Page 6 of Untamed

“Oh, I’m well aware, Miss Walker. You just want to hurt everyone else.”

Her words attempt to drown me in shame, but honestly, she’s not wrong, so I brush them off. Why wouldn’t I want to hurt everyone else? They’ve hurt me.

She nods at my mate. At least she gives him the same blunt treatment she’s been giving me. Her heels click again, retreating. I turn, giving Jonah my back, and walk away, trying to get how freaking handsome he is out of my head. I told myself not to ogle his muscles, and I did a good job considering, but that doesn’t mean his pecs aren’t currently burned into my brain. Fucking damn him.

“I’ll expect my shirt returned,” Jonah calls out.

“I’ll give it back right now.”

He growls, the sound low in his throat. It makes me stop, the hair on the back of my neck rising.

“No mate of mine will be walking around topless.”

I pull my shoulders back. “You rejected me, remember? I am no mate of yours.”

My wolf bares her teeth again, but I’m on a roll now, so I ignore her. If I also didn’t think walking around topless was a horrible idea, I’d whip the shirt off right here in this hallway to prove my point. I still have to continue my talk with Ms. Ebon, though. What a way to finish a meeting that started awkward. I’d be upping that factor by a few hundred notches if I went in tits out.

He doesn’t respond as I turn into her office, closing the door behind me with a little more force than necessary. She’s sitting in the same chair, waiting for me. I plop down opposite her. After a bit of time passes, she drops her gaze to the floor where the file and its contents are strewn everywhere and then back at me. I sigh, bending to pick it up before putting it all together on my lap again.

“Judging by your response, I’m going to assume what the Council wrote is a trigger for you.” I grimace, and Ms. Ebon quickly responds with, “We don’t have to discuss it today as you’re not mature enough to control your wolf.” Her eyes turn sad for the first time since I’ve been here. She leans closer, frowning. “Miss Walker, you are in a very dire situation. If you are found to have an unnatural lineage, you will not be able to mate with Jonah even if he should accept you. You will have to leave Lunar Pack immediately.”

I blink at her, dread knotting in my stomach. “And go where?”

“Feral,” she tells me, brows pinching. “You will not be allowed in any of the packs. You will be shunned. For good.”

I breathe in deeply, letting the air out slowly. Her words shouldn’t scare me like they do. “It won’t be a problem,” I assure Ms. Ebon. “My parents told me I’m the product of their pairing.” They’ve been telling me that my whole life, but it still hasn’t stopped the rumors from flying—my mother’s a whore; my mother had sex with another man after she mated with my father.

In the human world, cheating causes whispered rumors and catty remarks. In the wolf world, she may as well have signed my death certificate and my family’s displacement from society. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stared at family pictures, trying to talk myself into the fact that I look like my father.Dear God, let me look like my father.

“Very well,” Ms. Ebon says simply. “Your whole family will be under inspection from this very moment. For your sake, I hope they can prove your lineage.”

I swallow the lump building in my throat. Mating with Jonah has pulled my parents into this mess again. The same mess that occurred right around the time I was born. “What’s going to happen?”

Ms. Ebon leans back in her chair. “Pack Council business, I imagine. But I need you focused on your studies here. Since you’re the product of the mated pairing, there is nothing to worry about except gaining favor with your mate.”

Her words don’t exactly help any. Once again, I want to scream. If only I’d gone without pairing. Why couldn’t the universe have kept me unbonded? It would’ve saved everyone a lot of trouble. Now, my parents’ personal affairs are going to be picked apart at length. Jonah will be ridiculed. And me? No one will ever think of me and the hell I’m going through here.

My advisor points to a spiral notebook I’d placed back in the file. “Those are the rules of Greystone Academy, Miss Walker. I expect you to know them before you start your classes.”

“What classes?” I ask. According to the textbook all those years ago, I’ll need some sort of lessons to ready myself for a fated mate pairing, and I’m not sure that’s exactly doable.

“I will come up with your schedule, taking the recommendations from Jonah and the Lunar Pack Council into account.”

I shake my head. Human history should tell us shifters that this sort of control is bad for the population. Nothing good ever came from it. “You’re going to decide what I do here? So, as my other wolfpeers are going to school for real education toward occupations, I’m going to suffer through, what? Etiquette classes?”

“If you need them, yes,” Ms. Ebon remarks. “Among other things. Every wolf who comes here is different. Many times, we don’t have a particular set schedule that every wolf takes. We still have general education courses, by the way. It’s all in that manual. Remember that the sooner you leave here, the sooner you can assimilate back into regular wolf society and go to the University your wolfpeers are attending.”

On second thought, I’m not so sure I want to go to the University with all those assholes. It might be nice here with a little bit of freedom from everyone. And new people. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t know everything about me.

“We have a fair graduation rate,” Ms. Ebon continues. “Seventy-five percent of wolves are accepted by their mate within the first year.”

At this moment, that favorable figure doesn’t help. I can’t imagine Jonah ever accepting me. In fact, my back still aches from his body slam. “How many wolves are cast out?” I refrain from using the wordFeralas it always makes an icy sliver of fear cut down my spine. The idea of living that way has always taunted me since I was a pup.

“Twelve percent, Miss Walker. My personal number is much lower than that, and I’m not going to let you ruin my statistics. I expect you to conform. I expect you to try. I expect you to do everything in your power to get Jonah Livestrong to listen to his internal feelings instead of his brain. Do you understand?”

My lips thin. Everything in me says it’s wrong that I have to try—that we’re even having this conversation based on something I didn’t do and had no control over. On the other hand, the consequence is nothing short of life-ending.

“I understand.”

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