Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Edric tore away, rocking back on his knees.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I shrieked.
Licking his lips, he smirked. “As I was saying, I’ll give you everything you want and more... if you never complete the bond with Nyx.”
A roaring pounded in my ears—as loud as my wolf’s howling racket for Edric to continue. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” His good nature melted away. “Nyx is the worst kind of bastard. The lowest of the low. So let him grovel, seduce, and put on a fake show of being a changed man all he wants. Go ahead and play with him like you play with all your food, but if you complete the bond, I’m out.” Edric walked off, leaving me gaping in his wake. “If he licks your pussy, I won’t be.”
“You can’t just—just—just give me an ultimatum,” I cried.
“Looks like I just did.”
Edric ducked fast, shooting into the bathroom and slamming the door. My alarm clock sailed through the spot his head had just been in and crashed into the door, smashing apart into dozens of pieces. His howling laughter echoed from the other side.
“WHAT NOW, DAZE?”
Ava stretched out on the chaise longue, sipping her full moon mojito.
I didn’t know what the full moon had to do with it, but one sip told me it had an eye-watering amount of rum. I nudged mine to the side while my pack of epsilon ladies downed theirs while kicking back on the couches, chairs, chaises, and bay windows scattered around the headmistress’s office.
“I’m guessing you guys lifted the no-hard-alcohol ban?”
Ava shrugged, chuckling. “Never should’ve been a ban in the first place. Not only are most of us adults, but we’re also wolves. It would take two barrels full of this stuff to get us drunk. So yes, we decided in our goddess-given wisdom to dump that silly rule and many others.”
“Like it, but if you want to know what we do now, then you’ve got to know silly rules are the least of our problems. The easy part is over,” I said. “Now comes trouble.”
Their smirks melted away.
“What do you mean?” Melisent asked. “We did it. We took over the school. You even got Cygnus Tahan and Sunella to back you as headmistress. Why would we be in trouble now?”
The seven of us weren’t up too early because we didn’t have to be. After a long, harrowing week, it was finally the weekend. I woke up that morning next to Edric, who refused to give up and return to his dorm no matter how hard and often I kicked him through the night.
The jerk reminded me of our arrangement, and then he fucked the crap out of me—reminding me again why his ultimatum just might fucking work.
To get my mind off of fated-mate drama, I summoned my new and future alpha council to a morning meet-up that they no doubt thought was a victory lap.
Not so much.
“I got the alpha council to agree that as long as I attend the academy, I run it. They haven’t agreed to make the changes permanent, and they don’t want to. They’ll be looking for any and every excuse to say our experiment in equality failed, and once they have ‘proof’ that we failed, they’ll never give epsilons and omegas a chance to break from our assigned roles again.”
They exchanged looks, their expressions shouting that they wished right then that those drinks could get them drunk.
“Which brings us to the worst news.”
“There’s more?” Ayana cried.
“Sunella insisted on sending me a vice to ‘help’ me run the school. I choose the final candidate, but I know that won’t matter,” I said. “Every single one she sends me will be a plant and a loyal spy to the council.”
“You said we’d have trouble,” Ava said, rising up. “That’s no trouble at all. All we have to do is let the traitor send word that they got the job, and then we kill them. After we send back fake reports in their name, saying that all is well and Queen Daciana is doing a fine job. It’s not like the council can barge in here and prove they’re dead. Not after we close the gates and close them for good this time.” She clapped. “Done. Problem solved.”
The girls nodded and murmured agreement—problem solved.
“That is an elegant solution, but it won’t work,” I broke in. “The fact is I do actually need a vice to handle running the school, and before you offer, Ava, the job would be yours if you didn’t have the same schedule conflicts too. We all have classes.”
Ava plopped back down. “Do classes really matter now? I mean, we’re taking over the alpha council no matter what, so me getting a D in history doesn’t make a difference.”
I gave her a serious look. “That is exactly why it does matter, Ava. When this is all finished, the seven of us in this room will be running the second-largest dominion on earth. Hundreds of thousands of wolves all over North America will depend on us to protect them and their rights. Are we going to tell them that we took that responsibility so seriously, we skipped classes and got drunk on mojitos every day?”