Summer Semester (Omega Wolf Academy Book 1)

by JJ King

  Stupid, I chided myself. Stupid to leave them there. But what choice did I have? I’d had to move and rooting around in a dresser would have slowed me down. I couldn’t waste time or energy regretting the past, I had to focus on what to do next.

  At the bottom of the stairs, I had a choice. Left or right. I darted left, hoping it would lead to something useful. It led me down a long corridor decorated with dusty wallpaper, and into a dilapidated kitchen.

  “Score,” I murmured almost silently, needing to celebrate my find but not wanting to make any noise. The floorboard above me creaked ominously as Randall began to move towards me.

  I scanned the ancient room, willing a knife, or gun, or chainsaw to show up. “Damnit,” I grumbled when nothing popped out at me.

  Except an old door.

  I rushed to it, limping now from abused muscles that hadn’t had time to heal. I thought about shifting into my wolf but the sound of Randall’s halting gait down the stairs set my heart racing and I knew that I didn’t have time. Once I was outside and found a place to hide, I could shift and be free.

  My fingers closed around the doorknob and I pulled with all my might, praying it wouldn’t be sealed shut like the window.

  It groaned loudly but swung wide open. I sucked in a breath and looked out at the trees. They were thick, the perfect place to hide, but also far away and I had no idea if Randall had a gun.

  “I hope you fucking like silver, bitch! Because you’ll be eating it soon.” He screamed as he descended the stairs.

  Well, that answered that question.

  I stepped through the open doorway, dug my feet into the ground leading out to the forest, then carefully slipped back into the house, leaving the door wide open. I didn’t know if it was smart or not, but I’d seen it on an episode of some show and had thought it clever at the time. Bait and switch.

  A dark passageway led to another door, this one already open. I wouldn’t have to worry about it creaking. I thanked the Old Ones for my lupine sight and took the first step into darkness.

  As slowly as I could, I made my way down another set of stairs to a dank basement where light came to die. Even with my enhanced eyesight, it was almost impossible to see anything. I chewed my lips and moved silently around the room, patting the walls, searching for a door or window.

  Upstairs, I heard Randall’s growl of frustration then his voice fading as he followed my tracks and left the house. I said a quick thank you to the Old Ones for watching over me and kept searching.

  When my palm touched something metal, I took a deep breath and patted the area like a blind woman, trying to figure out what the object was. Finding the latch nearly made me sob. Randall’s shouts were still audible, louder now that he was back inside the house, so if I could just open this door quietly, I could get the fuck away from him.

  I worked the latch, careful not to make a sound, and winced when the hinges, probably unused for years, groaned as I opened the wooden door. The scent of pre-dawn breeze filled my lungs with renewed hope.

  I climbed the few stairs, glanced to each side, then turned towards the forest and willed myself to run.

  Each step was a step close to freedom, to my guys, to life.

  I’d made it ten steps when my world exploded.

  Chapter 22

  I threw my hands out as I fell and screamed in agony as a bullet tore through my thigh. Rocks tore up my palms as I hit the ground and prayed for salvation.

  Sharp, manic laughter filled the air, making my stomach churn as pain radiated through my leg and up my side. I rolled to my back and tried to sit up, desperate to see the damage, to know if the bullet had been silver.

  If it were, I would be dead soon.

  Movement sent shocks of pain through my system, making my heart thunder. I heard Randall walking towards me, heard his taunting words, but blocked everything out.

  My shorts were high cut, so I didn’t need to rip them away to expose the bullet wound. They were soaked, though, with the bright red blood that poured from the hole in my thigh. I gasped for breath, praying for strength as I gently probed the area with my fingertips to see if it was silver or not.

  The wound hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, I realized a moment later, but it wasn’t caused by a silver bullet. I’d been tortured with silver way too many times in my life to be fooled. Still, I thought, as I angled my gaze towards Randall, who was still holding the gun in his hand, I was young and could be killed by a bullet, any bullet, if it hit the right spot.

  I narrowed my eyes as he approached, stopping a few feet away from me. He was hiding something behind his back, and the wicked grin on his face, reflected in the bright glint of insanity in his eyes, made my blood curdle.

  "You can run, but you can't hide," he said with a laugh.

  I seriously wondered how he'd managed to pull off a kidnapping when he was obviously so close to the edge of a mental breakdown if he hadn't already leaped over that cliff. I had some suspicions that he'd not only made the jump some time ago, but that he'd been falling for half his lifetime.

  "You can't kill me," I blurted, hoping I was right. "You'll lose your leverage if you do." I glanced from him back down to my leg, where blood flowed freely. I needed to apply pressure, or he wouldn't have to kill me. I'd bleed out soon enough. I grabbed the edge of my shirt and ripped off a long swath of fabric, and folded and pressed it over the wound, hissing as pain washed over me, threatening to drag me under. I fought against the lure of the darkness. Unconsciousness might make the pain go away, but it would also give this maniac free reign over my body.

  Randall tapped his chin then spread his hand as if conceding I'd made a fair point. "You're right, but I don't need you dead. I just need you to stop squirming." He pulled out what he'd been hiding behind his back, and chuckled as I went silent and still. "What? You didn't think I'd forget about this little detail, did you?"

  The long old-fashioned garden shears were rusted from years of neglect, and stained green from frequent use. Still, they were sharp, steel, and deadly.

  Why couldn't I have found them first?

  I forced myself to keep breathing, to calm my racing pulse. The fucker was going to cut off one of my fingers, and soon, if I didn't figure out a way to stop him. Freaking out and hyperventilating wasn't going to provide me the answers I needed.

  I glared at him. "I figured maybe your fucked-up brain might forget or that, you know, I'd be in the forest by now, getting away." I fluttered my fingers towards the trees and wished my plan had worked. My wolf pushed against my mind, trying to assert herself and take over, but I pushed her back. Shifting would make me vulnerable, too, and I couldn't give Randall an excuse to fire another bullet into my flesh, not when this one hurt so fucking bad.

  He advanced a step and I scuttled back, moving as quickly as I could while ignoring the pain coursing through my body.

  “You were never going to get away, Alexis,” he said simply, quietly. The sudden switch in his behavior, the shift from manic to utter calm, was striking. It threw me so completely that I froze, unable to think clearly enough to figure it out, to think up my next move.

  That split-second distraction was my ruin.

  Randall moved like a cobra, darting forward so fast my astonished brain didn't have time to respond. His fingers wrapped around my ankle, pinning my leg to the ground for a moment, just long enough for his knee to replace it.

  I screamed as his weight bore down on my legs, taking away my escape. I balled my hands into fists and pummeled him, but he was stronger, and bigger, and crazier than me. His fist struck my chin and drove me to the ground, dazed.

  He hovered above me, lips thinned and curved slightly at the edges. "This will hurt more if you struggle." He grabbed the shears from where they lay beside me and shifted his weight to pin the remainder of my body so I couldn't fight back.

  This was it, I thought somewhere in the back of my mind as panic and pain mingled, too dark and dangerous to distinguish separately.

 
; No, I fought back against the defeatist thought. This wasn't it; this wasn't the end for me. He'd take a finger, but I'd survive, and I'd find a way to escape with my life. I'd get back to my guys, one way or another.

  Randall's hand curved around my wrist, pulling back my fingers to expose my pinky. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head away, not wanting to see. I felt the metal shear move around my finger and let my mind escape into memory.

  I didn’t have far to go. The best moments of my life had occurred so recently that they popped back into my mind with such clarity it brought tears to my eyes.

  Lucian pulling me behind a tree at the swimming hole for a lingering kiss that set my blood on fire, then holding my hand as we joined the others for a dip.

  Chase grabbing me around the waist and pulling me in for a hug as water lapped at our skin. His skin had smelled of summer.

  Dimitri snagging my hand as we headed back to campus, wet and happy, and still arguing over where the best ice cream could be found. He’d laced his fingers through mine and rubbed his thumb over my skin. It was simple but had made my soul soar.

  All four of us in the forest as wolves, running beneath the full moon.

  I’d see them again, I swore to myself. I’d do anything to get back to them.

  The howl that split the countryside air, making Randall jerk upright and turn, made my heart leap. I knew that howl. It was as much a part of me as my own wolf.

  Two other howls joined the first, low and throaty, and pulsing with fury.

  Something hit Randall, hard. His body was flung off me, thrown to the ground then covered a split-second later by a mass of white fur and razor-sharp teeth. The wolf snarled and snapped an inch away from Randall’s face, then turned his head and looked at me.

  “Chase,” I whispered, recognizing one of the men I desperately loved.

  A glint of sunlight reflecting on metal flashed beneath Chase’s body, and my eyes went wide as I realized that Randall still held the garden shears. He swung them up with as much leverage as he could manage.

  “No!” The scream ripped from my throat, but it was too late.

  Chase’s howl of pain tore at my heart and had Dimitri and Lucian snarling as they finally appeared from around the side of the house.

  Randall grunted and shoved Chase off him, then rose to his knees and lifted the shears above his head. Before he could swing them down, a large wolf, black as night, tackled him, driving him to the ground, and clamped his teeth over Randall’s wrist.

  The shears fell and were instantly splattered in blood. Randall’s roar of rage shifted to sharp screams of pain as Dimitri moved his teeth from arm to throat. Then the screams faded and were replaced by gurgling and gasps.

  Dimitri lifted his head and turned to look at me, his muzzle wet with blood. I opened my arms to him and wept into the mass of fur that immediately moved to me.

  “Chase,” Lucian said, a moment later. He’d shifted while Dimitri was ending a life. “I know it hurts, but you need to shift. It’ll help heal the wound.”

  I pulled back from Dimitri and pulled myself closer to where Chase lay panting on the ground. “Hey, gorgeous,” I murmured, stroking his fur. “Listen to Lucian. You need to shift to heal.” I smiled wearily. “I do, too, so we can do it together, okay?”

  He nodded and closed his eyes.

  My wolf was there the moment I turned to her, eager and ready to leap forward. Agony pulsed hot in my thigh as my bones began to rearrange, my muscles to shift and change. The magic that made us wolves and human raced through me, remaking me, knitting my lacerated muscles back together and pushing the bullet free. It fell silently to the bloodied ground beneath me as I pushed to my feet, furry and still in pain, but already much better.

  I brushed past Dimitri, nuzzling Lucian for a moment, before nudging Chase with my wet nose. His naked body shivered from blood loss, but the wound was closing and would be close to healed after a few more shifts. I butted my head against his shoulder and licked his cheek.

  His hand lifted to smooth over the fur on my hind leg, which was still tender. His stroke was gentle and hesitant, as if he were afraid to hurt me, and his eyes… Old Ones, his eyes swam with emotion that nearly broke me. I leaned into his hand and licked him again.

  “Okay,” he said with a rough laugh. “Let’s go again. Won’t be so bad this time.”

  He shifted while I made the change from wolf to human then sat on the grass with Dimitri and Lucian pressed against me, their hearts still racing from fear and adrenaline. I moved my fingers through their thick fur and willed myself not to weep and confess my undying love for each of them. They needed time, I remembered, and I would give it to them. They deserved whatever they needed.

  They’d saved my life, after all.

  They’d saved me in more ways than one, I thought as I watched Chase climb to his feet and turn towards us. They’d chased away the darkness that haunted my soul or accepted it and made me feel whole. Chase padded towards us and settled his considerable weight across my now healed thighs. He reached out his paws and touched Dimitri and Lucian, linking us in a perfect circle.

  My body vibrated and my chest seemed to stretch, filling precariously until it was almost painful to breathe. I gasped and pressed a hand over my heart while each of my guys leaped to their feet and stared at me with looks of wonder lighting their faces.

  The sun broke the horizon and peeked across the countryside, casting her glowing rays on us. I moved my awed gaze from Lucian, to Chase, to Dimitri and recognized what filled me, near to bursting, in each of them.

  Hot tears of joy spilled from my eyes and washed away the pain and fear of the past few hours, of the past few days, weeks, months, my life. It all dulled in comparison to the realization that had passed through each of us the moment we’d linked as one.

  I had three soul mates.

  My soul had found her missing pieces, in three gorgeous, sexy, completely different guys.

  My wolf preened.

  A sob escaped my throat and I shook my head, unable to put into words what I was feeling. So, instead, I opened my arms and they rushed forward, surrounding me with my destiny.

  NEXT IN OMEGA WOLF ACADEMY…

  Will Lexi’s newfound happiness last or will the darkness of her past rise again to threaten her life and the lives of those she loves? Find out in Fall Semester, the second book in the Omega Wolf Academy series!

  A defeated enemy, a new threat on the horizon, and three hot guys to drive her crazy.

  Lexi’s first semester at Omega Wolf Academy was anything but relaxing. She was plagued by her past, captured by an insane wolf, and discovered she has not one, but three soul mates.

  The threat to her life is gone now and, despite the challenges of having three soul mates, Lexi’s life is perfect, after a lifetime of fear and pain. But perfection doesn’t last long, or so she discovers.

  The past isn’t buried or left in peace. A new threat rises its ugly head, this time threatening not just her, but her sisters and her friends. Will Lexi find the strength to fight back for the future she’s building with Dimitri, Lucian, and Chase, or will the darkness devour her and those she loves?

  Follow Lexi and her gorgeous men in the second book in Omega Wolf Academy, Fall Semester.

  EXPLORE JJ KING’S EXPANDED WOLF WORLD WITH THE GUARDIANS TRILOGY & ALPHA WOLF ACADEMY!

  Trouble's brewing in the pack... and Katherine is willing to risk her life if that's what it takes to save her family.

  When Katherine LaFlamme is summoned home by her father, the Alpha of the North American wolf pack, she drops everything and answers the call. Despite her desire to experience the human world before she settles down, Katherine is fiercely loyal and, as the pack's best tracker, she's an essential part of stopping the darkness encroaching on their territory.

  A hunter has invaded their territory and murdered several of their kind, while a rogue wolf has been stalking the female members of the LaFlamme family. To make matters worse, a
secondary claim to the Alphaship of North America has risen, setting the entire pack on edge.

  Then Katherine meets a mysterious wolf named Quinn and things begin to get interesting... and very deadly. Katherine and Quinn are swept up in a puzzle of ancient rites, prophecies, and mythic lore which reveals that there's more to both of them than first meets the eye.

  THEN DIVE RIGHT INTO ALPHA WOLF ACADEMY!

  An elite shifter academy, a hot guy, an arch-nemesis, and a whole shitload of trouble.

  Elena Jensen doesn't belong at Alpha Wolf Academy, the most prestigious shifter university in North America, but that's her reality and she's determined to make the best of it.

  When she meets a guy with emerald eyes and dark, wavy hair that makes her start rethinking her disbelief in soul mates, Elena's opinion of AWA changes. Although, she'd feel better about her place in the social order if her crush's twin sister wasn't trying to destroy her reputation and get her expelled.

  Elena's already shaky foundation is pulled out from under her when the academy is besieged by soldiers and she chooses to put herself in danger to save lives.

  When it's life or death, the enemy of your enemy is your friend... or at least, Elena hopes so. Because more than just her life depends on it.

  ALSO WRITTEN BY JJ KING

  THE GUARDIANS TRILOGY

  Blood of Eden

  My Brother’s Keeper