Lone Wolf's Attack

by Bobbie Jo Hart

  I’d never admit this to another soul, but my stomach twisted with nerves. That quickly, I wasn’t so sure of myself.

  Gritting my teeth, I pictured the scars on Mom’s back. All these years later, those scars were still vivid, telling a violent story. That was what wolves did.

  No. That was what male wolves did. And now, my mom was dying, and I was her only hope. If I died here in this fight, then she wouldn’t have any hope of recovering.

  I refused to let that happen.

  She hadn’t sacrificed everything so that I could learn to fight and protect myself, just for me to lie down and die at this embarrassingly pretentious academy of dicks.

  This mutt had nothing on me.

  Ethan crossed slowly to his left across the patio. “Look, I’ll make it quick if you want, sweetheart.”

  Scowling, I mirrored his slow, deliberate path. The most insulting part was that his offer sounded genuine. I sneered, my nails digging into my palms. “Is that what you say to all the girls?”

  A few animalistic sounds came from the crowd, but Ethan just shrugged. “I’ll even let you have the first punch—”

  “Mr. Griffin, stop playing with your food,” Headmaster Dickless chided, and I took that distraction to attack.

  I struck quickly, heel to the groin, and when he instinctively reacted to protect his dick, I grabbed him by the back of his neck and used all my strength to slam his face down against my knee. I made sure to aim for the nose and smiled when I heard the crack. I shoved him away and hopped back to a defensive stance to analyze any damage I had done.

  With bigger opponents, any attack had to be quick and precise, especially since they tended to be stronger than me. I had to do what I could to avoid them getting their hands on me.

  Ethan stumbled back, showing off his crooked, bloody nose. The blood was already running in thick streams down his face, shirt, and even onto the pavement. To his credit, he didn’t even grunt in pain. He just touched the blood under his nose and looked at it on his fingers before turning his gaze back to me. The crowd murmured, and then I heard a few people laughing.

  Ethan heard this too, and he narrowed his eyes slightly. “I’m done playing nice, you little bitch.”

  “Oh good, I was getting bored, you big bitch,” I retorted with a cocky smile, my wolf shifting around inside of me.

  Blood was never a good thing when a wolf lived inside you.

  Without warning, he lunged for me. I darted out of his way, but before I could completely turn around, he grabbed me by my hair and pulled me backward so harshly that I lost my balance. He threw me to the ground, and I hit the bricks hard. The air was knocked out of me, but I focused on kicking his ass. Hair pulling was a sure fire way to make me see red. When he moved to get on top of me and pin me to the ground, I kicked him as hard as I could in his inner thigh, then I swept out his opposite leg. He hit the ground next to me like a pile of bricks.

  I scrambled to get up and get my bearings. The bigger the bitch, the harder the blah blah blah.

  I used my slight advantage to grab his left arm in a tight grip. With a foot braced on his neck, I began to pull his arm back with all my might. His other hand was free, and he took the opportunity to punch at me, but his strikes were panicked. After all, I was trying my damnedest to tear his arm off.

  He windmilled his free arm frantically, sloppily bouncing off my thighs. He couldn’t get a good angle, and I had all the leverage. I gave a final, aggressive tug and felt his arm slip out of socket. As soon as it popped, I slipped off of him as he let out a cry of pain.

  “Go on and cry, big bitch,” I taunted as he pulled himself off the ground, holding his injured arm close to his body. The crowd was laughing and jeering now, which only made Ethan angrier. But not as angry as me—not even close. He snarled at me, his eyes beginning to glow, his wolf just under the surface.

  He came after me again, but I’d learned from my past mistakes. I sidestepped and turned at the same time. Unfortunately, he was also someone that learns from their mistakes apparently and he expected my twist. His fingers gripped the fabric of my shirt—catching me. He tugged me with him as he threw us to the ground, this time succeeding in pinning me beneath him. He backhanded me once, not even giving me the respect of an actual fist, demeaning me.

  When he did it again, I spit in his face. “You hit like a bitch.”

  He bared his teeth at me and wrapped his good hand around my throat, strangling me. My panic took over, and by instinct, I clawed at his hand, but he was unwavering. Then, my training kicked in. I locked my arms in so he couldn’t slide his knees up to my armpits, grabbed his right wrist in one hand and his triceps with my other to pull him off balance, while I thrust my hips up to flip our position.

  A quick jab to his busted nose to blind him with pain. Then I grabbed his head in my hands and dug my thumbs into his eyes.

  He screamed out, blindly striking out to deliver a heavy blow to my ribs. I grunted and dug my thumbs in further. Blood spilled from his eyes.

  This time, he managed to land a punch to my cheek, knocking me off him. I darted away and jumped to my feet as he lurched off the ground. His eyes were bloodshot, but he could still see. Unfortunate.

  “You fight dirty, mutt,” he growled as he swiped away the blood under his right eye.

  “No such thing, scamp,” I taunted, and his growled response was unintelligible.

  “I’m getting impatient, Mr. Griffin,” Headmaster Jorak’s voice came with an underlying warning.

  Ethan lunged at me again with so much agility that I couldn’t dodge him this time. He tackled me to the ground, pinning me.

  He snapped his teeth close to my face, surprising me and making me flinch. “Should I return the favor?”

  Grabbing the collar of my shirt, he pulled my head off the ground, but only so he could punch me hard enough to knock my head back into the brick. I gritted my teeth, feeling blood trickle down my skull and also my newly split lip. He hit me again, and I groaned in pain, my brain slowed from what was probably a concussion and soon to be brain damage if I didn’t get out of this quickly.

  “You think you can come in here and talk shit and...” Ethan began to monologue as he hit me again. I looked over at the headmaster, who was watching with a small smirk from the top of the stairs.

  Rage coursed through me. “Bitch.”

  This is my last hope. I’m here, I’m strong, I’m capable, and I belong here, yet he treats me like shit for being a woman, and he doesn’t even have the decency to try and kill me himself.

  The jeering crowd went silent, and all eyes seemed to be on the headmaster. Ethan hit me again, and my head cracked loudly off the bricks.

  “Kill her now.” The headmaster’s order was delivered with a cool and emotionless tone, but the way his eyes glowed revealed exactly how much I had pissed him off.

  Before Ethan could have the opportunity to follow through, I grabbed his damaged arm and gave it a good hard tug. I wrapped my legs around his waist, scissored my hips to throw him off balance, and pinned him beneath my legs. He turned his head and bit into my ankle, causing me to whimper. But I had his arm hugged to my body. With a sharp upward push of my hips, I snapped the joint.

  He howled with pain as I twisted his arm, grinding the bones and tearing ligaments even more.

  “Quit,” I demanded, waiting to hear him surrender. When he didn’t, I wrenched his arm again and put my foot on his neck, applying pressure.

  “Give in,” I insisted, pressing down harder.

  I was about to wrench his arm again and stomp his neck when I heard him wail. “You win!”

  I grinned to myself, letting go and pushing myself off of him. He lay on the ground, defeated for a moment as I stood in front of him. I’d done it. I’d not only survived, but I’d actually beaten him.

  I can stay at The Wolf Point Academy! I might actually be able to learn how to tame my wolf and save Mom!

  The crowd was silent as I stood before them. Ethan wa
s slowly trying to get himself off the ground, which is hard work with a dislocated shoulder and a broken arm. I considered helping him in good spirit, but paused when the headmaster began to approach us on the bloodstained brick. My face was throbbing, and I had a good guess that my nose was broken. My throat ached, my ankle smarted, and even my ribs were sore from some of his blows, but I was in much better shape than Ethan.

  Jorak came to a stop in front of us. Ethan finally stood beside me, looking at the ground. Jorak’s immaculate suit and shiny shoes looked really out of place against the bloodied brick. After a moment of silence, he took a few more paces and stood on the other side of Ethan, looking out at the horrified crowd.

  He didn’t say anything right away, so I went to break the ice. “So I can stay?”

  Without a word, he whipped a handgun out of his suit coat and shot Ethan point blank in the head. Blood sprayed across my face as his body crumpled to the ground.

  Headmaster Jorak sniffed once, tucked the gun back into his suit coat, readjusted his tie, and walked back over to the stairs like he was about to go get his afternoon ice cream. He paused on the second-to-last step, and without looking back at me, in a voice so indifferent he could have been picking his go-to flavor, “Welcome to Wolf Point Academy.”

  5

  The echoing shot rattled around in my skull.

  I’d stood there, stunned, beside Ethan’s body as men filed out, avoiding me altogether. He’d lost to me, and so Jorak had shot him. Someone had been shot because of me. Someone died because of me.

  My brain ran around in circles as I stared at the bloody bits splattered on the brick. My stomach twisted, and I fought back the building reflex to vomit. I’m not sure how long I stood there, staring at the blood that pooled around his head, but eventually, someone cleared their throat, and I looked up to find a man standing in front of me. Like the rest of them, he wore a navy uniform with a red tie and a crisp white shirt beneath the jacket. He had chin-length chestnut hair that hung loose and wavy, messy from the day. His dark blue eyes stared at the building behind me instead of my face.

  “I’m Axel Nyx. Jorak sent me to show you to your room.” His voice was flat as he looked anywhere but at me or the body. He pivoted and made his way to the stairs, pausing for me to follow. I glanced at Ethan one more time and gulped before I fell in behind the man, favoring my bad ankle and clutching my aching ribs.

  “The headmaster would also like you to move your motorcycle to the garage.”

  “Yeah, well...” My voice was scratchy so I tried again. “He killed someone and nobody seems to be concerned?”

  The man stopped walking and turned to face me. “What did you expect, princess? Show tunes, flowers, and a grand reception?” His lips curled back with every bitter word. “I’m sorry, but we’re fresh out of balloon arches.”

  “Don’t be too choked up about it,” I bit back. I shoved him out of my space, standing straighter to mask how much that small movement hurt my ribs. “If you’re gonna get in my personal space, at least brush your teeth first.”

  His chest reverberated, and he slammed me back against the wall, his hand around my neck, not strangling, but warning me of what he could do. My breath left my lungs in a soft gasp. Everything hurt. I could’ve sworn I felt more blood stream down the back of my head.

  “You waltzed in here, insulted the headmaster, embarrassed our best warrior, and got him killed.”

  I lifted my chin, meeting his glare just as harshly. “No. I came here to learn how to control my wolf so I don’t die, just like the rest of you. Jorak laughed in my face. The fight was his idea because he expected me to be an easy kill. I’m sorry your friend died, but I’m not sorry for fighting for myself. Get in my way and you’ll be next.”

  I shoved him off of me, and he moved out of my way, quietly seething. We stared each other down for a moment, then sighed and began walking again, my ankle starting to hurt more with each step.

  As he led me to the front of the building so that I could move my bike, he glanced over at me, before he finally admitted, “He wasn’t my friend.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him, which made my entire face hurt. “He wasn’t?”

  He sighed again. “No. You need to understand something if you’re going to make it here. We are not your friends. No one wants you here. If you came here to make friendship bracelets, Girl Scouts is down the road.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for your little speech thingy.” He scoffed, so I grabbed his upper arm tightly, making him look at me. “No really, thank you so much for orientation! I’ll keep it in my heart forever and ever! Hell, I’ll go to my room tonight, and under the covers, with my little pink flashlight, I’ll write it down word for word in my bright pink diary and then, I’ll write our names together and draw little hearts around them—”

  Nyx bared his teeth at me and ripped his arm from my grasp. “If you don’t want to take this seriously, fine. I was trying to be nice and warn you, but disrespect me again and I will not hesitate to do what Griffin couldn’t.”

  I gritted my teeth as I felt the wolf twist in me, pushing me to prove myself. As if this bitch could even lay a hand on me. “I’d like to see you try, pound puppy.”

  He was silent, both of us scowling at each other with our teeth bared and fists clenched. Then, he pulled back and ran a hand through his hair. “You’ve got a mouth on you. That’s a fast way to get yourself killed.”

  Without another word, he continued down the hallway.

  “Ooh, I’m quaking.”

  “You’re lucky it was a skins fight, princess.”

  I scoffed this time. “Am I?”

  “Yes.” He glanced at me as he led me out the front door and towards my bike. “Women don’t shift. He would’ve had you as a dog treat.”

  “I’m not afraid of an overgrown poodle.” I rolled my eyes as we descended the stairs and stopped in front of my bike. Despite my statements, I wasn’t so sure. Ugly, overconfident men? A walk in the park. Enormous, rabid wolves? Where’s my bear repellant?

  I paused behind him at the bottom of the stairs. “Are you going to show me to the infirmary or to where you keep your first aid kit?”

  He raised his eyebrows at me as we came to a stop in front of my motorcycle. “Are you about to bleed out?”

  “No, why?”

  “Then don’t be a pussy. Put some Neosporin on it and suck it up.”

  Great. Looks like I’m back to bandaging my own wounds.

  Back home, any time a fight got out of hand, Mom would help me bandage it up. However, as she’d gotten older--and her wolf started to tear away at her--simple tasks had become harder for her. I often found myself resetting my broken nose alone. Luckily, because of the wolf, I healed pretty damned fast, and it only took several days to heal. We never went to the hospital. We couldn’t afford it anyway.

  I hopped on my bike and put on my helmet. I was busy kicking it to life, which is a Herculean task with an injured ankle, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. He clamored on behind me. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “How else will you find the garage?”

  I gritted my teeth, hating him or any one of those assholes touching me. “Couldn’t you just jog in front of me?”

  He laughed like I’d made a joke and didn’t move to get off from behind me. I took that as a no. Let’s just get this over with.

  I drove quickly and recklessly, desperately wanting this over. He pressed against my back, his hands gripping my waist, and I wanted to rip his arms off his body. As he yelled directions, I took hard, sharp turns to try and shake him. Maybe he’d fall off.

  No such luck.

  When I finally did find the garage, I noticed it was filled with expensive cars. All the assholes here were loaded. God, it just kept getting better. Rich, entitled men. My favorites. Nyx told me to park wherever, so I pulled into the nearest space and shut the engine off. He slid off from behind me, and I had never been so relieved in my life.

  �
��If one of us doesn’t kill you, your driving will,” he stated matter of factly as I took the helmet off and hopped down as gracefully as I could when my entire body ached. I pocketed my keys and pulled my small rucksack from the back. I put my helmet on the seat and swung my limited amount of belongings over my back.

  “You could’ve jogged ahead if you didn’t like it,” I reminded him.

  He shrugged and began walking deeper into the garage. “There are few rules here at Wolf Point,” his voice echoed around us. “Always follow an alpha’s orders. Headmaster Jorak is the top alpha at the academy, but there are sects within. Most wolves here don’t have packs yet because they haven’t mastered shifting. Because of that, professors and the headmaster are our alphas.”

  “So what happens if I don’t obey? Are they gonna spank me?”

  He pressed his lips into a thin line. “The goal of the academy is to bring the wolf out and tame it, by any means necessary. The wolf only comes out when your human part has been beaten down so badly that it gives up. Punishments vary from extra miles of running to whippings.”

  I felt a shiver trace down my spine. Whippings? Jesus. Note to self: don’t break the rules.

  “Unless instructed otherwise, always fight in the same form as the opponent. We may be beasts, but we want a fair fight.”

  We finally came to a door at the end of the garage, and we entered a new building on campus. “This is the mail room. If you have anyone on the outside that gives a shit, they’ll send your stuff here.”

  The area was well lit with a few chairs scattered around the room and a front desk, much like a hotel lobby. It was a fairly boring room, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I’d never come back here. Mom didn’t know the exact location of the academy, and she was all I had left.

  “Lastly, pack is everything. If you’re in a pack, they get put first. Always.”

  He led me back outside and started towards one of the buildings that looked like a dormitory. All of the buildings on the campus were unreasonably big and looming. They were polished and elegant, with spacious windows and dark bricking. Hell, the only thing more pretentious would be if they added flower boxes to every window.