by Jayme Morse
Chapter Thirty-Five
I was cleaning out my dorm suite for the semester. Even though I hadn’t lived there much this school year, I still had a lot of crap here. I was pretty sure this was going to end up being my dorm suite next year, but I didn’t want to leave my stuff there over the summer.
Besides, I also needed to pack for this summer-long vacation we had planned, and most of my summer wardrobe was in my dorm suite.
Call me crazy, but I sort of felt like I was packing up a year of my life. This had been one of the worst years of my life. I was anxious to pack up all that remained, and leave this dorm suite—and Werewolf Academy, in general—behind, even if it was just for a few months.
I hoped that next year would be better. But that should have been easy. This year had set the bar really low.
As I tossed a pair of flip flops into a duffel bag, Theo’s voice filled my mind. “Raven I want to see you.”
“I want to see you, too. I’ll be back at the house soon,” I replied.
“No, I want to see you in private. Can you meet me in the Dark Woods?”
“Okay. I’ll be there in about five minutes.” I slid into my sneakers and then headed out of my dorm room.
I moved at the speed of light to the Dark Woods. We had spent so much time apart these past few weeks due to finals that all I really wanted to do was kiss him.
“Why did you want to meet in the Dark Woods?” I questioned him in my mind.
“It’s a special place for us, is it not?” Theo said smoothly.
I smiled, my mind drifting back to Christmas Day. The last time everything between me and him had felt… well, completely perfect.
I was ready to make new memories in those woods. Or anywhere else, for that matter.
I was pretty sure that it was time for me to tell Theo that I was going to pick him, once and for all.
I reminded myself the rule I had myself for myself: to listen to my heart, not my head. Choosing Theo was a risk—a huge risk. I risked losing everything else that mattered to me. But it was a risk worth taking because I loved him, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.
I would tell him that today, I decided as I hurried for the woods.
Even though it was a sunny day, the canopy of the trees made the forest look dark. I supposed that must have been where the forest had gotten its name.
“Where are you?” I asked as I entered the forest.
No response.
I continued my way deeper into the woods, heading towards the spot where we’d kissed last winter. The spot where I had told him I loved him.
But he wasn’t there.
“Theo? I don’t see you anywhere,” I commented.
And that was when I felt it. A feeling deep within my gut, a feeling that told me to run. To get far away from here.
But I chose to ignore the feeling. A wave of fear washed over me then.
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. I just couldn’t seem to figure out what it was.
I began to race through the Dark Woods, scanning every bush, every shrub, every inch of land for any trace of Theo.
But I didn’t see him anywhere.
“Theo? Theo, where are you?!” I shouted frantically in my mind.
Theo’s voice filled my mind then. “You’ll find me by the stream.”
Something still felt… off. I just couldn’t seem to put my finger on what it was as I made my way for the stream.
I wondered if he might have been having yet another one of his mood swings. Had he brought me here just to tell me how jealous he was, yet again? His moods were as unpredictable as the wind; they blew him in one direction before swinging him back in the other, always leaving me to figure out if he was hot or cold.
When I saw Theo standing next to the stream, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“There you are!” I laughed. “I couldn’t find you anywhere, and you weren’t answering me. Were you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“I’m sorry, my love,” Theo said smoothly. He handed me a single yellow rose. “Yellow’s your favorite color.”
I frowned. Yellow wasn’t my favorite color—and the thing was, I had definitely told him my favorite color was purple, but he must have forgotten. Or he hadn’t paid attention in the first place.
Trying to ignore that and appreciate the sweetness of the gesture, I glanced up at him. “Thank you.”
“Anything for you, Fallyn.”
Fallyn? What the hell?
Theo had never called me by my birth name before. Like the other members of my pack, he knew that I didn’t even consider myself to be Fallyn—that I considered us to be two entirely different people, even though we technically weren’t. So, why would Theo intentionally call me Fallyn knowing how I felt about it?
Before I had the chance to question it, his lips came crashing down on mine.
There was something different about the way he kissed me. It was more… frantic. More desperate. Theo had never kissed me quite this way, but for some reason, the kiss felt oddly familiar.
As his hands dropped to my waist, I couldn’t help but notice how much rougher he was with me than he normally was. Almost controlling.
I tried to break the kiss, but he wouldn’t let me at first. It was like his lips were hooked to mine.
Finally managing to pull away from him, I glanced up into his bright blue eyes.
“Theo, what are you doing?”
His lips curved into a smile—unlike anything I had ever seen before.
“Here’s the thing, Fallyn.” His eyes pierced through mine. “I’m not Theo. I knew you forgot me, but I thought my kiss might help you remember.”
And that was when it hit me. The reason his kiss felt so familiar was because it was.
I had kissed him before.
I watched as his eyes began to change in color then, his ocean blue irises growing darker and darker.
And then the rest of his features began to change, too. Theo’s angular jawline was replaced by an oval chin. His dark hair lightened a shade, and his nose became larger.
I swallowed hard as I started back into Milos’s black eyes.
It all made sense. He had known that the Dark Woods had been a special place for me and Milos because he could mind travel. He knew that I would be willing to meet Theo because I had lost my virginity to him on Christmas.
“Theo? I need you and the others,” I thought.
A look of amusement filled Milos’s eyes. “I’m afraid he can’t hear you. I’ve redirected his thoughts to my own mind.”
“Rhys? Colton? Aiden?” I shouted in my mind. “Milos is here.”
There was no response from any of them. I knew that Milos had done something to prevent them from being able to hear me, too.
Panic began to flood my veins. Even though I had thought I was prepared to come face-to-face with Milos, I hadn’t expected it to happen like this. I hadn’t expected him to trick me and lure me out here, to put me in this vulnerable position. I also hadn’t expected to be entirely alone when I finally did have to face him.
I needed to escape.
I started to move away from Milos, but he caught my wrist.
“You’re not going anywhere, Fallyn. Not if you care about your mates,” Milos said. He pulled out something that looked like a charm bracelet. It held four heart-shaped charms. “Do you see these charms?”
I nodded.
“Do you hear them beating?” He held the bracelet next to my ear, and I could hear what he meant.
I heard four pounding sounds, all completely out of sync with each other, coming from the charms. “What about them?”
“That beating sound is each of your mates’ heartbeats. These charms are directly connected to each of your mates’ hearts through magic.” His eyes met mine. “I’d think twice about running if I were you. If you make any sudden movement or if you don’t do exactly as I say, I will not hesitate to crush them.”
My heart pounded against
my chest. What if he was lying to me just to get me to do what he wanted? What if it was all some ploy to lure me?
Then again, what if he wasn’t lying? What if he really could kill my mates with those charms?
It wasn’t worth taking the risk.
“Why are you here? What do you want?” I asked him.
“I thought that part was obvious.” His dark eyes met mine. “I want you.” He stared at me for a long moment and then smiled. “So, what do you say? Will you be my wife? Or will you try to escape me and watch me as I kill each of your mates one by one?”
He wrapped his hand—his very large hand—around the bracelet, making me think he was going to crush the charms.
“Don’t do that! Don’t hurt them!” I felt sick to my stomach at just the thought that he could kill any of the Darken. “I’ll marry you.”
He smiled. “That’s what I thought.” He lifted me over his shoulder then, effortlessly. I knew I couldn’t fight back or I risked him killing the ones I loved. “I promise you won’t regret this.”
As he carried me through the Dark Woods, I stared at the Darken house off in the distance, where it sat on top of the hill.
“A werewolf can always find his mate. It’s like he has a compass for her whenever she’s in danger,” Theo’s voice replayed through my mind.
If that were true, then why hadn’t any of my mates realized I was in danger yet? Why weren’t they here?
Either Milos had blocked their ability to hear me, too… or something had happened to them, I realized. It was the only explanation. I knew my mates. They would have been willing to die for me. The fact that they weren’t here told me that something was wrong… very wrong.
As Milos led me deeper into the woods, he set me down on the ground. He then placed a necklace around my neck. It looked similar to my moonstone necklace, except it was pink in color.
“What is this for?” I asked him, touching the necklace gently.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Milos asked with a smirk.
Then, he reached over and grabbed my hand. He said words in a language I didn’t understand, and we were carried away from the portal. It felt like a large wind that carried us for what seemed like an eternity.
Then, finally, we were in complete darkness. There was a loud thud and I fell onto a hard surface.
***
When I woke up, my head ached really bad. I cracked an eye open. We were still in complete darkness. I was pretty sure that I must have been in some sort of basement.
I shifted my body weight, and that was when I realized that I was in handcuffs and my legs were chained.
I wasn’t just in a basement. I was pretty sure I was in a dungeon.
“Good, you’re finally here,” a familiar voice said. “You’ve finally brought her back where she belongs.”
“I told you I would,” Milos responded.
“Now we can follow through with the rest of the plan. We can start taking them all down, one by one,” the familiar voice spoke again.
This time, I realized who the voice belonged to. Confusion washed over me. How could this have been happening?
“Iris? What are you doing here?” I managed to whisper through my throbbing headache.
“Just go to sleep, Fallyn.”
I tried to protest, to ask her more questions, but I couldn’t. The fatigue took over me then, completely consuming me. I succumbed to sleep, even though all I could do was wonder why one of my best friends was here with my biggest enemy.
***
Werewolf Academy will continue in Year Three (click the link to pre-order)!
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