The Love Potion (Werewolf High Book 5)

by Anita Oh

“Come and sit,” he said, not opening his eyes. “Let’s do some training.”

  He spoke slowly, almost like he was in a trance. I really hoped he didn’t want me to try meditating again. I was really bad at it.

  I sat down opposite him, cross-legged. I really hoped the ground was dry. Sometimes it seemed as if the ground was dry, but after a while you realized it wasn’t and by that time it was too late and you had a wet butt. The last thing I needed was to have to walk back to the Red House with a wet butt and for everyone to see me and start calling me “Wet Butt Lucy”. That was what happened when you meditated, but it was only one of the reasons I didn’t hold with it.

  Before I could say this to Sam, he reached across the space between us and took me by the hands. His hands were large and warm and completely covered mine.

  “Just relax,” he said.

  Part of me wondered if he’d started smoking pot and that was his secret to how he could suddenly control his powers.

  His fingers threaded through mine, and I closed my eyes. This was okay, I thought. This, I could handle. It was simple, easy. I didn’t have to chase thoughts out of my head or worry about chakras or anything. I could just sit there with Sam and let his warmth seep into my skin.

  I don’t know how long we sat there, holding hands with our knees not quite touching, but it was enough to make me feel better — at least for a little while.

  “You’re really getting it,” Sam said quietly.

  My eyes flickered open, and I saw him staring at me. His face was really close, close enough to notice that he had a few tiny freckles on his nose. Even though I wasn’t nervous, my heart was pounding in my chest. I knew he knew how I was feeling, and it made me turn my gaze away, down to our hands. I was gripping him so tight, my knuckles had turned white.

  “Sorry,” I said, loosening my fingers, about to pull away.

  “Don’t,” he said, pulling me forward so I was even closer.

  I could barely breathe. I let my eyes fall closed again, but I knew that he edged closer. I could feel his breath against my cheek. He was really going to do it. He was going to kiss me.

  Somebody cleared their throat behind me.

  I jumped to my feet and spun around without even thinking about it.

  Tennyson was standing over by the gate. His arms were folded across his chest, and he didn’t look towards us. I couldn’t feel anything from him, but his posture was rigid. He was clearly still annoyed at me, but that was fine, because I was annoyed right back at him. He obviously knew he was interrupting a private moment, and he’d gone right ahead and done it anyway, like the big fat jerk he was.

  Sam got to his feet and stood beside me, his arm brushing against mine.

  “Hey, Tennyson,” Sam said. “What’s up?”

  “The headmistress sent me to fetch Lucy,” he said, still not looking at us.

  My heart plummeted. There was no way this was anything good. All thoughts of Sam and kisses and being annoyed at Tennyson and stupid girls in our class who were obsessed with Tennyson flew right out of my mind, replaced with only one thing. Expulsion. I’d missed too many classes, or my grades had dropped and they were taking away my scholarship. Or one of those nasty girls had complained about me. Or they’d realized it was me who’d exploded the Zen garden that one time. Or a bunch of other stuff that was clearly not my fault but would look bad out of context. Either way, it was curtains for me.

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Sam said, leaning in to me just enough for me to take comfort from his warmth. “Don’t worry about something before it happens.”

  I nodded and followed Tennyson around the side of the house and back toward the school.

  As we got closer to the school, I noticed that Tennyson still hadn’t spoken to me. Not in my head, not aloud.

  “How’s your shoulder?” I asked awkwardly.

  “Fine. Obviously.”

  What does the headmistress want? I asked.

  “As I don’t have a psychic link with her and she doesn’t share her private business with random students, I have no idea. If you’re so eager to find out, perhaps you should walk faster.”

  I sighed. I hated this, but I didn’t know how to fix it.

  “I thought you’d be happy I was working on my control,” I said.

  “It hardly looked as if you were working,” he said tightly. “I’m fairly certain that when my mother practiced control with Sam, she did not use any such methods.”

  There was a world of things I wanted to say in reply to that, including an awesome pun about wolfs and MILFs, but I didn’t need a soul bond to tell that Tennyson wasn’t in the mood for jokes.

  He led me into a part of the school that I’d not been in before, up another floor from the grand staircase, above the assembly hall, to a hallway lined with very stern portraits on one side and a magnificent view over the grounds on the other. It was obviously somewhere students didn’t have much call to come. The carpet was flawless white, not a speck on it.

  If you have a problem with me and Sam…

  I have no problem, Tennyson said.

  I felt briefly triumphant that he was talking inside my brain again but then stamped down on it so he didn’t notice.

  You’re free to have whatever type of relationship you like with anyone you choose. That is not the issue here.

  Then, what is the issue?

  “We’re here,” he said, and we entered through a gilded door into a small waiting room, where we found a stern woman with her hair pulled back into a tight bun. “Lucy O’Connor to see the headmistress,” Tennyson told her.

  She nodded and typed something on her computer.

  I stared between Tennyson and the door, wondering if I could escape. Probably not. I wanted more answers from him, but I couldn’t exactly get into an argument with him outside the headmistress’s door with the stern secretary looking on. But I really didn’t want to go in, either. Once I went in there, that was the end of everything.

  Will you wait for me? I asked him.

  He huffed a little. Fine, but hurry up. You don’t want to keep her waiting.

  With bile rising in my throat, I knocked on the door.

  Chapter 4

  The headmistress’s office was nothing like I’d imagined. I’d thought it would be all light and airy, with fresh flowers and cushy chairs. Either that or a bit Dumbledorey, full of odd little bits and bobs. Instead, it had the feel of a second-hand bookstore. The walls weren’t just lined with books, they were jam-packed, with extra shelves wherever they’d fit and piles of books where they wouldn’t. Squeezed into the very corner was a desk, also piled with books. Headmistress Wu was sitting behind the desk, barely visible among the books.

  “Lucy O’Connor,” she said, standing up to greet me. “Take a seat.” She indicated a rickety chair that was also piled with books. I hesitated a moment, not sure if I could put the books somewhere random or if they were organized in a specific way. “Just on the floor is fine.”

  Headmistress Wu was incredibly tall and incredibly thin. It was impossible to judge her age. Her hair was cut into a severe bob that made her look fearsome, but then she smiled at me, such a brilliant smile that she didn’t seem scary at all. There was a mysterious air of glamour about her, as if when she wasn’t at school headmistressing, she was off being an international spy or maybe a superhero.

  I moved the books carefully. They seemed so old that they might fall apart in my hands. The chair creaked as I sat down, and I hoped it would hold me.

  “I suppose it seems strange that you’re well into your second year at Amaris and this is the first you’ve seen of your headmistress.”

  Now that she mentioned it, it really did.

  “It’s not really any of my business,” I said, though I really wanted to know, now that I thought about it.

  “You know that Amaris has three campuses? The Asia-Pacific campus, the Mediterranean, and here, the Atlantic. I’m headmistress of all three, so my time is divided among the
m.”

  I wondered why she was telling me all this, but nodded to show I was listening. It didn’t seem as if all this was an intro to giving me the boot, but maybe she was just going a really roundabout way toward saying it. I couldn’t exactly ask her to get to the point, no matter how bad the suspense was.

  “This puts me in a unique position.” She tapped a finger against her chin, as if she was waiting for me to respond to a question she hadn’t asked.

  “Um,” I said. “Because you mostly live in international waters, you get out of paying taxes?”

  She laughed, but I noticed she didn’t say I was wrong.

  “It means I’m able to act as a diplomat, of sorts, between many of the most wealthy and powerful families in the world.”

  Now I could see where this was headed. The kids of those wealthy and powerful families didn’t want me at their school, so it was bye-bye Lucy.

  “Amaris was founded by a circle of those families, who, aside from their money and power, had other particular gifts.” She raised her eyebrows at me as if she was trying to hammer home a point, but she couldn’t possibly mean what I suspected she meant. Could she? “Of course, there were so few of those families that other students needed to be admitted as well, which is how the house system was born. Originally, there were just the two houses, the Golden and the White, and it had nothing to do with money.” Her eyebrows rose even higher, almost vanishing into her hairline. “Eventually, more and more non-Golden students were admitted, and the system was changed from the White to the Red and the Green, but the basis for it remained the same.”

  She paused, waiting for my response. Even if she did mean what I thought she meant, there was no way I was going to say it. I didn’t know this woman. She could be trying to trick me into revealing everything about supernatural creatures. She could be a super bad person. She could be the sort of person who hunted down werewolves and wore their skins as a coat. I had no way of knowing. But on the plus side, it didn’t seem like this was going to end with me being expelled.

  “I want you to know that I’m doing everything in my power to find Hannah Morgan,” Headmistress Wu continued. “She disappeared under my watch, so I hold myself completely responsible. I’ve updated security since her disappearance, not to mention other unusual events from last year. There are also other ex-Golden students who have different gifts from the current Golden students, many of whom are invaluable in this kind of situation. I have every confidence that she will be found.”

  I nodded, wanting to feel reassured. I was sure Headmistress Wu believed what she was saying, but I knew what she was up against. How could anyone fight that?

  “But that’s not why I called you here,” she said.

  My heart started pounding again. She’d just been sidetracking me, and now this was it. I was toast.

  “Alpha Wilde is one of my closest friends, and she asked me to meet with you on her behalf.”

  Okay, that wasn’t what I’d expected. It was so much worse.

  “She wanted to make it clear that she understands your situation, and despite her reservations, she’s willing to admit you into her pack in a nominal capacity.”

  I blinked at her in response.

  “She’s sorry she couldn’t greet you in person, but she couldn’t find the time to get away.”

  “I don’t really understand,” I told her. “I thought I already was…” I didn’t want to say it out loud just in case she was still tricking me and waiting for confirmation, but on the off chance she was legit, I wanted to know exactly what was going on.

  Headmistress Wu nodded and got to her feet.

  “Lycanthrope pack dynamics are incredibly complicated,” she said, walking over to one of the bookshelves and running her finger along the spines of some books. “Much more complicated than ordinary wolves.” She shook her head and moved across to another shelf. “Of course, lycanthrope packs are one of the most straightforward of all the paranormal world, but there are many nuances that are impossible to pick up on unless you’ve been trained. Here, this should help you a little.”

  She pulled out a small leather-bound book and held it out to me. The gold leaf had flaked off the title, but when I opened it up, the title page read The Etiquette of Lycanthropy.

  “I know your situation is unusual, but this should make things less confusing for now. Please don’t hesitate to come to me if you have any questions at all. I may not be able to answer, but I’ve spent many years building a comprehensive library on this subject.”

  I nodded. Part of me wanted to ask her if she had any books about me, about whatever I was. If she could tell me what I’d become, if what I feared was true. But a bigger part of me knew I needed to stop trusting people so carelessly. That was how things fell apart, every single time.

  “Thank you,” I told her, then bit my tongue so I wouldn’t say anything else.

  “No matter what anyone else says, Lucy, you do belong at this school. It was built for people like you.”

  I had no idea how to reply to that, so I just shrugged, then got up to leave.

  Tennyson was leaning against the wall of the waiting room when I opened the door. With his dark hair falling over his face and the tie of his uniform pulled loose, he looked like the bad boy from some cheesy movie. That image was dispelled almost immediately as he straightened up to his usual perfect posture.

  My mother accepted you into the pack, he said.

  Only nominally. I didn’t explain to him why, that soon I wouldn’t need a wolf pack because I wouldn’t be a wolf, I’d be some sort of evil, soul-eating monster. It was the perfect opening, but I just couldn’t do it. How do you know? I asked instead.

  He raised his eyebrows. You didn’t feel it?

  I shook my head. Was I supposed to?

  He rolled his eyes and started walking back down the hall. I fell into step beside him.

  Does this mean you’re talking to me again? I asked him. Now that we’re pack bros?

  He didn’t answer me, which was the same as a yes.

  Did you know about the headmistress? That she knows about stuff?

  She’s close friends with my mother. My mother doesn’t associate with outsiders.

  It was no wonder Tennyson was like he was. The strange thing was that Althea was as well-adjusted as she seemed to be.

  Do you trust her? I asked him. I wasn’t sure why I was asking; Tennyson was a terrible judge of character. He made snap judgments and then was too stubborn to change his opinion, and that was only a small slice of the whole jerk pie when it came to him.

  My mother trusts her, he said. And that’s enough for me.

  I wasn’t so sure it was enough for me, though. I didn’t know how far I trusted my new alpha.

  We got to where the path broke off toward the Golden House one way and the Red House the other. We stood there awkwardly, not speaking.

  “I’m glad you’re talking to me again,” I said after the silence got to be too much to bear.

  His eyes widened in surprise, just for a moment, and the wall between us weakened enough for me to feel a touch of warmth from him.

  “I’m glad you’ve decided to take my advice and learn some control,” he said, because he was a pompous jerk.

  I bit my tongue. It was impossible for him to go five minutes without being annoying. I had to learn to accept that as a part of him. A very large, overwhelming majority share. I turned and headed down the path before I could say something that would destroy the fragile peace between us.

  When I got back to my room, I was surprised to find Katie sitting on her bed, studying.

  “What time is it?” I asked, wondering why she wasn’t still in class.

  She shrugged and set her books aside. “Like, five or something? I’ve been waiting for you.”

  No wonder I was so tired. I must have really lost track of time while I was with Sam for it to have gotten so late. I flopped down on my bed.

  “What’s up?” I asked her.

&n
bsp; “I’ve got some more intel, but you’re not going to like it.”

  I propped myself up on my elbows to look at her. When I reached out with my mind, I could feel Tennyson there like a reassuring weight against the edge of my consciousness.

  “They’re going to poison him with silver,” Katie said.

  I nodded slowly. “Do you know how?”

  I wasn’t sure what effect silver would have in that way on a werewolf, but I figured it wouldn’t be pretty.

  What would happen if someone decided to make you eat silver? I asked Tennyson.

  There was no response for a moment.

  Are you planning something? he said eventually.

  Wrong family member.

  “I haven’t heard that they have someone on the inside,” Katie said. “So, the most likely thing would be to target the food before it gets to school. All the cooking staff and teachers who fly in are put through really strict security, so it wouldn’t be worth the time and effort to try to pay them off. It would have to be something undetectable. The Golden all eat a different menu from the rest of the school, so that would be how I’d do it.”

  It kind of scared me how easily Katie came up with that stuff, and I made a mental note to never get on her bad side.

  Maybe you should go home for a couple of weeks, I told Tennyson. Or on vacation somewhere. Somewhere far away.

  I could literally feel him eye-rolling me, even from that distance.

  Just… I sighed. Just humor me and don’t eat or drink anything until you see Nikolai eat it first, okay?

  The stuff he eats really is poison, Tennyson said. But if it will stop you harassing me, sure, I’ll use one of my best friends as a human shield.

  See that you do.

  “It’s so creepy when you do that,” said Katie, then she went back to her books.

  Chapter 5

  I barely slept that night, worrying about all the various ways someone could be poisoned in this world, even while attending a high-security school. Even if they’d tightened security since Hannah was taken, my father never seemed to have any trouble at all getting onto the school grounds. He could just hide in the trees and wait for Tennyson to walk past and shoot him with a poison dart. It wasn’t just the food that I had to worry about, though that did seem to be the most likely problem. Katie wouldn’t give me any more information on her source, but she did seem convinced that that was how they’d go about it.