Page 16 of Heartless

He watched me for a long moment, then opened his nightstand drawer and tossed me one of the shifter-proof cables. “Knock yourself out, Little Freak. But just so you know, only good pussies get to share the bed. You can sleep on the floor.”

Chapter Nine – Vail

Despite spending each night cuffed to Callum’s desk leg, my last week at the academy flew by. I spent my days in class, because even though the academy wasn’t big on educational pursuits for omegas, I was technically the Sawyer Luna-in-Waiting. Which meant I had to show up to deportment and the culinary arts, as if my only goal in life was to dance around Callum’s kitchen while whipping up his favorite dish.

Urgh.

Given my alternate species bombshell, Biology now felt like even more of a sham. It was harder than ever to find relevance in Ms. Fisher’s lessons, and on Wednesday, after a particularly depressing lecture on wolf mating rituals, I skipped a meringue making class and went to the library. I hadn’t followed up on Jasper’s suggestion to take my bracelet to Theo, but I was still carrying it around in my pocket. When I reached the reference desk, the disapproving librarian was nowhere in sight, but Theo put a plastic Unattended sign next to his computer and led me straight to the rare book room. Once we were behind the soundproofed door, I pinched the little cat charm and took a deep breath, thinking through what I wanted to say. I didn’t know how close Theo was to his cousin, but I was past taking chances. And I was here to get information, not give it. “I want to know about the other shifter species.” I pointed to the old leather book under its protective glass. “I don’t need to look at it. I just want you to tell me what they were.”

A vivid light flared in his dark blue eyes. I wasn’t sure if it was a bird thing, or just the reflection of his curiosity. “Of course. There were six, and I’ll include their traditional lands as they were in the sixteenth century.” He ticked them off on his long, pale fingers. “Wolves from England. Raptors from France. Bears from Lithuania. Panthers from Hungary. Horses from Spain. Ibex from the Swiss Confederation.”

The names and places were a blur, but I seized on the only one that could be a cat. Panthers, from Hungary. I was as knowledgeable in European geography as shifter biology, but I could almost see a muscular black panther slinking its way through a misty mountain forest.

My gaze drifted back to the book under the glass, but I didn’t need to know what the panther shifters had been like five hundred years ago. My issues were a little more current. “Can you recognize other shifters like you? If you met one in the street, would you know what it was?”

He tilted his head, his resemblance to a bird much stronger now I knew he was a falcon. “Full blooded, yes. Pure raptor shifters give off a kind of glow, especially at night. It’s a little harder to see when the bloodline is diluted, but not impossible.” He gave me a gentle look. “Do you think you’re something else, Vail?”

I bit hard on my lip. “According to the Clan Alpha, I’m an omega wolf.” Theo seemed genuine, and I didn’t like to shut him down by pulling rank, but my secret was too big to share. And after Friday night, none of this would matter, anyway. I’d be back on the Horn, and the only exotic species I’d likely meet would be tourists who took a wrong turn from the ski resort.

But when I started to leave, he leaned past me and took a small book off the shelf. It wasn’t as old as the one under the glass, but the cover was well worn, the spine wrinkled from being cracked so often. “This is the journal of Estella Caballa. Do you know who she was?”

I remembered the name from Alpha Turner’s guest lecture on wolf power and rank. “Was she the omega who mated with the Skin King?”

“Nathaniel Marrow; one of your more colorful ancestors. The story goes, when Estella was forced out of her pack, she stumbled upon an injured wolf. He attacked her, and she was near death. But she still patched him up and shared her blanket, and her kindness brought out his protective side. He gave her a mating bite, and she woke, whole and healthy.”

“That’s not the story?”

“By all accounts, he was one of the most violent and power-hungry shifters ever born. He was also the first of the blood claw alphas, and that kind of weapon isn’t in the makeup of a selfless male.” He carefully opened the book, and I saw an ink sketch of a giant man with wolf arms and an oversized middle digit. The claw was as long as a crochet needle and dripping with blood.

Another memory stirred from the biology lesson. “But they had some kind of magical bond, didn’t they? Something that made their entire pack stronger?”

“A twain bond,” he murmured, thumbing through the pages. “Two powerful shifters whose connection transforms their pack.” He turned the book, so I could see another hand-drawn picture, this time of the giant man with a small, curvy brunette at his side. They were in a field against a rugged mountain backdrop, but what really caught my attention were all the animals that had crowded close. It was like something out of a dark Disney film, given half the animals had human faces. And when I saw a girl with the dark fur of a panther, my heart stuttered in my chest. “The official version is their mating resulted in a stronger, healthier pack. But I believe that’s just how the wolves want the world to remember it. I think either, or both, of the famed pair had something else in the blood. And the reason their pack was so strong was because they attracted other so-called voids. I believe their mating, and the twain bond they shared, might be the last great union of the six families.”

Despite Theo’s beliefs being both ancient history, and no doubt refuted by every teacher in the school, I left the library feeling a little lighter. Nathaniel Marrow definitely had a dark side, and I doubted his relationship with Estella was much of a fairytale, but maybe there was some hope in their story, too. Sin had said my cousins – the so-called skin kings – were nightmares made flesh, but they also provided refuge to troubled wolves. Maybe they knew this version of Nathaniel and Estella’s past, and were trying to preserve a piece of their legacy.

But by Friday afternoon, I’d put thoughts of the Marrow family firmly behind me. My reunion with Darkness – and hopefully Driftwood, once we hunted him down – was all I could think about. The fact it was happening the same night Marnie was finally welcomed into her pack just made it bittersweet.

A party was planned in the Marshall dorm before the other alphas whisked her off to her initiation ceremony. We’d caught up every day for lunch, and despite threatening Carter with a school-wide blast of his baby photos, she still had no clue what was in store. I could feel her nerves like sparklers on my skin as we parted ways at the elevator. She’d invited me to get ready with the other Marshall girls, but I had some last-minute arrangements to take care of.

The plan was to leave my duffel bag in the basement, so I could grab it when the party was in full swing. There’d be a quick wardrobe change into a spare maintenance uniform I’d pinched from a locker, then I’d slip out a service door and into the woods. Scaling the perimeter gate was going to be a challenge, but my reward was Darkness waiting for me in Driftwood’s truck, just a little way down the road. I wouldn’t have a phone, so the last chance I’d get to text him would be during the party. After that, it’d be in the hands of the moon goddess, if I believed in such a thing.

Callum had mostly left me alone this week. The two rules he wouldn’t budge on were wearing his stupid jacket every day and spending my nights cuffed to his desk leg until there was a permanent cramp in my spine. I’d given up trying to guess what he got out of our fake mating, other than the chance to paw me in public and taunt me with the threat of a threesome whenever Tilly sashayed by. Maybe it was just the sick pleasure he seemed to take in rubbing Jasper’s nose in our relationship. There’d been no more visits to his room, even though he was always close by when I trudged up to the alpha floor. Reed was never around, but if Jasper wasn’t waiting in his doorway, he was there before I’d crossed the hall.

Bittersweet seemed to be the theme of the week. Because my heart clenched at the deep shadows under his eyes, their icy blue depths so lost without his wolf. I didn’t want to lay any of his pain at my feet, but how could I not? As he tracked my slow steps to Callum’s door, did he believe I’d chosen his friend over him? And even though I’d pretty much admitted our mating was a mistake, did he picture me spending my nights wrapped in Callum’s arms? The thought was enough to ruin my sleep, and a part of me wished he’d storm in and discover me cuffed and cramped on the floor. Not so he’d kick Callum’s ass – although that would have definitely been a side benefit – but so he’d know that none of this was how I wanted it to be.

But if things ever went how I wanted them to, I wouldn’t have been getting dressed for Marnie’s big party in the basement. The smell of bleach lingered in the air, an unpleasant reminder as I stepped into my dress and pulled on my knee-high boots. Pushing thoughts of Reed and Potter from my mind, I peered at myself in the mirror glued to the front of the battered locker. The sleeveless mini dress was a deep green, with a crisscross halter that made the most of my shoulders. It was a little over the top for a school party, but I planned on changing into something more practical when I made my getaway in a few hours. And if this was my last evening with my friends, I wanted to feel special, even if makeup was a lost cause in the dim lighting of the janitor’s closet.

Before I left, I sprayed myself with the heavy floral perfume Marnie had given me, and then took a swig of the scent shield I’d found in my duffel bag. I could only assume it was the same one Jasper had tried to give me on the Frost Moon; evidence that I’d taken the Wolf Fire by mistake. Why he’d put it with my things, I didn’t know, but it served my purposes now, and once I’d stowed my duffel out of sight, I made my way quietly back through the basement labyrinth.

Until a familiar voice coming from the medical bay pulled me up short. Pearl LaRue would always haunt my memories of the academy, although I’d managed to avoid her since Jasper’s punishment at the Packball Cup. No doubt she’d try to worm her way back to his side once I was gone, but I wasn’t done yet. And I wasn’t above sticking to the shadows and eavesdropping as she barked at the school nurse. “Goddess above! Just give me whatever the bipeds use to fix their scars.”

I stiffened at both the venom in her voice, and the memory of her perfect face tilted in the moonlight, three deep claw marks marring her cheek.

“I would help you if I could, Miss LaRue,” the nurse replied, “but an ointment isn’t going to remove a Clan Alpha mark. Only a wolf of equal rank can do that. If you could petition him for leniency…”

“Don’t you think I’ve tried?” Her voice caught, a desperate note, but then Pearl suddenly seemed to remember who she was talking to, and hissed, “If you tell anyone I came here, I’ll put you in the ground, Omega.”

I stayed out of sight until she’d stormed out of the basement, then waited another beat before following. Her anger spiked the air all the way up to the foyer, but by the time I reached the Marshall floor, she was mostly forgotten. She might have been an alpha, and therefore part of tonight’s initiation, but Marnie had almost choked on her tongue when Penny suggested adding her to the party guest list.

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