by Jayme Morse
“That’s so strange. This is all so bizarre.” I tried to wrap my head around it all, to make sense of it, but I just couldn’t seem to figure out the reason for any of it. “I’m glad you came to see me, though. I know we might not be biological family, but you’re the only family I have left.”
“I really have missed you,” he said quietly. “Maddie wants to see you, too. She obviously can’t come here, though, considering she doesn’t have werewolf blood like we do. You’ll have to go back to the human world to visit her at some point.”
“Yeah, I’m hoping that I might be able to do that over summer break at some point,” I admitted.
“You’re welcome to stay with me any time,” Uncle Ryan told me.
“Is it okay if I bring my mates with me?” I asked.
“Mates? As in plural?” His eyebrows shot up in question.
“Yeah, I have three of them. I’m pretty sure I’ll have a fourth soon.”
“Wow. Look at my niece, with four mates.” Ryan shook his head and let out a laugh. “And here, I thought I was the most desirable Gallagher and I haven’t even found one mate yet.”
“I’m sure you’ll find your mate eventually,” I told him.
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “I’m like a hundred and twenty years old, and I haven’t found her yet.” He gave me a hug then. “I’ll see you soon, Raven.”
“Bye.”
He put on a moonstone necklace, similar to the one that had brought me here. I watched as he disappeared into thin air.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Every year, Werewolf Academy held a festival in celebration of the end of the school year. The Darken had told me it was going to be awesome, and it turned out to be everything they had said and more.
The festival had everything from food and dancing to face painting and carnival rides. It was bigger—and more fun—than any state fair I’d ever been to.
It was the perfect ending to the whirlwind of a year, and exactly what I needed. We all needed it.
“I just can’t believe the school year is over,” Vince said sadly as we waited for the Tilt-a-Whirl ride to start. “I feel like this year just flew by.”
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” Iris agreed.
I wasn’t sure that it had really flown by for me, personally. I felt like so much had happened since last summer that I could barely begin to process it all.
My parents had died.
I had mated with three guys.
I was in a coma.
I had learned that I was an Ancient werewolf princess.
Theo had been shot and survived.
And that wasn’t even to mention all of the insignificant things that had happened: the attack from the She-Wolves, all of the dates with the guys, the fact that Caroline Wickburn seemed to hate me—even if she did decide to give me a passing grade at the last moment.
Honestly? I couldn’t wait to see what my second year at Werewolf Academy would have in store for me if all of this had happened in just one year.
“I can’t believe you’re actually going to spend the summer in Wolflandia,” Iris said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Well, I can’t believe that you’re both leaving me here for the summer,” I said sadly. “I’m really going to miss you guys.”
“Sorry, Raven. Why don’t you come home to Chicago with me?” Vince asked. “My mom already said she would love to have you.”
“Or you can come back home to Savannah with me,” Iris suggested.
“That’s okay, you guys. Thanks for the offer. I might try to visit you both at some point this summer, but I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.”
I needed to stick around because the Darken were going to put me through their boot camp training this summer, like we’d talked about. As much as I would have loved to have a normal summer as a typically eighteen year, one where I went back to the human world with my friends or worked a summer job, the reality was that I couldn’t. I needed to get strong enough to take down Milos Santorini. It was pretty freaking important, if you asked me.
I wasn’t even sure of how safe it would be to visit the two of them.
And, truthfully, there was no place I would rather have been than with the Darken. It wasn’t like I could go too far away from them, even if I wanted to. My body would just go into withdrawals.
Aside from the boot camp training, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do here to occupy my time. I almost wished that Werewolf Academy offered summer classes, but they didn’t, unfortunately.
Everyone was going home, and I didn’t even have a home. It was a bit depressing, and for the first time since I had arrived at the Academy, I was really beginning to mourn the loss of my parents.
And that was exactly why I needed to stay… so I could get my revenge, I thought as the Tilt-a-Whirl began to spin us around in circles.
***
Later that night, Rhys came over to me.
“I got you some cotton candy,” he said, offering me the stick. “I got you purple, your favorite color.”
“Thanks. I actually love cotton candy,” I told him with a smile.
“I know.”
“How do you know? I’ve never ever eaten cotton candy around you. I’ve never even talked about it.”
“You’ve slept over a lot, Raven. The one thing I have learned about you is that if there’s anything sweet, you probably love it,” Rhys replied with a shrug. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you turn down candy or anything containing sugar, for that matter.”
“Well, that’s probably true,” I agreed as I popped some candy into my mouth. “So, what are you doing to do this summer?”
“I guess that all depends,” he replied.
“On what?”
“What you want to do this summer,” Rhys said. “We were thinking about taking a cruise to the Bahamas. We can go to Italy or France. Or maybe we can go backpacking through Peru? We could hang out with koala bears and kangaroos Down Under. The possibilities are endless, but it’s entirely up to you. We’re all down for whatever.”
“Are you serious?” I just stared back at him with wide eyes. “You guys really want to travel the world with me?”
Honestly, everything he had mentioned sounded amazing. I wasn’t sure how I could pick just one of those options he had given me.
“There’s nothing we want more.” His dark blue eyes locked on mine. “We just want to be with you.”
Swoon.
The truth was that was all I wanted, too. To be with them—with all of them.
At that moment, fireworks began to shoot off into the sky.
“I love fireworks,” I commented with a smile.
“I know. Because they’re beautiful. They remind me of you.” Rhys’s dark blue eyes stared down into mine, a look of admiration in them.
When I looked up into his eyes, that was the moment I knew.
It was going to change our entire relationship, and the whole dynamic of the Darken, but it was time.
I was going to kiss him.
I had been putting this off for so long, but the time had finally come. I wasn’t sure if it was the moon hanging full in the sky or the fireworks that were shooting off all around us, but I suddenly had the bravery to kiss him.
I was convinced that enough time had passed since the last time my soul had bound to Colton’s. Even if I ended up in another coma for two weeks, it would all be worth it when we had the same connection that I had with the others.
And somehow, I just knew that it was now or never. If I didn’t kiss him now, I never would.
So, I did the one thing I had been wanting to do for so long.
I pressed my lips to his.
It was obviously that I had caught him completely off-guard at first. But then he leaned into me, kissing me back only ever so lightly, allowing me to have complete and total control over the kiss.
Rhys’ kiss was so much different from the others; it was soft and sweet, gentle
and submissive. He let me guide the way; as I hastened the kiss, so he did he.
It didn’t take long, though, before I felt it.
I was weak in the knees… literally.
Pulling away from Rhys, I glanced up into his eyes. “I feel really faint.”
He scooped me up into his arms, and that was the last thing I would ever remember about that night.
***
This whole fainting thing was starting to get really old.
The only silver lining was that this was the last time it would ever happen. It was the final kiss, the last member of the Darken who I could have possibly mated to. And for that, I felt relief.
When I opened my eyes, I glanced around in confusion. Somehow, I had ended up in the Darken’s living room.
How had I even gotten here?
That’s when I saw them: all four of them, hovering over me. I couldn’t help but notice the worried expressions on their faces.
“What’s wrong, you guys?” I tried to sit up, but a random pain ripped through my entire body. It began at my neck before zipping its way down my core and ending at the tips of my toes.
“You’ve been out of it for a few days,” Colton explained. “We were all so worried about you. But we heard you mumbling in your sleep, so we could tell you were about to wake up at any moment.”
“Raven, there’s something you need to know. Look.” Theo pointed to my wrist.
My heart skipped a beat.
A tattoo.
And not just any tattoo but the Darken tattoo. Well, sort of.
It was the same tribal foot print that the guys all had on their bodies, except mine was different. It had a red flame behind it.
“What does it mean?” I asked them. I assumed the fact that their pack tattoo was there at all could have only meant one thing: I was one of them now.
But I wasn’t sure what the flame could have meant. Why did my tattoo have something extra?
A realization dawned on me then.
The kiss with Rhys must have ignited something. That was the cause of this shooting pain, and it must have been what sparked this tattoo to mark me now.
“We think that when you mated with Rhys, it sealed the bond to our entire pack. Now, we’re all mated to you,” Theo explained. “We think that bond, the fact that you mating with all of us is now complete, is what triggered this… this change.”
“What change?” I asked, confused.
“That flame behind your tattoo…” Theo trailed off. His blue eyes locked on mine. “It means you’re our Alpha.”
I heard his words, but his lips didn’t move. I realized that I had heard his thoughts.
“You can hear all of our thoughts now,” Aiden’s voice filled my mind next.
“You’re the first girl Alpha in a primarily male pack in existence,” Colton added.
“You’re mated to all of us, and you’re our Alpha.”
None of them had spoken their words out loud. I had heard them all speak in my mind.
The fact that I could hear them in my mind, their words so loud and clear, could have only meant one thing. What they were saying was true.
I really was the new Alpha of the Darken pack.
Werewolf Academy will continue in Year Two: Descended is coming this Spring (click the link to pre-order)!