Page 5 of Ava: Part One

Maybe he would go for lunch in the cafeteria to taste that amazing dish before anyone else.

“About ten,” Derek answered. “You weren’t in Claire’s room too long.”

“You were there for an embarrassingly short time, actually,” Myles snickered.

He rolled his eyes as they finally drove down to his parking spot. As a future Alpha, he and his chosen Beta and Gamma also had the privilege of living in their own house in the residential areas set behind the main buildings and other dorms. There were other Alphas nearby and future leaders from all the other species, except the vampires, who preferred to nest in the dorms because of the extra space.

Before they got out of the car, he caught an unwelcome scent and looked in his rearview mirror to watch the man walking up their driveway. His wolf tried to force himself out at the nerve this traitor had to even show his face, but he forced him down. There were rules at the Academy, and he had followed them for three years. He would not fail now that he was almost out of this place.

‘Shall I get rid of him,’ Derek asked through the mind link.

‘No. I’ll deal with him.’

He got out of the car and walked to stand behind it, waiting for the man to approach. He didn’t sense any fear or guilt coming from the new arrival, and that was what rattled his wolf the most. The need to dominate this insignificant asshole had consumed him for three whole years.

“Welcome back,” the man said as he stopped a distance away.

Sensible. Any closer, he would have given in to the temptation to rip his throat out.

“What do you want?” he growled.

“Aww, don’t be like that, Ezekiel. We’re all friends here,” the asshole said with a grin.

He clenched his fist when he felt his claws lengthening.

“I wouldn’t be a good neighbour if I didn’t stop by and invite you to my party tonight to kick the semester off right.”

“I’d rather chop off my balls.”

The asshole grinned and shrugged.

“Whatever, dude. Just being courteous. See you around.”

And then he turned and gave his back to him—something that reeked of disrespect because away from the academy, no one would dare turn their back on an enemy.

His wolf thrashed around, ready to end the fucker on the spot. Though Jared was a future Alpha, too, his level of dominance was well below his own. Jared would never survive a real fight. He hid behind the rules of the academy that lulled everyone with a false sense of security and made them all believe that they were on the same level.

Derek and Myles came to stand on either side of him, watching Jared whistle as he walked off their property. In a place like this, their houses and dorms were sacred and had the same rules as their territories at home. Any interlopers were always unwelcome. If anyone was not invited, it was better to keep away because there were other ways to punish people at this school that didn’t break the rules. Jared knew that better than anyone else.

“One more year, Zeke. We’ll get him,” Derek said.

He managed to calm Shadow down and retracted his claws after Jared stepped out of his territory. He was pissed off with himself. He’d been taught control when he was a pup, long before Shadow had even emerged and tried to break him. Then a little shit like Jared rolled along and rattled him like this, throwing it all out of the window.

“We’ll get all of them,” Myles added somberly.

Zeke patted his Gamma on the back before he turned to open his trunk. Myles had just as much reason to wish Jared and all of his pack dead. They would get their revenge.

“Let’s get all this shit into the house,” he said as he pulled some of the bags out.

As future leaders, they had Omegas assigned to them to maintain the house and run around wherever they were needed. He never had much use for them; he left them alone, and they didn’t get in his way. The academy took care of the laundry, and food was delivered from the kitchen whenever he wanted it. He didn’t need anyone to cook for him. His Omegas were always first or second years and mostly just pissed him off with how terrified of him they were. At least they would have the house to themselves for a day or two before he had to deal with the stench of fear everywhere.

They walked into the spacious two-storey house, and the fresh scent indicated somebody had thoroughly cleaned before their arrival. He wrinkled his nose. It had all the usual scents, but for some reason, he wanted whatever scent he’d driven past to fill his home.

“I’m going to have lunch at the cafeteria today,” he announced as he walked to the stairway with his bags. “Whatever they’ve cooked today smelled good, and I’m starving.”

“I don’t think they do lunch early, especially on the first day,” Derek said as he followed.

“They did today. Didn’t you smell it?”

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