Initiation (Wolf Blood Academy Book 1)

by RaShelle Workman

  Initiation

  Wolf Blood Academy

  RaShelle Workman

  Copyright © 2020 by RaShelle Workman

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover by: Crooked Sixpence Book Covers

  Edited by: Debbie Davis and Jen Hendricks

  For Jacob.

  Thanks for the long talks about what became the Shade Rasa. You’re the most amazing to infinity and beyond plus one.

  Contents

  Introduction

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Also by RaShelle Workman

  About the Author

  Introduction

  ♥ Can love alter destiny? ♥

  The Wolf Blood Academy gave me an ultimatum. Attend and take my place in the pack or my family suffers the consequences.

  One bite changed my whole life. Until that fateful moment, no one told me I descended from an ancient legacy of wolves.

  Determined to keep my family safe, I enter the Wolf Blood Academy, but acceptance isn’t official until I pass their initiation. A series of challenges meant to discover my rank among the classes. With my genetics, the tests should be easy, but I haven’t had years of training like the others.

  Even with my focus on surviving, that isn’t enough to keep me away from Wyatt Wright. He’s beyond gorgeous and so tempting. I crave him.

  But everything in me says I need to stay away.

  Prove myself. I will do anything for my family, even become the enemy so I can take them down from the inside.

  Unless Wyatt takes me down first.

  Maybe that won’t be a bad thing.

  Can love alter one's destiny? I guess I’m about to find out. ♥

  Prologue

  In my wildest dreams, I never imagined being hunted by wolves or, more specifically, one wolf. Yet as I balanced on the edge of a cliff overlooking the river raging far below, my eyes locked on the Alpha. A thunderbolt of longing shot through my veins. There was a connection between us—something animalistic and uncontrollable and… beautiful. My heart longed to be with him, but an unknown yet more substantial part of my humanity fought against those feelings. Shut them down, so the longing was only an insignificant ache.

  “It’s alright, Diana,” he said, his voice low and sensual. His hands stretched in front of him. He hadn’t shifted into his wolf, but I still felt a physical wave of desire.

  He’s everything, the little lost part of myself whispered. In the same instant, I pushed that away. He was the enemy. I growled. I was more than a wolf’s mate, more than the effing link between us. I was an Alpha too. If he wanted me, he would have to prove himself first. With that promise embedded in my heart, I turned away and leaped.

  Chapter One

  Wyatt

  “It looks like we’ve got a low-level lupangus on our hands,” my father said, yelling over the sheets of rain pouring down on us. He stood in front of the lupangus monster, his back to it, and the peculiar Shade Rasa forest. That seemed like a bad idea. His soldiers—his fellow pack members—were shifted into their wolves. They padded back and forth, a barrier between my father and the monster, protecting him. Every once in a while, they would growl and snap at the menacing creature as water streamed off their faces and fur.

  I was still in my human form, standing in an open field with the others in my pack. Beyond cold, the rain caused my white tee to stick to my body like a second skin. I barely noticed. My eyes flicked from my father to the monster. The thing stood more than fifteen feet tall and on four legs. It looked like a cross between a gray wolf and a king cobra, its body covered in fur and patchy scales like it had a disease. A long-tail flicked up and down, causing the ground to shake each time it hit. The lupangus’s face was kind of awesome though, with snake eyes and a wolf face, and two enormous fangs curving on either side of its snout. The thing hissed, flicking its forked tongue between its teeth. Tasting, I thought but guessed it couldn’t get much except water.

  There was still some light in the sky, but the rain made it difficult to see clearly—like looking at a fuzzy picture. This was my first time coming into contact with one of the Shade Rasa monsters up close and in real life. At the Academy, I only studied their bones and saw pictures in books, but this? I shuddered.

  “The lupangus’s strengths are venom, speed, and strength,” my father said, interrupting my thoughts. “It has a soft underside. Focus on that, but watch out for the venom. Even a tiny drop can render you paralyzed for hours.”

  “Super,” Nick said, mostly to himself.

  I only heard him because we stood shoulder to shoulder. A quick look at my second revealed a tense rain-splattered face, but he didn’t flinch. My friend was a fighter, the same as me.

  The others mumbled comments. None that I caught.

  We were on the outskirts of the predatory forest, but only a small portion. The thicket spanned three thousand acres from Alaska to New Mexico. Here in Wyoming, it cut my home state in half.

  My father wiped his face before checking his watch. He pushed a button. “You have ten minutes.” He moved past me with a look that said I better not shame him and so much more. But I’d long since decided I didn’t give a flying crap what my dad thought.

  I glanced at the guys. All but Logan had been part of my pack since we started at the Wolf Blood Academy. We were all eighteen, excluding Nick. He was nearly twenty.

  Spreading out, the five of us shifted into our wolves.

  It hasn’t moved since we cornered it, Logan said, his voice filling my mind.

  That’s because he’s assessing us too, idiot, Sundance responded.

  Sometimes it sucked having four other wolves inside my head, but today it would help us hunt and kill our prey. Ten minutes isn’t a long time. Does anyone have ideas? I had a plan, of course, but a good leader listened to his pack. One of them could have seen something I missed.

  I can distract it while the rest of you go for its belly, Butch chimed in.

  I snarled, allowing the animal in me to show. We’ll attack it together. If it starts to run, we flank it. I’ll get in front and go for the throat.

  What about the fangs and the venom? That’s a dangerous place to be, Nick said, letting out a whine.

  I'll be fine. Nick was more than my second. He was my best friend, which meant we always had each other’s backs.

  I appreciated his worry, most of the time. I’ll be fine. Butch and Logan, the two of you follow me on the left. Nick. Sundance. Take the right. On the count of three. Two. One. I took off, heading right at the monster. According to what I learned in school, lupangus' and all monsters of the Shade were ferocious killers with one goal: eradicate the humans polluting the land. Their history was a whole complicated thing, and I sometimes doubted the truthfulness behind what we'd been taught.

  The closer I got to the beast, the more I doubted the ferocity of its kind. It didn’t move. Just continued to pound its tail once in a while.

  When I was ten feet away, the monster opened its mouth but held its po
sition. What the hell? Despite the rain, I could see it strained against an invisible force. Something was keeping it there. Magic, I said to the others and swore.

  So what? Logan shouted. Let’s use it to our advantage.

  I still hesitated. My father had enlisted a magic blood to disable the monster. Did he not trust me? My pack? The idea that he thought so little of us that he had a magic blood cast a spell over this low-level monster sent all sort of anger coursing through me. I’d disliked my father for many years, but at that moment, I hated him.

  Challenge him, my wolf demanded, but I quickly throttled that instinct. It was a fact that all wolves had a place in their pack—even monster blood wolves like me, and all wolves at the Academy. As the Alpha of my small group, I was always contending with my packmates’ wolves to maintain my dominance, especially in the fall, when it seemed our wolves were more anxious to move up the ranks. It wasn’t anything personal, just the law of the wolf. Our instinct was to climb the social ladder.

  I was smart enough to know that if I challenged my father, I would end up dead or banished, and a lone wolf was a truly desolate creature.

  Nick looked back and whined.

  I barked, hoping he got that I needed him to shut up. He was my second, but I speculated how long that would last with Logan around. He was the newest member of our pack. A few months ago, I knew he allowed himself to be dominated by the others during our placing ceremony even though I didn't know why. But he was in no way the least dominant wolf. I sensed his need for authority and guessed he had an ulterior motive.

  Come on, Wyatt, Butch shouted.

  I couldn’t let my pack down even if my father was an arrogant narcissist. Let’s do this!

  The wolves howled in response.

  Because I was so far behind the rest, Sundance veered over and went for the animal’s throat. I’ve got him! He leaped, grabbing hold of the monster's throat.

  It snarled, trying to shake his head back and forth as its eyes got big. Then it howled, and the sound reverberated into my bones. Milky venom dripped from its fangs, and some of it landed on Sundance.

  My friend dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Even though the monster couldn’t move, seeing Sundance in such a vulnerable position shook me from my resentment. Pushing off with my hind legs, I closed the distance and gave orders. Butch, get Sundance out of the way.

  Got it.

  Logan. You and Nick go for its haunches.

  What are you going to do?

  I’m taking the beast down. I waited until Butch had dragged Sundance away. It worried me Sundance hadn’t said anything through our pack bond, but maybe the venom paralyzed the mind too. Careful to avoid the toxins leaking from the lupangus’s fangs, I got under the monster. There was a lot of fur and snakeskin, but directly at its throat was a clear circular area, like a black X marks the spot.

  The lupangus’s bulk blocked the rain. I shook myself off and then leaped until my teeth connected with skin. It was soft and quickly tore open. Again I thought of my father. I wanted to tear him to shreds. The lupangus would have to do for now.

  Blood gushed from the wound, but I held on as long as I could. Slick with gore, I dropped back to the ground, taking some of its flesh with me. Spitting it out, I trotted back, allowing the rain to wash away what I’d done. Life left the monster's eyes.

  The others howled at our success.

  I wanted to feel pride over my first monster kill, but my father had taken the hunt out of the equation. Instead, the lupangus had been a sacrifice. It didn’t matter that it was a monster. Nor did it matter that if it had the chance, it would’ve done all it could to kill my pack and me. My father had humiliated me, and I could barely contain my rage.

  Not that I should’ve been surprised.

  As a kid, he barely acknowledged me. I’d done everything, hoping to catch his notice, to hear him tell me I did good. But with each accolade, each prize, and every accomplishment, it was always the same.

  Nothing.

  By the time I reached the Wolf Blood Academy, I was done worrying about what my father thought. At least that was the lie I told myself.

  As I fumed, a heavy rustling sounded from behind the lupangus. Faster than I believed possible, hundreds of thick green vines slithered out of the forest and covered the monster. In seconds it looked like one of the ridiculous bushes on the lawn outside the Academy. The ones that the gardeners cut into different animal shapes.

  Another few seconds and the vines retreated back into the Shade, taking the lupangus with it.

  I glanced down at the pool of blood mingled with mud at my feet, surprised by the sorrow in my chest.

  “Get Sundance to the Academy infirmary,” my dad shouted, jogging over to our group.

  I clenched my teeth together, desperate to force down the guttural growl in my throat. Going after my father now would be a death sentence, especially since our kill solidified our status as part of the elite Shade Keepers. My pack would now be required to meld into my father’s. Even as I thought it, there was a pull. A need to submit, but I wasn’t ready.

  Neither was my wolf. I bared my teeth at the man I called Father.

  He tilted his head to one side, studying me as an eerily calm menace came over him. It seemed to push the feeling out and over me. It was his Alpha influence, and he had every right to claim me. One would’ve thought that because he was my father, that automatically made me part of his pack. Maybe in other families. Not mine.

  My father was Alpha over the Wildwood sector of the Shade Keepers—kind of like their general. In both his human and wolf forms, he was feared by nearly all who knew him. One side of his lips rose into a smile or a snarl, and I knew I should be afraid too, but I wasn’t. “After you get Sundance to the infirmary, come by my office. I have your first mission.”

  Was there a gleam of pride in his eyes? Did he appreciate my fury? He obviously wasn’t going to deny what he’d done to the monster.

  Veins of lightning flashed across the sky as we stared each other down. Thunder followed closely after.

  “How dare you?” I demanded, but it came out garbled.

  My father’s eyes narrowed as though he understood. “You wanted in. You’re in, son. Welcome to the club.” Without waiting for my response, he turned on his heel, shifted into an enormous chocolate brown wolf with a white collar, and left, catching up with the soldiers who’d come with him. Before they vanished from sight, he howled.

  The rest of my pack joined in, but I remained silent. My band of brothers were more accepting of the way of the wolf. Me, well, I was compliant, except when it came to my father. I couldn’t forgive him for what he had done tonight and my whole life.

  The secrets I could tell…

  Don’t be late. My father’s words cut through my irritation.

  I won’t. Sadly, in this instance, I didn’t have a choice. For my wolves, I agreed to become a Shade Keeper. I already regretted it.

  Have you ever wished you’d never been born? That feeling twisted in my guts.

  Why aren’t you more excited? Logan asked when it was apparent my father was out of our heads. We’ve been talking about this moment for months. We’re finally in.

  The monster was incapacitated. It wasn’t even a fight, I snapped, heading over to Butch and Sundance. Nick was there, waiting. He kept sniffing Sundance, and I hoped the monster’s venom hadn’t done more than paralyze him.

  Butch, Nick, and Logan got Sundance draped over my back, and I started for the Academy without a word.

  What’s got his panties in a bunch? Nick asked.

  Damned if I know, Logan responded.

  Crazy to think that monster’s blood flows through our veins, Butch said.

  Probably not specifically that one, Nick added.

  Don’t be stupid, Logan snapped.

  I’m just saying, Butch went on. We could be related.

  That was a possibility. As wolf bloods, we were different than the regular, non-magical wolves tha
t sometimes roamed the Shade. For wolf bloods, the supernatural part of our DNA came from the monsters of the Shade Rasa. But was it that one in particular? Probably not.

  It still blew my mind that I could shift, and I’d been doing it for years. Plus, I was beyond strong, fast, healed quickly, and basically immortal. All because of the mysterious monsters of the Shade. We were born looking human, the same as other babies, and stayed like that until a blood ceremony woke the supernatural wolf part of us.

  We reached the Academy grounds and didn’t stop until we were behind the academy and at the infirmary. It was connected to the school, but had its own entrance for times like these.

  Get the door, Nick.

  Got it, Nick said and shifted back to his human form.

  The rain hadn’t slowed. I was drenched and mentally exhausted, and I still had to speak with my father. The man made me irrational. He always had.

  The rest of the guys shifted too, but I stayed in my wolf form to carry in Sundance.

  “Get him on the bed over here,” Dr. Nonna, the school’s primary physician, said before she shooed the rest of us behind one of the curtains to get dressed. In the enormous facility of the Wolf Blood Academy, injuries happened regularly. Dr. Nonna saw naked daily, but that didn’t mean she liked it. Which was why she kept dozens of pairs of sweats on hand. When we shifted into our wolves, our clothes were torn to bits. Changing back to our human bodies meant we were as stark naked as the day we came into the world.

  I padded over to the bed Dr. Nonna pointed to, leaving a trail of water in my wake.

  The doctor clucked her tongue at the mess. “What happened?” she asked once she hefted him onto the bed.