Page 13 of Dead Wolf Falling (Bad Moon Academy 2)

Raven snaps her head in our direction. Her bright red hair is tied up in a bun, and I want nothing more than to reach up and rip out the hair tie so I can watch it tumble down her shoulders.

“Death? As in. . .Death?”

“Precisely.” I remove my hand from Draco and step toward her.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” the other woman says before bending over and hurling on my shoes.

“Fuck,” I mutter. “I already miss pretending to be a phantom.”

“Pretending?” Raven asks with a bite. “Who the fuck are you?”

I glance up from where Layla’s still retching and meet her angry gaze. “I’m Brayden. We’ve danced together, or do you not remember?”

“We’ve danced. . .” She trails off, flicking her gaze to Draco who is glaring at me like his annoyance will somehow make me shut up.

With a dark chuckle, I nod. “That was me.” I side-eye my brother. “Oh, he didn’t tell you?”

“What the fuck is he talking about?” Everett asks, finally recovered from his go with Jinx. The injury from earlier in the foyer is fully healed, but he’s still covered in blood. Taking a deep drag of the delectable coppery scent, I grin.

“Your blood smells wonderful,” I tell him.

Draco begins to growl at me. He’s always trying to keep me down, so I roll my eyes and ignore him. He’s so dramatic.

Carter pinches the bridge of his nose. “Can we please take this upstairs? Morris is dead, the demon spir—ugh—thingwill come back, and I’d rather not be where she’s most powerful when she does.”

I see Jinx still has him under her spell. He can’t even call her what she is without being attacked by her magic. There are some benefits to almost dying, I guess. At least she can’t keep me from speaking.

“Oh, Morris,” Layla whispers.

The color and spark of fire drains from Raven’s face as she goes to help her friend. “I’m so sorry,” she says, grabbing the woman around the middle before she can fall to her knees.

“Come on, let’s get everyone upstairs.”

Everett helps Raven and Layla to the stairs and goes with them.

“What happened?” Draco hisses. “This wasn’t the plan.”

I shrug. “No, but it worked, didn’t it?”

“Yes, but at what cost?” He growls and shoves into me hard enough my shoulder jerks back.

My wolf rages in my head, but I excel at ignoring him. He’s a bit blood thirsty.

“She’ll come around,” I say. “Trust me.”

“The last time I did that you ended up dead.” He shakes his head and storms out of the dungeon, leaving me with Carter.

The professor stares at Morris’s body with a severe frown. “I don’t know what you two have been planning, but if you screw this up for me and Everett, I’ll kill you myself.”

I pout and place my hands on my cheeks. “Are you sending me to detention?”

Not expecting a reaction, I laugh in surprise when he plows into me and my back slams into the brick wall. He punches the brick, breaking it, and bares his teeth at me. His eyes flash yellow, and I can’t help but stare at his beast to rile him up. He’s only a delta, so if I wanted to, I could make him submit, but it’s been too long since I toyed with him.

My wolf howls, begging me to use my beta power.

Not yet,I tell him.

Carter’s pinning my chest, so I lean my head forward. “So touchy,” I say quietly. “Calm down, Carter. Our luna has already chosen us. Raven will come around.”

Carter punches the brick again, this time with a partially shifted hand. His claws gouge the mortar. “You’ll only get one warning,” he says before stepping away and retracting his claws. Straightening his shirt and concealing his every emotion behind a calm facade, he glances over me and points up the stairs. “Go fix the mess you’ve made.”

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