The Love of a Lycan

by Veronica Corbyn

  The Love of a Lycan

  A Shifter Academy Reverse Harem, Book 1

  VERONICA CORBYN

  © Copyright 2019 Veronica Corbyn

  The content contained within this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author or the publisher.

  Under no circumstances will any blame or legal responsibility be held against the publisher, or author, for any damages, reparation, or monetary loss due to the information contained within this book. Either directly or indirectly.

  Legal Notice:

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review

  Disclaimer Notice:

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Your Free Gift

  Introduction

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Elite Readers Newsletter

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  Introduction

  Madison James is a high school student that has had a rough life. Sent to live with her grandmother at the age of five, she was an outcast from day one. Through the years she had only one friend who kept her sane and protected her from the merciless bullies. On the night of her eighteenth birthday, something strange occurs leaving her to wake up naked and covered in dirt. Her best friend Taylor Jennings helps her clean the mess and keep it a secret, but when it continues to happen Madison knows she must go to her grandmother for advice.

  When her grandmother tells her the family secret that she is a wolf shifter, her world is turned upside down. She must leave everyone she knows and go to a school for shifters in the mountains of West Virginia where she finds not much has changed in the bully department. After being there for a few weeks she meets the Moreau cousins and things seem to get better for her until she discovers she has feelings for them all but one more than the others. Will she be able to love him without causing a family rift? Only time will tell.

  The Moreau cousins are French wolf shifters who are practically royalty, and no one messes with them. They see Madison being picked on and take pity on her but as their relationship grows all three of them begin to wonder if she could be their mate. Will they do what it takes to keep her safe and make her theirs? Read this Shifter Academy romance to find out!

  Chapter One

  The darkness that filled the tiny space smelled a lot like old gym shoes and stale cheese, but I had grown accustomed to that particular odor. I wouldn’t say I would make a perfume from the scent, but I knew it well enough to know where I had just been crammed.

  “Great, this is just great,” I mumble as I peel myself out of the locker I had been shoved into yet again.

  I am used to it of course, everyone is always bullying me in some way around here, they always have and no matter how much I stand up for myself.

  As I finish straightening the wrinkles from my skirt, my best friend Taylor walks up beside me. We have been best friends since the moment I came to this town to live with my grandmother when I was five. Taylor is one of those people who does not have a judgmental bone in her body, but even more than that, she is honest and noble. Somewhere deep inside me, I KNOW that is what drew me to her that first day.

  I still do not know the reason why I am bullied so bad, but it doesn’t really matter to me. I have had a good life with my grandmother here in Northern California, especially since I have my sister from another mister beside me.

  “They got you again, Madison?” Taylor stated the obvious with an apparent tone of fury in her voice.

  “Yeah, but I am okay so there is no reason for you to go and get yourself into trouble again by standing up for me. It isn’t your battle to fight,” I said, reaching into my locker for my science book, finding it among the debris from having just been shoved inside.

  “I know it isn’t my fight, but you are my best friend and I am not going to continue watching them bully you like that. I find it even more ridiculous than it is because your grandmother is rich,” Taylor takes an angry breath. “That does not mean you are like all the other snobby rich bitches around here,” she declares.

  I smile at the passion that Taylor displays, and I can’t help but appreciate what she tries to do for me when it comes to the bullies. I honestly don’t know what I would do if she weren’t here to help me stay sane. She also keeps me from beating the shit out of people.

  Side by side, Taylor and I walk to the end of the hall together. Once we are there, we end up separating. I have Advanced Science and she had Art this period. It makes us both sad that we don’t have any classes together besides lunch, but the teachers and administrative staff learned a long time ago that if Taylor and I were together, we were going to talk through the class.

  I enter my class and take my seat as the usual whispers and giggles from the other students surround me. I do my best to ignore the comments and not give attention to their ignorance, but I can feel the anger welling up inside myself. I try like hell to concentrate on what the teacher is saying, but that is hard for me regardless of the whispers.

  For whatever reason, I often find myself daydreaming of outside. For the most part, I have never been an outside kind of girl. In my thoughts though, I see myself running through the woods, under the moon, in the cool of the evening. Forcing myself to shake free of my odd thoughts, I barely catch myself being called on.

  “Yes, Mr. Couper?” I ask.

  “What is the first element on the periodic table, Miss James?”

  “H1 is Hydrogen, which is the first on the table sir,” I say with a smile on my face, and a sigh of relief that I wasn’t caught daydreaming.

  “Very good,” Mr. Couper said, and then went back to teaching.

  After that, I made sure that I am listening as I impatiently wait for the bell to ring. Advanced Science is my last class for the day, and I cannot wait to be free of the prison school tends to be for me. Even though I am used to the bullying since I have dealt with it since coming here to live, now that I am almost eighteen, it is getting rather old.

  Every night I dream of high school graduation and the loaded down truck I will drive off to college in with Taylor by my side. The freedom that dreams possess makes me sad when I wake from it.

  The bell finally rings, and I hurry outside to wait for Taylor. We always walk home together since we both live just a few streets over from the school, and less than a block away from each other.

  “Thank God today is Friday!” Taylor exclaims as we head towards my house.

  “That’s no joke. I cannot wait to get the hell out of this school,” I say as we turn the corner.

  We stop suddenly as we see my grandmother’s black SUV sitting by the curb, her driver waiting patiently by the door to let us in.

  Chapter Two

  Iquickly spot a bouquet of flowers in the back seat and I smile as I hurry towards the running vehicle, pulling Taylor along behind me. It isn’t very often Grams sends the car to pick me up bec
ause we live so close, so I cherish the times she does. With the flowers in the back seat and my birthday only two days away, I know she means it as a pre-birthday gift. I know there is an upcoming party, and my eyes brighten even more.

  I give a nod to Charlie her driver and climb into the back seat scooting over so Taylor can climb in beside me. I quickly scoop up the bouquet of daffodils and sunflowers that Grams clearly knows are my favorite and place them under my nose. I take a swift smell of their sweetness and then smile once again.

  “Thanks for the lift, Charlie. Today would not have been a good day to walk home the bullies are out looking for me,” I say as I latch my seat belt, and give the flowers another smell.

  “It is my pleasure as always, Miss James,” his eyes crinkled as he smiled. “Your grandmother thought it would be a good idea to pick you up so you can get home to help her prepare for the celebration this evening,” Charlie replies as he pulls away from the curb, always the careful driver.

  I lock eyes with Taylor as Charlie speaks and smiles a wide smile. Tonight, we are celebrating my eighteenth birthday even though it isn’t until Sunday. I know that the only person I am truly going to know there is going to be Taylor, but I am okay with that because party planning makes Grams happy.

  I like to see her happy since she spent a lot of time in my early childhood very sad. About two years after I came to live with her, my grandpa passed away in an ocean fishing accident, so we were left all alone. Not being able to bear that loss after whatever happened with my parents, she started staying in her room for days at a time leaving the maids and Charlie to care for me.

  That changed when I turned eight.

  The night of my eighth birthday party, she came out of her room and I notice that she was happier, and much healthier looking than I had seen her in years. I don’t know what happened to change things, but I am happy for such changes, and because of that I would let her plan a party for me every day. Not because I am selfish, but because I love the way her eyes sparkle when she plans them.

  A few minutes later, Charlie pulls into the garage and opens the door for us as we clamor out of the car and into the house. We find Grams in the kitchen taking fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies off the baking sheet and placing them on a tray.

  I search for a vase to put my new flowers in and settle up beside Grams with my bouquet as I begin to arrange my new flowers.

  “Oh, good you’re home, and I see you got your flowers!” he gives me a side hug as she dusts her hands off on her apron.

  “There are two more sheets of cookies in the oven. When the timer goes off, I need you to pull them out for me please,” she says as she hands us both a cookie with a wink.

  Taylor and I look at each other and smile as we bite into her cookies.

  Once the cookies are out of the oven, Taylor and I quickly clean up the kitchen and living area preparing for the party. I run my flowers up to my room and place them on my bedside table. I quickly run back down to help get things ready.

  We help Grams and Charlie set up tables and decorate them in Royal Blue and Lavender. They are each topped with their own bouquet of sunflowers as centerpieces, which happen to be my favorite flower. Once that is finished Grams orders us upstairs to get dress.

  Taylor and I scurry up the stairs with a squeal of delight as we know that gorgeous dresses await us in the spare bedroom. We reach the top of the stairs and run for the spare room, grabbing the dresses Grams has been keeping a secret from us for months. We then hoist them over our heads and run like schoolgirls to my room laughing all the way.

  Although Taylor lives two streets over and is my best friend, she feels like the sister I always wanted but never got the chance to have.

  TWO HOURS LATER, WE stand at the top of the stairs with our gowns touching the floor. I look at Taylor in awe of how beautiful she looks.

  She chose silver as her color, and Grams had the strapless gown with a slit that stops at her knee made specifically for her. Our seamstress has been to the house half a dozen times to size the two of us to assure Grams that everything would be perfect.

  Sprinkles of glitter and diamonds float down the dress making it seem like she is being covered in pixie dust Swarovski crystals. The lights from the chandelier reflect off the diamonds making her shine like a star.

  I chose Lavender and Royal Blue for my gown and I am not disappointed. The dress is beautiful purple, with a Royal Blue underlay, and a silver sparkle overlay that shimmers the same as Taylor’s.

  My brown hair and her blonde hair is pulled back in the same style with spray glitter throughout. Grams hairdresser Pierre did an amazing job placing thousands of ringlets on top of our heads.

  “Are you ready for this?” I ask Taylor.

  She reaches her hand out to take mine and nods as we hit the first step.

  My grandmother watches us come down the stairs with a look of pride on her face. Her own gown a masterpiece.

  The house is already full of people I barely know, yet I see the pride on Gram’s face, and still, I walk through the crowd of formal people.

  I greet the guests as I walk past them one by one, and the party begins. Taylor and I eat and mingle our way through the crowd and before we know it, hours have gone by.

  Taylor makes sure to stick by my side the whole time to make me feel a little more at ease. Even her parents made it to the event. Taylor will stay the night with me tonight though.

  I blow out my candles and cut the cake and while Nadia the cook serves it, I begin opening my gifts. I start to feel tired and look to Grams for mercy. She smiles an apologetic smile and heads to the center of the room, tapping a champagne glass to get attention.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please? The hour is getting late and the party will end thirty minutes from now. Thank you so much for coming!” She exclaims as she sets the glass down and begins shaking hands and hugging those that are leaving.

  As the party came to an end, Taylor and I run upstairs and change into our pajamas and help Nadia clean up the mess everyone made downstairs. Grams won’t like it if she finds out that we helped her, but I cannot stand for anyone to clean up a mess that I helped make so here we are. I throw the last of the trash in the dumpster as the clock chimes one in the morning. Grams is long asleep and has been for an hour, so I know that she won’t find out that we helped the staff... they are good at keeping their mouths shut.

  Taylor and I tiptoe up the stairs to my room and flop onto my king size pillow top mattress.

  “Tonight, was amazing. Thanks for being here for it, Tay. I don’t know what I would do if I did not have you as a friend,” I say as I fight off a yawn. My eyelids suddenly feel as if they weighed one hundred pounds.

  “It was amazing and of course I would be here! I would not miss this for the world, girl! You are my best fucking friend and you better never forget it,” she declares as a yawn overtakes her. “Did you see that my parents were here?”

  “I did,” I smile. “I am sorry though, your fathers plaid suit coat with elbow patches was ridiculous.”

  We laugh as our eyes close and we drift off to sleep. I could not have imagined a better birthday party if I had planned it myself. My Grams knows how to make me happy as I drift off to sleep, I smile as I realize I am a very lucky girl no matter what anyone else says.

  Chapter Three

  Suddenly, I wake with a start and realize I have fallen on the floor and I am sweaty. I could not remember having any nightmares, so I grow confused as to why I was sweating. Taylor lay sleeping in the same spot she was in when we fell asleep as I make my way to the bathroom to wash the sweat off in the shower. The clock on my side table shows that it is only three in the morning and I groan at the thought of only sleeping for two hours.

  I quickly shower and change pajamas and climb back into bed beside Taylor and try going back to sleep. I manage to finally doze off once again and wake to Taylor opening the curtains to let the sunshine in through the window. I groan
as I cover my face with a pillow in hopes of keeping the light from my face. Taylor laughs as she jerks the pillow from my grasp and hits me with it.

  “Come on lazy ass, it is time to get up. It is almost noon you know and what the hell happened to your flowers?” she says as she pulls the covers from around my body.

  “What do you mean?” I ask as I look around. I notice the vase tipped over and the flowers strewn everywhere. I even taste stem in my mouth. My attention is then directed to my legs.

  We both gasp as dirt falls from inside the covers and I see it is all over my legs. I begin to panic as I have no idea what happened to me or where the dirt came from. I jump up and run to the shower quickly undressing and getting under the water. The dirt turns to mud as it meets the water and runs down my body. I try to think of what could have happened. I couldn’t remember leaving the house at any point after the party and had no memory of anyone throwing dirt at us or anything during it. I go back to my room wrapped in a towel to find Taylor cleaning my bed.

  “You don’t have to do that Tay, Nadia and Eileen can get it,” I say as I grab clothes from my dresser and put them on.

  “I know I don’t have to, Madi. I want to though because I am sure you don’t want to have to tell any of the staff or your Grams about it,” she says as she opens my balcony window and shakes the sheet free of the dirt.

  “No, I really do not want to have to tell her. I just wish I knew what happened. I don’t remember going outside or anything during the party or after. The only time I went outside was to put the trash bag in the dumpster,” I say.

  We finish cleaning the dirt from the mattress and put a fresh set of sheets on the bed. I take the dirty sheets to the laundry and shove them in the washer. Once I finish that, Taylor and I walk to her house.