by Jayme Morse
“No, actually, that’s the interesting thing about the Darken. We’re all only children. Sometimes, I think fate put us together for a reason,” Colton explained. “I’m pretty sure we were the family that all of us were missing.”
“That’s really sweet.” Okay, so, it was safe to say that Colton definitely had a strong emotional/sensitive side.
“I believe you were meant to find us, too,” he added.
“Yeah?” I glanced over at him.
“Yeah. And I’m really glad you did. I know this might sound crazy to you, all things considered, but none of us have been this consistently happy before. We all really care about you more than you know.”
I thought about how strange it was that he was talking on behalf of the entire Darken pack, and that’s when it dawned on me.
Colton was the guy who wanted what was best for everyone. He wanted all of the Darken to have a fair chance with me.
Even if I didn’t choose him, he would be okay with that. Sure, it would probably break his heart, the same way it would end up breaking all of their hearts, but he would try to find the silver lining. He would be happy for whoever I did end up choosing.
And this was going to be my problem with letting go of Colton if I didn’t choose him. How could I let go of the guy who wanted everyone to be happy? It was a quality of his that I was already beginning to fall for.
“I know you’ve made me really happy,” Colton went on.
“You’ve made me happy, too,” I said, tightening my hold on his hand.
He dragged me away from the other skaters, who were skating around us in circles, pulling me to an empty corner of the rink.
His gray eyes glimmered beneath the starlight as they stared into mine.
I could feel that pull to him—that unexplainable, inhuman magnetic pull.
I wasn’t sure who leaned into who first. All I knew was his soft lips had come down on mine—gently, slowly, at first, but he deepened the kiss. It was fueled by urgency and desire, by the fact that we had both been waiting for this to happen for so long.
I found myself moaning against his tongue.
As we broke away from one another, I breathed him in. He smelled like snow and winter.
A wave of heat began to radiate throughout my whole body then. It was a heat unlike anything I had ever felt before. It hadn’t happened when I’d kissed either Theo or Aiden; this was a first.
I wondered what it could have possibly meant.
And that’s when I could feel something changing within me, and I knew exactly what it was.
Our souls binding together.
I probably should have thought about the fact that I was wearing ice skates before kissing him.
Except even before I fell, something was different this time. Something felt… off.
A wave of nausea came over me, and my head throbbed. I glanced up at Colton.
“I-I don’t feel right,” I murmured.
Colton lifted me into his arms. “I’ve got you, Raven. You’re going to be okay.”
Except, for the first time since this had ever happened, I wasn’t sure if he was right.
***
I could feel myself falling, deeper and deeper into a dark hole.
When I woke up, I was on an island. It was surrounded by dark blue water. Somehow, I just knew the temperature of the water was cold.
I glanced around. Everything about this island seemed obsolete. The trees looked dry and dead. There were houses that I could see off in the distance, but they looked as though they had been abandoned.
Where the hell was I?
And that’s when I saw them, walking towards me. There was a bright glow around both of them, and somehow, I just knew.
They were angels.
As my mom approached me, she wrapped me in a tight hug. “Oh, Raven. There’s so much we wish we could tell you,” she said as she cradled me against her neck. “We wish we could explain everything, but we can’t.”
“Why?” I felt frustrated, to say the least. Why couldn’t she tell me everything? My parents owed me answers to everything.
“We can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “You have to find out the truth for yourself. I just want you to know how sorry we are about this—about everything. We always wanted to tell you the truth, but more than anything, we wanted to protect you. We wanted to keep you safe.”
“Safe from who?” I asked her. “Can you tell me that, at least?”
“We wanted to keep you safe from the Triangle,” my father said simply.
“What is the Triangle? Who is the Triangle? You have to tell me a little more than that,” I insisted.
He shook his head. “We can’t. It’s against the rules. We can’t tell you everything. But we can tell you that your life is in danger, Raven. You are in far more danger than you know—far more danger than the Darken know.”
“Because of Milos?” I pressed. “Is that who I need to worry about the most?”
“Milos is just one of many threats you’re facing right now,” my mother replied. “You’re strong enough to beat him, Raven. Don’t let him intimidate you. You and the Darken, you’re all stronger than him.”
That was good to know.
“I just wish he didn’t kill you,” I found myself saying, as the tears began to fall from my eyes.
My mom shot my dad a sad look, which he returned.
“Is this the last time I will ever see you again?” I asked them.
“I hope not.” My mom hugged me again. “Be careful, Raven. Trust the Darken. They care for you. They will protect you from everything, just as long as you let them.”
Then, without saying another word, both she and my father disappeared into thin air, leaving me on the island, all by myself.
The tears began to flow then because I had a gut feeling that this would be the last time that I would ever see them again… and there were so many things that had been left unsaid.
***
When my eyes fluttered open, I was lying in a bed.
Glancing around the room, I quickly recognized the navy-blue walls and the nautical theme of the room.
I was at the Darken’s house.
How did I get here?
Sitting up in bed, I noticed a bell on the nightstand next to me. Unsure of why it was there but assuming that it must have been for me, I rang the bell.
Rhys came rushing into the room. “You’re awake… finally.”
“What do you mean?” I asked with raised eyebrows. “Colton and I were just ice skating.”
Rhys sat down on the edge of the bed next to me. “Actually, Raven, Colton took you ice skating nearly two weeks ago.”
“What? How can that even be possible? It felt like I just fell asleep and then I saw my parents—”
“Your parents?” Rhys cocked an eyebrow at me.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “It must have been a dream, but it felt so real.” I swallowed hard, trying to hold back the tears. The dream, or whatever it had been, was still so fresh on my mind. I tried to push it away. “I don’t understand what I’m doing here or what happened since Colton kissed me.”
“We don’t really understand what happened, but you fainted the same way you always do,” Rhys explained. “Except this time, you just didn’t wake up.” He leaned in closer and gave me a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay. We were all so worried about you.”
“Thanks,” I murmured into his neck. “But if what you’re saying is true—that I’ve been out of it for two weeks—then that means I’ve missed two weeks of school.”
I began to panic. The last thing I wanted was to lose my spot at Werewolf Academy. I really felt like I needed it. What if my absence caused me to fail or get kicked out of school?
“Yeah, we’ve already spoken to Headmaster Black. He’s fully aware of the situation—of everything.”
“Everything?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
“He knows that we believe you’re an Ancient. He knows that you’re mate
d to three of us,” Rhys replied.
“What? Why would you guys tell him that?” I could feel myself growing annoyed. “We were supposed to hide the fact that there was any romantic involvement between us.”
“I’m sorry that you weren’t here to help us make this decision, but we felt that full disclosure was important right now, especially given the circumstances,” Rhys explained. “Headmaster Black was very understanding about it. He doesn’t want us to let the whole world know about it while you’re a student, but he understands that it’s out of our control. He was also very intrigued, to say the least, that you have three mates. As far as anyone knows, this has never happened to any werewolf in history. Until now.”
“Why is it happening to me, though?” I questioned. “Of all wolves, why me?”
“The only theory we can up with is that you’re the only remaining Ancient.”
I supposed that theory made more sense than anything else at this point. It was crazy to think that I truly may have been a werewolf who was…
I didn’t even know how old.
“How old are you? And the other Ancients?” I asked Rhys.
“The other Darken and I were born in 1401,” he replied. “The Ancients were born and lived on Nocturne Island until 1500.”
“So, that would mean I’m at least over five hundred years old,” I said, calculating the math inside my mind. “Or up to six hundred years old.”
“Yeah. Aiden has been doing some detective work to try and figure out who you might be. Your real identity, I mean.”
“Oh, wow.” Well, that made sense, considering Aiden was the History of Werewolves professor. Speaking of which…
“What day is it?” I asked Rhys.
“Wednesday,” he replied.
I glanced at the time on the alarm clock. It was eleven a.m. “So, what are you doing home from school? You’re supposed to be teaching right now.”
“We have been rotating having days off so someone could stay with you at all times,” he explained. “Headmaster Black gave us permission to do so.”
“Wait, so one of you has been here with me twenty-four seven?” I asked, sort of surprised by this. “You did that for me?”
I mean, I knew the Darken had vowed to protect me from Milos, but I never would have thought that they’d take time off from their jobs just to sit by my side all day when I was out of it like Sleeping Beauty.
“You realize that our jobs at the Academy don’t actually mean anything to us, right?” Rhys asked. “The only reason we took those jobs was so that one of us could be watching over you at all times—or most times, anyway. We have plenty of money. We don’t need to work. We just do it for you.”
I had never really considered their wealth in regards to their teaching until now. “You guys are so sweet.”
“Well, now we can show you our sweetness again now that you’re out of the Colt-ma.”
“The what?” I eyed him curiously.
“Colt-ma. A coma that was caused by Colton. That’s what we’ve been calling it. Not that we blame him or anything,” he explained, “but if you hadn’t kissed Colton, you never would have ended up in this two-week coma.”
I laughed. “Well, if you see Colton, you can thank him for me.”
“On a more serious note, I think that maybe we should wait until you go out with me,” Rhys told me.
“What? Why? I’ve been looking forward to our date. Before I was in the Colt-ma, that is,” I said with a laugh.
“We probably shouldn’t be kissing any time soon,” Rhys said. “I sort of wonder if the reason this hit you so hard is because you became mated with too many of us too quickly. Maybe your body needs a break from all of this soul-binding.”
“Maybe.” His theory actually made a lot of sense. “But just because we go out doesn’t mean we have to kiss. We can still go out.”
“Yeah, true,” Rhys agreed, but I could tell that he was pretty disappointed. I got the sense that he must have actually been looking forward to kissing me.
Actually, what he had probably been looking forward to was mating with me. He was now the only Darken in the pack who wasn’t my mate. He probably felt like it gave the other guys an advantage over him or something, but the truth was that it wasn’t like that at all.
Even just sitting on the bed with him made me wish that I could kiss him right now. He might not have been my mate yet like the others were, but I was still so drawn to him.
Yeah. This whole waiting thing was going to suck for both of us.
***
Returning to Werewolf Academy after being missing for two weeks was interesting, to say the least.
It seemed like everyone must have been talking about me while I was gone. Every time I walked into a room or down a hallway, someone was whispering about me.
“I’ve heard so many rumors about you today,” Vince said over lunch outside in the courtyard. “Apparently, you took some time off to have Pups.”
“Uh, what?” I just stared back at him, wide-eyed.
“Yeah, apparently you’re now the proud mother of not just one but three Pups, all fathered by the Darken. The first Pup is allegedly Theo’s, the second is Aiden’s, and no one knows for sure if the third is Colton or Rhys’s.”
“Is this even something that could actually happen in real life? I mean, is it possible?” I questioned.
“In theory, if you had sex with all of them during your fertile period, it is,” Iris said with a nod.
“So, never let me have sex with all four of them during a full moon, because I can’t think of anything worse than having a whole litter of Pups at once.”
I had learned in Lunar Magic 101 that the full moon was a female werewolf’s most fertile period.
“I mean, I wouldn’t stop you either if you really wanted to,” Iris said with a shrug.
“I agree.” Vince paused. “So, since you’ve been M.I.A. for such a long time, you’ve missed all of the exciting news.”
“Such a long time? I was only in my coma for two weeks! What could have possibly happened during that time?” I asked him.
“Iris has a boyfriend,” Vince said in a sing-song voice.
“Um, what?! Who is it?” I turned to her, completely shocked. I hadn’t even heard about Iris crushing on any guys from any of our classes, let alone having an actual boyfriend. “How has so much happened since I’ve been gone?”
“Harley Jones,” she replied. “You don’t know him. He’s in my Werewolf Pack Rituals class. He’s super cute, but I never thought I had a chance with him until he asked me out.”
“Where did you guys go? What did you do? You need to catch me up.” My coma would just happen to fall during all of the exciting stuff.
“We went to dinner and a movie,” she replied.
“Is he your mate?” I asked the first question that came to mind.
“Oh, wait until you hear this,” Vince warned me. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Iris rolled her eyes at him. “We haven’t kissed yet because we’re afraid to find out.”
“Afraid because you don’t want to end up in a coma like I did?” I asked.
“No. We’re afraid to know the answer. I like him a lot, but what if he’s not my mate? Do I keep seeing him, even though it’s essentially a waste of our time? But then what if I never meet my mate—or not for a long time, anyway. I guess I would just rather not know.” Iris sighed, and I could tell that she had considered all of the worst-case possible scenarios.
“I think you should do whatever feels right,” I said with a shrug. “But then what do I know? Doing what’s right put me into a coma for the past two weeks.”
“We are really glad you’re okay,” Vince told me.
“We missed you so much,” Iris agreed. “We’re really glad that you’re back.”
“Me, too,” I replied with a smile. “Rhys doesn’t want me to kiss him. Not anytime soon, anyway.”
“Ya think?” Vince asked. “I think you should m
aybe not kiss him ever.”
“His theory is that this happened because I only just mated with Aiden and then Colton, literally a week apart. My body might have still been adjusting to my soul binding to Aiden’s and then it got hit with Colton, too.”
“Well, that does make a lot of sense,” Iris agreed. “If you’re going to kiss him, you should probably wait as long as possible. And possibly wait until the school year is over so you won’t have to miss any other classes because of it.”
“Yeah, that’s a good point. I didn’t really think of that,” I replied with a sigh.
Somehow, Rhys and I were going to have to adjust to the idea that if this ever happened between us, it wasn’t going to be any time soon.
And truthfully? I don’t think either of us were going to like it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The holidays came and went. I ended up spending Christmas with the Darken, but honestly?
It seemed like they were all being sort of weird with me. I was pretty sure it was because of the Col-ma. They were afraid of what might happen to me if I kissed any of them, so instead, they all treated me like I was nothing more than a friend.
I actually didn’t really mind that much, though. I’d had enough excitement to hold me over for a while. And even though I was so attracted to them and wanted nothing more than to tear all of their clothes off, I knew that my body needed a break.
I just kept thinking that my coma had been some sort of warning: to take a step back from the situation for now. So that was exactly what I did. But I still had fun making the Darken watch Elf, The Santa Clause, and all of my favorite human Christmas movies that they’d never seen before, and playing cards while we drank eggnog by the fire.
I wouldn’t have said that it was the best Christmas ever. That would have been a Christmas that I’d spent with my parents—the mom and dad who had raised me, that is—but it came pretty damn close.
***
The library at Werewolf Academy was absolutely stunning. It was much huger than the library at my old high school—or any library I had ever been in, for that matter. There were large windows overlooking that mountains that lay behind the Dark Woods, and aisles and aisles of books.