m. – Lunch
12 p.m. – Deadly Lunar Magic with Caroline Wickburn (Crescents Room 203)
1 p.m. – Lunar Magic 301 with Professor Mindi Lee (Descendants Room 201)
2 p.m. – Advanced Paranormal History with Professor Aiden Flores (Descendants Room 204)
3 p.m. – The Laws of Dark Magic with Professor Colton James (Descendants Room 203)
What really sucked was that all of these classes seemed so interesting. If things were different, I probably would have been all sorts of excited about everything I would learn this year.
But I wasn’t. It was hard to be excited about anything school-related after everything that had gone on this summer. And it was going to be nearly impossible to get my head in the game when it came to school when I already knew what the future would bring.
I had a list of things I needed to do, like prepare for war and take down my enemies. The absolute last thing I needed was to be at Werewolf Academy, but here I was.
I knew my pack members felt my education was important, but honestly? I didn’t think Werewolf Marriage and Mating Rituals or Advanced Paranormal History would help me kill Milos Santorini.
“Raven! Hey, girl, hey!” I heard the familiar sound of Vince’s voice say, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Hi.” I forced a weak smile.
“You didn’t come to the Full Moon Party last night.”
“Yeah, sorry. I just wasn’t in the mood.”
“You weren’t in the mood to see me?” A look of sadness filled his eyes. “I haven’t heard from you all summer, Raven. That’s a really long time to not contact your bestie. And I know it’s not just me. Maddie said she hasn’t heard from you, either. We’ve both been worried sick about you. Is everything okay?” There was a genuine tone of concern in his voice.
I thought about telling him everything was okay so he wouldn’t worry as much, but honestly? The truth was that everything wasn’t okay, and I wasn’t about to lie to him.
“I’m sorry. A lot has happened since the last time we spoke.”
That was an understatement, of course. My life would never be the same again.
“What’s going on?” His eyes met mine with a look of worry.
“Can we talk about it later?” I knew I needed to tell Vince everything, but right now wasn’t the time or place. We were surrounded by other students, and Theo was about to enter the classroom at any minute now. “It’s something I need to talk to you about in private.”
“Of course,” Vince replied as he slid into the desk in front of me. He turned to look at me. “But are you okay?”
Before I could even think about how to answer him, I heard the familiar sound of shoes clacking against the floor as someone entered the room.
A knot in my stomach tightened as her light blue eyes fell on mine. I felt like I was going to puke as she cast a wicked grin in my direction.
Iris.
And that was all it took. Just like that, my mind transported me back to Milos’s dungeon.
I let out a loud growl as I gnawed at the bars of the dungeon cell that I was being held captive in. I bit down so hard on the cold metal that I hurt my jaw.
I wanted nothing more than to get the fuck out of here, but even my beastly strength wasn’t enough to break down these bars.
I realized that the bars must have been charmed so that they wouldn’t break. At least Milos Santorini was good at charming something, because it sure as hell wasn’t me.
My wolf had completely taken over because I was pissed. Really. Fucking. Pissed. And for damn good reason.
Seven nights had passed since I’d gone missing from Werewolf Academy. That meant seven nights had passed since I’d last seen my mates, and it was killing me. The withdrawals, the cravings, the hunger I felt for them was real.
I was pretty sure I was going to lose my mind if I had to spend another night in Milos’s dungeon without any form of social interaction. I hadn’t seen him or Iris since I had first woken up here. A part of me secretly wondered if I had only been hallucinating when I’d seen her, but deep down, I knew that it was real… very, very real.
I still didn’t want to believe that she was an enemy, but it was pretty obvious. No friend would have been hanging out in my biggest rival’s dungeon.
What I still couldn’t figure out was why. Why would she do this to me? Had she ever even been my friend at all?
At that moment, I heard the sound of the door open and heels clicking against the cement dungeon floor.
Instinctively, I growled.
I heard the sound of Iris laughing then. “Hello to you, too, Raven.”
I saw her dark figure move through the shadows until she was standing in front of me. She pushed a tray of food underneath the bars.
I leapt forward at her, trying to bite her hands through the bars, but she pulled away from me before I could do any damage.
“I can see you’re angry, Raven, and I understand why. No one likes to be held against their will. It wasn’t fair of Milos to lure you the way he did, but we had to get you here somehow. It wasn’t like you would have just come here with us without a fight.” She pointed her chin at my wolf form. “I know what you’re probably thinking. ‘Why is Iri
s here?’”
I grunted my agreement at her. I kept trying to change back into my human form so I could actually speak to her, but I was too angry. So angry that my body just remained stuck in my wolf form.
She smiled at me. “This isn’t what it looks like, I’m sure. You probably think I’m romantically involved with Milos. The truth? I do love him. But I learned a long time ago that Milos only has eyes for you, so that’s not the reason I’m here.”
Her eyes locked on mine then, and all I could feel was hatred. That was when I knew that she blamed me for the reason Milos didn’t love her back.
If only she knew that I wanted no part of him. He may have been the most powerful werewolf in the world, but that didn’t mean anything. He didn’t hold a candle to my mates.
The love I felt for the Darken was real. Nothing Milos Santorini could have done would have ever made me feel that way about him.
“The reason I’m here has everything to do with you—with your powers.” Her light eyes locked on mine. “The more cooperative you are with us, the sooner you’ll get to leave. So, what do you say? Will you do everything we ask of you?”
I let out a low growl. I wanted her to know that the answer was no.
Fortunately, she got the message.
“I see that you have no intentions of cooperating with us,” Iris commented. “But that’s okay. We have a way around it. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this or not, but Milos is known for his ability to compel other werewolves. We’ll get you to do everything we want you to do, whether you like it or not.”
Her lips curved upwards into a wicked smile before she turned away from me and headed back up the dungeon stairs… leaving me alone and completely in the dark.