Page 1 of Plug and Drain

Chapter 1

Easy Prey

Susie

Dread washed over Susie as she huddled on the floor of her dark bedroom, peering out of the partially open door into the dorm corridor beyond. It was deathly silent.

Tonight was like any other night at Volmasque Academy—terrible, and full of uncertainty.

The wolf shifter students waited in their rooms for the arrival of the vampires. The five floors that made up the underground wolf dorms simmered with tension. For some wolves, the night was full of nervous anticipation of the vampires’ arrival.

But most wolves lived in perpetual fear. Just like Molly, a first-year student who lived across the hall from Susie.

Molly’s door was shut, but Susie could taste her fear from where she sat—sharp and tangy.

Susie was on high alert for any sign of movement in the corridor.

This far underground, there were no windows, and the corridor was dimly lit with magical lamps that swirled with glowing sand. These items were amongst the few relics left since the vampires had driven the witches to extinction. The corridor was deserted, with most doors closed. A few of the braver wolves had left theirs open in silent invitation.

Susie let out a shaky breath.

They’ll be here soon.

The vampire students always came late at night, wandering up the curving stairwell from their dorms, which were located even deeper beneath the academy than the wolves’ dorms were.

Some came to feed.

Others to fuck.

Most expected both.

And if they came to Susie’s room, she would be powerless to say no.

What the vampire students wanted, they generally got. There were no rules or laws that protected wolves. Technically, they had the right to refuse, but there were no repercussions for vampires who forced them. Susie had never heard of a wolf exercising their right to say ‘no’ with any success—not unless they had a strong pack to protect them.

While Susie had a pack, it was not strong enough to fend off a vampire; not yet, anyway. Its members were vulnerable, just like her, so for the time being, she avoided calling upon her pack for help. She did not want anyone injured for her sake. When a vampire came to her room, she obeyed their commands silently without complaint—on her knees, or in her bed—whatever it took to fulfil their wishes and end the ordeal as quickly as possible.

Most wolves in similar positions obeyed the vampires silently. There was no point putting up a fight, not when they stood nothing to gain. In fact, ‘good behaviour’, as described in Professor Zott’s Pet Obedience class, could earn wolves a reward. It was no secret that the curriculum had been modelled on dog obedience courses. Given that she was a wolf, the canine comparison added insult to injury.

Susie’s ears pricked at the distant sound of footsteps. It was so quiet she thought she might have imagined it.

If she could have shifted into a formidable wolf form, she would have. But she couldn’t. She was physically impaired. She’d been born different to the others, and she didn’t have the ability to morph between her human and wolf forms.

Instead, she was stuck in a strange in-between: She had the long, grey, plume-like tail of a wolf; sharp, fur-lined ears stood erect, and could swivel independently to detect sound; and her fingertips bore short black claws, sharp enough to defend herself with. She also possessed the heightened senses of a wolf, including night vision, acute hearing, and a keen sense of smell.

The rest of her was disappointingly human.

A round face with pale skin and a dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Long, strawberry-blonde hair that was never as straight or as glossy as she wished it to be. An average build, if on the short side, with wide hips, and a pudginess that never quite went away, not even when she hardly ate a thing for weeks on end—which had been the case ever since she’d arrived at Volmasque Academy at the start of last year.

Being regarded as the vampires’ food source had made her lose her appetite. She was a second-year student now, but she was no less queasy than when she’d first joined the academy. Her joy of food had diminished, and she ate as a necessity to keep her strength. When she was with her pack, she could relax enough to eat a proper meal. At other times, it was a struggle. She wasn’t thin by any means, but she often had hunger pangs, and she often binged to make up for it. Sweet foods helped settle her stomach and were easier to keep down.

Her ears were another challenge. She’d been hiding them ever since she turned thirteen. Her parents had saved up to send her to an all-girls school that usually only accepted vampiresses—with a few rare exceptions. Susie had been one of them, and she’d been grateful to her parents for sending her; she’d learnt a lot from studying alongside vampires. Had learnt a lot about them. They were cunning, manipulative, and dismissive. They liked to keep to themselves. Most of them valued silence. Few had gone out of their way to be mean to Susie, but that didn’t mean there weren’t bullies. Her ears had attracted too much attention so, she’d become practised at laying them flat and plaiting her hair loosely to trap them down. It had been a small price to pay to fit in.

As for her tail, it was large and bushy, and there had been no hiding it. Her mother had been modifying her clothes for as long as she could remember.

Fitting in at Volmasque Academy had been harder than the all-girls high school. The academy was inundated by wolf shifters, many who resented being forced to attend. Susie had found herself unable to find a pack to accept her. It was probably her inability to morph that had designated her to the lowest ranking wolf. Or maybe she’d been around vampires too long. She’d learnt to emulate their traits—when to speak, when to listen, when to simper, when to strike with cutting words. But she couldn’t talk her way to the top of a pack. In fact, it seemed impossible to climb rank when wolves valued brute strength above all else.

With wolves, she would always be the underdog. There was no point seeking out vampires—they lacked social structure, and were loyal to their bloodline and no one else.