Immortal Academy- Year Two

by S. L. Morgan

  As I sat there, contemplating the mess I’d made with Bradley, the leprechaun mess Dom had made waltzed up to the stage—Dominic right behind her—after our House Fae professor, Mr. Goldwater, had called Melanie to come up.

  I slumped in my chair, gripped my forehead, and forced myself to behave in the class I already hated.I glared up at her, constantly smiling at Dominic, and I saw his returned smile.

  So much for him handling that problem as quickly as possible.

  Who knows, maybe he hadn’t had time yet. I had no idea when they got back from their quest. I had to ease up a little on him, but this flirty shit needed to stop. I had to glue my butt to my seat for fear of jumping on stage and smacking sense into Dominic. I loosened my crushing grip on the armrest of my chair when I allowed the wolf to lead, trusting that Dom was smart enough to handle this leprechaun-crush problem he had. If the wolf wasn’t trying to get me to shift to go handle little miss giggly-smiles up there, then I had to trust she was picking up on trusting her alpha mate.

  “So,” Goldwater held a hand out to where Melanie and Dom stood side-by-side, “we have these two to thank for an awesome breakthrough at IA. Melanie, the podium is yours.”

  Dom followed the professor to the cushioned, vibrant-pink chairs against the wall on the stage. Dom leaned his elbows on his knees, and his eyes were locked onto the leprechaun who made these stupid school uniforms look as fabulous as a gorgeous vamp would.

  “Okay,” she gripped the podium, bringing my attention back to the young leprechaun. “When Master Dominic Rossi approached me after the school had requested that I prove my worth to enter IA early, I’ll admit I was intimidated.” She giggled and looked back at Dom and sighed before looking out at the class again. “Agh, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think the entire school would understand why I would feel intimidated by being in an extremely handsome shifter’s presence.” She looked back at Dom, whose face was now unreadable. “Take it as a compliment,” she giggled. “Leprechauns and other fairies don’t naturally find any shifter attractive.”

  Dom grinned and sat up straight in his chair. “Which brings me to my point. It may have seemed to you all that this school was setting up shifters to fail and keeping the fae and shifter species at odds as their natural instincts dictate. That wasn’t the point of this. Dominic and I worked together, and I’m pretty sure the last thing Dominic wanted was to see any of you fail.”

  Your eyeballs are going to get stuck in the back of your head if you keep with the eye rolls, Jenna, I reminded myself, trying my hardest to contain my disdain for this chick.

  “Most of you know how he is. I’ve been privileged to learn in more detail about why he trains his students the way he does. It’s for success, not failure. We all know that it takes failure to learn our lessons, and the quest was designed to be random and also unique—to make you all fail.” She smiled, “That was only so the shifters would fail here at IA, learn from it, and be prepared when they work for the Supernatural Elite Forces after graduation. As you could see on the holographic screens that I worked with some elves to create, some survived it.”

  Aww, you made a screen. How special. I could rearrange your face with my own two hands and see how easy it is for you to smile after that.

  “From watching Dominic and the other head masters, I think it’s safe to say they survived this sneaky quest they weren’t prepared for because of the masters. Dominic, as most of you saw, was exceptional in leading the students when he met them at the checkpoint.” She started clapping her hands and turned back to Dominic.

  The rest of us in the class started clapping slowly, trying to follow this idiot who was making a complete fool out of herself in praising Dom for this entire thing. I glanced around while softly clapping, seeing the looks of confusion on every witch, fairy, vamp, and shifter I shared this class with, and I couldn’t help but devilishly love it.

  “Can we get back to the point of why IA wanted a leprechaun to build a quest to ax shifters?” I asked, annoyed and uncaring what the hell anyone thought.

  I glanced at Dom when the room grew silent after I interrupted bubbly fairy. Dom was sitting straight, same unreadable expression, and never once looked over at me. He kept his eyes on the leprechaun, who had some evil smile on her face. She stared down at me and gripped the sides of the podium.

  Shit.

  This chick was about to go hard on me, and I was about to kick Dom’s ass personally for bringing her into any part of an equation of our life. Something told me that demon possessing me wouldn’t have compared to the danger that lurked ahead with this chick.

  31

  “What was that?” Melanie asked after she allowed the entire room to grow awkwardly silent.

  “I said why did IA put you personally on the quest? We’re listening to you talk to us like a special guest speaker. I thought this was about you, not Master Dominic.”

  Part of me knew I shouldn’t be provoking this fairy, but the other part of me was too pissed at her to care.

  “Silvers,” Goldwater leaned in the direction of where I sat in the front row thanks to Bradley holding me up and making me late. “I don’t like your tone.”

  Damn fairies always had each other’s back. “Of course,” I responded. “I’m just having a hard time figuring out why this was something IA wanted to go down, and why they would test out a young leprechaun on a shifter’s quest.”

  Dominic eyed me with a chill-out, Jenna expression, and I exhaled, realizing he needed all of this to save my ass from the demon. He nodded and clasped his hands together, most likely hearing my thoughts and confirming to me that I should let the idiot babble on, and class would be over soon enough.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t anywhere close to ending as the leprechaun cleared her throat.

  “To answer your question, Miss Silvers,” she chided with her new evil smile, “the school was testing my skills and making sure the rumors about my abilities were true. I was growing bored in high school and needed the challenge of this prestigious academy. Turns out, even by beating you on such a simple trap on your master’s challenge quest, I’m pretty good.” She laughed and looked out at the room while covering her heart, “See, maybe that’s why I keep bringing this all back to Master Shifter Rossi. I feel so ridiculous bragging about myself.”

  Oh, please, act like the fairy you are! You fairies can’t get enough of yourselves. Fake-ass leprechaun.

  I didn’t even look at Dom after her eyes came back to my challenging expression. “To have a win in the fae realm over a powerful shifter like you, Miss Silvers, that was huge.” She smiled at her audience. “That is why this is a breakthrough for IA,” she went on to act like I never interrupted her. “The fae have never thought to bring human elements into play when working to take down rogue shifters in the human world. I know we get caught up with our love for creating beautiful and majestic things, but something as simple as tricking a supernatural to believe something to be human—using that as their bait to sniff out the rogue shifters, and even the other rogue supernaturals—that’s the amazing concept here.

  “We use our talents, and believe me when I say that creating a drab, human environment is hard enough. I wanted the brilliant colors to throw off Miss Silvers, but with Master Dominic…” she stopped and smiled back at Dom, who seemed more relaxed, returning her smile with a fake one of his own. “I’m really trying to stop my bragging about him, but it was actually his idea.” She couldn’t help but end that last part with a competitive smile in my direction.

  “You see, I was a bit challenged, trying to create two quests at once. This was next level IA alumni fairy work, but I wasn’t going to back down. I needed to prove I belonged here, and not only because my father is president of this school. So, while stressing a bit over the overwhelming work of trying to create two quests and see if my skill was up for it, Master Dominic sort of helped me with the human concept.” She looked back out at the class.

  "He mentioned how he’d
noticed on his summer vacation that Miss Silvers, here, was more enamored with the human world than our amazing Immortal Academy’s beauty. That’s when he and I both discovered that humans attract the supernatural in all forms. Being that Miss Silvers grew up in the supernatural school system and had never been allowed to venture out into the human world, I knew that was the key to the traps. Supernaturals are smart, but leprechauns are tricky, we all know that.” She giggled. “So, I used that to my advantage. I needed to trick Miss Silvers’ mind into believing she was nowhere near a fairy trap when, in reality, she was surrounded by one the entire time. She never sensed the Fae creation. Her supernatural instincts had her lured into the human aspect of the trap.”

  Wow. Glad Dom filled this bitch in on me growing up as an orphan and being forced into the system all my life…What the hell?

  “So, in the end, this method will train all of our supernatural elite forces to learn the ways of the human, mimic them to stop, bait, or trap a rogue supernatural from harming humans. It may seem like IA was using the fae to beat out the shifters when, actually, the shifters—including Miss Silvers—will now always be on alert and never take one thing for granted in the human world.” She looked back at Goldwater, “I guess that’s all I have.”

  Goldwater rose up and clapped as he resumed his place at the podium. My eyes followed the prancing leprechaun back to the seat next to Dominic. Strangely enough, my wolf hearing didn’t pick up on what she leaned into him and whispered in his ear. Whatever it was, it made him look at her and smile.

  “Yes, you killed it. The quest was awesome,” my wolf heard Dom’s casual response to her.

  While those two were in conversation, I was racking my brain, trying to decide how to talk to Dom after this without blowing up. I was livid. I knew he was playing this so that no one questioned him saving me, but shit, how long did he have to keep fueling this fairy’s ego? And why in the hell would he tell her my personal history?

  Dick move, Dom!

  My wolf actually seemed to eye me and growl at that, but I ignored her. Severed bond with her alpha or not, my wolf was taking a back seat on this. Dom had no business feeding this fairy more than was required for his excuse to disappear on quests. He screwed up, and if he didn’t get that by now, then he was a complete idiot. God, I was so pissed at him, her, and that damn demon who was the main reason all of this crap went down in the first place.

  “That’s all for this class. You’re all dismissed early, and I suggest using this time wisely. Oh, very quickly let me add something.” Goldwater said, stopping us as we started filtering out of the class. “You all should be happy to know that the Elite Council is going over these tactics, and they are setting up new courses and material for our pre-grad students to go through to learn how to use them to police our rogue supernaturals. If this is approved, these classes will take place the summer before graduation, and if we prove to be successful with it, then the word is that the Elite Council will approve our students to resume graduating after three years. You may leave now.”

  Well, now the flighty, Dom-obsessed leprechaun was a new celebrity at our school. How wasn’t anyone else smart enough to think of this crap? Why some teen—senior in high school—leprechaun? I needed fresh air.

  “Wow,” some shifter chick, Dom-groupie, said. “That was a crappy move on Dominic’s part,” she said, walking at my side. “I’m Lucy, by the way.”

  “Jenna,” I said stiffly.

  “Yeah, I know.” She laughed. “You and Dom were quite the pair. As much as I kind of hoped I’d catch his eye, I have to admit, maybe hating you was a little uncalled for.”

  “Just a little, huh? Thanks. Glad we can be friends because you watched my guy help a leprechaun kick my ass.”

  “Your guy?” she questioned.

  I wanted this chick, who I didn’t give two craps about, to go away.

  “Yeah, we’re back together. Might as well find out about it now, so you can be promoted to the top of Dom’s groupie club for being the first to know.”

  “Wow, you really are as stuck-up as they say.”

  I stopped and glared at her. “You know what? I really don’t care what everyone who’s madly in love with my boyfriend thinks about me, not even that idiot leprechaun who obviously has no idea she doesn’t have a chance with him.”

  Dear God, I needed to get out of this House Fae building. My wolf was pissed off at me and not giving me her eyes to block out the glaring colors. Sorry I insulted her wolf mate, but what she didn’t realize was his butt was putting me and her in the cross-hairs of a leprechaun who was smarter than the entire elite council.

  “Yeah, that was pretty obvious,” the shifter chick answered. “Sucks for you if she gets mad about it. I sort of wished I cared, but now I think we’d all be down to see what she’d do to the shifters who broke her wishful little heart.”

  “I’m sure it will be on a live broadcast like the quests were if the leprechaun has her way. You can all gather around and watch it there.” I looked at the tall shifter, “Later.”

  I wanted to shift, and you know what? I think it would be awesome to bust a damn rule at this school. I needed my wolf to free up this frustration I was dealing with. I glanced over my shoulder to see Dom and Melanie were held back by our professor, and I decided to use my early out time as wisely as my elf professor suggested.

  I headed directly toward the rainbow trees so no one would sense me shifting outside of school guidelines. I remembered the trail Dom and I used when Ethan randomly shifted and took off in a direction away from the school, and no one spotted him.

  Once in wolf form, my wolf lent me her strength, calm mindset, and oddly enough, her not pissed at Dom mentality. I was able to calmly take in that Dom didn’t do anything out of malice. He was desperate to keep everyone’s eyes off me when he took me away from the school to extract the demon. Sadly enough, he’d trusted a leprechaun, but my wolf gave me the insight that he had no other option.

  He had no draw or pull toward her. My wolf was calm in the room because his was. She scented her alpha mate had been shoved in a corner by Dom with all the devastating emotions of the dissolved bond Dom’s wolf was experiencing. Dom’s wolf was chill, but the two wolves silently found peace from being in the room together.

  While all my angered nerves calmed with each paw pounding against the forest floor, I stopped seeing red. Dom had this leprechaun issue, and I had Bradley as an issue. This sucked for both of us.

  I shifted back late that night—after lights out—and quietly snuck into my dorm.

  “Jenna,” Vannah whispered after I slipped into bed. “You and I were supposed to work on you tonight. Where were you? Dom stopped by three times and didn’t seem very happy you weren’t anywhere to be found after your House Fae class. He, of course, shut everyone up—lying that you were upset and offended by the leprechaun, and because you were his student, he let you off the hook with classes for the day to stay in the library, your dorm, or whatever lie he could use. You cannot put him in those positions.”

  “Well, all of what he said was true, except I shifted and took off. I really don’t care if the school punishes me. That leprechaun is going to be a bigger problem than this school could dream up to punish me for shifting outside of guidelines, and Bradley’s being just as stupid.”

  Kat mumbled in her sleep, prompting me to lower my voice.

  “What are you talking about? And quit pushing your luck because you’re upset! Your and Dom’s wolves need as much time together as possible. You can’t just take off on him. That’s not fair, and you know it. He’s dealing with much more than I think you realize without that bond. Don’t pull that crap again. Now,” she smiled and took a breath, “what happened with Bradley? I thought you were breaking it off with him. Tonight, he approached Dominic and challenged him.”

  “What the hell?”

  “Yeah, don’t take off and you might be around for when a shifter acts like an idiot.”

  “What did
he say? What did Dom do?”

  “Well, I don’t know verbatim, I was too far away. I caught some of it, though, and about the leprechaun…you’re right. That girl isn’t shaking off Dom’s arm as easy as I think he’d hoped. He could have used his mate at his side when she was all over him in the library, and Bradley called him out for being a jerk in creating the quest. Apparently, he didn’t like House Fae’s presentation today either. Listen, I get it. I had to sit through the girl rambling on and on about how amazing Dom was in helping her too. She actually proved she’s too young, maturity-wise, to be around college kids. She acts like a thirteen-year-old, not like she’s about to turn eighteen. That’s not the point, though. She’s immature and annoying, a lot of us felt that way, but you have to get over it. Now, why would Bradley even think to challenge Dom like that in front of all the master shifters and your friends.”

  I laid my head back into my pillow. “Because he’s not giving up hope that Dom and I aren’t mates. He believes I’ll come back to him like I did Dom, I guess. I don’t know.”

  “He’s not giving up hope? You told him—nicely—right? You told him that you and Dom realized that you were true mates after you separated like you did?”

  “Of course, I told him that. It didn’t help. He’s off the rails, in my opinion. Why does everyone have to be so damn stupid? The leprechaun, the bear shifter, me…freaking Dom! All of us are as dumb as bricks. If only we could erase this entire school year after vacation and start over, knowing what we know now.”

  “Shut up!” Kat said in her sleep.

  “We do that,” Vannah’s whisper was audible to my wolf, “and you lose the control you finally have over your wolf, and we have to go through killing that thing all over again.”

  “It was a stupid sarcastic statement, Vannah.” I flipped onto my stomach, Dom’s face appearing like he was staring at me through my dorm window. “I miss him.”