Page 62 of Dead Wolf Falling (Bad Moon Academy 2)

Chapter 14

ADLER

I didn’t expect something like this to work on me since I’m a fae. During the ritual, I prepared myself for the inevitable fallout when it failed because of me. I’m not like these guys, but it doesn’t seem to matter because Raven’s wolf laid claim on me. I run my fingers over my shoulder where four pink scars lie, all that’s left of her claws slashing across me.

With her head resting on my shoulder, arm slung across my body, she hums a song I don’t recognize, but Draco harmonizes with her, not seeming to care that the rest of us are in the bed as well. It doesn’t feel strange though, it almost feels too natural. Something like this shouldn’t be so right. Thank Mother Faerie it is. The shifters have accepted me as one of their own, and now we are permanently marked by Raven.

The Luna’s Pack.

I’m not a wolf, but something primal stirs within me, and the bond between us snaps tight when I focus on it.

Carter lifts onto his elbow, brushing his blond hair from his face. “The link is working.”

“What does it mean?” Raven asks, stopping the tune she’s humming to glance over her shoulder at him.

“It means”—Brayden stands from the bed—“that we can feel each other. If someone is hurt, we’ll all know it.”

“Mind speak?” Raven swings her gaze to him, eyes dropping down his body as he lifts his arms up and stretches out.

“No mind speak,” Carter says.

A soft stirring of jealousy fills my stomach, but I squash it. There is no room for jealousy with family. The thought punches me in the gut, and my thoughts turn inward, forgetting all about listening to what they’re discussing. The last family I had hated me. I was five when they sent me away, three days after my first change.

“Mama, Mama!” I call, running toward her with a grin. She’ll be so surprised to see me wearing Therion’s face. Even more so when she realizes my fae magic has manifested. So young too. “Mama!”

“Therion,” she scolds, turning from the stove. “What’s all this yelling about, hm?”

I giggle, then swap my face for Therion’s. “Surprise, Mama! I’m magic!”

Her scream is so loud I slap my hands over my ears and back away. With a pale face, she shakes her head, whispering to Mother Faerie to save her from this curse. A broken child.

Is she. . . is she talking about me?

“Mama?” I ask in a small voice. “I won’t do magic again, Mama. I’m sorry.” Magic is good in Faerie; I don’t understand what I did wrong. “I won’t pretend to be Therion,” I say on a whimper when she screams for Father. My heart is galloping inside my chest like the horses of the wild hunt: wild and erratic.

Mama has never been so angry.

“Shut up, child. Cursed being. Great Mother, what did I do to deserve your ire?” Mama raises her hands toward the ceiling as though she’s pleading with Mother Faerie herself.

Lifting my gaze, I search for our creator, but there’s nothing there. “Mama? What’s wrong?”

With a hiss, she smacks me across the face. “I said shut up!”

“Adler?” A soft voice rips me from the memory and gentle hands shake me. “Are you okay?”

Before I open my eyes, I tuck those memories and the pain which accompanies them into the far recesses of my mind where they can’t reach me. Where they’ll stay until I choose to revisit them and tear apart my heart all over again.

When I finally meet her gaze, her green eyes have darkened, and she searches my face with a scowl.

“Your pain is coming through the link.” She runs her fingers over her mark on my skin, lips pressing together in thought.

“It’s not those,” I say, scrubbing a hand over my face.

“Then what is it? Whatever it is, it’s making me sick to my stomach.” Flicking her eyes back to mine, she runs her palm over the scruff on my chin. “I almost couldn’t breathe through it.”

“She’s right. You nearly made us all cry in agony. What was that?” Everett asks from where he lies next to Draco.

The shadows on the ceiling flicker with the candles, and Brayden moves toward the bed, growing larger with each step he takes until the mattress dips and he settles on Carter’s other side, tossing an arm behind his head.

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