by Kat Zaccard
“Argh!” I cried. “My lawyer’s working on that! It’s not fair! I’m supposed to be a queen, but I can’t make any of my own choices!” I stomped my foot and crossed my arms, knowing I looked anything but queenly.
He smiled, and I thought I’d won. I relaxed my arms and moved closer, but he held me back at arm’s length. “You’re also too young for me, Alice.”
“I’m … what?” I was astonished. “You’re a little over a year older than me, you pompous ass!” I’d said it lightly, but realized my tantrum wasn’t helping the age argument. Still, he was being irrational. Hadn’t he felt the chemistry? Or maybe I was wrong? Maybe I thought our shared secrets created an intimacy where he saw only friendship? But that kiss … I’d never had a kiss like that.
“Yeah, but I did just turn eighteen, and you’re still only sixteen.” He took another step back, but I’d like to flatter myself that it was a difficult one.
“I’ll be seventeen in a few months.” My voice was soft. I thought he was being a little bit of a stickler on the age thing, here.
“Alice, they’re all over me right now. I’m not even supposed to be talking to you. If anyone saw us together, Henry and Kulani would be in trouble, too. I’m sorry, but we have to avoid each other.”
“For how long?” I tried to keep my voice steady I was unprepared for the emotions I was experiencing.
“Alice, I…” He held my gaze, but looked pained. “I don’t know.”
I had never consciously considered Diego as dating material. But in that moment, after that kiss, I couldn’t believe I’d never thought about it before. Of course we were perfect together! We ran patrols together like we were psychically connected. And no, it wasn’t my alpha power, but that perfect connection of two beings in sync. The kiss awoke something that’d been slumbering just under my waking consciousness. I was awake now, and I couldn’t go back. I crossed my arms and turned away from him, furious that my life was not in my control.
He stepped closer and touched my elbow. I turned. He was closer than expected. The heat rose off him. I pressed my hands to his chest, searching for his heartbeat. I looked up at his stormy chocolate eyes. “Do you feel that?” I whispered.
A pulse shook through him, and he clasped my hands to his heart. “I do.”
Time stood still, and we looked at each other as if for the first time. I held my breath, afraid to move. He bent forward as if to kiss me and I tilted my chin up. He stopped, inches from my lips.
“We have to go.” He dropped my hands, and it was as if a steel curtain had dropped over his eyes. He stepped back, and I felt a chill shiver through me.
I followed him back to the Artemis dorm, where we parted ways without another word. I cursed my long-dead parents as I stomped into the manor and all the way up the first two flights of stairs. I cursed Logan on the third flight, Jillian on the fourth, and was ready to curse Diego by the time I’d gotten to my landing. I needed to stomp out my frustration.
When I reached my room, I didn’t know whether to scream or cry. I paced back and forth, feeling my temper rise and my thoughts churn. It was all too much—between the attack, the bad news from my lawyer, Robert, and now this? What was this?
My skin was crawling. I had to get out. I took the elevator back to the first floor and went to Shea’s room. She was anxious to talk about Diego, but I couldn’t tell her, not yet. I was still so confused and too riled up. Despite her protests, I left her behind and climbed out her window alone.
I knew how to avoid patrols after all my training and knew there was less risk of being caught given that the new moon prevented the patrols from shifting. I stuck to the shadows and made my way through the gardens. I broke into a run when I hit the trees and headed for the river. I felt my wolf just under my skin. It seemed ridiculous that the phase of the moon would affect my shift. I knew it was still there in the sky. I was itching and anxious. I wanted to kiss Diego again. And I wanted to punch him.
Deciding that shifting was worth a try, I stripped and started to run, thinking about my first shift near this stream. I leapt over a boulder, and my body burst into my wolf skin. It felt so amazing I had to stifle a howl, not wanting to alert the patrols. I ran and ran, happy to be free. It’d been too long since the last full moon and my last run. I needed to pound out all my troubles. So I ran.
Soon, I began to tire and I’d decided I better head back. Rounding a tree, I slowed to jog, taking in the sights and scents of the dark woods. The mud squelched through my paws as I made my way back home. Suddenly, I stopped, my senses alert. I hadn’t heard anything, but something gave me pause. I sniffed the air. My hackles rose, and I wondered what was different in this clearing. Just then, I realized it wasn’t what I heard, but what I didn’t.
The night had grown eerily quiet. I knew there was someone watching me. I reached out with my senses, sniffing the air and searching for a brain signature. I felt something. It was not a wolf, but it was familiar. I shifted into my human skin. “Hello?” I called out, realizing as I did how foolish that was. I waited. Nothing happened. I shivered.
I shifted back into a wolf. The darkness felt lighter and the critters of the forest resumed their industry. I looked around nervously, then continued on my way more carefully. I breathed a sigh of relief when I made it to the edge of the trees. I found my clothes and shifted back to put them on.
I made my way stealthily back to Shea’s window. I had a near miss with one of the late-night patrols, but luckily I ducked behind a pillar and into the shadows as they passed. I recognized Olaf’s voice and saw a glimpse of Melinda’s short, dark hair as they walked by. I was grateful they were human and not wearing their wolf skins or they would have smelled me for sure.
“…another dead rabbit, and this time a little too close to the orchards.” Olaf’s voice faded away. I waited for a moment before leaving my hiding spot.
I continued around the corner to Shea’s window. Leaping up to the ledge, I pulled myself inside, only slightly tumbling into the room with an, “Oof!” Shea was asleep when I got back, or was pretending to be. That was fine with me. I didn’t want to talk, either. I climbed into the sleeping bag I kept in her room and waited for sleep to take me.
Chapter 25
April brought rain as well as spring flowers, which lit up the paths and left us longing for the freedom to roam the grounds as we pleased. My request to go home for break had been denied. I wondered how they could use the heightened security threat as an excuse while still denying the reality of the upyr attack. Maybe Nadia could have helped me pull some strings, but my heart wasn’t in a visit home anymore. My heart was bruised, and I couldn’t hide that from my mom. I also couldn’t explain.
The student body’s attitude had also shifted. While everyone still seemed to blame me for the restriction on full moon runs, plenty of animosity was directed at the headmaster and faculty. No one was certain who was telling the truth since the security and curfew hadn’t lightened up.
We were all feeling antsy, but we had plenty to keep us busy with school winding down and final exams approaching. Sara was militant about meeting weekly to study history, which was stressing me out about our final. She knew battle tactics inside and out and was practically a Wikipedia of the Great Pack alliances and treaties. She was currently trying to teach me a song to remember the queens, and she was exasperated, given that I could neither carry a tune nor remember most of the queens’ names.
“You’re related to them!” Sara threw her arms up in annoyance. “You should be able to at least remember their names! They all have the same last name as you, after all!” I flinched, certain her pencil was about to be lobbed at my head. Luckily for me, Sara took a deep breath to calm down. “Okay, let’s try again.”
Our full moon runs were restricted to the immediate grounds, so we were all getting grumpy and feeling cooped up. Coach Murry tried to make it interesting by planning more elaborate games and challenges for our afternoon training. Once, she pretended we were n
avigating tortuous cave systems by roping off sections of the orchards into makeshift tunnels. Another time, she used the sparring mats and tumbling equipment to make an elaborate obstacle course in the gymnasium. Some of it was fun, but we all needed to just run wild a bit, and circling the track just wasn’t the same.
We often stayed late in the common room, studying. Luckily, everyone was too busy worrying about exams to tease me much, but I did feel a disproportionate amount of anger tossed my way as amusement shifted into resentment and people continued to blame Princess Lunatic for the added security measures and restricted full moon runs. At least my friends still believed me. That had to be enough.
I hadn’t seen Diego lately, and I wondered if he was avoiding the café on the weekends to avoid me. I missed running patrols with him and the easy comradery I felt near him. Shea had tried to tease me about it, but soon stopped when she saw how miserable I looked. I had told her everything that had happened with him last month. She’d been sympathetic, but tried to reason with me that it wasn’t a practical match. That had started an argument that she, of all people, would think I needed to date a royal. Shea didn’t have to remind me about the betrothal or the impending hearing.
The only good bit of news was when Nadia sent me a note confirming that Robert, my lawyer, had succeeded in getting us a hearing. The date would be set for some time over the summer. I was excited and terrified to challenge the council. I needed time after finals to prepare for the hearing, and hoped it would be later in the summer.
Everyone was also talking about summer vacation. Almost everyone went home for break and people were especially excited to escape the full moon restrictions imposed at school. Shea however, was looking gloomier and gloomier when the subject came up. I almost banged my head on the table when I realized why.
“Hey, Shea,” I said casually at lunch one day, “would you want to come home with me this summer?” She looked at me like I’d grown a second head. “I know Wisconsin isn’t anyone’s first choice for summer vacation, but—”
“You mean it?” she asked.
I smiled. “Unless you’d rather stay here with Ms. Grissle?”
Shea laughed. “No, I think I’ll skip that this year.”
We both laughed and launched into planning things to do in Wisconsin. There wasn’t much, but we managed to get ourselves excited about it, especially when we decided to plan different camping trips for summertime full moons.
Finally, exams were over. We had passed the mammoth history essay and test, along with an exceptionally challenging French exam I wanted to forget forever. And we had survived the grueling physical training exam that Coach Murry seemed to make even harder than ever, according to older student’s recent memory. We all agreed she must’ve been overcompensating for the lack of full moon activities.
We only had a week left at school before the summer break. I was surprised by how different I felt from the start of the year. Mt. Henley had really become my home. I was going to miss it. Just then, Jillian walked by and wolf whistled at me, and I thought maybe I could use a break after all. Besides, having Shea with me for the summer would be awesome.
On Saturday, we got up early and ate a humongous breakfast. The rain from the last week had finally let up and the air smelled fresh. It was the first night of the full moon, and we’d gotten rare permission to shift for our walk into Dryden. Hayley teased that I was finally starting to throw my royal weight around when Ms. Grissle even assigned an extra patrol to stay human and carry our bags with our change of clothes. He started on ahead of us while we waited in the yard for Sir Henry and Kulani.
“Nonsense, Hayley, we can’t hang around Dryden, naked!” I said, defending my honor.
“Hah!” said Lola. “Afraid you might run into someone at the café?”
“Oooh!” Hayley sing-songed. Luckily, Kulani had arrived, and we went to the arena to shift into our wolves. We went back outside to wait for Sir Henry and Adam, who were joining us.
Sir Henry’s gold-and-tan wolf trotted up and greeted us pleasantly. I felt his brain signature light up with pleasure. We were all happy to get to run a bit more, for a change. Adam arrived in his gray, larger-than-average timber wolf and loped over to Shea to rub his muzzle against hers.
“Oooh,” I mentally teased her, to which she flicked her tail at me and headed down the path. We started to relax as the fresh, damp air and the bright, spring flowers lifted our spirits. We broke into a trot and turned our makeshift patrol into a game, darting around, checking the perimeter, then play-attacking each other. Sir Henry nipped at our heels to keep us close, but Kulani loosened the leash and let us play around more. Hayley thought it was hilarious to dash over to me and pin me to the ground as if to protect me from an oncoming attack that was inevitably Sara pouncing on me while Hayley had me pinned. Lola ran circles around us, staying close and staying out of the dirt.
Adam kept his eye on Shea. Shea ignored us completely and kept perimeter watch with Henry. She’d been training harder and more seriously ever since the attack. I teased her once that she could be my bodyguard in Wisconsin, and she’d calmly replied, “Of course.” That nearly turned into a fight about my not needing protection, but we resolved it by Shea saying she needed to feel useful, too. I had assured her that sparing me from boredom was useful enough, which led to her quizzing me about my friends back in Wisconsin, whom I hadn’t heard a thing from since last September. I was happier than ever to have someone who knew my new life come along.
Sir Henry gave a sharp warning bark that stopped us in our tracks. We immediately circled together and peered in the direction Henry was staring. Kulani circled us a few times, then lifted her muzzle toward Henry. Adam was instantly at Shea’s side. I felt his brain radiate protective vibes. Shea’s response was somewhat pleased and somewhat annoyed. I smiled to myself as I watched them.
The wind shifted, and I caught the scent of blood on the air. My head whipped around, and I peered into the trees. Sara whined, and Lola crouched low, shivering. We inched closer to Kulani. We waited for Henry’s signal, then followed as he walked farther down the road. He stopped, and we looked past him, where a lump lay on the road. Henry reared back, ringing out a long clear howl, a warning signal.
A flurry of movement erupted as the large shape sprang up from the ground and hurtled itself at Henry, cutting short his howl. The large shape was a man, pale and bald, and he hunched over Henry’s crumpled form. He stood up and turned, eyes flashing red. His teeth were long, and blood and spit flew off them as he hissed. Shea and Adam converged on the bald upyr, holding him at bay, as he slashed at them.
The girls scattered as another flash of movement came at us from the trees. I was knocked aside, as Hayley pounced over me, this time no joke. She scanned the scene, then darted at the humanoid shape moving almost too fast to see. Kulani reared up and attacked the second beast just as it was about to turn on Hayley. I saw a whirlwind of fur and claws, heard flesh rip and a wolf howl. I think I howled, too, as the beast attacked Kulani. He knocked Kulani back and turned toward me.
The second creature also looked human, but its face was monstrous. Its body was lean and pale, covered in rags. His head had matted black hair that looked dull and lank. The creature’s red-rimmed eyes were deranged. I only caught a glimpse, for it moved nearly too fast to see. But after a few moments of his changing direction, I recognized him as the creature that had attacked Diego and me weeks ago. It kept coming toward me, tossing aside anything in its way. Hayley attacked from the side, but the upyr easily threw her off, and she hit a tree with a whimper. I noticed her struggling to get up, but had to focus on the upyr coming at me. He had slowed and was stalking me know, inching closer. I scrambled backwards, growling, uncertain and fixated on his flashing red eyes and gnashing teeth. Kulani attacked him again from the side, and he knocked her aside, still fixated on me. Kulani jumped back up, blood dripping off of her snout, and launched herself at the creature again.
In slow motion, I saw
the upyr catch Kulani by the throat with a long, clawed arm. It bent forward in a flash of teeth, and my own howl pierced through the woods as blood squirted the leaves. I scrambled up and charged, but Hayley got there first. She pounced on its back and clamped on to his throat. The creature dropped Kulani’s body, which had shifted back into her human form. The creature stood, muscles rippling, body heaving. He reared back and slashed his claws at Hayley. I changed course and threw myself at him, clawing and biting. I felt a slash across my ear, then my shoulder. The creature was rearing back, trying to shake Hayley loose. She clung on desperately, while I attacked his belly. An unsuspecting backhand threw me down, and he whipped around, throwing Hayley at last. She crumpled to the ground in a rumpled furry heap and didn’t stir.
The creature sprang toward me, blood dripping down his chin as he grinned. His lank hair covered his eyes. “We meet again,” he hissed.
I scrambled to my feet and planted myself firmly, ready for the attack. Suddenly, another shape emerged from the trees. It was Diego in his wolf form. He charged and knocked the upyr aside. They both got up and began to circle each other. The humanoid, monstrous upyr spit and hurled insults at Diego. His dark brown-and-russet wolf growled in response. I didn’t know how to help. I glanced desperately around and saw Shea and Adam still attacking the first creature, the bald upyr who had taken down Sir Henry. I didn’t see Lola or Sara anywhere, and Kulani still hadn’t risen. I hoped Hayley was just unconscious. I started toward her, then heard a cry. Shea!
I spun around and saw Shea pinned to the ground by the first upyr. Adam’s jaws were clamped on to the creature’s leg, having no effect. The bald upyr shook his mangled leg, and I heard a bone snap like a twig. Adam’s hold loosened, and the creature kicked him off, Adam’s head striking a rock, hard. One of his forelegs bent awkwardly at the wrong angle. He didn’t stir. Shea howled in fury, shifting into her human skin as the howl shifted into a scream of anguish. The bald upyr raised his clawed arm to strike Shea. She stared at him, arms outstretched toward Adam, frozen in fear. The upyr grinned maliciously as his arm swung down to eviscerate my best friend. I was already running, but I wouldn’t make it in time. I could only watch helplessly as the claws swiped toward her frozen, freckled face.