Page 2 of Renegade

“What happens if she’s not?” the headmistress asked.

I blew out a breath. I was encouraged not to acknowledge and certainly not talk about my other wolf while I was in the Light Kingdom.

They hated her.

I loved her.

They feared her.

I encouraged her snarls and snaps.

They wanted her gone.

I knew she was my savior.

“I think…I think she has the potential to tear this fucking world apart.”

“Yeah, I can feel that.” The woman’s eyes glimmered with danger and intrigue. The headmistress stood. “I’m going to put you on a bus, Karelis. The Urban Rehabilitation Academy is for those who are on the fringe of something dark. They have disobeyed. They are the shadows of shifter society. But if you keep your wolves hidden, I don’t think they would look for you there.”

“Will I be safe? I mean, it sounds like you’re sending me to a prison.”

“Not a prison. Most of them are merely misunderstood or have issues that no one has delved into and most don’t care to. They are much stricter than we are. More discipline. Tighter schedules. They won’t look for you among the delinquents. Not among the rejects. Come with me. The bus leaves tonight.”

Chapter Two

Blaze

The driver dropped me off at the front door then the long, black car disappeared down the long drive, taking the last bit of normalcy with it. At home for the holidays, it was hard to remember that I faced this ignominy on my return. The school didn’t look too different in architecture from the Urban Academy I once attended and where my twin brother was even now returning.

As the black sheep of the family, I had been transferred to the Urban Rehabilitation Academy to learn manners or morals or whatever the administration of the Urban Academy thought I lacked. If I met these standards, I might be able to return to my original school and friends, but somehow, I didn’t see that as possible. Asher did. My twin was the ultimate optimist, seeing the good in everyone, even me. But the truth was, nobody who was banished to the reject academy ever made it back to the mainstream. The best I could hope for was to survive the school and graduate—then move far away where nobody knew me and try to get a fresh start.

I’d miss my family, but as long as I stayed in the area, I’d never be able to have any kind of a life. Certainly not one like my brother had with his mates. Raven and Onyx were incredible, and I was very happy for him. But it was one more way he was succeeding where I was not. Had we ever really been those inseparable little guys getting into the same kind of mischief?

Shouldering the strap of my duffel, I mounted the stairs, fighting the instinct to cut and run. Technically I was old enough to make my own decisions, but I needed my degree, even for that fresh start. Or so my parents insisted, and they’d gotten me to promise not to walk away. I didn’t even know why I’d agreed, butdespite popular opinion, I was a man of my word.

At the top of the steps, I pressed the button beside the door and waited for someone in the security room to buzz me in. Funny that. Keeping the people inside from leaving was not the issue that many probably assumed. If we left, we’d be shunned or whatever our individual pack chose as punishment. The doors were locked to protect us from enemies made by individual students on their way in, for the most part. Rumors abounded about other threats, but it was difficult to nail them down.

Inside, I headed down the hall to the suite I shared with other delinquents. Unpacking wouldn’t take long. I had plenty of clothes at home, but if I didn’t take my laundry when I went, my mother would fuss, so everything in my bag was freshly laundered by staff or holiday gifts. Mom suggested I get up early and come here tomorrow, but I needed the night to decompress and get used to being back. Not something she understood, and of course she tried to keep all of us at home until the last possible moment.

In fact, she often pointed out to Father that she’d suggested we be tutored rather than go to any of the academies, and this was the one bone of contention in their happy marriage. She blamed him for where I ended up.

“Blaze!” A girl who never got to go home for any holidays was sitting curled up in a chair near the library. She had a book open in her lap, but since it was upside down, I didn’t think she was reading it. Not unless Angie had a gift I’d never heard of. No, she had positioned herself to watch as everyone came back. The past weeks would have been lonely for her here, with the hallways empty and only a few other students at most remaining in the building along with a skeleton staff.

Everyone wanted to go home for the winter holidays, the summer holidays…all of them, and I never understood how parents could leave their children like that. Okay, there werereasons why they ended up here to start with, and in many cases, their troubled presence would make for less than a serene Yule…but they were still their family. Mine had never made me feel unwelcome, for which I would always be grateful.

It seemed I was one of the earlier returns because after exchanging a few remarks with Angie, I didn’t run into any other students or staff on the way to my rooms. Outside the tall windows, snow drifted down, making our semi-prison grounds into a winter wonderland. In fact, all it would do was isolate us further. There were no mountains for skiing or sledding nearby, no pond for hockey, and except for letting our wolves run in the woods, we’d spend the next months inside looking out.

Our suite was the last one at the end of the hallway, and I let myself in and trod through the common room to my private space. Inside, I tossed the duffel on my bed and reached for the zipper, only to hear my phone buzz.

Since phones went to very limited access the moment I crossed the threshold of the school, it had to be someone inside. Who else was back so soon? I checked the screen.

Admin. No message from them was ever good or happy. Not in this place. For a moment I considered ignoring it. Technically, I wasn’t even required to be here until tomorrow, but if I didn’t see what they wanted, it would keep me up, so I plopped down next to my bag and picked up the phone.

Swiped the screen and clicked on the notification.

Report to the dean of discipline before your first class of the term.

Shit. What did I do now?

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