Page 9 of Dead Wolf Walking (Bad Moon Academy 1)
Delicious victory, the voice corrects.
The wolf behind us whines.A delta, nothing to worry about, the voice says.
We release the wolf beneath us, giving him a warning nip on his chest before turning and snarling at the brown wolf. A wave of power bursts from our chest, and he lowers his head, casting his eyes down. We chuff at him.
I told you they would submit. A zeta and delta are no match for us.
Uh, you didn’t say that. You said they wouldn’t hurt us and this fucker beneath us was about to try something sketchy.
The smoky voice hums.He is curious, but he will learn his place.
Swinging our gaze to him, we lower our head and growl, opening our mouth and letting him get a good glimpse of the sharpened points which can rip him to shreds. He closes his glowing yellow eyes and tips his head farther to the side, further submitting.
While the wolfish part of me is distracted, I try to take control, but she forces me back.
You aren’t in charge.
Like hell, I’m not. Fueled by anger, I push against her presence in my head, sending everything I have to force her to the corner where I picture her. Then I press her further back, slowly loosening her hold over my body.
We whine, making the wolf beneath us lift his head and study us. With one last shove, I wrench the strings which control my body from her grasp and hold them tightly, clambering off him and stumbling across the forest floor.
Fool, the voice seethes.
Lifting my head, I let loose a howl louder than any of the ones I’ve heard before. The wolves who chased me join in, their own songs twining with mine until a loud crack sounds. My voice trembles and turns into a pained yip as more bones break and rearrange. A foot sprouts where a paw once was, and pain lances through me.
Pinching my eyes shut, I fight off a wave of nausea and lie down, curling into a ball in an effort to escape the hurt. My jaw shifts, and I scream, the human sound making my heart thump in relief. I’m not a wolf anymore. My fingers tremble as I run them over my face, checking for sharp teeth. I keep my eyes shut, still not ready to see if there’s red fur covering my body. A dull ringing fills my ear, gradually growing louder with each passing second.
“She’s hurt,” a deep rumble of a voice says, breaking through the high pitch that’s now radiating through my head.
Black wolf. He’s the one who attacked you.
“The first shift is always the hardest,” another responds. “You’re sure about this?”
“Absolutely. She’s perfect.” He’s the wolf who bit me during a full moon. Shit, this is real. He changed me.
My teachers always breezed over the possibility of humans being turned, saying it was highly improbable we’d ever fall to such a fate.
Opening my eyes, I stare at the men from the bar. The two guys from Kenzie’s section stand over me, completely naked save for their matching bracelets. These are the wolves? I’ve never met a shifter, well, until today. I’m so out of it from the shift I can’t even focus on them; not even their nakedness is enough to break through the haze of confusion washing over me.
The guy with black hair glances at me. “We don’t have much time,” he says to the other man.
He will pay,the husky voice snarls in my head.
It’s too hard to keep my eyes open, so I close them, scrunching my face as a wave of nausea rolls over me.
“Then we should go. Our time is running out,” the other guy says.
What does he mean about time?
My eyelids won’t move. Everything hurts too much.
Excruciating pain blasts through me, and my breath catches in my throat. The high-pitched ringing stops. The last thing I hear before I fall unconscious is the shuffling of feet as they draw closer.
Chapter 3
Adler
I pull my phone out of my jacket pocket once I’m inside my house, unlocking it and checking for Raven’s text. There’s no notification. It takes longer for me to drive home than it does for her to walk to Lou’s house. Pressing my lips into a flat line, I tap out a short message.
