Flower Moon Rising (Lupine Hollow Academy Book 1)

by Quinn Arthurs

  “I’d appreciate it,” he retorted, his voice still calm, “although I doubt you’ll be able to hold up your end of the deal. You seem to attract trouble like a magnet.”

  I glared at him, taking another bite of my sandwich as I turned my focus onto the others. How did guys as fun as Chann and Zev and a sweet girl like Shannon become friendly with a jerk like Alarick? Was it just because of his position as the upcoming alpha? “Are any of you going to the library tonight?” I inquired hopefully, as I took a few more bites of my sandwich. “Shaw’s attempting to bury me in work, and I could really use the study time.”

  “You could just study in your room,” Alarick pointed out, scowling at his plate. “It’d be by far the smarter option.”

  “It’s not a problem,” Chann assured me, ignoring his surly friend. “We need the study time anyhow.”

  “We need to make some time for fun though,” Zev added with a sexy smirk. “There’s so much we want to do with…” He trailed off wickedly. “Show you,” he amended, winking.

  “You two are dangerous,” I accused the twins, though my lips twisted up into a smile. They made it so easy to relax, keeping my mind occupied and off of all the stress and memories that wanted to sneak back in. “We can figure out something fun to do—not skinny dipping though!” I hurriedly added. “Besides, it’s completely freezing outside. Human, remember?”

  “I could use the study time too,” Shannon broke in. “We can show her the game room afterwards, if Mr. Cole gives her the all clear.” Her eyes snapped back to the table of females as they pushed to their feet, exiting the dining room and allowing us to attend to our conversation.

  “That’s right!” I gasped in realization, as I focused back on what she’d said. “Am I really going to have to do weapons training or whatever with my injuries? I mean, he is a healer.”

  “He’ll be a bit more careful with you, I’m sure, but injuries to your face don’t necessitate removal from your classes. Guaranteed he’s never trained a human as far as I know, so he’d probably be careful either way to ensure he didn’t kill you with a misplaced blow.” The casual way Alarick said it was chilling, though I gritted my teeth, trying to pretend it didn’t scare me.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be like a guard dog or something?” I snapped at Alarick. “Preventing me from being injured and everything?”

  Alarick’s eyes flashed as he glared at me. “I’m no one’s guard dog,” he snarled. “I’m merely supposed to prevent your untimely demise for the next year. I can’t be expected to do more than that when all you do is attempt to get yourself killed over and over. No other human would join a wolf pack and expect to survive.”

  “Excuse me for believing your father’s statement that you all had become civilized.” I took another bite of my sandwich as his eyes shifted to a brilliant blue. It was odd to see his power so active and realize he wasn’t using it on me. Was he refraining from using it on me because he was being kind? Or because his power was intended for keeping the pack in line, and, no matter what Raff said, I wasn’t truly a part of the pack? “Apparently he needed to leave you and a few select others out of that. I assume, at least, you’re house broken.”

  Chann and Zev burst into shocked laughter, their eyes wide as they looked between the pair of us as Alarick bared his teeth and pushed to his feet. “Lesson one,” a cold voice drawled behind me, and I turned to see Mr. Cole appraising us, adjusting his glasses as he advanced. “If you’re going to go out of your way to antagonize another, you need to ensure that you’re either guaranteed to win the fight, or you’re willing to take a beating. In this case, I can assure you you will not be able to win, so it may be more sensible to watch your words until you gain more strength.” Alarick slowly returned to his seat under Mr. Cole’s stare. “Since you seem intent on daring those around you to beat you to a pulp, I suggest it’s time to move on to our training. If you’ve finished?” he suggested dryly, staring at my plate.

  “Um, yeah, I’m ready,” I admitted, though my eyes strayed back to Alarick, where he watched me intently. “I’ll see you guys after my lesson,” I called over my shoulder as I grabbed my bag so I could chase after Mr. Cole’s rapidly retreating form. “If he hasn’t managed to break me, at least,” I finished under my breath. It wouldn’t be a werewolf academy without yet another challenge, now would it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “So, what exactly are we going to do?” I questioned, panting slightly as I caught up with him. “Are you going to check my cheek?” My fingers grazed the bandages still decorating the wound. It hadn’t caused me any trouble today, and I was grateful for that. Pain and I weren’t exactly on friendly terms. I’d never considered myself to be exceptionally vain, but I was praying it wouldn’t scar.

  “I’ll check your injuries after class. It’s foolish to worry about them now when a workout may simply open them back up again.” His footsteps echoed on the marble flooring as he led me toward whatever classroom he had commandeered.

  “Oh,” I replied weakly. Seemingly the others hadn’t been lying when they said this was going to be difficult. “I don’t really have any kind of fighting experience,” I admitted. “Or exercising experience for that matter.” Though my words were a quiet, sullen murmur, he still caught them, glancing over his shoulder at me.

  “Not unusual. Many don’t. We’ll change that rather quickly.” His words were calm as he led us into a small, mirrored room. The floor, rather than the marble I’d already become accustomed to, or even the wood of the bedroom floors, was covered in padded mats of tan and blue. “Your body will adjust more rapidly than you give it credit for. We’ll add more every day until it becomes second nature. Although humans reject most healing, I can provide minor medicinal help to you, which will allow you to practice without the fear of substantial or lasting injury. Once your stamina raises, we’ll focus on teaching you to defend yourself.”

  “If I survive that long,” I grumbled out, dropping my bag. “How exactly am I supposed to be working out in this?” I waved a hand at my skirt and sweater combination. The clothes were pretty and high quality, but they certainly wouldn’t hold up to any kind of exercise without ruining them.

  “There’s practice clothing in the changing rooms.” He waved a hand toward what I had mistaken for a closet against the far wall. “Be quick about it though. We only have until dinner.”

  “Only, ha.” I strode toward the changing room, trying my best not to sulk. Couldn’t I have had just a few days to relax? Or a training teacher who wasn’t a complete psycho, for that matter? I hadn’t been too far off in calling the room a closet. There was barely enough space for me to hang my bag up and turn around in as I undressed, sliding into the clothes awaiting me. Even here, the pack logo wasn’t forgotten, blazoned onto both the leggings and the shirt, which were done in the same blues as my uniform. “So why can you only sort of heal me? I mean, that’s your skill, right?” I called through the door. It was easier to talk with the stern—and utterly gorgeous—male when he wasn’t right in my face. Besides, knowing he could hear me change clothes was just awkward. If I was going to be on the defensive, I’d do my best to put him there as well.

  “Think of it like a wall,” he explained, his voice cool and deep, even through the wood of the door. “Whereas shifters have a well inside them, full of the magic that allows them to shift and helps them to heal faster than a human does, you have a wall inside your soul.”

  “A wall?” I wrinkled my nose. That didn’t sound very, well, flattering.

  “When I heal a shifter, I push my magic into that well, forcing it to expand and work faster. When I heal a human, I have to first break down their wall while they’re trying to put it up again just as fast. I’m reliant on only my own strength and my own reserves to force the healing, since their bodies won’t help me. I use it to prevent scarring or muscle damage, heal minor wounds, and hold someone from death until we can get them to a human hospital. But my powers simply aren’t strong enoug
h to do much more than that for a human. For a shifter, however, as long as they’re not dead when I get to them, I can heal them.”

  I stepped out of the changing area, tightening the bobby pins Shannon had placed in my hair. “So, you can make sure I don’t kill myself in here, but if I get shot, I have to heal the old-fashioned way? That seems a bit unfair.” While I’d been changing, he had slipped out of his vest and suit jacket, wearing only a tight white t-shirt that framed the muscles of his shoulders and abdomen in a way that had me biting my tongue to distract me from staring at them.

  A small smile quirked the corner of his mouth, though it disappeared as quickly as it had come. “Unfair as it may be, without any shifter blood in your history, you’re stuck with the lot you’ve been dealt. Now, from the way you’re glaring at the exercise equipment, I’ll assume calisthenics haven’t been a part of your lifestyle.”

  “Does nearly having a panic attack while reading the Hunger Games count?” His lip twitched again, and my stomach warmed at the thought I’d amused him.

  “We’ll have you converted in no time. After a while, you’ll miss the sensation of exercise.”

  I tried desperately to keep the skeptical look off my face and nodded. Something told me that if I flipped him off the way I was itching to, I wouldn’t care for the results. I wasn’t sure why I was comfortable with this broody man, but I had no belief he’d actively hurt me. That wouldn’t stop him from making me miserable though. I remembered it took a special kind of evil to be a gym teacher—at least in the human schools I’d been forced to attend.

  “We’ll start with basic exercises. It will help build your endurance and keep you limber.”

  “Yay.” He began to lead me through a series of jumping jacks, twists, sit-ups, and other simple exercises. Where he made them look easy, not even breaking a sweat as he moved slowly between every movement, I was gasping before the second set. “Right, it’s super fun,” I gasped out. “Class is up, right?” I swallowed rapidly, trying to prevent myself from throwing up. Oh yeah, people who liked this kind of thing were absolutely nuts.

  “It’ll get easier,” he assured me, his chocolate brown eyes twinkling as he tugged the hem of his shirt, straightening it. My eyes trailed along the deeply tanned skin that was exposed for a moment at his waist.

  “So will death, but I’m not trying to speed up the process.”

  He shook his head, adjusting his glasses so the frames rested more firmly across his nose. “How about this? You enjoyed Hunger Games, correct?”

  “That doesn’t mean I’m interested in being a tribute.”

  “What about learning to use a bow?”

  “A bow?” I considered him for a moment, my hands on my thighs as I attempted to catch my breath. I hadn’t considered what exactly he’d be teaching me in self-defense, but I had assumed he’d be teaching me hand-to-hand. Werewolves didn’t exactly have a need for firearms, after all—that was more a Wile E. Coyote situation.

  “It’s important for you to know how to handle a weapon. Because you’re human, and lacking our additional speed and strength, a long-range weapon will give you an advantage. While it’s important that you learn at least one close-range weapon as well to give you a better chance in an emergency, that will come in time. If you’d prefer to learn a gun, we can do that instead.”

  Okay, so maybe it was girly and predictable, but if he’d let me use a bow… “An actual bow?”

  “Yes, a compound. It has less of a cant position than a recurve, and I figured you’d prefer that to a crossbow. If you excel at it we can also try you on a longbow.”

  “What exactly do I have to do in order to get archery lessons?” So screw me. I was a bit skeptical that what he had in mind would be anything fun.

  “Work out until you can’t continue anymore. Throw up. Hurt. Just keep pushing, no matter what happens. I’ll heal you, keep any damage to a minimum, but I need you to want this with everything you have. Your intensive efforts will be the only way you’ll succeed here—if you only put in a little work, you won’t get anything out of it. You can improve. You can be strong. You’re human, but that doesn’t mean you’re less than any of the other students here, unless you make it so by giving up.”

  “You really think I can do this?”

  “I do. You’ve been through more than many of the other students ever have, and you’ve dealt with it admirably. You’ll frequently be underestimated here as a human. Use that to your advantage.”

  “How is being human an advantage?”

  “Do another round of jumping jacks and I’ll tell you,” he challenged, arching a brow. I groaned, but began to haul my already aching body through the motions again. He nodded with approval and rewarded me with a small smile. It was the first time I’d ever seen the expression on his face, and it softened him, relaxing the harsh lines of his features, making him appear far younger. It wasn’t fair that werewolves could be this beautiful. “Everyone here will expect you to be slow. They’ll expect you to be weak, afraid, and fragile. What I’ll teach you is where to strike, and how to strike, to give you an advantage.”

  “An advantage… isn’t… a win,” I argued in sharp gasps between jumps. Okay, I was pathetic, no question about it.

  “Move to push-ups now,” he ordered, crossing his arms over his chest. It made his biceps and pecs stand out against his thin t-shirt, and would have been a special treat if I hadn’t been pretending I had any upper body strength.

  “They’d be far more efficient if you hadn’t raised the gravity in here,” I lamented as I puffed.

  “I’ll teach you everything I know, Ms. Miller. Every sneaky, conniving move that will allow you to beat them. It’s not about brute strength, it’s about strength of will and strength of mind. You give me everything you have, and I promise you, you’ll make your mark here.” His words echoed my mother’s. My weary muscles gave out and I dropped to the floor with a crash. A firm, warm hand cupped the back of my neck, angling my face to his as he pulled his glasses off, his dark, chocolate eyes holding mine as they began to glow. “Don’t fight me,” he warned, his voice a deep rumble as warmth surged through me, easing the pain and shaking in my muscles and soothing my ragged gasps. “Good girl,” he approved, stepping back. A different warmth flowed over me from his words, and I glanced at the floor to cover the blush I couldn’t suppress. “Ready to go again?”

  “Sure. Pain is my friend, right?” I followed him into a round of burpees. “This bow better be worth it.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Over the last two weeks, our schedules had mostly fallen into a routine, with Zev and Chann escorting me to the torture sessions Ms. Shaw called a class, before leading me to Borris and Zelda’s room for more stories about the pack. Alarick or Shannon would meet me after to shepherd me to lunch, and then I’d spend the next few hours with Mr. Cole as he beat me to pieces. Afterwards, we’d gather for dinner and then head to the library to do classwork. Even the weekend was spent in the library, attacking the mountain of work heaped upon my head.

  It was difficult to adjust to the self-study style of teaching here, even though the twins and Shannon assured me it would come more naturally with time. However, that seemed to be their answer for anything regarding pack life.

  I leaned against the wall of my shower with a groan, letting the hot water pound over my back and ease my tense shoulders. The enormous stone shower was as luxurious as the rest of my rooms, and I could have happily stayed in it for a week, allowing it to beat the stress from between my shoulder blades. I knew I didn’t have long, since we’d be meeting in the library again tonight to study, as usual. Despite the daily torture sessions with Ms. Shaw, and our group study sessions in the library, I didn’t seem to be improving in my skills at all. I was studying every available moment I could find, but time was flying by and at this rate, I wasn’t going to end up passing. I wanted to curse Raff for insisting on removing me from my home before the school year was complete, giving me no time to catc
h up to the students here, though I knew the choice hadn’t been his as much as it had been Lyle’s.

  I wondered if Alarick would be joining us or if he’d be off with his father for alpha lessons, as I liked to call them. It hadn’t taken me long to see that while my workload was immense, his was even worse. If he wasn’t in classes or training sessions, he was performing tasks as the pack beta or following Raff to learn more about his eventual role as alpha. It meant his time with us was limited, and normally included him having his nose in a book—or in the air if I’d done something to irritate him. Most things I did seemed to irritate that guy, to the point it was actually becoming a minor source of amusement for me.

  I grumbled to myself as I flicked off the hot water, wanting to stay under the relaxing spray, but knowing it wouldn’t take much longer for Shannon to come looking for me I reluctantly hopped out of the shower. No one had initiated a challenge yet, much to my surprise, though it hadn’t lessened anyone’s nerves. At least one of my new friends was constantly nearby in case anything happened, however, Mr. Cole assured me that as long as he hadn’t medically cleared me, no one else would be allowed to issue the challenges I knew were coming in the near future. Every time I passed Rhiannon, Scarlett, or one of their other cronies, I was treated to growls and snarls that promised bad things to come for my nearly healed skin.

  I muttered to myself as I reached for the towel I’d hung outside the open wall of the shower, grasping for it blindly as I remained under the hot air wafting down from the ceiling heaters, unwilling to step into the cold air beyond the wall.

  “Here, gorgeous,” a cheerful voice called, as fluffy cotton met my fingertips and I shrieked, the sound echoing off the stone around me. “Fuck!” Chann swore, jumping backwards with his hands over his ears. “That hurts, you know. I was just trying to be helpful,” he whined.

  “Why the hell are you in my shower?” Okay, I probably screeched that far louder than was necessary, but his answering wince was mildly pleasing and helped distract him from the brilliant blush covering my body as I made sure the large towel was securely tucked around me. The soft fabric was so large it covered me from my collarbone to below my knees, but I sure as hell hadn’t been wearing one when I’d been standing here, dripping in the shower.