Awakening (Covenant College #1)

by Amanda M. Lee

  I rubbed my wrist. It was going to bruise later. I could tell.

  I looked up at the room full of angry fraternity brothers. They looked like they wanted to rip me apart, but they didn’t encroach on the circle.

  Aric seemed to sense the hostility in the room. He grabbed my arm and started maneuvering me towards the front door. “You need to go,” he warned.

  “Yeah, I figured that out twenty minutes ago.”

  “Where’s your stuff? In Will’s room?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Go get it,” Aric shot a look around at his angry frat brothers. “And make it quick.”

  I nodded. I didn’t feel like getting bossed around – but I desperately needed to get out of this house.

  I threw my stuff together quickly, tossing on my jeans and hoodie. I dropped my bag at Aric’s feet at the top of the stairs and zipped up the hoodie. “Thanks.”

  Aric smiled down at me. “For what?”

  “For not being a sheep.”

  “No one here is a sheep.”

  “Well, they’re not men either.”

  Aric regarded me for a second. “No, they’re definitely not men.”

  As we moved towards the front of the door I stopped and swung around. I searched the crowd for Will. When my eyes met his, all I felt was pity. “Lose my number.”

  Will swallowed hard but he didn’t answer me. “My home number, too. You are so not who I thought you were.”

  Aric gripped my arm and walked me out. He shot a parting glance at Will, too. I could only describe it as triumph.

  Twenty-Five

  “What was all that about?”

  Once we were outside and I could breathe again, I found my anger returning in a huge wave. It was a tsunami.

  “Not here.”

  Aric directed me down the street. As we turned onto the next street, I saw him shoot a look back at the fraternity house. He watched it until it fell out of sight.

  “Are you worried they are going to follow us?”

  “No. They won’t do anything that Brett doesn’t order and he’s probably still rolling on the floor in agonizing pain.”

  “He deserved it.”

  Aric smiled down at me. I couldn’t help but notice how – in the moonlight – his eyes looked almost black instead of brown. “He definitely deserved it.”

  We fell into an amiable silence. It seemed to be a quiet agreement that he would be walking me all the way back to the dorms. I didn’t mind. I didn’t feel like being alone right now.

  “So, what was that?”

  Aric seemed to be struggling for an answer. “What do you think it was?”

  That was the question, wasn’t it?. I decided to go for broke.

  “Brett said it was a pack meeting. Is that like a wolf pack?”

  Aric didn’t answer.

  “Or, maybe, a werewolf pack?”

  Aric paused for a second and looked at me. “Why would you think that?”

  “It has been a weird couple of days.”

  “You believe in werewolves?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I staked a guy the other day and he turned to ash, so I believe in vampires.” I laughed at myself for a second. “Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d utter.”

  Aric wasn’t smiling. “You staked a vampire?”

  “Yeah, he jumped me outside the dorms.”

  “How did you know to stake him?”

  “It was just instinct.” And seven seasons of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’

  Aric mulled my story over for a few minutes. “Alright. What do you know?”

  I realized that Aric wasn’t going to share unless I did. I figured I owed him after he extricated me from the frat house. Plus, I was dying to tell someone. Why not an Adonis with great dimples?

  I launched into the whole story – well, at least most of the story. For some reason I left out the parts about Rafael. I did tell him about Professor Blake and the training facility at the activities center, though.

  Aric didn’t seem surprised. “Yeah, we’ve known about the training facility for years.”

  “We?”

  “The supernatural population.”

  “Which you’re a member of?”

  Aric turned and regarded me seriously. “I’m a werewolf.”

  I should have been stunned, but I wasn’t. “So, were you bitten?”

  “It’s not always like that – no matter what that tool Blake told you.”

  “So, you weren’t bitten?”

  “My parents are werewolves – so I was born a wolf.”

  “So that whole biting people and turning them is a myth?”

  “No. That’s true. They’re not true wolves, though. They’re more like half wolves.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Real wolves have more power. We’re strong. We can control the change.”

  “You mean you don’t have to turn into a big hairy beast?”

  Aric barked out a short laugh. “Basically.”

  I was curious – and Aric seemed to be in an answering mood – so I pressed on. “Do you only change on the three days around the full moon?”

  “Seems like Professor Blake has been imparting some wisdom on you.”

  I waited for him to continue.

  “Bit wolves can only turn on the three days of the full moon,” he supplied.

  “And born wolves?”

  “We can change whenever we want to.”

  That was interesting. “What’s it like?”

  “What’s what like?”

  “When you change? What’s it like?”

  “It’s painful.”

  “I bet. That’s not what I mean, though. I’ve seen ‘Silver Bullet,’ that can’t be good. I mean, do you have any sense of you when you change?”

  “Like can I think? Or do I just want to eat you?”

  “Basically.”

  “We still know who we are when we change. Our emotions are stronger in wolf form – but we can control them,” Aric stopped and looked down at me with a lazy smile. “That doesn’t mean I still don’t want to eat you.”

  I felt a thrill rush through me. That was probably a little inappropriate, though, since I’d just dumped my boyfriend of four years less than five minutes ago.

  “Do you think now is the time to flirt?”

  Aric didn’t look chastised, but he did start walking again.

  I decided to keep the conversation going and not dwell on the sudden urge I had to rip Aric’s clothes off. “Is everyone in the frat a werewolf?”

  “Not necessarily at the beginning. But they only let people in that are willing to turn.”

  “So Will is a werewolf?”

  “Since last year, yeah.”

  How could I not notice that? Aric must have read my mind. “Unless you were around him on the days of the full moon you probably wouldn’t have noticed.”

  I tried to think back – but honestly I never paid any attention to the moon phases.

  “Don’t you live in an area that is overpopulated with werewolves?” Aric looked curious.

  “So I’ve been told. Either I’m really unobservant or I was really overprotected.”

  Aric smirked despite himself. “Well, you know now.”

  “Yeah, and I’m so thankful for that,” I said sarcastically.

  “Knowledge is always better than ignorance.”

  “Are you a fortune cookie now?”

  “I’m a lot of things.”

  “Why are you part of the fraternity? Do you have to be?”

  “When I first came here I thought it would be great to be around a bunch of other wolves,” Aric admitted.

  “It wasn’t?”

  “Let’s just say it wasn’t what I was expecting.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My dad had always warned me that if you become a member of a pack that things are . . . different.”

  “Different how?”

  Ari
c sighed and motioned for me to sit on a bench. I realized we had made it to the center of campus. I sat down and looked at him expectantly.

  “Sometimes, when wolves get together, there is an alpha vibe,” he explained. “The longer they’re together, the more time they spend together, the more they seem to think that they’re somehow better than everyone else.”

  “I would have never thought that about Will,” I admitted.

  “He wasn’t always like this?”

  “No.”

  “What was he like?”

  “He was a fun guy. We hung around. Got in trouble. Smoked a little pot. Heck, this past summer his mom didn’t even live in the house. She lived in the backyard with some guy from the reservation.”

  “Which reservation?”

  “I don’t know. One of the ones north of Traverse City.”

  “That’s a wolf reservation.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Will never mentioned it.”

  “He wouldn’t. We’re not supposed to tell anyone.”

  “You told me,” I pointed out.

  “Yeah, well, I’m not very good at following the rules.”

  I laughed despite myself. “I can see that.”

  “If you hate the pack, then why do you stay in the frat?”

  “To make sure I am aware of what they are doing.”

  Aric’s answer surprised me. “Did you know they were drugging girls?”

  “You have proof of that?”

  I told him about Brittany – and the girl at the library. He looked intense as he listened to me. “I have had my suspicions – but I could never prove anything.”

  “You suspected women were getting taken advantage of and you never did anything about it?” I was suddenly thinking he wasn’t as good looking as I originally thought.

  “This is a new thing,” Aric explained. “They don’t tell me anything. They don’t trust me because I don’t follow their doctrine.”

  I nodded like I understood – but I wasn’t sure if I honestly did.

  “We need to tell someone.”

  “Who?”

  “Professor Blake?”

  Aric seemed to consider the idea. “What are you going to tell him?”

  “You mean, am I going to tell him about you?”

  Aric flashed his dimples. “Maybe.”

  “I won’t tell him about you. I just want to see if there’s something he can do about the druggings.”

  “It’s up to you.”

  “I’ll think about it,” I finally offered.

  “All I ask is that you don’t tell him without telling me you’re going to do it.”

  I agreed and we set off walking towards the dorm again. When we got there, Aric offered to walk me up to my room.

  “That’s okay, I don’t want to have to explain what happened right now. I need to think of a lie to tell them.”

  Aric nodded briefly. “I think you can trust Paris.”

  This surprised me. “You don’t know her.”

  “She has a good vibe.”

  I laughed. “A good vibe? What’s my vibe say?”

  Aric moved a little closer to me. “Your vibe is X-rated.”

  “You’re cute,” I said as I took a step back. “I’m not ready to get X-rated with you, though.”

  “Why? You’ve already had sex with a wolf?”

  “Yeah, and I just broke up with that wolf a half an hour ago.”

  “So, you’re saying you need more time?”

  “I need to think.”

  “I can understand that.”

  “Good. I’m not promising anything,” I cautioned.

  “I can wait.” Aric’s smile was decidedly wolfish at this point. “In fact, I bet I can wait longer than you.”

  That sounded like a challenge.

  Twenty-Six

  The next morning, I went to breakfast with Paris. She was surprised to find me in my bunk that morning, but she hadn’t said anything in front of Brittany and Tara. Alone at breakfast, though, it was a completely different story.

  “What happened?”

  “We broke up.”

  “Why?”

  “We just got into a fight and I realized it was over.” That wasn’t completely a lie.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It was bound to happen.”

  Paris was quiet for a few minutes. “I’m going to break up with Mike, too,” she finally said.

  “I know.”

  “Soon.”

  I regarded her briefly but didn’t say anything else. There really was nothing to say.

  Since it was Thursday, I only had two classes. After my classes, though, I had agreed to meet Professor Blake at the athletics center.

  At 2 p.m. I found myself being ushered into the secret area by Blake. He was all business today, which was fine, I wasn’t in the mood to annoy him right now. I didn’t have the energy.

  Blake took me to the library, where a stack of papers were sitting in the center of the table.

  “What’s this?”

  “We just want to see where you’re at.”

  “It’s a test?” My eyebrows practically shot off my head. “You want me to take a test?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good grief.”

  I had agreed to give this a shot so I sat down and started perusing the questions. I was surprised that it was more like an IQ test than anything else. There were no questions about the paranormal.

  I hurried through the test. I really didn’t care how I scored. I handed it to Blake and he seemed surprised by how quickly I’d completed it. He sat down to grade it – the irony wasn’t lost on me – and then he got to his feet.

  “Let’s go to the training room.”

  “That’s it? You’re not going to tell me what my grade is?”

  “It’s not for a grade.”

  “Then what’s it for?”

  “My edification.”

  Cripes.

  We walked down to the hall and into the training room. I was surprised to see two students waiting for us. They were both big, burly guys that had necks that were as wide as their heads.

  “Is this the steroid duo?”

  “This is Rex and Don.”

  Rex? As in T-Rex? I decided not to voice that thought. I figured it would just enrage him.

  “So what are we doing here?”

  “Checking your reflexes.” I was wrong, Blake did have a sense of humor. It was a sick one.

  “Against them?”

  “Yes.”

  “They’re twice my size.”

  “And a vampire has three times the strength of a human, and you managed to kill one of them.”

  Rex looked surprised. “She killed a vampire?”

  Professor Blake nodded.

  “By herself?”

  Blake nodded again.

  For their part, Rex and Don were now eying me a little differently. That would only last until I started pulling their hair and screaming as a defense mechanism, I figured.

  “And why are you checking my reflexes?”

  “To make sure you have the physical ability to fight supernaturals.” Professor Blake said it like it was the most normal thing. I had to fight the urge to giggle.

  “Fine,” I said resolutely. Maybe if they kicked my ass Blake would leave me alone?

  I dropped my bag and moved to the center of the mats. “Let’s do this,” I said grimly.

  Professor Blake looked nonplussed. “Don’t you want to change your clothes?”

  I looked down at my ripped jeans, ‘Star Wars’ shirt and DC Comics high tops. “Why?”

  Blake merely shook his head. “Fine.”

  I turned and looked at Rex and Don expectantly. “Come and get me boys.”

  Rex stepped up on the mats first. He started to circle me. I kept him in my gaze, but barely moved. What a tool. I bet he fancied himself on big time wrestling.

  “I’ll try not to hurt you too bad,” Rex sa
id with what I’m sure he thought was a reassuring smile.

  “I’ll try not to vomit on you,” I offered.

  Rex frowned. I couldn’t figure out how he passed the IQ test. While I was wondering, Rex took the opportunity to lunge at me. I saw it coming a mile away and side-stepped him.

  Rex turned around, surprised. He lunged again. This time, I tripped him.

  He hit the mats hard. While he was down, I quickly leaned into him with my knee and grabbed his left hand, applying pressure to the joint between his thumb and the rest of his hand. It was a trick I’d learned from my cousin years before.

  Rex howled in pain. He tried to buck me off, but I had the leverage. “Tell me I’m the best,” I goaded him.

  I noticed that Don had stepped onto the mat. Well, this should be interesting. As he started making his way towards me, I considered what I should do. If I let go of Rex, I would be woefully outnumbered. If I didn’t, there was only one thing to do -- and it was a pretty dirty move. Of course, we were fighting vampires here, so I didn’t think it mattered how you won. Just that you won.

  As Don descended on me, I made the decision. I reared my head back and slammed my forehead into his groin. When I made contact I was thankful that he wasn’t wearing a cup. I figured neither of them felt they needed one since they were fighting a lowly girl. They wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  Don reared back and fell to the ground, moaning as he grabbed his nuts. Three times in one week, I was on a roll.

  “Enough!”

  Blake made his way onto the mats and pulled me off of Rex. Rex rolled over and glared at me. Since Blake was there, though, he didn’t make a move.

  “That was cheating,” Don gasped.

  “And two huge guys fighting one little girl isn’t?”

  Blake regarded me with his light eyes for a second. I couldn’t read his mind, but I think he was impressed.

  Blake dismissed both Rex and Don. The two boys glared at me as I left. I had a feeling their egos were bruised – just like Don’s nuts. After they left, Blake walked towards the refrigerator in the back of the room and pulled out a bottle of water. He handed it to me – still not saying anything.

  “So, did I pass?”

  “Yes.”

  “Great. Now what?”

  “Where did you learn to fight like that?”

  “I hung around with more boys than girls growing up.”

  “And?”

  “And boys like to wrestle. Even after I started getting boobs they wanted to wrestle – but I think it was so they could feel me up.”