He winced. “His Majesty has asked not to be disturbed. He’s reviewing documents.” I nodded. “Well, make sure he eats something. He gets cranky when he’s hungry.” Allen chuckled. “Of course, Miss Hedy.” When the house was quiet, and I was certain that no one would hear me, I locked the door to my bedroom and closed the thick curtains around my bed. I pulled the hidden panel in the headboard out and put on my headset. “Pandora to Moon Shadow, online,” I said. The screen of the computer shifted as the computer recognized my voice and initialized the unlocking protocols to the private messaging board of Moon Shadow. In the wake of the chaos that had started to infect werewolf society after the rise of the vampire king, Moon Shadow was formed to help combat it. The organization was made up of only werewolves with awakened bloodlines. No one knew anyone’s real name, faces, or voices, but we all shared a common vision: bringing about the unity and peace of the werewolf world, f
It was a weird question, but it wasn’t the first time that Candido had started a strange conversation with me. I thought about it and answered, “People say he’s the most handsome guy at school, and he receives a lot of love letters in pink envelopes every day.” Then I laughed. “Ohh Claire thinks his eyes are very charming.” Candido clenched his fists at his sides as I frowned at the glass I had been offering to him for the past few moments. Why wasn’t he taking it back? Candido took a deep breath. “You think his eyes are charming?” “Not me. Claire.” “I don’t care.” He said stiffly. “I’m asking what you think.” Candido looked so serious. More serious than I had ever seen him. It wasn’t like him to fixate on something so trivial. I usually told him all about my day, but there hadn’t been much to say today, and my mind wasn’t on my day at the Academy, let alone Francium. Maybe there was something going on with the New Moon Pack. Was he in negotiations with them about someth
“His Majesty left early into the city for a meeting.” That was odd. Candido was an early riser, but he rarely missed breakfast with me. He pretended like it was just to check up on me, but I think he enjoyed our quiet time together. This morning had been the first time I’d eaten breakfast without him in a long time. It wasn’t completely out of the ordinary alone, but in relation to that conversation we had last night and the way he’d evaded my questions about the party, it was odd. I slipped out of the car when we arrived, waved most of the team goodbye, and headed into the Academy. People were milling about on the front lawn and in the hallway. Some gave me wide-eyed glances, but I ignored them. “Hedy!” Claire called, rushing down the hall towards me. People parted for her, but they were still staring at me. Maybe it was because of Francium’s confession yesterday? Or had they heard about Bella’s engagement disaster? Whatever the reason, I ignored them as Claire reached me.
She blinked for a few moments. Linda was quiet, and I continued to stare at her and wait for her to answer. Bella passed exams because the young men she attended classes with gave her the answers to be closer to her. I knew from high school that she never did any homework. Lilian and Steven were preparing her to be a trophy wife, not someone to help run a pack, so they paid people or forced me to do her homework.I doubted anything had changed in the last four years. Seeing the way Bella stared at me told me I was right.“That’s such an easy question,” someone said from nearby. “If she needs help with that, it’s obvious that she doesn’t belong here.”It was a high school algebra problem. I was taking Calculus this year.“Do you need me to repeat the question?” I asked.“Of course not,” Bella said though she glanced at Linda nervously. “Linda? Why don’t you give her the answer, and I’ll explain it.”I looked at Linda, waiting for her to stumble and pull a bullshit answer out of nowhere
If vampires and werewolves shared a cult, what else did werewolves and vampires share? More than that, if we had inherited the cult from them, what else had we inherited? Were we once truly at peace? How had we become enemies?Was there even a chance that we could go back to being somewhat at peace? If there was a way to do so, it would make Moon Shadow’s mission easier, but I wasn’t sure that it was possible. The list of questions seemed to grow longer the more I thought about it. As I turned the corner and headed towards my next class, a bit of bright yellow tape caught my eye. Three workers had sectioned off part of the hallway.“What happened?”The worker shrugged. “Some youngest probably lost control and damaged the wall. Nothing much to worry about.”I nodded but scanned the claw marks. They were oddly made, deeper in some places than in others. It was pretty characteristic of someone with super strength not quite controlling their strength. When their strength waxed and waned l
The entire cafeteria went silent. Linda shrieked and struggled, but I held her in place, glaring at Bella who had gone pale looking between the two of us.“You fucking bitch. You’re insane! Let go!” Linda pushed at my hand but I ignored her.I was furious enough that there was nothing she could do to get free. She was lucky I hadn’t crushed her head the way I could. Bella’s lips trembled.“Apologize,” I said calmly. My voice sounded cold. It reminded me a bit of Candido when he was furious. “Or I’m going to break your face.”He’d rubbed off on me more than I thought.“I dare you to try—" She shrieked as I pushed her head harder into the plate, staring at Bella.“Apologize,” I said. “If that plate breaks, you’re going to lose your eye.”Bella gasped; her eyes darted down to where Linda’s face was pressed into the plate.“I’m not—” Linda went quiet as I pressed harder and the plate cracked. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Let me go, you crazy bitch!”“Now,” I said, narrowing my eyes at Bella. “Y
My heart fluttered. The thought of that one day being true, maybe even in a few months made me keep quiet.“What can I get you two to drink?”“Water,” Candido said. “Red wine for me, a sweet, white for her. And we’ll start with stuffed mushrooms and the petite fillet mignons.”“Excellent choices!” The waiter scurried away, and I stared at Candido in shock, but he didn’t look up at me as he scanned the menu.Why hadn’t he said anything? We both knew that Sibyl was his betrothed. I didn’t know why exactly they were betrothed, why Candido would agree in any way to marry such a mean woman, but everyone knew. They didn’t seem intimate at all, but he hadn’t ended their engagement.What was he thinking? Why wasn’t he saying anything about who I actually was? I dropped my gaze to my menu. Maybe he liked the sound of it just as much as I did, or maybe he was glad to escape his reputation as the Alpha King. The waiter was incredibly young and bright. He’d probably never even seen Candido on tel
I walked down the hall, considering my options. It was the best option for my path forward, but it wasn’t one I really wanted to take. Living on campus seemed a bit like a hassle. There would be a lot more eyes to avoid and fewer elements I could control about who saw me coming in and out of my room and when. If my goal was to investigate the campus freely, I’d also have to deal with leaving my room without the security unit following me and Claire, who lived on campus.Here at the estate, I knew the schedules of the staff and Candido more often than not. When I had to slip out in the middle of the night, I knew how to get around security. Evading the members of the pack was easy, but the dorm housed at least a thousand people with all different schedules and habits. I didn’t know any of them or what they were like and might accidentally reveal something that I didn’t mean to. Still, I stood in front of Candido’s office door and knocked.It would be hard acclimating to living on campu