Page 16 of Moon Kissed

I wouldn’t lie, that last comment made me blush. It was a heady feeling knowing what my touch did to them. I’ve always had status and power as the high priestess, but this was a different kind of power entirely. Dare I say, a better one.

I watched my fates go at it—trying their absolute best to tear each other apart.

Such was the risk of having so many alphas in one place. They were going to butt heads and fight. That was inevitable. You could only hope the building would be left standing when they were done.

I took in the scene, then grabbed Nia and walked away. “Ugh, men. Who has time for their petty squabbles?”

“I’m sorry,” Nia said. “I didn’t know your fates were out here. You’re supposed to stay away from them, and I led you right to them.”

I shook my head. “You know this isn’t on you. We’re in the same school and the same classes. Avoiding them is impossible.”

“Why do you still have such an effect on them?” she asked. “You’ve been apart for a year. The bonds should’ve degraded.”

“Where do these doors lead?” I asked pointedly, giving her a look.

She winced. “Oh, right. None of my business. Sorry.”

I let it go, though it was a good question. Every now and then, a wolf will reject their fated mate. The reasons were endless—massive age difference, previous hatreds, or even previous loves. Even though it was very, very,veryfrowned upon to reject the mate Luame has chosen for you, when someone did, they wereforced to go as far from their fate as they could, for as long as they could, to give the bond time to degrade.

Eventually, the tug between mates would lessen to the strength of a string holding on to a tea bag instead of a limb-wrenching tractor pull.

A year away from my fates should’ve been enough time, but as the six of us found out the hard way, it very much wasn’t.

“Five walls, five doors,” Nia began. “Every wing is like this with a courtyard in the middle, and the grand hall connecting all the dorms and administration. That one goes to the dorms. That’s for the mess hall. Over there is the door to the lecture wing. On the other side of that one are the training rooms, fields, and gym. And that goes straight out to the forest. Whenever you need to run, you can—” She winced again. “Sorry, I forgot.”

Nia forgot that I wasn’t allowed to shift into my wolf form and run free under the moonlight. That would mean being out of my room/prison cell.

“Let’s keep going,” I said, gesturing for Nia to lead the way.

I cast a curious look back at my fates. Somehow the opponents got shifted around and Orion and Edric were snarling at each other while Nyx and Badr held them back. Paxton was still glued to his seat, shouting at them to stop.

Laughing, I left them to it—following Nia into the lecture wing. It was only after the door shut that I noticed I was rubbing the finger Nyx deflowered like a wanton virgin. Heat rose in my body just remembering.

Stop it,I said to my human and wolf brain.The ways in which it’s never going to happen can’t be quantified.

Tossing my head, I forced myself to focus on Nia. I had us both get up so ridiculously early for a reason. It gave her plenty of time to tell me where everyone and everything was. Knowing all the resources at my disposal, and all the possible escaperoutes, was vital if I hoped to live past a day after achieving my ultimate end goal.

But I was getting ahead of myself. The first step was gaining admittance to the academy. The next step was getting all my chess pieces properly placed on the board, and then sacrificing them one by one.

I didn’t bother smuggling a weapon onto campus. There was no way they wouldn’t search me, and if they found so much as too-sharp nail clippers, it’d be all the proof they needed that I was here for nefarious reasons.

No. Dagem didn’t trust me worth a damn. No reason to give her more ammo for her suspicions.

Let her and the rest of them keep looking in the wrong direction. Every predator knows to strike from behind.

“—this way to the mess hall,” Nia said, leading me back out the door.

We’d been in the lecture wing for a while, because my fates were gone, and everyone else had taken their place.

The courtyard was packed with students trading class schedules, hugging their friends, gushing about the new school year, and talking about all the things you miss when you’re gone for a year.

Half of those conversations ceased when I stepped into view.

“Hello, everyone.” I beamed, waving heartily. “You know, all this stop and staring when I arrive can give a girl a big head.”

“That’ll go nicely with your fat ass.”

The crowd parted, letting through the person who went with the voice. One look at her, and I saw where the confidence came from.

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