Immortal Academy- The Complete Series

by S. L. Morgan

  I stopped, the snow coming up to the middle of my wolf legs, and tilted my head to eye the white fluff. I brought my snout to the snow for the first time and felt a coolness wash through my wolf’s entire body. I felt an energy of excitement hit me like a gust of wind. My energy level soared, and as if I was sniffing the fairy dust itself, my mental state changed into an excited, playful, and highly energetic nature.

  Dom’s wolf slowly approached, his head dropped, and I could tell his wolf had hit a more playful side as well. I had no idea what this snow had in it, but it was easy to see both mine and Dom’s wolves were about to turn from fierce apex predators into frisky pups.

  I bounded out of the snow, my wolf catching Dom’s off guard and thrusting him into the snow. I leapt from where I’d knocked him off balance and pranced higher up the mountainside. I felt Dom’s wolf leaping up to my side, then with one leg and his snout, his large wolf tackled me and buried me into a deep mound of snow.

  The black wolf playfully jumped away, spun around, and pawed the snow as it waited for me to come after him. The chase was on as both wolves tackled and buried each other in the snow, and every now and then, they took a bite of the icy substance.

  While the two wolves playfully went on like this until the sun disappeared, I finally gained the courage to peek into my wolf’s state of mind. With her in playful mode with Dom’s wolf, I trusted myself to finally feel how this severed magic bond was affecting my wolf. Until now, it seemed as though my fairy-witch magic was dealing with this situation on its own, keeping me from feeling the yearning my wolf would have been experiencing.

  In allowing myself to feel her and what she had felt, the sense of loss was devastating. It was like Dom had mentioned, it was a feeling of losing a piece of your soul and the feeling of never having that union again. Her grief was there, but I also sensed an aura of magic—my magic that I hadn’t consciously used on her. It was surrounding her and keeping her stable. Thank God!

  The playful feeling the wolf was experiencing by rolling around and play-fighting with her black alpha was a liberation she needed. Dom’s wolf was in the same spirits too. His wolf was entirely opened to her, and it was almost as if they were never affected by the void they were suffering with.

  I was brought to when my wolf stood there, the black alpha of Dom’s wolf now exerting his alpha behavior toward his mate. The black wolf stepped toward my perfectly still one and cowered his head to give her full alpha over him. His submissive behavior drew my wolf’s spirit closer to his as his head rubbed under my wolf’s neck, and that’s when I heard the powerful alpha whimper in sadness. My wolf eyed the silver and brown irises of Dom’s wolf, and I felt her wishing she knew how to give her mate the power we had with our magic.

  It was a sadness that made my wolf suddenly howl in grief for her hurting and broken mate. Damn it, this is worse than I thought! Over and over again, my wolf rubbed along Dom’s wolf, reassuring him she was his and they were mates, but I could sense it wasn’t easing the anguish of the alpha wolf. I had to shut my wolf up, or the next thing we knew, we’d have Dom’s dad out here in wolf form, and I could sense that Dom’s wolf would fall under the dominant alpha. Once Mark Rossi caught on to the weakness the black wolf had while with my wolf, we’d be forced to shift back and explain what the hell had caused his son to lose his true alpha spirit.

  I took off toward the lodge, unable to go on with the wolves in this state. As I pranced back, Dom’s wolf now leading the way, things started to add up in my head with Dom’s behavior. Instead of showing grief, he showed frustration and anger in his natural state. The wolf was reaching out to his mate only with that grief, but just in his wolf’s behavior alone, it explained a lot.

  I’d always admired Dom’s supreme discipline, his controlled mannerisms, and behavior in everything he did. It all changed after he took out that demon in me, but it got worse when that damn leprechaun managed to drive a wedge right between us.

  It was easy to see that if Dom and I weren’t going to heal this sensation in him, he was going to be a very pissed off and unreasonable asshole to everyone until the void he was experiencing was filled. He was doing an excellent job of keeping this to himself, but I had noticed his personality changing, becoming more aggressive with each and every day that we had been separated.

  It made perfect sense as to why he was so challenging at the dinner table tonight. Even though Mark Rossi was being an asshole about us, he also seemed to be acting in a true-to-form alpha and parent role. Dom was edgy throughout the entire meal. The only way I knew how to help him now was to provide him the closeness that shifters needed.

  That was the comfort and reassurance I knew my mate needed, and it was up to me to be the stronger one to help him. Dom was becoming weaker—I saw it in his wolf—and I was going to take my part in our alpha connection to protect and help heal him.

  Could I control my own emotions with all of this? Dom had helped save my wolf before, and now, it was my turn to give to my mate what he needed. I needed to help him feel the closeness of claiming his mate—without going to that extreme—and hope with every last ounce of fairy-witch magic I had in me, that I could help fix this broken side of my man. We had no chance in hell of defeating the energy at Immortal Academy if Dom’s wolf was hindered by this mess.

  We shifted back in the pool rooms that were off to the side of a massive pool. I grabbed a fluffy robe and walked out to where Dom had a towel cinched around his waist.

  Damn it! I was doing really good with my big plans until I saw him wearing only the freaking white towel. He validated how I really needed to tap into my magic to stay in control when he flashed a stunning smile that made him look softer and more attractive than ever.

  “Your wolf loves the snow, but do you?”

  I reached my arms up around his neck. “I can’t tell you how much I do. It was the most real thing I’ve felt in my entire life.”

  Dom’s lips brushed over my forehead, and his hands clasped together at my lower back. “You have seriously never experienced the human world in any way?” he asked.

  My eyes locked with his curious brown ones. “Never. All I remember is growing up with witches, fairies, shifters, and vamps in these stupid schools.”

  He ran a hand over my head, and that’s when his mood shifted immediately to rage. “If I could have taken out that oracle myself, I would have.” His eyes grew more severe, “I planned to, damn it.”

  I reached for his face. “Dom,” I said softly. “Relax. I’m fine, and from what I know, all she did was try to protect us. I’m not pissed about it.”

  “She’s the reason we can’t remember shit about what or who we were together. If she was a more powerful oracle—” he gritted his teeth together, exhaled, and looked out in the distance.

  “Dominic, whatever you’re thinking, she didn’t do it.”

  “If she were strong enough, we would have never found each other past all her bullshit,” he seethed and let me go.

  I watched him walk toward the iron fence that surrounded the pool grounds and look out at the valley below. He ran both hands through his hair, and I could see every muscle tensed and flexed in his arms and back.

  “We’re okay, though,” I softly said, walking up to him. “Hey, why don’t we go chill in the room and get your mind off all this negative stuff.’

  Dom sighed. “I’ll be up in a few.” He never looked at me. “Are you okay to go inside for now? I need a second alone.”

  “We’re going to get through this, you have to know that.” My voice became sterner. “You’re not going to stand out here all pissed off and think you’re going to fix anything alone.”

  “I know exactly what I need to do to fix it, Jenna.” He growled, then looked at me with that angered expression he gave his dad all throughout our brief dinner together. “You know exactly what I’m talking about, too. That leprechaun succeeded in screwing me up, and now I don’t even trust myself around you.”

  “Don’t brin
g up that bitch again,” I shot back. “I’m here now, and I trust myself. The question is, do you trust me?”

  Dom nodded, “I trust you more than myself these days.”

  “Good, in case you forgot, I’m an alpha too with the fun addition of witch and fairy magic all wrapped up in one.” I smiled at his softening expression. “Listen, I know you’re struggling, but I’m going to help you get through this struggle. I promise.” I reached my hand up and through his hair. “I will take care of you and help curb this anger, craving, and unstable side of you.”

  Dom’s eyes closed while he sighed. “I’m trying my hardest to get through this. Damn that school and everything that has stopped what fate had in store for you and me.”

  “Has in store.” I rubbed his arm. “Come with me. You promised a soak in that tub, and even though I hate soaking in water, I’m down for it.”

  “Alright,” he answered. “Let me grab some swim trunks and clothes from my room, and I’ll meet you there.” His mood shifted in a flash again when he smiled, “You may think you have a handle on me, but trust me when I say, we should probably keep it to swimsuits or keeping all our clothes on right now.”

  “We’ll see,” I teased as we interlaced our fingers and walked through a side entrance to the massive lodge.

  Chapter Six

  I felt Dom’s energy of rage before I heard his three swift knocks to my door, and I couldn’t open it fast enough. Dom’s eyes were fierce, his features were hardened, and I couldn’t imagine what might’ve happened within the last thirty minutes that would’ve prompted such a sudden mood change.

  “I need you to use your magic, and seal up this door.” He turned to me while tossing a handful of clothes across the room toward the bed.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “Just do it, damn it! Seal it up.”

  “Don’t use that tone with me,” I snapped at his alpha voice.

  “Jenna, please, seal the thing up.”

  “Fine. I’m not great at this, though. I only know how to cloak things.”

  I reached my hand out toward the door, following my instincts to pull from this magic I had in me. I followed the first thought to enter my head, which was manipulation. I focused hard on my magic—the magic I hardly knew how to work—but the angered voices from Edgewater and Dom’s dad echoing from downstairs were filling my mind and blocking my meditation.

  “Damn it, Jen!” Dom growled. “You can do this.”

  I glared at him. “I learned this shit in a peaceful environment,” I shot back. “I’m trying to focus, so calm the hell down, or I’ll never get it.”

  I heard him impatiently sigh while I closed my eyes, ignored my heart rate as it began to mimic Dom’s, and mentally envisioned a strong desire to seal up the door like I did when I mentally locked up that demon in my memory.

  I imagined that no one would be able to hear inside, open, or counter the magic I was using—even when using the strongest counter-magic. I held this supreme focus as I watched my hands manifest swirling balls of energy. I held my hand toward the door, and my magic floated out to seal the thing as I envisioned the entire door being wrapped in strong, impenetrable magic. The power leaving my body was surreal as it surged from my fingers—this was totally awesome and new—and it sealed every part of the room.

  The yelling from downstairs was gone, and the room was silent. I turned back to Dom, seeing his dark expression, and stopped myself from juicing up my palms again and smacking this man out of the state he was in.

  “Now, it’s secured,” I said. “I can’t hear the yelling, and I’m pretty damn sure no one is getting through that door.”

  Dom strode past me and tried to open it himself. “Good,” he responded.

  “Good?” I questioned him. “Let’s hope I can remove that sealing magic when we actually want to go eat something tomorrow.”

  “If you can seal it, you can take it down,” he simply stated.

  I planted my hands on my hips as I watched him walk to the chair next to the window, sit down, and drop his head into his hands. I wanted to go off on him for acting like a crazed asshole just now, but the growl of agony and frustration he let out with each breath concerned me.

  “Dom,” I said sternly. “You need to tell me what the hell is going on. You’re acting like that leprechaun just showed up at your parents’ house.”

  “I can’t explain it. Shit!” His brown eyes were silver-rimmed with his wolf present when they met mine. “I don’t know what the hell is going on. I do know that I don’t trust anything with my dad or Edgewater, though.”

  “Do you mind telling me what happened to put you in this state of paranoia?”

  Oddly, I was calm, but my alpha wolf was ready to rip someone’s throat out.

  “I ran into my father and Edgewater on my way to my room to grab my clothes,” he said, clasping his hands and looking out the window to his left. “They wanted answers about us being a couple—how serious we were.” He glanced at the wooden floors before him. “They also wanted to know why I personally offended Melanie by leading her on just to get you back into my life.”

  God, if I could kill a leprechaun, I would.

  “So, they’re buying into whatever lies this leprechaun has fed them? Why didn’t you tell them nothing happened between you two?”

  He looked back at me and grimaced. “Well, she did kiss me.”

  I gripped my forehead as my wolf decided to step into the game in her jealous rage. I centered myself, so I could find out more about this new revelation.

  “She kissed you?” I asked in the calmest voice that I could muster, knowing that if I got angry, I would only exacerbate his unstable mood. “That news certainly could have been shared a lot earlier when we were dealing with her shit at that school, Dom.”

  He lifted his eyes to meet mine as I stood stiffly in front of him. “I didn’t think it mattered at that point. She came at me from out of nowhere when we were working on that stupid quest together. You were with Bradley, so it’s not like I was trying to keep it a secret or anything. It happened once, and I really didn’t give it any weight.”

  “It goes back that far? I mean…was this kiss something that you think gave this leprechaun hope? That’s kind of how things work, you know. You didn’t think that could’ve had anything to do with her obsession?” I was using all of my power not to spew sarcasm at him.

  “God, no,” Dom answered. “I forgot about her attempt to make more out of me helping her until now because all that was on my mind was saving you. I used her, and this whole damn thing is backfiring on me now. I pulled her off me as soon as she came out of nowhere with it. It was nothing more than her lips on mine and me doing everything in my power not to crush her arms while trying to remove her face from mine.” He shook his head, “I told her that she was wasting her time with me and that I was in love with you.”

  “And how did she respond to that rejection?”

  “Pretty much the same way Bradley responded to your break up with him.”

  “She wasn’t going to give up on you so easily?”

  He ran his hands over his face. “Yep.”

  “Okay, well, this is definitely something you could have told me a long time ago. If I’d known this had happened earlier, I might’ve been more prepared for how much harder it would be to get rid of her.” I exhaled slowly, impressed with my ability to restrain myself from going off on him for not telling me this sooner. “We can’t change the past now, and I understand that you saw it as her immature, desperate attempt to get you.” I rolled my eyes at how much I hated this flipping leprechaun.

  “I had it handled,” he stated, but it sounded like he was questioning himself about whether or not that was accurate.

  “The difference between what happened with Bradley and me was that he was a shifter, not a damn leprechaun. Dom, you know better, and you shouldn’t be surprised that this chick is doing her best to ruin our lives,” I glanced back toward the door, “and a
pparently turn your dad against you, but here we are.”

  He slumped back into the chair and exhaled. “Yes, here we are.”

  “Alright. It looks like we need to get to the bottom of what your family wants with us, get the hell back to school, and Vannah and I need to work on figuring out how powerful I really am.”

  He leaned his elbows onto his knees. “We won’t be leaving here anytime soon, but yes, you need to figure out how much power you can work. I have a bad feeling about all of this. Melanie, the energy at the school, and Edgewater’s annoying presence back at that place, it’s all bad, Jen. You’ll definitely need E’s help too.”

  “I’ll gladly take his help.”

  I ran my hand through his thick, black hair, and his instant reflex to jerk away from my touch made me worry about how messed up he really was.

  Dom reached for my hand and kissed it. “I’m sorry. I’m just on edge, and I can’t shake this shit off.”

  “The room is sealed. No one is getting in, and I’m hoping to God I can get us the hell out of here in the morning.” I encouraged him to stand up, “You really need to relax. You’re panicked as hell, but honestly, I’m not picking up on anything bad at this place.”

  “I can’t control these emotions. I feel like I have a mental battle raging in my head.”

  “Yeah, let’s take that bath you promised. Maybe it’ll help you unwind some.” Hell if I knew about baths, but he’d seemed thrilled about it earlier.

  Dom smiled at me, but there was no emotion in his eyes. “I hope you weren’t looking forward to soaking in water, because I’m not settled enough for that.”

  “All you had to say was soak in water, and I’m more than happy to back out of that one.” I pulled him to follow me to the bed. “Come here,” I ordered with a smile. “You’re all over the place, and a lot of this is the void you’re feeling. This isn’t like you.”

  “It’s nothing like me, and it’s driving me insane.”

  I managed to encourage him to sit on the bed. Dom laid on his back and gripped his forehead. His eyes closed, and he sighed when I took the hem of his shirt in my hands, but he raised his arms to allow me to pull his shirt off anyway.