Page 19 of Ava: Part One

“I can handle Shadow. It’s the first day of term; give him a chance.”

Shadow used to struggle with crowds. There were too many scents and sounds, and his enemies’ scents mixed in with everything. Try telling such a beast that there were rules to follow here, and he couldn’t just kill everyone.

But that hadn’t happened since the first year he’d shifted. Derek and Myles knew that.

Though Claire’s kiss had been horrible, it had cleared his head enough to try to think of a solution. There had to be a way to get rid of this human before everything fell apart. Everyone in the assembly had heard his warning growl, but even their fear had not been enough to make him stop.

“Mr Michelson.”

He looked up to see the dean, Alpha Russell, standing next to the entrance of the fourth-year building and almost swore. He was the last person he wanted to see right now. With a tighter hold on Shadow, he approached the older wolf.

“Would you care to explain what happened?" Alpha Russell asked.

Though Shadow was more dominant, he still had to give respect where it was due.

“I’m sorry I disrupted the assembly, sir,” he said. “It won’t happen again.”

Alpha Russell’s gaze narrowed on him before he growled, “This is an important time, Mr Michelson. You and I both knowthe Council doesn’t change their plans without a reason. Keep yourself and your pack under control.”

“Already handled, sir.” he lied, and then he gave the dean a nod as he entered the building.

His schedule this year involved more intensive training on top of the finals for his degree. His father and the Academy expected him to excel in both, as he always did. He would not let the human take him off course.

She had to go.

By any means necessary.

Chapter 14

Jared had led her through hallways that were a mix of old and modern architecture. He was walking so fast that she had to half-jog to keep up while also remembering not to make eye contact with anyone in case they turned out to be psycho wolves. It would have been funny if she still wasn’t trying to calm herself. This Academy had all the species, but it seemed it was still the wolves she would have to watch out for.

Jared took her up a wide staircase to the second floor, where she saw doors labelled for the directors and associates of thedifferent faculties. Then, finally, he stopped at a door that said ‘Dean Alexander Russell’.

“I’m going to have to leave you here,” Jared said when she finally caught up. “I don’t think Alpha Russell wants to see my face right now.”

He didn’t seem as happy as he had been when they had made that stupid entrance. If it weren’t for the fact that she would probably be leaving, she would have asked what the deal was with the evaluations that had made him so tense.

“Thank you again. I don’t think I will see you again after this, but I appreciate you helping me out,” she said.

Jared gave her a lazy side smirk that transformed his whole face. If she’d had her phone, she would have asked to take a picture so she could always remember that she once talked to someone so insanely good-looking.

“Oh, I think I’ll be seeing you around. Later, Little Red,” he said before he walked back in the direction they had come from.

Jared didn’t know what he was talking about. He’d mentioned he wanted to leave, but he was a wolf, an Alpha, so it was mandatory for him to complete his four years. But she was human; there was no question that a mistake had been made, no matter what Mrs. Benton had said.

She knocked on the door, and a woman called for her to enter. The room was spacious, with a waiting area that showed the amount of money this academy had at its disposal. She could have been walking in to see the CEO of some billion-dollar company. Again, old and new had been blended so well in the fixtures and fittings that she couldn’t help looking around in awe as she walked towards the woman sitting behind a desk. Her anxiety was momentarily forgotten.

She would probably have loved this place if she had been a wolf.

“May I help you?”

“May I see the dean, please?”

The woman was looking at her computer. Ava took a moment to study her. With her pale complexion and the ring on her finger that looked like the charmed rings she had read about, she guessed she was speaking to a vampire. What they said about them was true. There was an aura around the woman that made Ava want to stay there and do whatever this woman said. Throughout history, before the Council had been formed, vampires’ allure had led many to their doom.

“Have you got an appointment?” the woman asked.

The tag on her desk said Penelope. No last name. She wanted to be Penelope’s friend. She shook herself out of it when she realised Penelope had spoken. This was the first vampire she had ever seen. If she weren’t about to leave, she would have loved to learn how to be in their presence without being affected.

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