by Jayme Morse
Before I even had the change to shift into my own wolf form, I was being cornered by all four of them.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I opened my mouth to scream, but no words came out.
In no time, all of the She-Wolves had me pinned down to the ground. Jessica was going straight for my throat, nipping at it and drawing blood, but still being gentle enough to let me know this was a warning. It was my last chance to cave, to tell them that I would become a member of the She-Wolves.
If I didn’t give them what they wanted, I knew it would get worse.
Where the hell were the Darken?
It wasn’t like I could do anything. I couldn’t even move. Two of the wolves were standing on my arms, preventing me from moving.
As if on cue, I heard a low, masculine growl from somewhere behind me. “Get the hell off of her. Right now.”
That didn’t stop the She-Wolves’ attack.
A moment later, all four of the Darken—in their wolf forms—began to surround the She-Wolves.
“I told you to get off of her.” Theo jumped on top of Jessica, biting her in the back of the neck.
She yelped and then turned to face him, biting at whatever she could reach.
“You’re messing with the wrong wolf,” I heard Jessica say.
“And you’re messing with the wrong pack,” Theo replied, letting out a snarl.
“She isn’t a part of your pack yet. She’s fair game,” Jessica replied.
“She’s going to become a part of our pack,” Theo argued.
“We’ll see about that,” Jessica replied as she fought back.
The other Darken began to attack the other three She-Wolves.
“Back the fuck off,” Aiden said as he bit one of the girl’s legs, igniting a yelp from her.
The other two Darken jumped onto the backs of the She-Wolves, mostly to get them away from me.
With the Darken attacking the She-Wolves, I was able to stand back up. I had just been able to shift into my wolf form when Theo pinned Jessica to the ground.
He hovered over her, snarling in her face. “I’m going to let you live, just this one time. But if you ever mess with Raven again, I will not hesitate to kill you.” He paused. “Oh, and one more thing. You will say nothing to the Headmaster if you know what’s good for you. Do you understand me?”
“Y-yes,” Jessica replied shakily.
“You sound afraid… and you should be afraid.” Then, after a few long moments, he moved away, releasing her.
She jumped to her feet and then distanced herself from him. Once she was far enough away, she turned to him and shot him a canine grin. “This isn’t over yet, Darken. We will fight for what’s ours, and we believe that Raven is what should be ours. She belongs with us. We will make that happen in one way or another. You just watch and see.”
Jessica stared back at him for a long moment, snarled one last time and then walked away from us, her pack members following after her. All three of the other girls shot menacing stares as they walked away.
Once they were gone, the Darken shifted back into their wolf forms.
I breathed a slight sigh of relief knowing that this was over… for now, anyway.
“Thank you, guys, for coming to my rescue,” I said. “I owe you big time.”
“You need to never pull something like this again,” Aiden scolded me.
“Pull something like what?” I asked him with raised eyebrows.
“Something as foolish as meeting Jessica Davis, Milos Santorini’s daughter, in the Dark Woods. Nothing good could have possibly come from this.” He seemed so angry with me.
“But Theo told me you guys would be here to back me up,” I pointed out. “I talked to Theo about this ahead of time.”
“Yeah, well, Theo made his decision on this without asking any of us,” Aiden said. “None of us thought it was a good idea.”
“If it was such a bad idea, then why did Theo agree to it?” I questioned.
“Wolves can’t be expected to make good decisions when it comes to their mates,” Colton said quietly. “Theo wants to do whatever he can to make you happy. He’s not going to say no. It’s a part of the special connection the two of you have.”
“Bullshit,” Aiden said. “I’m her mate, too, and I wouldn’t have agreed to this if I was the Alpha of the pack.”
“You guys, I don’t think any of us needs a lecture about whether or not this was the right thing,” Theo said. “I agreed to this because Raven wanted to find out Milos’s location. She wants to avenge her parents’ death. I stand by, and will continue to stand by, her in any way to make that possible. I didn’t think that her meeting Jessica was going to be all that successful, if we’re being honest, but I also didn’t expect it to turn into that.”
“Are you kidding me? I knew it would turn into that,” Aiden said.
“How? How could you have known?” I asked him.
“Easy. Jessica is in one of my classes, and she’s ruthless. Vindictive. I was unaware that Milos is her father, but now that I know he is, it explains a lot about her. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” Aiden’s honey brown eyes locked on mine. “Tonight could have turned out a lot worse than it did if we weren’t here to stop them from attacking you. You could have died, Raven.”
“I know,” I replied—and it was true. I knew that he was right. It could have been a lot worse. But it hadn’t been. I had been smart enough to know that I’d needed backup. I was glad that it had been the Darken instead of Iris like I had originally planned.
“I promise to make wiser decisions in the future,” I told them. “And I will have no future dealings with the She-Wolves. They might try to attack me at school, though.”
“Yeah, well I dare them to try that,” Theo said. “Attacking another werewolf at the Academy is grounds for expulsion. It’s in the student handbook.”
Whew. Even though Jessica and the other She-Wolves wanted me to be a part of their pack so badly, I didn’t think they would do anything to jeopardize their academic future at Werewolf Academy.
No, if they were going to attack me, it was going to be off of school grounds. I just needed to make sure that I didn’t run into them.
What scared me the most about it all was how much they seemed to know. Somehow, they knew about my arrangement with the Darken.
“You guys, how do they even know about… us?” I found myself asking.
“I was wondering that myself,” Colton said.
“You haven’t told anyone, have you, Raven?” Rhys asked.
“Well, I did tell Iris and Vince, but I know that neither of them would have said anything, I replied.
“It’s possible that the She-Wolves have been spying on you,” Aiden said. “If they’ve been following you, they might have seen you going out with us.”
“We’re jumping to conclusions,” I said. “It’s possible that they might have just caught wind of a rumor. The students have been talking about us, even from the very beginning. Even Caroline Wickburn noticed.”
“You’re probably right,” Theo said with a nod. “I’m sure this probably does all stem from a rumor.”
At least, I hoped that was all it was.
Because the idea that Jessica Davis and her cronies could have been spying on me made me feel sick to my stomach.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that I’d had to worry about Milos, I had to worry about his daughter now, too.
***
The next day in the Art of Shifting, Rhys’s lesson had obviously been inspired by the She-Wolves’ attack on me.
“Something that all werewolves need to figure out how to do is shift into their wolf forms, even when they’re being pinned down by another wolf during an attack,” Rhys told us as we stood on the field where we did our shifting. “I know it can be really overwhelming to figure out how to shift when you have a wolf—or several wolves—on top of you, weighing you down. But sometimes shifting can catch your opponent off-guard, which m
ight help you escape their attack—or give you more of a fighting chance, anyway.”
He moved across the grassy field. “So, here’s what we’re going to do today. You’re going to choose a partner. One of you will shift into your werewolf form, while the other will stay in your human form. The one who’s changed into a wolf will pin you onto the ground and you will work on shifting. I’ll give you some tips on how to do this once we’re in position, so choose a partner.”
Iris and I obviously partnered up.
“Decide who will be the wolf in this situation first,” Rhys went on, “and make the transition into your wolf form.”
“I’ll shift first,” Iris volunteered. She closed her eyes and then swiftly shifted into her wolf form: a reddish-brown wolf.
“I want the human in this situation to lay down on the ground.”
I dropped onto my back on the ground.
“Wolf partners, you will stand on top of your human partner. I want you to pin your partner down as much as you possibly can, but don’t attack them.” He walked around. “Don’t make it easy for your partner to get out of your hold, but don’t hurt them, either.”
Iris climbed on top of me, pinning me down. I stared up into her wolf face. She wasn’t as scary as Jessica—and she definitely wasn’t as strong as her, either. Though, I was fairly sure that probably had something to do with the fact that I had been pinned down by four werewolves last night, instead of only one.
“Human partners, you should try to sit up. Your partner’s lock on you should be strong enough to prevent you from being able to do so.”
I tried to sit up. Even though Iris’s hold on me wasn’t as strong as Jessica’s, it was still strong enough that I wasn’t able to sit up.
Rhys was watching me. Even though he was talking to the entire class, I got this feeling that he really intended this lesson for me—and only me.
“Now I want you to relax. I want you to close your eyes and just imagine that your wolf partner is attacking you—especially near your face and throat. I want you to imagine the emotions that would be going around inside your mind, with the most dominant emotion being fear. Yes, I want you to imagine that you are very afraid of your opponent. Your opponent is strong—possibly stronger than you, or at least equal to you. Part of you wonders if this will be how you’ll die.”
Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to relive last night. Iris was no longer the one who was holding me down; it was Jessica and the She-Wolves.
He paused for a moment. “Then I want you to clear your mind. I want you to think about how fierce you are… how strong you are. You can do this. You can fight back. This won’t be how you die.”
I allowed myself to think the thoughts he was feeding us—to build my own confidence—all while imagining that Jessica was still pinning me down, going for my throat.
And then it happened—suddenly and unexpectedly. Normally, I had to think about how I wanted to shift in order to make it happen, but not this time. It just seemed to happen on its own.
When I opened my eyes and glanced around, I realized that I was the only one in the class who had shifted so far.
Rhys grinned at me. “Great job, Raven.”
***
That Friday, it was Colton’s turn to take me on a date.
As much as I was excited for my first date with him, the truth was that dating all four of them was started to get… well, complicated.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to date all four of them. It was just that the dates were stretched so far apart. I was still mentally processing my date with Aiden—and all that had happened that night—and I was going out with Colton now.
It was also my talk with Theo that made things even more complicated. The fact that I was going to have to choose one of them in the end… Well, it made me feel like this was a season of The Bachelorette or something.
I also had no idea who I would end up picking in the end. I hadn’t been out with—or kissed—Colton or Rhys yet, but I had such strong feelings for both Theo and Aiden. How could I only pick just one in the end?
The worst part about it all was that I knew I was going to end up hurting three of them. And it wouldn’t be only them I’d be hurting. I also knew I was going to be hurt in the end. I would be heartbroken by having to lose three of them and only end up with one.
How had this become my life?
I tried to push all of these thoughts to the back of my mind and just be excited for our date. He deserved the same level of excitement as I had given Theo and Aiden on our first dates, and the truth was that I really was excited about it. I sometimes felt like I didn’t know Colton as well as the others yet.
Theo was the Alpha of the pack, the strong—yet surprisingly sensitive—guy. I could count on him to do his best to protect me but also to dance with me to an Ed Sheeran song.
Aiden was the guy who I sometimes felt like should have been the Alpha of the pack. Most of the time, he seemed bossier than Theo was. He was also ridiculously cocky, the “class clown” in the room, and the one who seemed to think with his dick the most.
Rhys was the nice guy of the pack. He was a total sweetheart. He was the type who would have given a random stranger the shirt off of his bare back.
But Colton was a little bit of a mystery to me. Sometimes, I got the sense that he was like Rhys—a complete sweetheart—but at other times, he seemed really stubborn and headstrong. I couldn’t wait to see what he was like with me one-on-one.
Around seven o’clock, there was a knock on the front door. I stepped outside to find Colton staring back at me.
His gray eyes pierced through mine. “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.” I grabbed my jacket. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see when we get there.” His lips curved upwards.
I rolled my eyes. “Is this like a running joke between you guys or something? None of you have told me where you’re taking me.”
“We just all know how much you love surprises,” Colton said sarcastically.
“Wait, so you guys talk about me when I’m not around?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Maybe.” He grinned at me.
I was both a little annoyed and flattered that the Darken shared details about their dates with me. I would have felt betrayed that Theo had let that cat out of the bag, but honestly?
It was starting to feel like all of us were family.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Aiden had set the bar high for my next date. I hated to admit it, but I didn’t think it would be possible for Colton to come even close to the ride in the jet plane. And yet, somehow, he did.
“I’ve never been to an ice carnival,” I told him as we walked past all of the ice sculptures. There was a wolf, a fairy, an angel, and a lion. It was already dark outside. The sculptures were all lit up with bright lights, which reflected against the ice and made everything looked so beautiful.
Peeling my eyes away from the sculptures, I glanced over at Colton. “I don’t know why, but I’m surprised they even have ice carnivals in the werewolf world.”
“We have almost everything your world has,” Colton replied. “Movie theaters, malls, casinos—you name it.”
“Wow. I’ve been living here for three months already, and it’s still so crazy to me that this realm even exists. How is it that no one in the human realm has figured this out yet?”
“Well, the only ones who can get through the portal are those who have paranormal blood in their DNA. And chances are, if they have paranormal blood, they don’t want anyone in the human world to know about it. The human world can get really overwhelming at times, but this place is our own little safe haven.”
“That makes sense.” Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to leave this realm, except to see Maddie and Uncle Ryan.
“Now, are you ready for my favorite part of this winter carnival?” Colton asked.
“Sure,” I agreed.
He grabbed my hand and led me in t
he direction of some slides. “The slides are completely made of ice,” he explained. “And not just any ice. This ice is made to withstand werewolf heat, which results in a much colder—and much slippery ice.”
We waited in line until it was our turn. There were two slides, side by side. Colton climbed onto one, as I plopped down onto another.
“Ready, set, go!” Colton said, as we both pushed ourselves down the ice slide.
Slippery had been an understatement. This slide was slick as hell. It felt like someone had dumped gallons of lube all over it, causing us to go at a ridiculously high speed.
I screamed the entire way down.
***
We went ice skating around the rink.
“This is actually the first time I have ever been ice skating,” I told Colton.
“Really? How have you gotten through life without ice skating before?” He sounded surprised.
“I don’t know. Maybe I ice skated in my old life… before I became Raven Gallagher, I mean,” I replied with a shrug. “But I definitely never ice skated in the last… however many years.”
“Well, I have to say that you seem to be pretty good at this for it being your first time,” he said.
I laughed. “Well, I haven’t fallen yet, so I guess that’s a good sign. Who knows? Maybe I’m meant to be a professional ice skater or something.”
Colton laughed. “So, this is your first time ice skating and your first winter carnival. I’m so glad that I could make so many firsts happen for you in one night.”
My mind drifted to sex then. I was pretty sure that he and I were probably thinking the same thing: even if I wanted him to be my first, it couldn’t happen. Not yet. Not until I had my date with Rhys first.
I wondered which of the guys I would choose to lose my V-card to. But I didn’t even really want to think about that right now.
No, right now, I just wanted to enjoy this time with Colton.
“So, do you have any brothers or sisters?” I asked him. “Biological ones, I mean. I know you consider the other Darken your brothers.”