by S. L. Morgan
My envy of the girl—who Dominic apparently knew well enough to get some High School level transfer into a leadership role—was elevated. I looked over at Dom, knowing he knew exactly where I sat because whenever we had these particular meetings, I was always stuck in the freaking front row.
Dom’s eyes never glanced over to mine, but I watched the pride and the admiration he held for the fairy—leprechaun or not—while she cleared her throat and leaned toward the mic. She tossed her wavy curls behind both shoulders and smiled at shifters who could care less about the fairies.
“It’s been an honor since day one to be at Immortal Academy. Although, I’m sorry you’ve all had a rough start this year.” She giggled and looked back at Dom like they had some inside secret going. “Master Dominic definitely worked all of you hard, but after seeing how his hard work turned all of you into what I believe are now the best students at this school, I admire him immensely. I’m also flattered that Dom would use the same effort he put into all of you to encourage the staff at Immortal Academy to entrust me with the troubled students of the fae society here.”
She looked back at Dom’s warm smile. “I’m putting you in the spotlight here too, Dom,” she said, using his nickname and making me want to barf. “Master Rossi used his late nights to help keep me on track with the fairies and keep my leprechaun temper under control so I could gain their respect the proper way. I’ve learned a lot from spending time with him, listening to his advice, and implementing it with my group, who was turning out to be the most impossible group to get under control. So, thank you, all of you, and I look forward to seeing all of you excel here at Immortal Academy.”
“Thank you,” Dr. Garrison said. He looked back at Dominic, “And thank you again for putting in added time to help Melanie adjust and succeed in such a great responsibility.” He looked at Samson, “I guess that’s it? We turn them all loose for dining with better food and their friends again?”
Samson stood and smiled. “Yes. Again, congratulations to all of you. Please resume your schedules as they were planned for you at the beginning of the school year, which means a delicious dinner awaits.”
My mouth was dry, and my eyes stung from holding back tears. Now, I had jealousy to battle with all of the other BS I was dealing with? I had to get through this. I had to hold on to Dom saying I’d never lose him. Lately, it seemed like this bastard demon spawn had been trying to claw its way out of the mental cage I had it in. I couldn’t let emotions drive me. I had to find something positive to hang onto and quick.
“Well, I guess that’s it for us then, eh?” Bradley came up to me while my friends stood in conversation with the group on stage. “You did well, Jenna, and it was really cool getting to know you.”
“Wait,” I gripped the arm of the guy I was fighting off an attraction for. “Just because we’re released back into our normal routines doesn’t mean we’re never going to see each other again. Besides,” I smirked, letting his bronze eyes tame my temper and rage for the Melanie chick, “I said I was going to prove to you I could throw down some pie.” I snickered.
“Well, lead the way.” He grinned, and all the jealousy and negative feelings that were feeding the demon inside fled as Bradley and I left the room and headed toward the dining hall.
“You’re going to eat two pies…and all of that?”
I shrugged. “It’s my normal food intake. Hopefully, I can throw it down like I used to, though.”
He eyed me as we walked out of the food area. “Girl, you must have a metabolism that burns hotter than your body because I don’t even think I could eat that much and not gain weight.”
He and I both laughed together when I nearly tripped over my feet, seeing my table of friends and Ethan smiling and motioning me to sit in my old seat next to him.
“Come on. I want you to meet one of my favorite people in this entire school,” I said to Bradley.
“Dominic’s at that table. I know you two are over, but I’m not into pissing off the alpha in him because I’m with you.”
“Dominic said he was going to apologize for pulling that alpha on you,” I said.
“He did,” Bradley answered. “But seriously, if he’s in the same mindset that you’re his chick, I’m not getting mentally screwed over by an alpha wolf—especially the strongest one in the school. Truth be told, I’ve been waiting to enjoy this meal since we entered that stupid program.”
“Dom’s not going to pull a possessive alpha card on you. You did see the way he was looking at the president of the school’s daughter, right?”
“True. Looks like they might have been doing a little bit more than working on how to fix the fairies late at night. That was pretty obvious.”
I glared at Bradley. “I don’t need to hear your opinion about what you think they did. Let’s go eat before I’m the one giving off crazy alpha possession vibes.”
We both loosened up as we joined the group at the table. I found my seat next to Ethan, and Bradley sat next to Melanie—great!—who was across from Dominic.
Ignore them! I ordered myself.
“Hey, E!” I rubbed the owl shifters back only to be shocked when I was suddenly caught up in the tightest side hug of all time. “God, you’re going to smother the life out of me.”
“He’s missed you,” Lusa said from the other side of Melanie.
“We all have!” Vannah said, sitting to my right.
I felt tears well up in my eyes from being here again. My friends were back. I laughed at Tanner, who jumped up to get me pie, and I was semi-shocked he was with some chick with bright white hair now.
“God, it’s so good to be normal again,” I admitted.
“You have always been normal, Jenna,” Ethan released me and smiled.
“Thanks for that, Ethan. It’s good to hear after coming out of the first half of the year and being treated like we were the scum of the school.”
“Dominic fixed your wolf,” Ethan said.
“He did. An astonishing story!” the voice of the leprechaun chick chimed in. She smiled at me, then looked at Dominic. “I can’t believe you managed to do all of that while working with an entire group.”
“He’s an amazing guy.” I decided to answer for Dominic.
“Jenna is a strong shifter. I can’t take the credit for her and her wolf coming around like they did. I’m just happy they are both in a healthy mindset now,” Dom said.
Tanner interrupted my intent glare at the chick who was into my man. “Here’s your slice of pie,” he said. “Dang, I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too, Tan-man,” I answered.
“A slice?” Bradley laughed, and I watched his humored irises dance like flames in their mesmerizing bronze color. “You promised two whole pies once we got out of that group.”
Tanner and Vannah laughed. “She could do it, guaranteed. Her pie addiction was probably the first red flag for the school to put her through that program,” Vannah teased.
“Tan,” I eyed my buddy, “Go see if they’ll get me two pies. This is a day to celebrate.”
“That’s it,” Dom said as he stood with Scott, Ian, and Finley. “We’re off to our quest.” He looked at the leprechaun, “Hopefully, when I get back, there will be reports of your success with those fairies, Mel.” He grinned.
“I’ll stick to my notes.” She batted her eyelashes at him.
Oh, God. Mel? WTF! Damn my wolf for rejecting Dominic Rossi, I thought as her cheeks blushed red under Dom’s smile again. I couldn’t do this.
“See you all later,” Lusa said.
“Good luck on the quest,” I said to Dominic, stopping him as he was leaving the table. He turned and hit me with that expression I couldn’t read from him.
“Thanks, Jen.”
He didn’t have to smile or do anything. He said the name his inner wolf and he held for their mate. The name I hated unless it was coming from him. I took that and held it over everything I was feeling right now. Who cared if he cal
led the redhead beauty by a nickname? Who cared about anything but Dom subtly reminding me that I was still his mate? It was all in the way he said my stupid little nickname. That was all it took for me to jump from the table and head to where he and his master friends were walking toward the exit of the eating area.
“Wait!” I said, stopping all four in their tracks.
Scott grinned and patted Dom on his shoulder. “Hurry it up. We’ve got to get on this, or we’ll never make it to the checkpoint before tomorrow.” He glanced at me, “Good to see you again. Glad it all worked out in the end.”
“Yeah,” I exhaled. “If you only knew.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said, eyeing Dom then me. “Hang tough, you’ve got this.”
“See you out there,” Dom said, dismissing Scott. “What’s going on?” he asked me in a lower voice.
“God, I can’t think!” I said, knowing I was being rushed because he had to leave now.
Dom smirked. “I tend to have that effect on chicks.”
“Not funny.”
“None of this is.” He tightened his lips. “Jen, I really have to get on this thing.”
“Us,” I said. “I haven’t been able to talk to you about us. I figured it out. Something’s blocking it all.” I was rambling through words, trying to get my thoughts straightened up.
“Nothing is blocking us, Jen.” He sighed. “It’s the way it is now that the wolf and you are balanced.”
“I’m not buying that shit, Dom!” I snapped back. “You and me. When we were together…when we first felt our wolves? Your wolf wasn’t playing the alpha to mine. It was submitting to her. I felt it all. It’s like your wolf saw her as an equal.”
“God, Jenna. That’s in the past. We both know how your wolf is now—in the present,” he said in a concerned voice.
“I’m not accepting this.”
“I can tell.” He smiled. “It gives me hope, though.”
He went to leave, and I grabbed his arm. “Dom, you promised you’d protect me. You can’t leave me.”
Dom’s eyes were wide, and his brows knit together.
“Jenna Silvers,” he said in the alpha voice. “This is not your personality, and you know it. You and I both know that you don’t need me to protect you. You never have. You can’t keep going on like this. Weakness is an emotion you do not want to carry in you right now. You understand, right?”
“Yes.” Damn it! He was right. I was acting like some desperate fool, insecure that I wouldn’t be safe without Dominic. Why the hell would I even think like that? “I just want this all to be some bad dream I can wake from.”
“You and me both.” Shockingly—and in front of all the kids in the dining hall—Dom skimmed my jawline with the back of his knuckles. “E, Lus, and Vannah have eyes on you. They know what to do if anything goes south while I’m gone. I can’t skip this quest, or I would. If anything, trust Ethan. You’ve already seen him handle things of deadly nature toward immortals.”
I nodded as his hand dropped from my face. “Work on getting those grades up, Silvers.” He shot me a wink, somehow settling down my desperation right then and there.
I watched Dom head out of the dining hall, then I pulled it all back together. I turned back toward the table, my eyes meeting Dom’s new fangirl first. She dropped her eyes down to her plate as if I couldn’t tell the leprechaun had been watching our entire exchange.
I sat next to Ethan and rubbed his back, remembering how badass the owl shifter was. He’d saved Finley from that dark shadow thing that was sent to hunt us on the quest, he’d worked with that fairy-godmother of mine, and he’d wiped out the demon that’d possessed Vannah.
“You’re safe, Jenna,” Ethan said, and I knew his inner-owl instincts allowed him to listen in on mine and Dom’s conversation.
“I thought you two broke up,” that Mel chick interrupted me as I tried to answer Ethan.
I refrained myself from glaring at her.
“Yeah,” was all I could manage to say without being a total bitch to the school president’s daughter.
“Anyway,” Vannah said. “You’ve got pie left, Jenna. I’ll be shocked if you don’t finish it.”
No matter how we all tried to pull ourselves out of the awkward situation I’d brought back to the table from my talk with Dom, nothing helped.
All I knew was that I didn’t really care. I was going to get to the bottom of this. I had these fairy-witch genes in me, and I was going to figure out how they were forcing my healthy inner-wolf to see things differently with Dominic.
17
I was blown away when, in the middle of Kat rattling off how she couldn’t believe Dom was with the new girl, and it was so just like him to fall for the president of the school’s daughter, Vannah walked in with two guys behind her.
“Move Kat’s bed on the wall, pull the center dresser out, and you can fit my bed in the middle just fine,” she ordered with a smile.
“What exactly is going on here?” Kat demanded.
“I honestly can’t take your questions seriously when you look like a pink nightmare, Kat,” Vannah said, motioning to Kat’s usual all-pink satin pajamas.
Vannah came over to join me on my bed where I sat, reading my fairy lore book. She leaned over to check out my pages as I smiled at her for even being in the room, much less moving in.
“What’s this?” she said as she pointed toward a mystical fairy lore I had been reading about.
“It’s some book I snagged out of the vault in the library. I decided to dig a little deeper into the fairy stuff, you know?” I eyed her, hoping she caught on to me referring to my heritage. “I was curious to learn a little more about the different breeds out there.”
“I know that, but why? You’re just now getting back into your classes. You have a lot of other catching up to do if you want to pass.”
“I know, I’m using my lights out time to read. What the heck is going on, anyway?” I closed the book, so Kat didn’t try to join in and get nosy.
“What does it look like?” She patted my flannel pajama bottoms, “I’m relieving my best friend of the tortured life she’s been living since she was ripped out of her everyday life and mislabeled a troubled student.”
“She wasn’t mislabeled,” Kat sneered. “Isn’t it obvious that she and her wolf were totally off? Why else would Dominic break up with her and realize they weren’t a bonded couple? Jenna probably used that unpredictable wolf of hers to charm him, and oddly, he fell for it.”
“Why don’t you pay attention to how you’re going to manage to sleep squished into the wall,” Vannah shot back before I could. “No one asked you.”
“My brother doesn’t fall for anything,” Lusa said from the doorway. She looked at me and smiled, “Pays to be in charge of the dorms up here. Vannah and I have been waiting for this day to come so we could surprise you. I hope you’re cool with three in this little space?”
I hugged Vannah and met Lusa halfway into the room to hug her. “You both have no idea how awesome this is.”
“It’s your birthday too.” Vannah reminded me of the date. Damn, it was already December 15th. “Lus and I snuck a pie up here for you.”
Kat covered her nose. “Why would you think it was okay to torture me? I wasn’t in the troubled kids’ program. I don’t deserve this.”
“Shut up, Kat!” Vannah, Lusa and I said in unison.
“Vannah, you know I hate my birthday,” I said. “Well, at least I’m twenty-one…isn’t that considered a real adult in the human world?” I laughed. “Even though it means nothing here. It’s kind of an arbitrary number to magically make you an adult if you ask me.”
“Please,” Vannah rolled her eyes. “You know if you and Dom were still together…” She arched her eyebrow at me, “Well, twenty-one means a lot of things for supes, and I’m pretty sure we’d be looking all over this place for where Dom was going to—”
“Vannah, please don’t,” I said with a warning in my voice. “I kno
w, and I really don’t want to be reminded of what I lost.”
“You didn’t lose him,” Lusa said softly.
“Well, I don’t know how to get him back, so that equals the same as losing the person I love.”
“You still feel that way about him…after everything?” Vannah pressed.
I looked at Kat, who had surprisingly shut her trap for the first time in history.
“Let’s talk about it another time,” I said, trying to make it clear that the little snitch was over there, absorbing all the info my friends and I were trying to catch up on after all this time. “Why couldn’t you move Kat out?” I asked Lusa. “I mean, for her own sanity, of course.”
“I tried. Melanie is bunking with Vannah’s former roommate.”
“God, I’d rather stay in here than listen to that leprechaun go on and on for days about her and Dominic,” Kat interjected.
“They’re not a couple,” Lusa eyed Kat. “If you even dare to think it’s okay to start a rumor about my brother while he’s gone, you’ll be reported. Then, maybe when Dom gets back, we’ll have a whole new group of troubled students—one being you—lined up and ready to go for him.”
“Well, it’s pretty obvious, is all.” Kat shrugged.
Lusa rolled her eyes. “Enjoy your new roommate,” she smiled. “Oh, and your new training master is Mike Jacobs. He’s a pretty cool lion shifter. Dom was able to insist you work under him.” She winked and left the doorway.
“Do you know when they get back from the training?” I whispered to Vannah.
“They’ll be gone for two weeks,” she said.