Immortal Academy- The Complete Series

by S. L. Morgan

  The sun was beating down on us, and I lost track of time after I heard the other kids—the good kids—as they headed off to class after lunch. Five out of our group had dropped. They got a warning from Dom, and then they were back at it, all of us struggling to keep up with Dominic. Shit! I was never going to question where this guy got his muscular body from again. He was insanely powerful, and even though sweat was dripping from his soaking-wet hair, he was going on like he craved this sort of crap.

  The sun was moving behind the trees when everyone in the group—all but Dom and me—fell out of the drill-down. Dom’s eyes met mine, ignoring Gabe, who was throwing up off to the side where everyone else was gasping for air. I would say this was torture, but our head master was doing this right along with us. My wolf was encouraging me to end this so I could move tomorrow, but I was determined to beat the guy who’d shattered my heart and soul.

  I pinched my lips together, my arms and legs numb, my lungs burning, and I dug deep for more inner strength. I set my wolf mentally aside. She wasn’t in control of me wanting to prove to Dominic how stupid he was for letting me go. That’s when my other genetics kicked in without warning and juiced me right up. I felt renewed, restored, and energetic. I smiled at Dom’s blank expression and challenged him further by going faster.

  Oddly enough, Dom ended the drill-down right then and there. “You’re all done for the day. Shower up, change, and report to your designated dining tables. We’ll discuss this drill-down situation tomorrow.”

  I was the first to blast out of the location and hit the showers. Once relieved of the endless drill, I was starved, and the stale, disgusting bread and soup crap we ate sounded so good I’d actually compare its glorious sensation to eating a pie. Damn, I missed pie.

  After Dom doing what he did today to prove he wasn’t a bully, I freaking missed him so much it hurt. I hadn’t allowed myself to think about him in so long because part of me knew that I might crumble under the emotions I had for losing him…us. Grief was certainly not an emotion that I wanted the demon to have access to, so just like I’d been doing since I got back to this joke of a school, I shoved my negative feelings away.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Ageless Ball came and went. Instead of being mandated to serve everyone there, I was rewarded for good behavior by Dean Edgewater, and I was able to spend that night in the library, catching up on my homework and doing extra credit in hopes to get the hell out of this program.

  In fact, I was doing so well on the lame good-behavior program, that I was able to study during free time while the other kids in my troubled-shifters group were out with Dominic doing drill-downs—all of which Dominic now participated in. Dominic and I may have gone our separate ways, but he hadn’t changed into some stupid robot like I’d thought at the beginning of this ridiculous program. Instead, and without using my wolf instincts to discover it, I was reminded of who he really was.

  He was a badass. That was obvious to everyone at the school, and to me with every thought of him I had. He played the douche-Dom game well, but he was still Dominic Rossi. The guy I fell for—true mates or not—due to his sense of loyalty and his ability to prove he wasn’t the god everyone thought he was on campus. He wasn’t into bullying. He’d made that clear numerous times—mainly with those programmed human idiots who’d hurt Ethan—and he was making that perfectly clear to our group. Whatever he requested us to do, he now did along with the group. He was proving that he wasn’t going to require us to do something that he couldn’t or wouldn’t do.

  Dominic held to his master role well. He never once let down his guard, and he commanded us like we were all going to war with him someday. He was a fierce leader, and I was starting to understand why he was pushing us hard and why it seemed he was the biggest master shifter jerk on campus. It was the loyalty in him. He wouldn’t allow any of us to fail. It sucked, but I could finally see how he was handling us. He was a genius, but I already knew that, and now here I was, daydreaming about past times with him.

  God, I missed him.

  “Hey, Jenna,” Bradley, the sexy and rebellious bear shifter in our group came up to the corner I sat in, studying. “Mind if I join you?”

  I smiled up at his handsome face, looking into his bronze eyes. Damn, he was gorgeous.

  Keep it under wraps, Jenna.

  “Sure. I’m studying about the vamps, so I might whisper a bad word or two.”

  He set his fairy lore book in front of my opened one and glanced at my pages. “Why vamps don’t need blood to survive?” He cracked a smile that hit me like Dom’s used to. “Wasn’t that the first lesson we learned after getting our books this year?”

  “So, you’re a second-year student too?” I asked, wondering why I hadn’t noticed the kid before this group we’d been thrown into together.

  “Yep. This year screwed me hard the first day back from vacation too.” He laughed. “All the changes were enough to have me shift and go hibernate until school was out.”

  I softly chuckled. “How’d you get thrown into the crappy kids’ group? What’d you do?”

  “Argued with the watchman of our dorms for making me bunk with some idiot who I’ve hated since high school. It’s almost like the school paired everyone up with the people they hate the most. I found out I wasn’t the only one who was assigned a bunkmate they couldn’t stand.”

  “No kidding. Well, I’m in on that. I’m bunking with some chick who’s had it out for me since Dom…” I stopped myself. “Since she got jealous that I dated some dude she liked.”

  “Master Dominic?” He arched an eyebrow at me that highlighted his brown hair and defined the simple features of his face. “I heard about you two. Weren’t you both like true mates or something?”

  “That’s the rumor,” I answered, looking back at my book and seeing only Dom’s face looking back at me now in my mind.

  “Intense. I’m sorry that didn’t work out. I’ve yet to meet my true mate, but I heard once you do, it’s something that’s so grounded for shifters that you can’t separate the two. Guess since it didn’t work out for you both, maybe he wasn’t the one.”

  I pinched my lips together. “So it would seem.”

  “I also heard you had some trouble on your vacation,” he said.

  Now, he had my attention. “What are you talking about? Who told you that?”

  “Some chick told me. She knows one of your friends…Tanner, I think?” he looked at me in question. “That kid told his fairy girlfriend what happened and how Master Dominic kind of saved you, I guess.”

  “I haven’t said two words to Tan since I’ve been back here and split up from all my friends. How would he have known anything that happened to me?”

  “So, it’s true, then? Master Dominic’s wolf helped you? What happened? I’ve never heard of a shifter so worried about their weight that they starved themselves. Thank God, Master Dominic stepped in and could help. I swear he must be lying about his age. He acts like he’s been walking the Earth since the dawn of time.”

  I was frozen, staring blankly at this Bradley kid.

  “You there?” he asked.

  “I’m here. I’m kind of shocked at how that crazy rumor got started, that’s all.”

  “Meh,” he shrugged. “Fairies can be such trifling, conniving little things. Usually, if I hear something and find it came from a fairy’s mouth, I don’t give it too much credit.”

  “But you believed this?” I asked.

  The kid got somewhat uncomfortable, and it had to be because of the way I was talking to him. “I didn’t believe the hot chick who was dating Dominic Rossi was starving herself out on purpose, but I did believe the fact that he most likely helped you.”

  “Well, none of it happened. Tanner’s spreading crap because his dumb butt screwed up like the first day in when he shifted in front of a human to impress the chick.” I rolled my eyes but was so pissed I couldn’t think straight. “Sounds like his fairy girlfriend at the time hit the rumor
button and decided to make me the butt of her jokes, I guess.”

  “Listen, it’s really not that big of a deal. From the look on your face, you look like you’re ready to kill someone. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “I’m just sick of everything. I’m sick of how in a blink of an eye, everything in my life changed when this school changed this year. Then we get blamed for those idiots on the panel saying we need to be held an extra year in? I’m so over it. I’m alone, I miss my friends, I miss what was normal to me.” I stood up and shut my book closed, “I have no idea why I’m dumping my emotional baggage on you. I’ve got to go.”

  “Hey, it’s cool.”

  “No, it’s not,” I answered.

  My wolf seemed to be annoyed. I was leaving the bear shifter, and I mentally shut her down at my command. I wasn’t dealing with her crap now too. Because of my wolf having a damn mind of her own, I was in this position.

  I turned to leave and was shocked to see Dominic sitting with Kat, Lusa, Scott, and Ian at a table across from us. What the hell were the good kids doing in here? Studying? For what, being better than the ones who were keeping them at this school an extra year?

  “Hey, Jenna!” Lusa smiled at me while Kat leaned into a glaring Dominic.

  “How’s it going?” I said in passing.

  “I haven’t seen you at all this year. I miss my old roommate.”

  “Talk to your brother, I’m sure he can fill you in on why the school separated all the bad apples from the rest of you.” I looked at Dominic, whose face was unreadable, and Kat was fueling my rage by draping an arm over his shoulder like they were actually together. “You and Kat make a cute couple,” I said and immediately felt stupid for saying it. “See you later. I’m out of here.”

  “Bye, Jen!” Kat said, using the name that no one got away with using except for Dominic.

  I left the library, and out of habit since I’d gotten back from vacation, I snuck around the back to see if anything terrible had fired up again with the student murders at the school.

  Nothing. Good. At least the school’s death monster was quiet.

  In walking into my empty dorm room, I finally did it. I lost it. I broke down into tears, and I let the void I’d been ignoring since losing Dom hit me. I absorbed the pain, hoping this was the trick to getting over him. Was Dominic really with Kat? Most likely not. She wasn’t his type, no matter how beautiful she was. She was an annoying bitch, and I was shocked she wasn’t in the remedial class with me.

  I threw my school uniform into my laundry basket and slipped on long pajama pants and a tank top. The weather was starting to cool, and so, it was getting close to me living in hoodies and pants when not wearing our uniforms.

  I climbed onto my bed, laid my head on my pillow, and let the tears spill out of my eyes. I needed to get this all out before Kat waltzed into the room, going on and on about her and Dominic. I was trembling and at the point of wanting to shift into my wolf to get rid of this hatred, sorrow, jealousy, and confusion.

  I had the wolf under control, and so the whole Dom beating the wolf into submission game I thought he was playing early on clearly wasn’t a game. He’d achieved me putting the wolf in her place, but he never once acknowledged it or came around. I knew he sensed it too. There’s no way after everything we went through on summer vacation that he wouldn’t be watching for this life-changing event.

  “Jenna,” Kat’s voice was enough to crack my freaking skull. “You asleep?”

  I didn’t turn. I didn’t move. I wasn’t listening to this. I wasn’t going down this road. For the first time since being pissed, I was officially losing it and feeling that demon more than I ever had before.

  “Jen!” she said the name I hated louder. “You can’t be asleep already.”

  Silence.

  “Fine, I’ll leave this right here. It’s a note from Ethan. I’m shocked the owl shifter even wants anything to do with you, much less write you a letter,” she said in an annoyed voice. “She’s asleep. Tell Ethan I gave her the note, though,” she said to someone in the hallway in some fake, weird voice that made me want to scream at her to shut the hell up.

  Ethan. I missed that kid as much as I missed Dominic. It had been almost an hour before Kat stopped mumbling to herself and was finally taking long, rhythmic breaths. Thank God in heaven, she was asleep.

  I turned and quietly opened the letter that sweet Ethan wrote. I had to reel in my emotions big time because I was a mess. Anything he might have written in this letter could do me in, and then I’d have Kat’s nosy ass up and trying to find out what was going on. No way.

  Dear Jenna,

  Hi, friend. I miss you a lot. Dominic says you are better. I am better too. Tonight, I want to talk to my friend. I will stay hidden in the silent trees and hope to see you.

  You are a good person, Jenna Silvers.

  Ethan.

  My eyes filled with tears. I had to get out of the room for fear of crying, and I was ready to race down to the trees to find Ethan. All I wanted was one of my friends back, and I was actually blessed that it was Ethan who’d reached out.

  I concealed myself as much as I could while running down to the trees. I was too late, though. I paced up and down through the forest of trees, softly calling for Ethan, but nothing. Damn it!

  “After all this work, you still can’t control that mouth of yours?”

  There was humor, sadness, and curiosity in the voice of the one man I didn’t expect to see. I turned to see Dominic step out of the shadow of the trees, studying me with an expression that made me gulp in shock and confusion. Our eyes locked, and when I opened my mouth to say something, tears got in the way of the words I wanted to scream at him. I couldn’t do anything I’d promised myself I would do if I were ever given a chance to be alone with him again.

  I couldn’t catch a freaking break tonight. Now, here I was, looking into Dominic’s eyes, the eyes I hadn’t seen in what felt like an entire school year. To make it all worse, the tears were blurring my vision of the man I fell in love with and missed more than I really knew.

  What did he want? Where was Ethan? Not another freaking confusing turn of events!

  Chapter Fourteen

  I had so many things lined up and ready to ask Dom, and here I was, totally braindead without one thought coming to mind while I stood there, staring at him and trying to process this shocking moment.

  “I never once believed it could be possible…” He trailed off and ran a hand through his black hair, eyes troubled and face strained.

  Please say the corny phrase…you never thought it could be possible to love me more than you do right now, I mentally begged him.

  Oddly enough, his expression never changed in response to my thoughts, making me more nervous about being around him than ever.

  “Possible?” I questioned when he, for the first time since we broke up, didn’t answer or react to my internal thoughts.

  He walked toward me, and I leaned into his hand as he ran it along my cheek. I didn’t realize how much I missed his gentle touch.

  “It’s all true, then,” he said, eyes more mysterious than I’d ever seen them. He let out a ragged breath. “Oh my God, what did I do? To you—to us?”

  “I understand why I’m in the troubled kids’ program, Dominic. I get it.” I smiled and pulled his hand from my face and held it like I was holding a treasure I was never going to let go. “It worked.” I smiled into his sorrowful eyes, “I’ve got the wolf right where she needs to be. It wasn’t easy with all the stuff I’ve been going through, but it put me in a position to finally get myself pulled together. I’ve even kept all of my negative feelings as far away as possible through it all. The demon is totally caged up.”

  He smiled, but the smile didn’t change his troubled expression. “I’m happy about that,” he softly said, staring down at where I held his stiff hand. “It all came at a cost, and a cost that I never believed was possible. I screwed up, Jen.”

  “Yo
u need to fill me in on this one because I’m done with being so damn confused that I can’t think straight. What did you screw up? My wolf is under my control now. That was the whole point to this crazy new nightmare I’ve been living in, right?”

  “It’s not possible that once true mates find each other, they could lose each other too.” He pressed his lips together. “Your wolf,” he said in a low voice, “she no longer calls to mine.”

  “What?” I snapped. “What are you saying? What everyone else is saying? That we’re done for real?”

  “It wasn’t my wolf that determined this. It was yours. Whatever this training did, it detached her and you from my wolf and me. Can’t you feel that our bond no longer exists?”

  I was dumbfounded this was actually happening—he was literally admitting we weren’t true mates. All the crap I ignored from the whispers around the school. The Dom and Jenna break-up seemed to be the highlight reel continuously buzzing around campus, and now Dom was admitting this shit was all true?

  I swallowed hard before trying to answer this BS. “Dom, we are true mates. I will set my wolf straight if it’s her throwing a tantrum again. I’m not losing you.”

  “You’ll never lose me,” he answered. “This isn’t a matter of you setting your wolf straight either. It’s your wolf coming into herself as your humbled inner beast. She’s reacting only how you want her to.”

  “Well, I don’t want her to cut off our bond,” I answered, still confused. “You’re right. True mates never end like this unless they were never mates in the first place.” I wanted to throw up after admitting what I thought was going on.

  “Exactly, but I felt it, we both did. At Dark Water and here too. Hell,” he gripped the back of his neck, “I felt it more than ever when I went in to get you back from that wolf’s control on vacation. I can’t figure out how this ended. What did I do to cause you to feel that I wasn’t your mate?”