by Jayme Morse
“No way.” I paused. “How am I the only one in this friend group who’s still a virgin?”
“You’re joking.” Vince just gaped at me.
“Why would I joke about that?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
“You’ve been living with a pack of sexy as fuck werewolves for an entire summer, and you’re still a virgin?” Vince asked in disbelief.
“Yup.” Not that it wasn’t because I hadn’t wanted to. The urge to jump their bones had been strong. But I didn’t say that.
“Damn,” Vince commented. “Talk about some self-control.” He leaned in closer. “But, really, what are you waiting for?”
“The right time, I guess.” I shrugged.
“Oh, honey. The best time is right now. You’ll never be younger or more beautiful,” Vince insisted. “Well, maybe not right now. We’re kind of at this party right now. I mean, unless you’re into freaky shit like that, but you know what I mean.” He paused. “Want my advice? If I were you, I’d send him a nude.”
“Him?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
“Oh, come on. Don’t play dumb. I’m pretty sure you already know which one you’d most like to lose your virginity to,” Vince replied with a shrug. “Seduce him. Make him crave you even more than he probably already does.” He winked.
“Thanks for that advice.” As I rolled my eyes at him, a realization hit me then, and I turned to Iris. “Wait. You said you lost your virginity to Matt. What about Harley?”
Harley was Iris’s boyfriend at the Academy. The last thing I knew, the two of them were still a thing.
“Harley wanted to take a break over the summer,” she said with a sigh. “And I’m pretty sure that break has turned into a breakup.”
“Really?” I wasn’t sure why I was so surprised. Every time I’d ever been around the two of them, he had seemed pretty crazy about her.
Mostly, I was surprised that she hadn’t mentioned it before now. It made me feel like an even worse friend for not knowing.
“Yeah, well. I guess that’s what happens when you’re too afraid to kiss the guy you’re dating,” she replied, lowering her eyes to the ground.
“You never kissed him?” I knew the two of them had been too nervous to kiss early on because they were afraid to know whether or not they were mates, but I hadn’t realized that the school year had ended without even a single peck on the lips.
What a bad friend I was. I had been so self-absorbed with my own guy problems that I hadn’t even realized this issue had still been plaguing Iris and Harley’s relationship.
“No. Kissing him would have meant that we’d know if we were mates, for sure, and we might be better off never knowing,” Iris said quietly.
“Unless the two of you actually are mates, and then you’re really missing out on each other,” Vince said. “I think you need to just kiss him already—like today. As in, right now.” He motioned to one of the concessions stands. “He’s right over there. Go get him, girl.”
“I’m not kissing him,” Iris replied with an eye roll. “We’re no longer a thing.”
As Vince began to say how they could be a thing if she’d just work up the nerve to kiss him, I noticed a girl out of the corner of my eye. She had long, straight, shiny black hair that fell about midway down her back and sun kissed skin. She was wearing a Victoria’s Secret Pink sweatshirt and a pair of sparkly pink UGG boots that looked a little too familiar.
Was it possible?
How could this be?
But even though it didn’t seem real, it had to have been her. I would have recognized her anywhere. Unless she had a doppelgänger or a werewolf twin sister that she’d never told me about before.
“I’ll be right back,” I quickly mumbled to Iris and Vince.
I headed over in her direction.
“Maddie?” I asked.
My best friend from the human world glanced over her shoulder at me.
Chapter Three
“Raven? Ohmigod! What are you doing here?” Maddie asked as she threw her arms around me in a tight hug.
“I was just going to ask you the same thing,” I replied.
“I should have known. That was what you meant by ‘W. Academy’ when you asked me to get in touch with your uncle. I can’t believe this is where you’ve been this whole entire time.” Pulling away from our hug, she smiled at me. “I’m seriously so happy to see you. You have no idea.”
“I’m really happy to see you, too, but I’m so confused. You’re a werewolf?”
How was it even possible that my high school BFF was a werewolf and I had been completely in the dark about it?
Then again, who was I kidding? I was a werewolf, too, and she hadn’t known anything about it until right now either.
“Yeah, I was bitten last spring. I got an invitation in the mail a few weeks ago.” Maddie paused. “No one even knows I’m here. I told my parents I was going backpacking through Europe. Can you believe they actually bought it? Do I look like the type of girl who stays in hostels to you?”
“No. You’re the type of girl who only stays at five-star luxury resorts,” I replied with a laugh. “Does Robbie know where you are?”
“Fuck Robbie! He’s the one who bit me.” She rolled her eyes.
“Robbie was a werewolf?”
“Robbie’s a werewolf and my biggest regret,” Maddie replied with a sigh.
“That actually makes so much sense,” I realized. “He was always so moody.”
“Yeah, well. We broke up last April.” She met my eyes. “I know what you’re thinking, Raven, but this time it really was for good. I wasn’t going to get back together with him, and I’m pretty sure he could sense that. He was so afraid of losing me that he bit me in hopes that I would turn out to be his mate. And of course, I’m not even his mate, so it was all for nothing. And now I get to go to high school… again. Yay,” she said half-heartedly, giving me her best attempt at a smile. “The worst part of it all is that he’s here, too. I haven’t run into him yet, but he texted me that he got an invitation and was going to enroll, too.”
“Wow.” I shook my head. “So, your life has basically been a paranormal soap opera since I’ve been gone.”
“Pretty much,” she replied with a laugh. “I was so afraid to come here. I mean, a whole new school in a completely different realm. I’m seriously so glad you’re here.”
“I’m really glad you’re here, too,” I replied. At that moment, the music stopped playing, and I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat into a microphone.
I glanced up to find Headmaster Black on the stage. He was a muscular man with short, dark hair. Even though he was a quiet man, something about him just seemed to exude power and authority.
“Welcome, students and staff, to our annual Full Moon Party,” his voice boomed through the speakers. “I would like to take a moment to thank all of you for being here tonight. Welcome to all of our new students. We have a great year in store at Werewolf Academy, with many new and exciting things happening.” He paused. “We’re going to let you return to the festivities soon, but first we would like to ask our professors to come onto the stage for the Moon Blessing Ceremony.”
Moon Blessing Ceremony? That must have been the ceremony Theo had been referring to.
“As I call your names, please join me on the stage.” Headmaster Black paused. “Professor Theo Rossi. Professor Aiden Flores. Professor Rhys Anderson. Professor Colton James.”
I watched as my mates, who towered over most of the crowd, headed for the stage. Most of the girls in the audience went crazy over them, some even whistling.
I wasn’t going to lie. It made me feel slightly jealous. I knew I didn’t have anything to worry about. The guys in my pack couldn’t even be attracted to anyone but me. Ancient wolves could only be attracted to other ancient wolves; that was the entire reason they had agreed they could all be with me. I was the only ancient left.
My jealousy, while completely unfounded, came down to o
ne thing: werewolf instincts. Mates could be jealous as fuck.
Once all of the Darken had joined Headmaster Black on the stage, I whispered to Maddie. “Those guys on the stage are my mates.”
Her brown eyes widened. “All four of them?”
I nodded. “Yup.”
“Damn. How do you have four mates?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll explain it all later,” I told her.
“Okay.” She took a drink from her cup. “They’re hot.”
Hot was an understatement. My mates were completely gorgeous.
“Professor Kesha Washington,” Headmaster Black continued naming the school’s instructors.
Professor Washington, a tall woman with short black hair and dark skin, headed for the stage.
“Professor Mindi Lee.”
I clapped as my favorite professor—outside of my mates, of course—headed for the stage. Professor Lee was a short Asian woman with long, jet black hair. She taught the Lunar Magic classes because, prior to being bitten by a werewolf, she was a witch first.
“Professor Javier Rodriguez,” Headmaster Black continued.
This time, the girls in the audience went completely crazy. And I could completely see why. Professor Rodriguez was… well, he was freaking hot. There was no doubt about it. With his deeply tanned skin and muscular body, he had an almost celebrity-like quality to him.
But even though I found him extremely attractive, it was just different from the way I felt about my mates, thanks to the whole ancients only being attracted to each other thing.
“Professor Caroline Wickburn,” Headmaster Black continued.
I watched as Professor Wickburn headed to the stage. She was wearing her auburn hair in loose curls, and she donned an emerald green dress. She looked beautiful, but she wasn’t. Not on the inside.
Professor Wickburn hated me. She had a thing for Theo, and she caught onto the fact that there was something going on between the two of us. She had threatened me in an attempt to keep me away from him, but that wouldn’t work on me anymore. I was his mate; there was no way she could come between us now.
I hoped that maybe Professor Wickburn’s feelings for Theo—and her hatred towards me—had faded over the summer. Maybe she had forgotten about him and moved onto someone else. Maybe she didn’t hate me anymore.
But as she stood on the stage next to Professor Rodriguez, her eyes found me through the crowd.
Talk about an icy cold gaze.
If looks could freaking kill…
Well, the feeling was mutual. There weren’t many werewolves in this world who I hated. In fact, there were only two. The first was Milos Santorini. The second was Caroline Wickburn.
The Headmaster continued to call other professors onto the stage—professors who I’d never seen before. I assumed that they must have taught other classes. It was a large school, after all.
Finally, once all of the instructors were standing on the stage, Headmaster Black said, “And now we’ll begin with the Moon Blessing Ceremony. I would like to call Gloria to the stage.”
Gloria was Werewolf Academy’s witch. She also used her magic during the Sorting Ceremony to sort each student into his or her House(s). Since my Houses were still confusing, I couldn’t help but question her powers a little.
As she stepped onto the stage, she stood in front of the microphone. “Blessings, moon children.”
“Moon children?” Maddie whispered, glancing over at me with raised eyebrows.
I shrugged. It was the first time I’d ever heard anyone call us moon children, but I supposed it made sense, considering werewolves were highly influenced by the full moon. Young werewolves had a harder time controlling their inner wolves and resisting the change during the full moon. A few months into making the transformation into wolves, we typically got it under control. But the moon affected us in other ways besides that. It was called “lunar magic” because werewolf magic was stronger during the full moon.
“The Moon Blessing Ceremony is a ritual that has taken place at Werewolf Academy for more than one hundred years,” Gloria continued. “Tonight, we ask the moon to bless our professors and our students. We ask the moon to provide our faculty, instructors and students with the knowledge, wisdom, courage, and strength they need to get through this academic school year. We ask for blessings, for good luck and fortune.”
I wondered if this moon blessing actually worked. The school year hadn’t even begun yet, and I was already pretty sure that I was going to need all the good luck and fortune I could get.
Then Gloria began to sing—a beautiful song, in the witch language, which we had learned about in Lunar Magic 101.
She stretched her arms out, fingertips pointed up at the sky.
Something happened then, something incredibly. Beautiful colors began to shoot down all around us. It looked like fireworks, except it wasn’t.
It was magic.
Magic was falling down all around us. First, it touched the Headmaster and each of the professors, streaming down and bouncing down onto them. Even from a distance, I could tell that my mates’ skin looked more radiant than usual; it just seemed to glow with all of the magic the moon delivered.
That’s when I felt the moon’s magic showering on me, too.
As the magic hit against my skin, I immediately felt the effects. It made me feel energized. Revitalized.
Stronger.
This magic was quite possibly the most amazing thing I had ever felt before.
Then, suddenly, the lights that were drifting down from the moon began to change in color; they were no longer beautiful shades of blues, pinks, and purples, instead changing to darker shades: blacks, charcoals, and deep reds.
Evil. I wasn’t sure why the thought had filled my mind, but I could just feel it all around us.
As the magic hit against my skin, it no longer made me feel energized. If anything, it made me feel the opposite.
It was as though this magic was draining me, somehow.
And that was when I heard it; it sounded like sirens screeching, blaring above us. The noise was piercing—and I wasn’t the only one who heard it. Students all around me began to cover their ears.
“What is that noise?” Maddie asked me, as we both covered our ears.
“I don’t know,” I replied, shaking my head. Then I thought to my mates, “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know. This has never happened before,” Colton responded.
The noise just seemed to grow louder. I could feel it vibrating off of everything—the ground, the students, the buildings. It sounded like there were planes—lots of planes—flying above us, except I didn’t see any.
And that’s when the students began to fall—two in the front and a guy not too far away from where Maddie and I were standing.
A girl knelt down on the ground next to him and checked his pulse. “He’s dead!” she wailed out.
Maddie grabbed my arm. “What is happening?”
There was a look of terror in her brown eyes. I’d never seen my best friend so scared before.
She wasn’t the only one. My whole body was shaking in fear.
“I don’t know,” I replied, shaking my head. Students all around us were beginning to duck, while others laid on the ground, pretending to play dead. I tried to figure out what to do, but it felt like my feet were just frozen in the ground.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Iris and Vince were standing about twenty feet away from us. I was realized that they seemed to be okay.
For now. The weird-colored magic was still showering down on us, faster now.
“What the fuck is going on?” Aiden’s thoughts filled my mind.
“I think someone used dark magic on the moon,” Theo replied.
“Make the dark magic stop! Make the moon disappear!” I thought, allowing my mates to listen to my frantic thoughts.
I closed my eyes, picturing the sky without the moon.
And just like that, the noise su
ddenly stopped.
When I opened my eyes again, the moon had completely disappeared from the dark sky.
I blinked, making sure this was real, that I hadn’t only been imagining it.
But it was real. The moon was gone, and I was pretty sure it was somehow my fault.
Chapter Four
“All students need to report to their dormitories immediately,” Headmaster Black’s voice boomed over the loudspeaker. “Werewolf Academy is now under lockdown.”
“Why are we on lockdown?” Maddie asked, her eyes wide with fear.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
People began to scramble, heading away from the courtyard and in the direction of their dorms.
My mates began to head in my direction. From across the field, Theo’s gaze locked on mine. The look in his bright blue eyes confirmed what I had just done.
“You hid the moon,” Theo’s voice filled my mind. “That’s why we’re being put on lockdown.”
“I don’t understand. What does the lockdown have anything to do with me hiding the moon?”
“Historically, the Crescents would hide the moon from a certain location when they were planning an attack. It’s easier to catch someone off-guard when everything is dark,” Theo explained. “Between the dark magic that was clearly just used on us and you hiding the moon, I’m pretty sure Headmaster Black thinks the Academy is under attack.”
“Are we under attack?” I asked him. Why else would anyone use dark magic?
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But at least we know the dark magic users weren’t the ones who hid the moon. You did.”
“I should probably let Headmaster Black know that it was me,” I replied.
“No.” His bright blue eyes locked on mine sharply from across the field. “Headmaster Black can’t know how powerful you really are, Raven. Only the most powerful Crescents are able to hide the moon like you just did.”
“So, we’re going to just let Headmaster Black think we’re under some sort of attack?” I asked. “That doesn’t seem right.”