Page 24 of Untamed

After picking my book bag up where I left it in the middle of the hallway, I follow her steps until I find the library and walk in. Sure enough, in the back of the stacks, Mia and Nathan are huddled together.

Mia glances at me over Nathan’s shoulder and turns away, wiping the mascara from under her eyes. Nathan turns, and when he sees me, he relaxes. I sit next to him, dropping my bag on the chair to my right.

“Typical meeting day,” he grinds out.

Looking at Mia now, I know I don’t want the pure turmoil Mia is going through right now. Ms. Ebon was right in some respect. I don’t want to always pine after a guy who doesn’t want me. That can’t be Mia’s future, can it? Mate or no mate, couldn’t she find happiness with someone else? Screw pack laws. Screw mate laws.

I don’t utter any of this out loud— instead, changing the subject and telling them all about how I almost got kicked out of school on my third day.

It turns out, laughing at someone else’s problems is a huge mood booster. After about ten minutes, Mia’s whole demeanor has changed.

I might have to bring her on a date with Jonah. At least I’ll be able to prove to him I do have some social skills and,gasp, some people actually like me. For me. Little old doesn’t-want-to-contribute-to-pack-life me.

11

Over breakfast, Nadia and I compare our schedules. We both share Pack History, but that’s it. She doesn’t have Etiquette or Sociology classes. In fact, she gets to take a lot more educational courses because her mate doesn’t have a problem with her social abilities. The only bug up his ass is the fact that they’re best friends.

I don’t know. I’d be all about shacking up with my best friend. At least you know you like each other. Who’s to say you couldn’t learn to love each other in that way eventually?

Nerves twist my stomach as we make our way to our first official Greystone Academy class. Nathan and Mia informed us that everyone has to take this class so we’ll see all the new shifters who just got here. Now that I’ve learned some of the stupid reasons people are at Greystone Academy, I’m utterly curious of everyone else’s stories.

A classroom that matches the rest of the academy’s decor opens in front of us when we step inside. With the stone walls and wood accents, I’m playing out my castle-living dreams. A fireplace sits empty in the front of the room, the desks lined up in rows before it. I start to head toward the back, but Nadia goes right for the front. I hesitate, unsure of what to do. I’m more the type of girl who sits in the last row and watches everybody. When I’m not in everyone’s face, I become a harder target. My wolfpeers had to go out of their way to say nasty things when I was in the rear of the classroom, and they did, but it would’ve been a lot worse had I been front and center.

But I can’t leave my new friend here to sit by herself....

I grudgingly plop into the seat next to hers, the hairs on the back of my neck rising. My wolf raises her head as if she can sense a threat but immediately settles down when there isn’t anything in the room that’s going to hurt us except my own insecurities. I start to squirm, peeking over my shoulder.

Nadia, however, doesn’t seem to be having the same problem. She chatters beside me as she brings out a notebook. A couple shifters file into the room. Both girls. They take seats behind us, and my foot starts bouncing up and down. I’m convinced they’re going to do something to me.

“You okay?”

I nod once, closing my eyes to tell myself to calm down. I’m not in Lunar anymore. If anything, I belong here with the rest of the misfits.

I give myself something else to focus on as more wolves enter the room. There seems to be more females here than males, and I make a mental note to ask Ms. Ebon, Queen of Greystone Statistics, what the male to female ratio is for rejected mates. I’m beginning to suspect the numbers are skewed in the male’s favor.

Shifters aren’t in this century in regard to feminism, and this is added evidence to that fact. We’re all about the strong, alpha males in Lunar. We pride excellent virility and genes. My mind drifts to Jonah. He’s everything a female shifter would want in a mate. His very physical being screams protection and safety and, let’s face it, fucking sex. It’s in our genetics to lust after the strong ones, and Jonah is arguably at the top of that list.

Now that I’ve kissed him, I’m finding it damn hard to concentrate on anything else. My mind pulses with the memory of him. His lips. His body. His cock. All of it calls to me.

An older shifter waltzes into the room, and I’m thankful for the interruption. He introduces himself as our Pack History professor, Mr. Lyme, then launches into his lecture for the day with vigor, and unfortunately for my current sex-crazed mind, I find it as tedious as I’d imagined. We learned Pack History in primary school, so this is repetitive. A quick scan around tells me no one else is taking notes either, so I can’t imagine it was only Lunar Pack that had a good educational system. Fortunately for my brain, the professor is interesting and humorous. He doesn’t seem to take himself seriously, which is in the plus column, and he keeps me interested enough so I can shove Jonah into the back of my mind for now.

When the class nears completion, Mr. Lyme lowers a large projection screen on the wall. Turning to face us, I recognize a change in his face—his features have fallen. “It’s a mandatory requirement for this class that I show you this video. It’s my least favorite thing to do. I add it to the beginning of the course so we can get it over with. I am sure none of you will end up in this predicament, but since we have already covered an overview of the pack system, this video discusses the often unspoken wild wolf community known as Ferals.”

He retreats to the rear of the room, and after a few moments, a video starts to play. A slice of fear shivers down my spine. My wolf also perks to attention, ears straight up. Not a lot of human life grabs her interest, but she knows what this means.

In true documentary-like fashion, the filmmakers go out in the wild and record different scenes and interviews. We’re shown huts in the woods, frail, primitive humans feasting on woodland creatures. Slide after slide portrays a subset of wolves that is so unlike our own pack system. Living alone. Hungry. Some of them caged. Some of them living in filth. Brutal fights over food, housing, and territory. It’s like watching a documentary on parts of the United States ravaged by war or a fantasy world set in the apocalypse.

They definitely never showed us anything like this in Lunar. Our Feral imaginations were the horror stories, but this movie is far worse than any story I’ve ever heard.

During one particular scene where a shifter in her human form is eating some sort of dead animal, Nadia leans in. “Have you noticed there are no children?”

I blink at the screen. I hadn’t noticed. I was too stuck on the fact that Feral is a real possibility for myself and my new friends, but now that she mentions it, I haven’t spotted a single child in human or wolf form. There are no families either. Just lone wolves.

I feel sick.

I was always the outsider but never like this. I still had my parents. I still had a house, no matter if it was the worst in the village. There was a spot for me to always lay my head down and bathe and eat—and there were people who loved me.

While I watch, I don’t notice that I’ve partially shifted. My fingers have turned into claws digging into the top of the desk. Nadia elbows me, and pointedly glares at my hands. I stare wide-eyed, then close my eyes.It’s okay.I console my wolf as she freaks the fuck out.That won’t be us.

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