Chapter Two #2
N YX’S WORDS, AND THAT smirk, banged around in my head for the rest of the day that I spent chilling in my luxurious quarters. I was buried alive. I earned a day off classes. Not that any of it was relaxing. Edric’s frustration at his search for Badr turning up nothing kept bleeding into my head.
Did Badr take off after trying to kill me? He didn’t have any allies in the school, so it’s possible he didn’t see a reason to stick around. But if he did run, where did he run to?
Neither Edric nor I got an answer to that by the time he blundered into my room late that night.
“Get out,” I ordered, not looking up from my book.
Naturally, he ignored me. “Badr’s room has been cleared out and his scent is all over the place, so I can’t track it, but my guess is he’s long gone.” Edric toed off his shoes and peeled off his shirt, making himself comfortable in my room like the jerk he was. “After he left you in the grave, he would’ve known that he’d be screwed if you managed to get out, or if I woke up in time to save you. This place is crawling with your minions, so no enemy of yours is safe.”
“Minions is another harsh word,” I murmured. “I don’t like it any more than blackmail. It all makes me sound like a mustache-twirling madman.”
“Mustache-twirling madmen wish they were as crazy as you, Volana. Then they’d have the balls to kill the hero on sight instead of psyching themselves up with the monologue.”
I grunted something in response.
“Still, Badr went too far and my wolf wants me to cheer you up, so get over here. This is a limited-time pussy-licking offer—”
My wolf ears perked up high.
“—so take it or leave it.”
Irritation welled up as hot as my arousal. “Don’t stand there acting like you’re doing me some kind of favor, asshole.”
Slowly, deliberately, Edric snaked his belt out from around his waist, and then snapped it hard—making me and my nipples jump to attention. “Don’t sit there acting like you’re not already wet.”
I snapped my book shut. “You know what? Nyx had the right idea. It’s about time you guys started seducing me, wooing me, and all around groveling at my feet. You’ve all been raging assholes since I walked through the academy gates. Let’s see if you can apologize as well as you torture.”
His brows tickled his hairline. “You want me to seduce you? Play your game? Hmm.” He hummed, circling the bed. “That’s an interesting idea.”
I yelped, my book going flying when Edric grasped my ankle and snapped me to him—slip-and-sliding me across the silk sheets. I went very still as one lethal claw pressed against my chest... and traveled down, tearing my shirt apart like he was opening a zipper.
“All right, Volana. You’ve got yourself a deal.” My pants were next to go. He sliced them off and tossed them over his shoulders, flexing those thick, lickable pecs. “I’ll seduce you. I’ll tempt and tease you.” Edric swirled his finger around my nipple, standing the wanton slut to attention. “I’ll worship your body every minute of the day and night. You won’t be able to think my name without orgasming.”
Dropping down, Edric captured my shivering pebble and sucked hard, ripping a breathy, fevered moan out of me. The man could try the patience of Luame herself, and I had no doubt he has every day of his life, but there was one thing about Edric that was undeniable—he was a beast in bed.
The sexual chemistry between us was undeniable, and it’d been that way since I first laid eyes on him. The big sexy mountain of a man was my type in every way, and it brought him no small amount of smug joy to see that fact with every peek inside my head. Along with all the hows, whys, and positions of what I liked in bed, and what I couldn’t say out loud that I liked in bed.
Edric delivered it all— hard.
Nipping and licking his way down, Edric sliced my panties off with the same ruthless efficiency. “I’ll give you everything you want and more, baby...” Edric buried his head between my legs and I arched off the sheets, crying out as he attacked my pussy like a madman—licking, sucking, tongue-fucking, and devouring it whole—complete with snarling growls and all.
The guy acted like he was mad at it and punished the poor aching hole accordingly.
Moans poured from my lips. My claws sprouted and shredded the sheets, ruining them for the fifth time that week. My lower belly clenched, snapping me back up the other way. Nerve-flaming heat shuddered through my limbs as my orgasm came up on me fast.
“Yes,” I cried. “Yes, Edric, right there! Right—”
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.
***
“W HAT 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?”
Silence fell. One after the other, the girls set down their drinks and pushed them away.
“No one out there believes we can do this,” I gritted. “To the rest of the world, an epsilon’s only purpose is to sit on a shelf looking pretty until someone decides to take us down and play with us. We will prove them wrong. We will graduate top of our classes with all the knowledge they didn’t think we deserved to be taught. We will drag Wolf Nation into a new era of freedom and equality. And we will bring about the Golden Age of Wolves, claiming our place as the best and strongest dominion on the planet.
“I’m ready to do that with you, ladies, so are you with me, or not?”
“We’re with you,” Ava said—soft, but firm. “You’re right, Daze, and I’m sorry. Wolf Nation doesn’t need any more empty-headed power mongers treating us all like we only exist to watch the council get rich and party. We absolutely do need to be in class learning everything to become better leaders than Sunella or Cygnus ever could be.”
“Yes.”
“Absolutely.”
“Studying and mojitos,” Melisent said. “That’s what we’re all about. You will pry neither textbook nor rum from my cold dead hands, because I’m a lady!”
We laughed and it broke the tension.
“So what’s your plan, Daze?” Ayana asked. “How do we let a vice in here if we can’t trust them?”
A smile stretched my lips. “I’ve been workshopping that little problem. Sunella is a wind wolf, meaning she’s extra careful with the spoken word. After all, the wind knows all. So, after she sends her spy in, she won’t want them to deliver their reports over the phone because there’s always a risk it gets back to me.”
“Okay,” Ava drew out. “She or he won’t talk on the phone. They’ll probably text or email. How does that help us?”
“It helps us because texts and emails... can be intercepted.”
It took a beat, but soon, nothing but grins mirrored mine.
Melisent jumped up. “So every negative email they send, we’ll intercept them, change them around, and then send them on to Sunella with both of them having no clue anything went wrong.”
Ava snapped her fingers. “And the messages that come back from Sunella! We’ll change them too. We’ll put in all the expected shock and horror so that the little spy thinks everything is going to plan. They’ll have no idea we’re onto them.”
“But what if Sunella risks it and calls them directly?” Ayana asked. “To find out why every report is rosy? If her spy isn’t delivering, she may come up with a reason to replace them.”
See? This is why I had no interest in being an actual paranoid-loner tyrant. I needed my pack of war-mongering wolf sisters to keep me on my toes, so I was always covering every angle.
“That’s why we won’t make their reports too rosy,” I replied. “We’ll feed Sunella crumbs so that she doesn’t notice we made off with the whole cake.”
Ava laughed, kicking back to finish off her drink. “That’s why they call you the queen.”
“The title does suit me, doesn’t it?”
We busted up. Power looked good on all of us.
***
A FTER WE FINISHED UP talking about next steps, keeping control of the school, and consolidating our power, I took off for the cafeteria to get some real food in me. My wolf was ravenous.
Or, she should be ravenous.
Any other day if I pushed up against noon without having my breakfast, she’d gnaw and claw her way out of my stomach trying to get food. That morning... nothing.
“What’s up with you?” I murmured, rubbing my chest. “How are you not hungry?”
I barely got a stirring of a rumble from her in response. She was raring to go that morning when Edric took off his pants, but now she was acting like Nia the wolf tranquilizer was hanging around.
I paused, sniffing the air to be sure. Nope, no Nia.
Shaking my head, I continued on to the mess hall.
I changed up the rules after mixing all the students. No more sitting around like princes and princesses, forcing the kitchen staff to run around taking everyone’s order. Instead, there were menu pads waiting at each table and said tables were numbered.
The students wrote down what they wanted, brought it up to the window, and then when their orders were complete, they went up to get them. Not a big deal, but the alphas had been bitching about it nonstop.
I braced myself for another wave of whining when I went through the door.
“Daciana!” Three alphas shot up from their table and were on me in a blink. “Daciana, we need to talk about these changes,” Megan began. “I don’t understand why they can’t just bring us our food when our order is ready. What’s the point of making us go back and forth, back and forth?”
Even though I knew the whining was coming, I would’ve loved to be wrong!
“Megan, do you really want to imply to the woman signing your graduation recommendation that you’re too delicate and dainty to walk the length of the mess hall?” I cocked my brow at her as her pinched face tightened. “Is this really the hill you want my opinion of you to die on?”
She sniffed. “Call me delicate and dainty all you want, but you’re the headmistress now.” She loaded that word heavy with sarcasm and scorn. “You have the job, so you have to do the job and listen to our concerns. Dagem would’ve never ignored us.”
“Dagem didn’t need to bother with ignoring you because she gave you everything you wanted,” I returned, but then I rocked back—considering. “But okay, you have a point.”
Megan blinked at me. “I do?”
“Yes, you do. We’re moving toward an equal and fair society, and that doesn’t happen by leaders blundering ahead, doing whatever they want, and never listening to the people in said society.”
Megan shared shocked but pleased looks with her friends, their chests puffing up. “That’s right. Absolutely. So this means you’re putting everything back the way it was.”
I snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. What this means is I’m going to hold an open forum where you can put forward your suggestions for improving school life, and I’ll let you all vote on them. But,” I stressed, “they have to be real suggestions that will improve life for everyone . Not just yourselves or for the alphas. Agreed?”
Megan and her friends shared another look. I could tell they weren’t pleased with my caveats, but—
“Agreed,” Megan replied, holding out her hand. “Can we hold the first one this Friday, because we have a list.” She squeezed my hand harder than she needed to. “A very long list. And right at the top... is a demand for a new headmistress.”
I laughed, strangling her hand just as hard. “Friday it is. See you there.”
Shaking her off, I continued on to the serving window but my wolf ears heard Megan and her cronies loud and clear. They were already rattling off requests for their lists, and absolutely all of them benefited the alphas and the alphas only.
I heaved a sigh. Minds couldn’t be changed overnight, and definitely not by force, but I damn sure wished they could be. I had three months max to turn the whole of Wolf Nation against the alpha council and everyone willing to slaughter omega babies for the incredible powers they were destined to have. I had to burn down our sick and twisted world and create a nation where Hope would be safe to live among her own people without fear one of them would rip her soul out of her chest. I had to do it all with almost everyone against me—even one of my own mates.
The fact is the prophecy proclaiming the Golden Age of Wolves had been around decades before I was born. It told of a time when werewolves would come out of hiding and become the strongest race on the planet. We’d take over all five dominions and be unstoppable—ruling on earth for forever and a day.
All of Wolf Nation and beyond knew this was coming... and they knew it all began with me.
I never had a chance to hide. I never had a chance to be normal, or live a different life than this one. The only hope I had, and Luame made this clear to me, was to fight.
So that’s what I’m going to do no matter how many Megans whine, complain, and moan. My fists balled at my side. For Hope—my only hope.
A scent hit my nostrils, spinning me around. “Hey! What are you—?” I froze, my jaw hanging open at the sight before me.
Straightening, Paxton cleared his throat and held out what he had clutched in his calloused grip—a bouquet of lilies. “Good morning, Daciana, I’m here... I have to— Hold on. I wrote it down so I wouldn’t miss anything.” Tossing his head, he dug in his pocket and pulled out index cards. Trying again, he read them off. “Good morning, Daciana, you look beautiful as always.” Paxton paused to look me up and down. “Damn, you really do. You’ve got great legs, girl. Definitely the kind you want wrapped around your ears.”
“Excuse me?!”
He flashed me a look. “I’m doing a thing. Just let me finish. Okay, what was I saying— Oh, right,” he went on. “You look beautiful. You are beautiful, and I’m one of the five luckiest men on the planet to have been chosen as your fated mate.”
“What the fuck is happening?” I breathed, looking around like someone was going to help me or explain.
“I came here to say I’m sorry,” Paxton read. “I called you a bitch and that never should’ve happened. I have no excuse, only apologies. Do you accept them?”
“No,” I dropped—voice dead.
He sighed, tucking away the cards. “Fair enough. I wouldn’t let me off that easy either. I am sorry, for what it’s worth. My mom would rip my tail off if she heard me speak to a woman that way. I’m not the complete jackass that I’ve been, and I’m going to prove it to you.”
“Uhh, no,” I drew out, “you’re not, because I don’t care if you shape-shift into an actual jackass. You tricked me, used me, and lied to me so that you could get close and steal my mother’s letters. You’re lucky I don’t rip your fucking tail off, so get out of my face.”
Paxton didn’t move. “I can’t do that, and you know that, Volana. You and I have got to make it right.”
“Why in the hell would we need to do that?”
“So that we can be fated mates again.”
I turned around and walked off. “Peanut butter–stuffed French toast, please, Nataly,” I called through the serving window.
“Coming right up, Headmistress.”
Heavy footfalls and the smell of cedar-vanilla shampoo proved I hadn’t shaken the idiot off. “Daze, I’m serious.”
“Don’t call me Daze,” I snapped. “Only my friends, family, and people who have a chance of seeing me naked can call me Daze.”
“I literally saw you naked on the first day of school.”
“You know what I mean!”
Paxton laughed, risking serious bodily harm. “I get it. You’re not going to make this easy for me. You’ll make me work for it until I’m good and humbled,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’m all in for it. Nyx told me this would happen.”
“Nyx?” I temporarily halted my determination to get the hell away from him. “What’s he got to do with anything?”
“You know.”
I gave him a clueless, and extremely irritated, look.
“Nyx told me everything,” he repeated, “when he found me curled up on the bathroom floor—praying death would come faster. He force-fed me some awful swill and then told me that you blowing up the bond put us on Luame’s hitlist. We’ll die unless we make it right with each other, so...”
Oh gods, no.
“That’s what I’m doing.” Paxton held out the lilies again.
My head-peeling glare should’ve reduced them to ashes, because that’s what the fuck I was trying to do. “Luame is not going to kill me for rejecting you. She just won’t. But if she wants to kill you for it, she can go right ahead.” I plucked the flowers out of his hands and flung them across the room. “Fuck. Off.”
Paxton watched them sail away and bonk Megan on her screeching head without reaction. “You don’t know that she’ll spare you, and you’re too smart to risk it, so no, I’m not fucking off. What I’m actually going to do is make it up to you, make you forgive me, and then make you fall in love with me.”
Again I gave him my back and strode away. Again he jogged after me, chuckling.
“Is this how you deal with things you don’t like? Just stuff your ears and walk off? It’s good to know these little things about you.”
“That’s not how I deal with things I don’t like, although I damn sure don’t like you,” I flung back. “I’m walking off because I was taught it’s rude to stand there and stare when someone’s having a mental breakdown.”
Paxton laughed again. “There’s nothing crazy about winning my woman back.”
I gaped at him, eyes bugged. “Your what? I’m not your fucking woman!”
“You were,” he said, shrugging. “You liked me before. You’ll like me again.”
“I liked who you were pretending to be!”
“Aha.” He smirked. “You admit it. You did like me.”
My lips peeled back from my teeth. “You do realize you’re within throat-ripping distance, don’t you?”
Paxton threw up his hands, walking back with that same cocky grin that made my heart thump the first time around. “No need to rip my throat out, baby. All I’m asking is that you give me a chance to save both our lives. Don’t be stubborn to the grave.”
“I’ve told you,” I gritted. “Luame won’t kill me for rejecting you.”
“Won’t she? Then tell me right now: how is your wolf? Is she the same as she always is? Or did you wake up feeling like something is off with her, like I did with my wolf?”
My lips parted... but nothing came out.
“Exactly,” he said, driving the dagger deeper. “If you’re really so sure you have Luame figured out, and I can tell you don’t, there’s still no downside to you letting me beg, grovel, and make a lovesick fool of myself at your feet. Best case, you take me back and save both our lives. Worst case you stubbornly kill us both but you get to ride my dick on the way down.”
“There’s something seriously wrong with you.”
“You can give me the whole list tonight when I pick you up for our date. Okay?”
“N—”
“Good,” he barreled on. “That’s settled. This is for you—” He tossed me a chocolate kiss.
Where does he keep these things! I railed, scrambling to catch it.
“—this is for me.” Grasping my outstretched hand, he snapped me to his chest and planted a big, smacking kiss on my lips.
I squawked, shooting away, but Paxton was already striding off.
“See you tonight,” he tossed over his shoulder.
I stood there, staring after him wondering how I told the fucker off and still ended up standing there with his date, chocolate, and kiss on my lips.
***
A FTER brEAKFAST, I met up with Nia on the way to classes.
“So?” I asked softly.
Nia glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes, and shook her head.
“What? Why?” Shock laced the whisper.
We were outside on that perfect, sunny morning—taking the long way to leadership class by skirting the border of the castle that brushed up against the trees. Even so, there was still the possibility that a hundred ears were listening, so we were careful.
“They like the changes,” Nia replied. “They like that you talk a big game. They like you. But, Daze, they don’t believe you can deliver a single promise you’ve made. Taking over all of Wolf Nation is a lot harder than taking over one school. Once they get proof that you can actually do that...”
Then the omegas will fight for me, I finished.
“There’s also the other and most obvious problem,” Nia continued. “How are the omegas supposed to help you stop what’s coming? We can’t walk around wearing earplugs all the time every day.”
“I’m working on that.” I hadn’t yet shared with Nia that I created a vocal cord killer. I hadn’t shared that with anyone who wasn’t a snooping fated jerk living in my head and my bed. That was the best, and only, weapon we had in this war. There simply weren’t enough epsilons in the world to go up against all of the alphas and betas of Wolf Nation. We needed the omegas to stand with us, which meant we had to stop the other side from ordering them to drop down and expose their bellies.
“I’m working on both of those issues,” I went on. “If they need proof, I can deliver. But I need assurances too.” I met her eyes. “What’s coming will make the last thousand years of omega oppression seem like a party. They have to be ready and willing to stand and fight by my side within the next few weeks , not years. If they wimp out, they— you all will lose everything.”
“But you said it’s the next generation they want,” she hissed, eyes darting around. “This generation of omegas don’t have powers worth stealing.”
“I also said the alpha council will pass laws making forced-breeding programs legal. Do you really think that’s going to start and end with me?” I said to her widening eyes. “First rule of supply and demand, Nia. You need enough supply to meet the demand.”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” she cried, holding up her hands. She looked seconds away from throwing up on the grass. “But how can I convince them how serious this threat is if you won’t let me tell them what the threat is? You’re luring them in with promises of a utopia, when you need to be scaring them with the truth of the inevitable dystopia.”
I was shaking my head before she finished. The act kicked up an ache behind my eyes. “I’ve told you this, Nia. Everyone knowing the truth doesn’t stop it from happening. It just forces the alpha council to act faster, harder, and smarter. The propaganda parade has been rolling through the streets for decades before you and I were even born.
“Everyone knows I bring about the Golden Age of Wolves, but right now, only a small few of us know how. As soon as the truth gets out, the alpha council will ask the alphas and betas to choose between becoming the most powerful creatures on earth, or coddling the omegas. Spoiler alert: They. Do. Not. Choose. You.”
She flinched, lips trembling. “Gods, it would be so much easier if you could take over by right of defeat. Even now, you have access to the alpha council that no one else in Wolf Nation does.”
I sighed. Nia voiced the exact thought that I had many times. We werewolves gave way to human morality in so many ways... except one. By law, an alpha can kill a clan leader or member of the alpha council and take over their position through the right of defeat.
Wolves believed that the strongest should lead the pack at all times, and sometimes the masses don’t vote for that person. If so, it is the right of anyone stronger, wiser, or more cunning to slit their throats and lead the pack.
But of course, that was for alphas and alphas only. No one would be handing me any council seats after I killed the alpha council, which is why I was preparing for war.
“Our biggest advantage right now is that the alpha council doesn’t know that we know. They have no clue that we’re preparing for war,” I said. “The vision Luame sent me only showed me what happens if we lose this war. She’s never sent me a vision of us winning. We need every edge we have to win this fight, including the element of surprise, but that said, I asked you to be my partner for a reason.
“You’re an omega. I’m not. You know what they need to hear. You can reach them better than I can, so you tell me, do we take the risk and tell them the whole truth—knowing that even one leak can spell disaster for us?”
Nia slowed to a stop, considering me with a hard expression. “They have a right to know,” Nia said firmly, “but... you’re right too. Having the element of surprise helped you take over the school. It’ll help us take over Wolf Nation. And even though I don’t for a second believe an omega would betray us and give up the secret, I also know that doesn’t mean a damn thing when any alpha anywhere can command them to do it against their will.
“Once you find a way to protect us from alpha and beta powers, then I’ll tell them everything.”
“Agreed,” I replied easily.
“Good.” Her gaze flicked over my shoulder. “We should stop. Someone’s coming.”
Turning around, I saw she was right. There was someone approaching us. Someone I’d never seen before.
Thick mahogany waves fell around thin, bony shoulders. She smiled when I turned to her, which tugged on her face and drew the swirling symbol tattooed across her cheekbone.
I identified her as a metal wolf immediately. Only their clan required face tattoos of every of-age wolf, but as for the wide-set brown eyes, thin lips, hooked nose, and wrinkles around her temple, those didn’t summon a lick of recognition from me.
“Who are you?” I demanded. “How did you get in here?”
“I let myself in, I hope you don’t mind. The gate was wide open, so there was no reason to wait.”
“Excuse me?” I craned to look around her as if I could see the front gates through the massive castle between them and me. “No they’re not.”
“I assure you, they are,” she replied. “A fact which has moved a new priority to the top of my list—security.”
“Your new priority?” My eyes narrowed. “Once again, who are you?”
“Oh, do forgive me, I am being terribly rude.” She extended her hand. “My name is Rianna Ash, you may call me Mrs. Ash. It is a pleasure to meet you, High Priestess, as it is a pleasure to be your new vice headmistress.” Her smile took on a sinister edge. “I’m so looking forward to working with you, and assisting in carrying out the blessed vision handed down by our wolf mother, Luame.”
I didn’t take her hand, so she surged forward and grabbed mine, squeezing hard enough to make her point. “I’m certain with my guidance we will achieve her true purpose.”