Chapter 2
Sienna
I run as fastas my legs will carry me, fighting the primal urge to shift with every ragged breath in my lungs. Reuniting with Revyn is the worst possible scenario. If we both pass the trials and gain admittance to the academy, we’ll be placed in the same first-year classes. Hell, the samedorms. A wave of heat rolls down my spine as I imagine him throwing his body at me, insistent that we’re made for each other and convinced that he can prove it with a confident smirk, a sharp flash of fangs, and a cock that’sso fucking thick?—
Groaning, I slam my fists against the rough bark of a dead tree and fight the warmth pooling between my thighs.No.I’m not going there with him. Not again. Notever.
He doesn’t fucking deserve any part of me after everything he did.
I swallow hard, rethinking that statement as I drag my body past the tree line and nearly stumble into the lake that edges the forest. My reflection glares back at me from the water’s smooth surface, my jaw tense and my hair little more than a dark tangle of knots. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I take a deep breath and amend my previous thought.
No shifter alive deserves me, butespeciallynot Revyn.
An annoying voice in my head argues against it, citing the fact that hedidtravel the realm and follow me into the academy’s entrance trials despite its perils. I grit my teeth and kick gravel into the lake with the toe of my boot, shattering my reflection. It doesn’t matter what he does that tips the scales in his favor. He could serenade me by moonlight and kiss me until dawn, but none of it would make a difference. Neither of us can give each other what we truly want without sacrificing our own desires, and wild wolves are notoriously selfish.
In the end, one of us will always lose.
Gentle waves lap the shoreline as I walk the water’s edge, careful to stay on the dirt path as I tune out the nagging voice in my head. I don’t sense anyone or anything nearby, but that doesn’t mean something isn’t masking its presence. A hundred or so candidates entered the trials, and after such a short time within them, there have to be a few dozen remainingat least.But how large is the arena?
I squint up at the orb of light in the sky, noticing its dimming hue as the seconds tick by. What began as a slow, inconsequential crawl ramps up as the seconds turn to minutes, and the orb dims at an accelerated rate.
Shit. They’re toying with time, too. If I’m going to prove myself to the judges, I have to act fast before time runs out and I’m back where I started: wandering the wilds with an obsessed alpha wolf riding my ass and making promises he can’t keep.
A shriek pierces the air and echoes across the lake. I snap my head up to witness a very naked, very human Veronica jabbing a half-man, half-fish with a sharp stick. He snaps the stick in half and pulls her into the murky water, a second of his kind appearing by his side to grab Veronica’s arms and pull her into the deep.
Serves the bitch right for abandoning her friends.
There’s a struggle as she thrashes, a wolf’s paw breaking through the water’s surface and one of the creatures braying with pain. I watch from a safe distance before a nagging thought in the back of my mind forces its way to the front.
If I save her, whichever shifter on the council pities her might favor me.
Fuck.
Sprinting to the other side of the lake, I force my aching fingertips to shift back into claws and leap for the closest fish man. My claws bounce off his rubbery skin and he snaps his wide jaw, two rows of sharp teeth coming dangerously close to my face. I shout as I plunge my fist into his guts, targeting the softest part of his belly. Mud squelches around us as we slam into the ground, and I twist my wrist to shred his insides. “Ha!” Adrenaline warms my blood. The thrill of the fight quickly motivates me to swing harder—strike faster—and tear through his body until his flesh shreds between my fingers. His lifeless eyes and slack jaw are the only reason I move on, pulling my hands from the hole in his chest and mentally preparing myself for a swim.
Thankfully, there’s no need.
Bone snaps mere feet away, and the wolf fighting for its life resurfaces from the lake with a pale blue arm clenched in its jaw. Veronica drops the limb and splashes through the water, yelping as she prances to the shore. Once freed from the water’s clutches, she slides through the mud until she’s back on dry land. She shifts back in seconds, her voice shrill as she cries out. “Ew, ew,ew!” Spitting, she wipes green blood from her mouth and dances in place like she’s stomping cockroaches beneath her feet. “That’s disgusting!”
I rinse my hands in the water as best I can, but I have to agree with her. Everything about this area smells like rot. A putrid stench wafts from the muddy shores. Crinkling my nose, I holdmy breath as I wade out of the water. “We should keep moving. There could be more of them.” I’m not keen on meeting the fish men’s leader.
Veronica’s head snaps up like she’s only just noticed that I exist. “Who the hell are you?” Her nostrils flare as she scents me. With a warning growl, she backpedals away. Dirty strands of hair cling to her body, the mud streaking her torso hiding a few lingering scratches that have yet to heal. “Get the fuck away from me, wild bitch!”
My jaw clenches. I keep my claws out. “I helped you kill those things.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you did.” She bares her teeth at me, looking half a second away from shifting into her wolf form and tearing me limb from limb. “Go drown your fucking self.” Rather than turn her back to me, she backsteps away and runs for the trees, disappearing into the woods within a few heartbeats.
I glare at her retreating figure as it weaves through the trees and blurs in the distance. “Fuck you too, then.” Turning my face to the sky, I glare at the ball of light next. “You see that?” I toss my hand toward the woods. “You gonna letherinto the academy?”
The light dims as if to mock me.
I should have left Veronica to die.
Grumbling under my breath, I carefully unstick my feet from the muck and follow the shoreline to a creek up the bend. River rocks smoothed over time are soft under my feet as I plunge into the cool waters and scrub my body, using coarse sand to remove as much of the blood and bog stank as possible. The glowing orb overhead dims even more, magically turning the bright morning into late afternoon. I chuff at the unfairness of the academy’s tricks. At this rate, less than half of the entrants for this year will pass...unless that’s by design. It’s possible that spots havealready been filled with legacies and highest bidding families, leaving the rest of us to fight for what few coveted seats remain.
If I’m lucky, I’ll claim the last one and leave Revyn outside the academy’s wards. With enough time, he might finally grow bored of me and move on to other prospects—not that there are many for wild wolves. There’s a reason there are so few of us, and it has less to do with the dangers of the wilds and more to do with the fact that few shifters would ever leave their pack to mate with one.
Wild wolves aren’t known for having long life spans.
