Chapter 1
I swallowed the nerves that skittered up my spine as I walked across campus, glancing nervously around as if I were about to be jumped in plain daylight.
It was normal to feel this way, I reminded myself. The sun had still been in the sky when Randall had drugged me and stole me away from what was supposed to be my safe haven. Omega Wolf Academy had lost its sheen for me somehow. It felt… violated.
That didn’t mean it wasn’t mine, though. OWA had been a huge part of my first step away from my family, away from the past, towards a future of my own. It was where I’d staked my independence, found my voice, and my guys. It was where I’d found my mates.
A smile lifted my lips and chased away the nerves as I climbed the stairs of the Psychology building and found my classroom.
“Lexi!” a familiar voice exclaimed as arms wrapped around my body from behind.
I stiffened, then sagged a moment later with relief as I realized my assailant was Emily, not a twisted asshole from my past with a syringe and deadly intentions. I twisted my head to look at her and made a face. “Huh?”
Emily pulled back and smacked me lightly on the arm. “You disappeared in the middle of the semester, dummy. I was worried about you.” She looked at me with a mixture of relief and confusion in her eyes, which I noticed were a beautiful mossy green. I wondered absently if I’d ever noticed her eyes last term or if I were just seeing the world through sharper eyes, now.
Questions leaped to my tongue. Why did she care? We hadn’t spent much time together outside of class.
But that was stupid. She’d been kind and sweet to me from the first moment we’d met. I’d been the one that had pumped the brakes on a potential friendship. I’d been so wrapped up in my own little world of drama that I’d missed out on a friend. I decided to rectify that right now and pulled out two chairs, one for me and one for her.
“I had to go back to Ireland. Family emergency. It was really sudden. I’m sorry I didn’t let you know.” I offered her an apologetic shrug and turned the conversation back to her, hoping it would work as a distraction. The last thing I wanted to discuss was the details of my so-called family emergency. “What have you been up to?” I slid into the seat and began pulling things out of my backpack while listening to her chatter about taking a trip to Hawaii during break.
“I wish I could tan,” I complained, holding my arm up to hers, which was a golden brown that practically glowed. “I’d probably burn to death if I went to Hawaii for a week.”
“Not much sun in Ireland?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow inquisitively.
I just laughed.
Emily chuckled. “Not so much, I take it. So…” she drew out the word suggestively. “What’s going on with Chase?” She added unnecessary clarity that she was referring to sex by wagging her eyebrows.
I felt the blush like a sunburn and dipped my head to hide the flare of color.
“Mmmm hmmm,” Emily made a knowing sound and nudged my knee. “I’m going to need to know more. Are you free for coffee after class?” Her hand shot out and grabbed my knee, making my head pop up in alarm. “Oh! I almost forgot about Dimitri! What’s going on with him?”
I nearly bit my tongue.
There was a lot going on with him, with Chase, and with Lucian. They were my guys, my mates, my everything, and they’d been anxiously awaiting my return to campus. I chewed my lip and shrugged.
“We’re still figuring things out,” I murmured, leaving it at that. It was true, after all. We had a shit load of things to figure out. “Can I get a raincheck for the coffee?” I asked, hopefully. “I literally got in this morning just before class and barely had time to change. My stuff is still in my suitcase.”
“Sure, yeah.” She shrugged easily. “No problem. Here, give me your phone.” She held out a hand and quickly programmed her number into my memory, then passed it back as Dr. Daniels strode into the room, wearing his familiar suede elbow patch jacket. It warmed my heart a little and made me feel like I was somehow home.
“Welcome to Psychology 2023. I’m Dr. Nixon Daniels, your professor for this term,” he announced with a wide grin that encompassed the entire group but settled for a fraction of a second longer on me. His eyes warmed slightly when I smiled back and nodded my head. Without missing a beat, he clicked on the computer, logged in, and had the Smartboard whirring.
An image of a snarling wolf filled the screen a few moments later.
“The study of our biological and psychological connection to the animal within is a fascinating topic and one I have spent a great deal of my life focused on.” He clicked again and an image of a nuclear family popped up. A mother and father, and two young children, both wearing bright yellow rubber boots. The children laughed as they jumped in puddles while their parents watched with adoration.
Dr. Daniels moved around the edge of the classroom, making the circuit as he clicked from picture to picture, each apparently at odds with the one before. “Our world is civilized, but were we always that way? Was there a time when the beast ruled over the human side?” The next slide was of a familiar monster, a werewolf howling at the full moon.
Smiles slid across faces. Werewolves were mythical monsters created by Hollywood, the antithesis to who we were. They were primal and single-minded killers at the core. They weren’t real. Yet, they held endless fascination and amusement for many of us.
“Popular culture has played with the werewolf legend for years, creating as wide a swath of characters as the brain can dream up.” Movie and television posters flashed quickly, moving from Jack Nicholson’s Wolf, to Michael J. Fox’s Teen Wolf, to Underworld, to An American Werewolf in Paris, to Ginger Snaps, to Twilight. “Each depiction is fictitious, though some come closer to the truth of who and what we are than others.” He smirked. “As frivolous as the Twilight series is, they actually come fairly close to the truth. My personal favorite, however, is Blood and Chocolate.”
I smiled at the memory of watching it with my sisters months after being released from our mountain cage. I’d been so thirsty for knowledge of the outside world; I’d watched a thousand movies and read even more books.
My thoughts turned from class to my sisters. We were connected through blood and shared experiences, shared traumas. I felt closer to them than I had thought possible to anyone else.
That was before I knew I’d find a mate. Before I’d discovered that fate had something a little different in mind for me.
I chewed on my lip and thought of the group I’d visited in Ireland. They’d dispersed with time and rising levels of confidence. Only a few still lived with Rose and Liam, or in the forests around their home.
I’d spent the last few weeks running with them, called to the moon with them, and ignored the world beyond my fur. It had been liberating and exactly what my overloaded mind had needed for a few weeks. Of course, it had meant no text messages, which had meant no communication with my guys.
I shifted anxiously in my seat at the knowledge that I’d see them before the day ended.
My plane really had come in early this morning, delivering me and another precious package to Omega Wolf Academy. Alyssa had followed me to her dorm with wide eyes and nervous ticks but had nodded bravely and murmured that she’d be alright when I said I had to go drop my things off at my building.