Chapter 1
My life is insane. In a good way.
A little less than a year ago, my school guidance counselor sat me down for one of our requisite meetings. I think it was meant to help get us thinking about life after graduation and figure out a game plan for our future—one of those misguided things that the administration thinks is more helpful than it really is. I remember her asking me where I saw myself after finishing school, no doubt fishing for some answer about university, picking a career, and soldiering out into everyday society without a care in the world. In the end I made up something about “seeing where things went”, because the answer “I’m probably going to end up burning out in a dead-end job, since I have no friends, no family, and no connections” somehow didn’t seem like it was going to placate her.
How could I have known that by this time the following year, I would be standing in the middle of a forest with a shapeshifter, desperately trying to master the art of transforming into a wolf in time for next week’s practical?
It’s funny how these things work out.
“Boots. Earth to Boots.” A familiar voice breaks through the reverie, and I shake myself as I cast the memories aside. Shade Ivis, the handsome, lanky, ash-blond wolf shapeshifter and U.K. Shifter Academy’s resident criminal is standing a few feet away from me, his hands cupped around his mouth in an exaggerated gesture. “Are you still with me?”
“Sorry, sorry.” I clear my throat. “I just zoned out for a second, there.”
“Really?” he teases. “I never would have guessed.” Taking a step forward, he crosses his arms over his chest. “You’re not going to impress anyone by zoning out, though, Boots.”
Boots. Even though it’s only been a few months, the name already has a homey ring to it, like an old coat or a used car. It suits me, but more than that, it makes me feel like I’m a part of a bigger group, which isn’t something I would have ever expected. I think maybe that’s what’s struck me the most about all this, in the end: the ease with which I’ve connected with the people here, in the aftermath of a lifetime on my own.
They say people change after leaving school, but usually they don’t mean it literally. In my case, though, instead of a new set of goals or a new lease on life, a few months ago I found myself with a new body—five new bodies, to be exact. What started out as a day on the run, a desperate attempt to get away from my alcoholic foster father and his escalating temper, ended in a night of being attacked by squatters in a building I had thought was abandoned. That was when everything had, as the saying goes, gone pear-shaped. Looking back on it now, I can still hardly believe it—it was the kind of thing I thought only happened in stories: the cornered orphan discovers that she has magical powers and uses them to save the day before being whisked off to a new home and new life. On the surface, it was almost too perfect.
They say that shifter magic usually first presents itself during young adulthood. The jury’s still out on where the magic comes from, exactly, with theories ranging from a genetic mutation to occult meddling hundreds of years ago. Either way, what do you get when you cross a runaway foster kid with unknown superpowers?
Me, of course. The only difference being that instead of having access to just one shifter form, like pretty much every other shifter in the world, I have access to all five: witch, dragon, wolf, siren, and vampire. It’s like something out of a comic book, except usually comic book characters don’t have as much trouble using their powers as I do. I’ve made a decent amount of progress since first coming to the Academy, but I’ve got a long way to go before I’m on par with the upperclassmen—and even longer before I’m capable of handling myself in a world that I now know is nowhere near as straightforward as I once thought it was.
“You’re not giving up, are you?” Shade asks, smirking. “And here I was thinking you never gave up, Boots.”
“You’re damn right, I never give up,” I fire back, rolling my shoulders and widening my stance. Closing my eyes, I follow the advice he gave me all those months ago and casting away the outside world. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially for someone like me, who would rather overthink everything than let instincts do what they’re supposed to. Everyone says that’s the key to mastering your shifter form: to learn to let go. The only problem is that it’s easier said than done, and I’ve only really ever gotten the hang of it in life or death situations. But that’s a story for another time, I think.
I suck in a long breath, focusing on the feeling of the cool autumn air on my skin and the sounds of the leaves rustling in the trees overhead. It’s a Sunday, and there are no classes today, which means the students of the Academy have free reign to roam about the campus, study, and practice their forms. It’s a simple life, but I’m not complaining, especially now that I’ve seen what it’s like to have the Academy on lockdown. It’s been a bit more than a month since that student, Brody Patton, disappeared, and the faculty has only just eased up on the curfews and restrictions. How many of them know the real reason behind Brody’s disappearance, I can’t say.
I feel my breathing start to slow down, that cool, familiar feeling that I’ve come to know as my magic making itself known in the pit of my stomach. I resist the urge to reach for it, to try to grab onto it; Shade was the one who told me how counterproductive that is. The key is to let go and let it come to you. So I do… or at least, I try to.
The truth is that I’m finding it incredibly hard to focus with Shade in such close proximity to me. He’s close enough that I can feel his breath stirring the chestnut flyaways on my forehead, and can smell him—earthy and musky, with a layer of danger that sets my heart pounding whenever I catch it. Not for the first time, I catch myself wondering if he’s picked up on my feelings yet. What do I even call it, anyway? A crush? A friendship? An attachment? Somehow, none of those feel quite right, and that’s the problem.
That’s the problem with all the guys.
“Take your time, take your time,” Shade says dryly. “It’s not like it’s almost dinnertime or something.”
I open my eyes and give him a playful shove, sending him stumbling back. “You’re making it hard to concentrate.”
Shade gives me a devilish grin that sends a swarm of butterflies moving through my stomach. “That’s the point.”
My eyes go wide, and I open my mouth to ask what he means by that, but think better of it at the last second. That’s opening a door I’m not sure I want to open.
Aside from Hazel, the siren shifter who I met on my first day at the Academy, most of my friends here have been guys. It’s not like that’s a problem, or anything—I don’t discriminate—but when I arrived here, I wasn’t used to being close to people. After a life of bouncing from place to place, never able to settle down and form real connections, I had almost forgotten what it was like to care about someone—let alone multiple someones. The fact that each of the guys is compassionate, handsome, and intelligent? That’s the issue, and it’s complicated even further by the fact that they, in a sense, made me.
I straighten up and redouble my efforts, forcing all thoughts of the guys, my past, and the Academy from my mind as I bring the image of a timber wolf to mind. Focusing on every detail, I back away from the pool of magic, allowing it to branch out and envelop my body. Within moments, I can feel the telltale prickling of fur emerging from my skin, my posture changing and my muscles shifting. It’s a bit like meditating, in a sense; the second you think about it too much, you lose the thread, and then you’re a human again. So instead I open my eyes as I become a wolf, focusing on something else instead—namely, the tall student who stands watching me with a crooked smile. Not for the first time, I find myself lost in his gray eyes, my wolf’s vision allowing me to see flecks of color and tiny details that I can’t as a human.