Bloodwood Academy Shifter: Semester One (Bloodwood Year One Book 1)

by Rae Foxx

  Unfortunately, so did Howl, his hand wrapping around my elbow.

  ‘Stop this', I repeated. ‘They will see us.'

  A smile took shape on his face and I gasped. It broke my heart. ‘I can't. I won't give you up. I refuse. I wished my whole life for a true match. Now you are here. We will find a way.'

  "Says the guy who hid for a month," I snarled, putting as much hate and frustration in my voice as I could, confusing the hell out of Evan. Pretty sure mates weren’t supposed to snarl at each other like this.

  "Huh?"

  A girl stepped into the otherwise empty hall. Eyes dark as she stared our way. Intense, feral, as though she was there just for us. Damn. Pater had eyes everywhere.

  ‘I won't let him hurt either of us, Howl. It has to be this way. Go.'

  I pushed past him, making him stumble but not caring. Falling on his ass would be better than getting himself killed or killing me in some macabre voyeur show. The idea made everything cold and panicked. Consequences were a real bitch for us.

  Refusing to look back, I stumbled after Evan to the cafeteria, blindly grabbing the hamburgers that Evan was already drooling over and hobbling to our table at the back, where I found Finn seated with a tray, a very uncomfortable Owen looking him up and down like he was laced with arsenic. Finn, however, defined gentleman in public.

  "Finn?" His smile spread as I sunk into the seat beside him. "What are you doing here?"

  "I have a surprise for you, honeybee," He murmured in my ear, making me shiver in both memory and hope.

  "That you and Saxon are going to scoop me out of here and nail me right on top of Nicky's desk?" I spoke so low there wasn’t a chance of anyone else hearing. I was amazed he did.

  His face spread into a grin. "No, but please save that idea for later when our third, and perhaps our fourth joins us. I can't believe I didn't think of that."

  I took a bite of my hamburger and waited. "Don't get my hopes up."

  "Soon," he smiled. "But this is just as good, of that I can promise," he leaned in and whispered, "I have arranged for you and your other mate to have some time on your own this afternoon. I can't have all the fun after all."

  "I don't understand why not," I said under my breath, even though my heart was fluttering with the idea of Saxon's hands all over me. Of getting to know him. Of his bite…

  I flushed and quickly swallowed, hoping he didn't notice.

  "After lunch, you will skip your gymnasium course and instead enjoy a tryst in the woods behind the dorms. Follow the path of red sticks and meet him deep in the forest."

  My eyes widened and I barely stopped myself from getting on his lap right there in front of everyone. "Sounds kinky. You did this for me?"

  He brushed a stray hair behind my ear. "Of course. Anything for you."

  Focusing today had already been difficult, but now it was an impossibility. Finn's warm magic swirled through me, the heated hand on my knee was only adding to my low boil. His fingers pressed against my skin, sliding up my thigh and taking some of my skirt with it. I jumped and gave him a look.

  He was playing with fire I was already jittery and needy knowing what was coming after this. He wasn't helping.

  When the bell rang I had to wait a minute to stand, breathing and shaking to hopefully get my blood moving in the right direction again.

  "Have fun," Finn whispered, squeezing my hand before he rose from the table and swept out of the cafeteria, giving me a mischievous grin right before he turned into the hallway.

  "You coming?" Scarlet asked, bag over her shoulder as the boys smacked each other over who knows what.

  "Yeah. On my way," I lied, my brain working overtime as I followed through the halls, trying to figure out how to get out of the gym and into the forest.

  Seems that Finn had already covered that part of the plan.

  "Don't worry," Scarlet said, holding the door open to the buzzing changing room, except that she wasn't holding it open for me. She was standing right in front of it. "I already got a great lie to cover for you. Go get banged… or whatever it is Finn has planned for you."

  Scarlet gave me a big grin and my jaw dropped, my jaw clicking as I tried to wrap my head around what she had said.

  "You're welcome." She laughed and grabbed my book bag from me before I ducked into the changing room, closing the door and leaving me standing alone in the hall.

  I stood with the faint echoes of a dozen classrooms and the sound of my heart as it thundered in my chest. The damn thing seemed to pull me to the large double doors and the redwood forest beyond.

  Tryst with a Vampire, here I come.

  I still wasn't in any shape to run, but that didn't stop me from speed hobbling my way out of the school and the aforementioned spot, red sticks already laid out. The paint was still wet and dripping in places, making it look a little bit too much like blood on the forest floor. Fitting considering what was waiting for me.

  Everything warmed at the thought, the spot on my back pulsing with the thoughts of his fangs pressing into me again.

  "Oh god." I attempted to take a cleansing breath and limped deeper into the forest, the towering trees rising around me and swallowing both the school and the sky with every step. Every slow, tripping, painful step. My body had not healed enough for this little hike through the forest, but I continued forward, knowing that there would be a vampire to carry me back. Or turn into a bat and fly me back. I wasn't sure how that worked. I would have to ask.

  Just like the sun thing. Thanks to the trees and Finn's flowers I hadn't seen him in the sun, so that was a real thing.

  Random questions formed in my mind as I followed stick after stick, weaving through the continually darkening forest as my wolf growled and purred and had her own bi-polar episode in my chest. I guess she was excited too. Maybe she could smell him or some shit.

  The sticks continued, until I faced a giant bank of the massive trunks, the redwoods growing so high, so dense, that it was as though I had hit a wall of wood, glittering fairy lights twinkling through the boughs high above, through the gap in the trunk right ahead.

  The gap that had a few of those red sticks sticking out of it.

  Okay, point taken.

  Legs weak, bruised body aching, I weaseled my way through the gap in the trunks, bursting into the clearing and onto the bed of pine needles thanks to my gimpy foot giving out and sending me face-first into the ground.

  I could have sworn that a bird was laughing at me from the trees.

  "Careful," a voice said above me, a hand extended down. A hand that was a bit too human colored.

  I jerked up, my heart falling to my toes.

  "Howl?" He smiled, my wolf gave a whoop of joy and I burst into tears. "No. Nononono. I can't be here. This can't be happening. Why would he do this?"

  I was immediately up and turning back towards the trees, ready to high tail it out of here.

  "No, Ivy, wait, please." I had only taken two steps when his hand wrapped around my forearm. I froze in place, not able to summon the strength to pull out of his soft touch. Away from his heat. Not wanting to. "Don't go."

  I could have sworn his voice cracked, but I didn't turn.

  "I have to. If they find us together… your father… your father will…" I slapped my hand against my mouth, trying to stifle the gasp of fear.

  "Kill you on the solstice." He whispered, his hand still on my arm. I slowly turned. "I know. That Fae told me. He said you asked him to help. To cast a spell or something. He… he… had another idea. Another way out of this."

  I didn't want to correct exactly what Finn's roll in this was. I didn't want to tell him that there wasn't a way out of this. Not unless it involved me and Finn and Saxon getting out of this shit hole. I couldn't find the words, so I stared at him as his hand fell down my arm, leaving a trail of lightning behind as he wrapped his fingers around mine. That same bird from before went crazy.

  "Mate yourself to me."

  I pulled my hand away, "What? Tha
t's exactly the thing that will get us both killed."

  "It's also the exact thing they can't break. You heard Nicky." He sighed, gripping my hand tighter. "Only because we aren't mated will they be able to break the bond. But if we are mated…" he slowly dropped down to one knee, the jerk he had been for months gone as he turned into the old school debonair, as the wolf I had seen and spoken to so many times before peered through his eyes.

  "Oh my god."

  "Ivy Potter," he said, ignoring my shocked expletive. "Will you take me as your mate. Will you bond yourself to me, to my wolf? To my future. To my pack. Will you let me take you as my own?"

  No. The answer was no. Everything about this was dangerous. Wrong. Frightening.

  No.

  No.

  No.

  "Yes." The word streamed out of its own accord, Howl instantly on his feet as he swept me into his arms, holding me tight as he tenderly lifted me against me. As, for the first time, he pressed his lips against mine.

  The smell of pine that drenched the forest was gone, the world was gone. There was only the smell of dirt and clouds, and air that was dripping with lilac. Howl's smell. Howl's wolf's smell.

  Floating desire flooded everything as my wolf growled, forcing me closer to him, my tongue dragging against his bottom lip. He groaned and captured it, tangling the kiss as his hands ran over my back, my shoulders, trailing under my school shirt. Ripping the thing off to reveal the red bra that at one point had been my favorite. Now it made the bruises look that much worse.

  Howl froze, his hands slowed, coming around the front to trace the marks that his father left. Judging by the amount of them, I had been beaten long after he had knocked me unconscious. I wasn't about to share that piece of information with him.

  "Ivy," he gasped, his hands still fluttered over the marred skin before they dropped, gripped his shirt and shed the white fabric to the ground.

  I gasped, hand to my mouth at the number of bruises, cuts, of lines that crisscrossed over him that were clearly from a whip. I tried to step away, not wanting to get locked in some scar-measuring match, but he grabbed my hand, pulling me back into him. Into the strong breadth of his chest.

  "They tried to tear us apart. They tried to mark our skin and hurt our wolves. They tried to beat our love out of us. They failed." His eyes were burning as he looked down at me, his hand intertwined with mine. "We may always bare these marks, but they only make us stronger. Stronger wolves. Stronger leaders. Stronger mates."

  "I will never let them hurt us again. Never let them tear us apart." I whispered, the words coming from my wolf as much as they were coming from me.

  He smiled, leaning down to kiss me as his free hand wound around my back, trailing up my spine to unhook my bra with one quick flick.

  "Done that before have you?" I teased, earning myself a smile as he stripped the bra from me and let it tumble to the ground. He unhooked the skirt just as easily, the ugly plaid fabric falling around my ankles and leaving me in lacy red underwear.

  "What are you--?" I only got half the question out, skirt and shirt now a ball of fabric on my feet, his thumb and forefinger pinching my nipple so tightly that I couldn't think straight. I heaved as the pleasurable pain ripped over me, the sensation growing as his fingers left the tender skin.

  "Mating you," he whispered, before he ducked down, capturing the erect nipple with his teeth and biting enough that I jumped, that I gasped. "Bedding my mate and claiming her as mine."

  I probably should tell him that he wasn't the first. I should warn him that my panties were wet for other reasons, but I couldn't find words as his lips darted lower, trailing a line of kisses over my stomach, against my hips, his nose nuzzling in the hair there as he pulled the red lace undies down my thighs. Over my knees. His face still buried against my pussy, warm breath rolling over the tender skin as he breathed me in. I moaned and his tongue darted out, flicking against my clit. Sucking. Biting.

  I moaned so loud a flock of birds zoomed into the sky as I fell to my knees.

  "More of that, then?" Howl asked as he caught me, carefully lowering me the rest of the way to the soft forest floor, laying me down and spreading my legs.

  "My beautiful wolf," he signed as he lowered his head back down to me. "My beautiful mate."

  His tongue pressed against my clit, biting it one last time before his warm rough tongue traced the tender flesh and pushing into me. Lapping at me.

  "Howl," I moaned in need as the pressure grew, the heat of his touch blossoming over me.

  His tongue circled out, darting over my clit, sucking at the tender flesh before he burrowed into me again. My fingers dug into the ground, pine needles and cold earth knotting between my fingers as his tongue dove into me, his teeth pressing against my clit. Back arching, I moaned, torn between pressing his head into me and gripping the earth for some stability. Neither would have been enough, his mouth was smothering every inch of the tender skin, drinking me, sucking with a raw need I never felt before.

  "Howl," I tried to say again, but the sound was more like a moan as my feral need won out and I gripped his head, pushing him against me. Begging him for more. Needing more.

  His wolf growled and obliged, his tongue lapping me up before darting back inside, pressing against every inch of hot flesh as he burrowed his face against me.

  I screamed as I came, his tongue pressing deeper before he pulled away, hovering over me with a smile before he lowered again, this time biting the skin above my hip.

  This was different than when Saxon had bitten me, the white heat of his canines straightening against my spine. There was no chill, no pulse of my blood. Instead, fire cut through me, my wolf howled in my chest. Howl growled as that line we had been connected with became a tether, an inflexible iron band between us.

  "Mine," Howl snarled with too much of his wolf as he lifted from my hip, his teeth colored with my blood.

  Without another word, he flipped me over, hoisting me on to my hands and knees. I was on all fours, rough pine needles pressing against my knees, digging into the palms of my hands as the grind of his zipper ripped through the air and his cock sprang free.

  The flash I had seen of him and Selene in the library had been an inaccurate description of what was waiting for me. Of what was being pressed against my entrance. There was a reason he had always been wearing pants with the pack.

  His massive dick felt like a fist as he held it, rubbing the wet tip against my swollen clit before he pressed it against the junction of my thighs, spreading me open.

  "Oh my god," I gasped as he gripped my hips, careful of the still bleeding bite as he pulled me against him. Pushed himself into me.

  The smell of pine and dirt was everywhere as I gripped the ground. I wanted to yell at him to stop, that he wouldn't fit, but I couldn't find words. I gasped as his impressive erection spread and filled me.

  "Mine," he snarled again, his wolf growling in my mind. "Take me, my mate. Let us become one. Together."

  Slowly, he pressed himself the rest of the way into me, allowing me to get used to the size of him. With each word, he pulsed a little bit, in and out. Slowly, tenderly. Fucking me inch by inch. His hands ran over my back, my sides, pulling me into him as he ground against me.

  My wolf growled in pleasure, my moan joining hers as he pushed himself fully into me, the two of us pressed together as he stayed there, pulsing and twitching inside of me.

  "My wolf," he whispered, his hands trailing over my sides to pull at my nipples as he kissed my back, leaving a line of heat up my spine.

  "My mate," I moaned in response, pressing myself against him, tilting my ass up to let him move deeper. He took the invitation and shoved himself against me.

  "Fuck me!" I screamed at the impact, at the pressure, at the twitch of his dick inside of me. "Please, Howl. Fuck me."

  "Gladly." His hands moved down my back, his strong fingers wrapping around my shoulders as he gently pressed my chest to the ground so that my ass was high and
spread for him. Giving him easily access to pound me.

  Quick, powerful thrusts that moved into me. One. After. Another.

  "Fuck!" I moaned, heaving and moaning with each thrust of his powerful cock, the pressure of hands against my shoulders and back growing as he held me. I didn't try to move out from under him. I didn't want to. I was only his. His to do with as he would please. To pleasure. To please.

  "My mate," he moaned, his erection swelling inside of me as pressure and heat fanned over my back. He pounded into me so hard I gasped, the high-pitched moan echoing over the trees as he lifted me, my back to his chest as his hands cupped my breasts, pressing and pinching the nipples as he continued to slide himself in and out, the pace slow now, gentle. Teasing.

  He wasn't pushing all the way in, now, it was just the tip of his dick throbbing and twitching against my swollen hungry opening.

  I need him inside of me, I missed him. I hungered for him. I tried to push myself down into him, forcing him to take me and fuck him as hard as he was. He angled away, chuckling darkly as I whimpered and tried again.

  "Do you want my cock inside you, Ivy?" He whispered in my ear, dark humor rumbling as he nudged himself into me, only to pull out when I tilted my hips hungrily toward him.

  "Yes." I moaned, trying again. I only gained an inch before he took away two. I was hungry for him, starving for him, no matter what I did, however, he wouldn't give in.

  "Please," I moaned, nearly begging as I sagged against him. "Please."

  "Why do you want me, Ivy?" He hissed in my ear, one hand wrapping around my breasts as the other darted down to the desperate swollen flesh. I tilted toward his fingers, needing him. He didn't touch my clit, however, but rather the skin above it. His fingers were soft as they pulled at the hair there. Tapping. Teasing. I heaved, trying to think straight. Think past my needy core, and the cock that was filling me, controlling everything.

  God. He had utter control of me. I wanted nothing more. I would do anything.

  "Touch me," I pleaded, the words a moan as I ground myself against him, pressing him into me. I needed him inside of me but again he pulled away.