Was it my fault he was here again?
Wyatt went on. “Redoing the initiation process is my penance. But it’s fine because it gives me an edge. Like I said, I’ve been through this before and ended up in Legacy house.” He nodded. “So, you can bet I want to come out of this on top and in first place again.” He spoke passionately, and we all listened. “You next,” he said to Penelope.
She cleared her throat. “Penelope Smythe. I’m from Brooklyn, but my parents grew up here, which is why they wanted me to attend this Academy.” She shrugged. “It’s cool.” She tapped a finger on her lips. “Assets. I’m really good at rock climbing.” She flashed her fingers. “These phalanges can hang from anything.”
“Good to know,” Wyatt said and smiled. “Next.”
It was Fallon’s turn. I didn’t learn anything new.
Vivian Anders was from Cheyenne and, like me, came from a Legacy family. She had brown hair and looked partially Asian. She said she was good at everything. Arrogant much?
Cohen Timpkins was a big black guy with hazel eyes. He was from London, England. His parents made him come here, but he didn’t share the reason. “I’m super-fast,” he said. Plus, he had a friendly smile.
“Moonlight, your turn.”
“It’s Diana,” I corrected. “I’m local, but only just found out I was a wolf.”
Wyatt cleared his throat.
I quickly went on. “I’ve been taking karate since I was young, so there’s, um, that,” I said and suddenly felt really stupid. I took karate—big whoop.
“Awesome.” He gave me a secret wink. Then he pointed at another girl. “You. What’s your name?”
She blushed bright red. “Billie Jean Rivera, but you can call me Billie.”
Wyatt tilted his head to one side. “Is Sundance your brother?”
She nodded. “Yep. I’m great at balancing on high wires and puzzles.” She made a face.
“Excellent,” Wyatt encouraged before pointing at the final member of our team.
She was maybe my height but was built like a bodybuilder. “My name is Holly Spangle. Some of you may have heard of me?” She flipped her super blond hair and looked around. Billie and Fallon both nodded.
“Yeah, I think I follow your social media. Your workouts are crazy,” he said, his voice awed.
“Right, you have over a million followers or something crazy like that,” Billie said. Then she smacked a hand to her forehead. “Didn’t you win some huge competition recently too?”
Holly laughed, but she didn’t mean it. “I’ve won a lot of competitions,” she said, crossing her arms, causing her biceps to flex.
“Great, so you're strong,” Wyatt said. He didn’t sound impressed.
She put her hands on her hips, obviously not used to being treated like anything less than a star.
“As the dean said, we will be tested as a group on how far we go and how well we work together as a team,” Wyatt said. “This round isn’t about how one does better than the other. If the team succeeds, then we all do.” The last part he said focusing on Holly.
Finally, it was our turn. We’d been waiting for hours. I was thirsty and hungry, and my feet hurt from standing. My little monster friend, Oakus, was hungry too, but it was apparent we wouldn’t be receiving refreshment again until after we finished the course.
The door popped open, and Logan waved us over. “Get in there and good luck,” he said.
Each of our team went in with Penelope going in sixth, followed by Wyatt and then me. Before I stepped through, Logan grabbed hold of my arm. “Too bad I didn’t do you when I had the chance,” he said, his eyes flashing yellow as his wolf pushed against his skin.
I yanked my arm away as angry fear radiated through my body. “Don’t ever touch me again.” My wolf was so close to the surface, it felt like I might shift right then and there. It was strange to feel the animal within. Looking back, it’d been there all along. I just hadn’t recognized it. Now though, my eyes dilated, and my body tightened. One of the men who tried to kill me said something similar. This guy sounded like him too. Was he one of them?
At my wolf pushing against my skin, Logan’s eyes went wide, and he stepped back. “Sorry,” he mumbled, his head bowed.
“Damn right, you are,” I said, my wolf controlling my anger another moment. Had I dominated him? That was what if felt like. My stomach tumbled in confusing knots, and I rushed through the door’s opening as it closed. I didn’t get far before I ran into Wyatt, and I peered around his rock solid body. What I saw struggled to compute in my brain.
Chapter Ten
I moved to stand beside Wyatt, my eyes working to comprehend our next test. The others were just as terrified as me. The obstacle course seemed to go on forever and went directly into the Shade Rasa. That didn’t seem safe.
One of the teachers, an elderly man with grizzly brown hair and a matching beard, held a stopwatch in his hand. “Your time starts now!” He clicked the button on the watch, and a screen appeared in the air above us. On it was our time ticking away as well as each of our names and our ranking. Wyatt wasn’t in first, and I guessed that was my fault. He’d attacked me last night, but he’d also shown mercy. That left him in fifth, only one in front of Penelope.
“Let’s check it out,” Wyatt said and headed over to the first obstacle.
The ground completely dropped off, and lava roiled and boiled below several free-standing steps. The first one looked easy enough to attain. After that, they seemed to get further and further apart.
When we all stood at the edge of the lava, a sweet female voice announced: “Cross the lava without falling in.”
“Is she kidding?” Penelope asked.
Fallon spoke up. “Is this like your original test?” He was looking at Wyatt. “What do we do?”
Wyatt shook his head. “This is completely new,” he said. Then hurried on. “But I can tell that we should—”
Holly pushed past us and hopped onto the first step. “It’s easy.”
“Wait,” Wyatt yelled.
But she was already on the next step.
“Seems easy enough,” Cohen said and jumped onto the first step. “Plus, we’re being timed. Let’s go.”
“Hold on, dammit,” Wyatt said, shoving his hands in his pants pockets.
But they weren’t listening.
Holly was already on the step directly in the middle of the lava.
Cohen was close behind.
“What should we do?” I asked, my focus on those crossing. I didn’t have a good feeling about this.
“Cohen is right. It is timed,” Billie said, her eyes on the steps.
“I know,” Wyatt said. “But I have a feeling we were supposed to go one right after the other. Penelope, go. Billie is next. Fallon, you go after her. Then Vivian, and Diana. I’ll go—”
Before Wyatt could finish, Holly screamed. Her step was slowly moving down toward the lave. “Follow me,” Wyatt growled and quickly jumped onto the first step. He gave me a quick glance before jumping onto the next, his feet barely touching one before he reached the next.
“Wow,” Fallon said.
I had to agree.
Penelope hopped on and kept going. She was like a ballerina. So light on her feet.
Billie went next.
Then Fallon and Vivian.
Finally me.
By the time I reached the fourth step, Wyatt had leaped over Cohen. Holly jumped up and took Wyatt’s hand as he sailed through the air and grabbed hold of the next step. They both hung there a moment. Wyatt lifted Holly up until she was able to grab hold of the step. Then she climbed up, and he followed. Wyatt was like an action hero. The way he moved in the air hadn’t seemed real, and my heart stopped until he shouted that I needed to hurry. Wyatt was pissed. That much was easy to see, but at least they were safe. He told Holly to keep going, but to stay on the final step. I figured that was the secret. Since we were a team, we needed to cross as a team. That meant no one got on or off
until we all could.
“You next,” Wyatt shouted to Cohen.
With only a moment’s hesitation, Cohen hurdled the sunken step, and his foot touched on Wyatt’s. Wyatt caught hold of his hand. When Cohen was secure, Wyatt told him to keep going.
“I’m going to help the rest of you cross, but we need to hurry.”
Penelope jumped over to Wyatt, who caught her hand, but he hadn’t needed to.
Fallon struggled and nearly fell, but Wyatt went to his stomach and caught him, pulling him up onto the step. Sweat beaded on his face, and his hair was wet. After Fallon went on, Wyatt ripped off his sweater and tossed it away.
I watched it fall into the lava, sizzle, and vanish.
As I went, the steps became further and further apart. Not only that, but the heat from the lava had me sweating too. My karate classes did help me move with agility, but Vivian and Billie struggled. Again, Wyatt came through and helped them across. When it was finally my turn, Wyatt looked exhausted. Sweat had his shirt sticking to his chest and his hair clinging to his face.
“Ready?” Wyatt asked.
The gap between us was enormous. Not even an exceptional human could jump it unless they had a running start, and it was downhill.
“I don’t know.” I’d only been a wolf a few days. This didn’t look possible.
“Trust your wolf,” Wyatt said. “You have the ability. Allow your wolf to help.”
I glanced over the edge and swallowed down my fear. Wyatt said the Academy didn’t want to kill us, but the lava looked and felt real.
“I’m going,” Holly said.
“No,” Wyatt shouted, but she didn’t listen and jumped off on the other side.
Cohen did the same.
Penelope reached the final step and glared at the others, holding up her hands, telling them to wait. But it didn’t matter. My step started to shake. At the same time, Wyatt’s began to rise.
“Jump,” Wyatt shouted.
“I can’t,” I said, sticking my hands out to my sides to keep my balance. My little monster friend, who’d been completely quiet before that moment, dug his sharp nails into my side.
“I’ll keep you safe, Oakey,” I said quietly.
“Come on!” Wyatt held his hand out.
Part of me wanted to run back the way I’d come, but that feeling angered my wolf. She snarled to life, and before I knew what was happening, I was off my step and flying through the air. My hands and feet tried to claw myself closer, but I could tell I was going to fall short. Wyatt saw it too and fell to his stomach, reached out as far as he could, as though through will alone, he could catch me.
It was like a lifetime passed before my fingers touched the tips of his, but we were both slick with sweat, and I felt myself slipping. He let go of the step and grabbed me with his other hand.
“I’ve got you,” he said, straining and pulling me up.
The step was still rising, and by the time I was standing beside Wyatt, the next step looked to be ten feet below us. Wyatt looked at me and then looked at the step.
“We’re going to have to shift,” he said, but that didn’t seem to excite him.
My body was shivering like we were locked in a freezer, even though I knew it was my fear. I shook my head.
“Hang on,” he said and then shifted. His black wolf was so big, I nearly fell off the step, but Wyatt nuzzled me onto his back.
After only a little hesitation, I climbed on. Before I was steady, Wyatt soared, passing the next step and landing on the one after that.
Pen, Vivian, Fallon, and Billie had scurred off the steps when they started to move. Within seconds, Wyatt and I were on the other side on solid ground. I heaved a sigh of relief and quickly climbed off, my knees wobbly.
Even in wolf form, it was easy to see how upset Wyatt was. He could no longer tell us what to do, not that Holly and Cohen had listened. He lifted his head and howled in frustration.
In the distance came a howl in response, followed by several others.
Did Wyatt have a pack? It sounded like it. Not that it mattered. For the purposes of this trial, we were his pack. We had to be.
“Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not sticking around,” Holly said. “It looks like the next obstacle is a maze. I’ll see you on the other side.”
If I had to guess, it would be that she was right. I’d been through my share of corn mazes as a young teen. That’s what it looked like, except it wasn’t dried out corn stalks but a tightly woven together yellowed bush that stood nine to ten feet tall.
“Holly is right. I’m coming too.” He shrugged. “Besides, if we go ahead, we can help you guys out.”
“I’ll go with you,” Vivian said. “Mutant with the monster inside her is bad luck.”
“Fallon?” Holly asked, searching the guy’s face.
“I’m staying with the original group. That’s part of the challenge. If you go ahead, then we’re all going to lose points. This is a team effort, remember?” He sounded frustrated and disappointed.
“Penelope? Billie?” She met their eyes and held it. “If our group is bigger, then we won’t lose points, they will.”
“I’m staying. Idiots,” Penelope said and then said something else under her breath.
“Whatever,” Holly huffed and jogged over to the entrance of the maze.
Wyatt put himself between her and the opening, baring his teeth in a low growl.
“Move it, Wyatt! We don’t care if you did this before.” Holly moved around him as though knowing his stance was just a threat and one he wouldn’t follow through.
Billie seemed unable to decide but finally went with Vivian and the others. That left Fallon, Penelope, Wyatt, and me.
“Great! We’ve lost before we’ve even completed the damn trial,” Penelope said, her wolf sharpening her features.
“Sorry,” I whispered, knowing somehow this was my fault.
“Don’t be. You aren’t the jerk who took half our team with you.” She patted me on the shoulder. Then looked at Wyatt. “How do you want to work this?”
He whined, came forward and nudged me, then turned to face Fallon and Penelope.
“I mean, I get that Diana has some extra skills,” Fallon began, holding out his hands. “The problem is she doesn’t seem confident enough to use them.”
“Fallon is right,” I said. “You lead.”
Wyatt whined.
“But I think we should just stick together and tackle whatever comes our way,” I added. “Sound like a plan?”
Penelope shrugged. “It’s the only plan.”
Wyatt went over to the obstacle opening, glanced back, and then went in.
Chapter Eleven
For ten minutes, the four of us moved along at a medium jog following after Wyatt. I figured he was trying to make up time. The twists and turns were like any corn maze. Hard, dirt-covered ground and even a faint stench of popcorn filled the air.
Oakus had his talons permanently buried in my side until it was numb with pain.
“I like this one,” Fallon said, coming up beside Penelope. “It isn’t as scary as the lava.”
“I have a feeling it isn’t going to stay this way,” I said over my shoulder, sensing danger.
“Diana’s right. Don’t get complacent,” Penelope added.
At that moment, someone screamed.
“See?” Penelope said.
Wyatt picked up the pace, and so did I. Penelope and Fallon kept up and were close behind. After an incredibly sharp turn, Wyatt slid to a stop, and I ran into him.
“Oof.” I moved to stand at his shoulder.
The other half of our team was in a predicament. Cohen was stretched across an opening while Vivian and Holly had their arms wrapped around him.
“Hurry up,” Cohen grunted.
Without missing a beat, Wyatt jumped across the opening and then put his paws on Cohen’s arms.
Cohen cried out as Wyatt’s sharp claws dug into his biceps.
/> I hurried over and took hold of Cohen’s feet.
“Thank you,” Cohen said, his voice filled with pain.
Pen wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Hurry up and cross,” Fallon said, leaning over and taking Holly’s hand.
The opening went the full length of the maze, so there was no way to cross except doing it the way Wyatt did, by becoming a wolf. Holly and her group had decided not to change.
I peered over into the opening. Something was down there in the darkness. Whatever it was, it kept squeaking. I looked closer, using my wolf senses. My eyes zeroed in on thousands of rats, only these didn’t look quite right. They had fangs sort of like… “Are those vampire rats?” I asked, my stomach turning in revulsion.
“I think so,” Holly said as she made it to the other side and stood, adjusting her clothes.
I shuddered. I didn’t like rats under normal circumstances, but these were worse. There were so many down there, and they seemed to be swarming over something. “Where’s Billie?” I asked, my heart picking up speed.
Holly looked away.
“Where is she?” My pulse was ratcheting so fast I thought everyone would hear it, but I didn’t care.
Vivian made it across and shook her head. “She fell,” she admitted, giving Holly a sideways glance.
“She was weak,” Holly said, her face filled with disgust before starting away from the rest of us.
“I think all of her muscles have crowded out her brain cells. That girl is dumb as a rock,” Penelope said.
“But she’ll be okay?” I looked at Wyatt when I asked because he’d said no one would die, but Billie wasn’t moving.
He whined. I wasn’t sure what that meant. “We can’t leave her,” I added.
Cohen kicked out of my grasp and lifted himself up on the other side before Fallon, Pen, and I could cross.
“Rude,” Penelope said.
He rubbed at his arms. They were dripping blood. “Damn, man. That wasn’t necessary. I had them,” he said but took off.
Initiation (Wolf Blood Academy Book 1) Page 9
