Chapter Six #2

“I CAN’T BELIEVE ASH let them both back into the castle after what they’ve done.” Nia spoke to me but looked where everyone was looking—at the dais where Badr and Orion were holding court. “Badr attacked the entire school, and Orion is under investigation for murdering the former headmistress! Innocent until proven guilty, sure, but you’d think both of those charges would get you moved to the home/virtual-learning list.”

I didn’t say anything, I was too busy slicing, dicing, and stabbing my beef sausages.

It’d been a week since Badr’s return, and only a few days longer than that for Orion. Both of them swore they’d undo and destroy everything I’d been building... and it was working.

Badr and Orion claimed the prominent seats on the dais, surrounding them were a gaggle of alpha and beta girls—one of them Megan—hanging all over them and every word.

My throne used to be there, but it mysteriously disappeared the morning after Badr came back. By lunchtime that day, the table was back and taken over by the popular alphas again, all of them staring at me when I came in—daring me to pitch a fit and make myself look small and petty for fighting about a table.

I didn’t take the bait... and that was my first mistake.

Once the alphas and betas got back their popular table, they claimed all the seats in the back—going so far as to wake up early, be the first ones through the mess hall door, and grab all of the best seats while the rest of us were still wiping sleep from our eyes.

The message they were sending was clear: This is our school. We run this place. The rest of you accept what we deign to give you.

If this bullshit was confined to the mess hall, it wouldn’t be such a problem, but their in-my-face rebellion was stinking up the classrooms too.

Since official classes were canceled while we prepared for the placement exams, teachers were holding study halls, review sessions, and Q & As to help us prep for the tests. Or I should say, they were holding them for the alphas and betas. Because said wolves were dominating every session.

They monopolized all the instructors’ time, and whenever an omega or epsilon tried to get a word in or ask a question, they shouted, sang, banged the tables, or made fools of themselves until the questioning student gave up.

The worst part was the instructors were letting it happen. Even though the alphas’ behavior were demerit offenses, the instructors were only giving them detention—which the alphas promptly turned into an after-class party, kicking back with music, beers, and a good time.

Thanks to me stupidly giving up my power over the teachers, I had to go to Ash to discipline them, and her only response was “instructors are within their rights to choose their punishment. If they’ve decided on detention, it’s not your place to question them. A punishment is a punishment.”

Except, it wasn’t a fucking punishment when everyone in the school knew they spent all of detention partying.

With Badr and Orion as their leaders, the alphas were quickly reasserting their dominance over the school... there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

“I thought Ash was here to help us,” Nia went on. “Why is she letting all of this slide?”

“Why indeed, Nia.” My gaze slid to Vice Ash. She stood in the corner of the mess hall, sweeping a stern eye over everyone—me most of all. “She’s a mystery, Nia. I don’t think anyone knows her true motives. Not even Luame.”

My phone chirped right on cue. The texts had been coming fast and furious that morning, and all of them from one person.

Sunella: Despite my assurances that the council will cover any legal damages, the clan leaders are insisting they must continue participating in Volana’s sham of a public forum. They say it’s because they’ve received overwhelming public support and approval for their willingness to “listen to their subjects.” Apparently, if they refuse to continue at this point, the backlash won’t be favorable for them or the council.

I say, the loss of the monetary compensation Volana hinted at is the true backlash they’re concerned about, but none of them will admit this, or say how much she’s paying them.

Regardless, I assume you have a plan to put a stop to these forums, and the council wants to know that plan now.

Older, wiser alphas put these laws into place centuries ago, and they did so for good reasons. Our laws will not be questioned, and will most certainly not be changed, by a bunch of arrogant pups who haven’t even gotten their back teeth.

FIX THIS!

I would’ve smiled if there was anything to smile about. I knew Ash was a council plant, and a week of reading her intercepted emails and texts only proved it. But—and it was wild to me that there was a but attached to this truth—Ash wasn’t completely on their side.

The messages that Ash received from every single member of the council when they found out she canceled classes, instituted the placement exams, kicked the alphas out of the best dorms, and instituted the honor board... Well, let’s just say, I learned a busload of new swear words.

They all came down on her for playing into the “high priestess’s misinterpreted vision,” but she came back just as hard, saying that I was Luame’s chosen representative on earth. If I was misrepresenting Luame, then Luame would tell us so in the form of me bursting into flames. Until that happened, Ash would trust my word on the vision, and carry out Luame’s wishes to the letter. She would betray her faith under no one’s command.

It was really fucking confusing.

Ash seemed to both be on my side and on their side, but of course, that was impossible!

The only thing I could think was that she respected me as high priestess, but hated me as headmistress. So, she’d sabotage everything I did as headmistress, but support my efforts as high priestess. But since both those efforts were linked now, she was both my ally and my enemy, and it was as weird for her as it was for me!

I texted Ava to let the text and her replies through without editing, then watched as Ash received the message and typed a reply.

Rianna: I very much disapprove of a girl who is little more than a child leading a bigger mob of children to shout at and barrage the clan leaders with uneducated nonsense. Influencing law is a serious and sacred duty. It should be done with care, education, and forethought, as such, I will do my best to curb the high priestess and make her see sense. Fortunately the projection equipment was sabotaged by person or persons unknown, so there will be no repeat of last week’s circus.

However, barely educated children though they may be, not everything they said was wrong, and it’d be foolish to dismiss their opinions as so. I, for one, never saw the sense or wisdom in a beta woman never seeing her children again because she found the courage to leave her abusive, cheating alpha spouse, and going by the trending news on Loop Garou, a great many people agree.

The alpha council may want to accept it’s not just High Priestess Daciana who wants Luame’s vision of a new, fairer society to become reality. Because every law should be subject to questioning and change, or we fall to dictatorship.

I almost whooped by the end of her text, wishing I could send Sunella a “Hey, take that, bitch!” on the heels of it. A very frustrating feeling considering I wanted to punch Ash at the start of her text.

“What’s going on?” Nia asked, watching my face.

I handed her my phone. “You want to know what to think of Ash? Read this.”

Nia read through the responses while I nodded along to every one of her expressions: rage, frustration, surprise, glee, confusion. “What the hell?” she sputtered. “Is she on our side or isn’t she?”

“If you figure that out, please let me know. I’m stuck in this constant tug-of-war between drop-kicking her and hugging her.”

Nia shook her head, handing it back. “She’s weird, but she’s not our biggest problem right now. The omegas are learning nothing in the revision classes because the alphas are so obnoxious, and everyone wants to know if the forum will be back on tonight.”

“The projector is still a hunk of burned, twisted metal, and I’ve tried ordering a new one online, but the company keeps mysteriously losing my order. We’re cooked.”

Nia gave me a pinched, tight-lipped look. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. Seeing me beaten by a busted projector and reclaimed popular table wasn’t giving the omegas much faith in me.

They wanted change, but they didn’t believe I could make it happen.

A sharp stab of pain went through my skull, making me cry out. The truth was it was a little hard to come up with a plan of attack against these assholes, when my brain was in the middle of liquefying and pouring out of a hole in my head. All week I’ve felt like I was fighting and clawing my way out of brain fog, or straining to keep my eyes open. The human me was beginning to feel as slow and sluggish as the wolf, and neither of those adjectives describes a leader of a revolution.

Even though I was pouring Nyx’s mom’s medicine down my throat like syrup on pancakes, it was getting less and less effective like Paxton feared, and with Nyx gone, I couldn’t contact her to find out if there was more I could do.

“Ugh,” I groaned, giving up on the food I wasn’t eating anyway. “I’ll figure this out, Nia, I promise. I just need to... lie down... for a minute and then...”

I might’ve been about to say more, but I had already pushed back from the table and trudged off. I made it to the door and reached for the handle.

“Oh, let me get that for you.”

He was already opening the door and throwing his arm around my shoulder before his voice rang the alarm bells.

“Get off me, Orion.”

“Don’t be like that. I’m just trying to help.” The man practically dragged me along after him, his grip on me was so firm. “Everyone can see you’re not feeling too well. Wouldn’t want our illustrious headmistress to fall on her face in front of everyone? How wond— embarrassing would that be?”

I growled at the obvious word slip. “Not as embarrassing as you strutting around like you own the place when we all know you’ll be back squatting over a prison toilet within the next week—crying and whining because all the mwean inmates keep laughing at your tiny peen.”

Orion busted up. “You always were quick with the comebacks, Volana. Clever enough, though they’re nothing but wrong.

“I won’t be going back to prison. Didn’t someone tell you? The secret police cleared me yesterday. Turns out, they’re on to another suspect.”

I didn’t react. “I wouldn’t celebrate just yet. You’ll be back in the frame after I tell them your motive. Of course you wanted Dagem dead after the part she played in what happened to your mother.”

Orion stumbled. Just the slightest hitch in his step, but I caught it with a vindictive glee that concerned even me. Constant, mind-numbing pain was bringing out my evil side, and Orion really didn’t want to meet her.

“She didn’t have anything to do with my mother,” he barked. “They weren’t even in the same clan! You never stop with your lies and manipulation, do you? You just keep stabbing blindly until you hit something. You don’t even care what. You—”

“Blah, blah, blah,” I carried on. “Before you accuse me of lying, why don’t you look up a picture of Corvin Academy’s graduating class of 1995, and see who’s standing beside Dagem with their arms around each other.” I smiled up at him and that deliciously dumbfounded expression. “Or not. I’m sure the secret police will show it to you the next time they haul you into the interrogation room.”

“Argh!” Grabbing my shoulders, Orion shoved me up against the wall. “Enough of this, if you know something about my mom—”

“—I wouldn’t tell you because you made your choice,” I sliced in. “You’d rather torture me than help her, and that right there says everything about who you are as a man.”

“Help her?” His fury crumbled. “What do you mean help her? She’s alive? She’s in trouble?” He shook me. “Tell me!”

“Join me.” I smiled serenely into his eyes—mostly because trying to work up stronger emotions made my head ache. “Help me take over Wolf Nation instead of sabotaging me, and I’ll give you exactly what you want.”

His orbs tinged gold. “Never.”

“Then you and I have nothing more to stay to each other.” I threw him off me. “Have a wonderful day, Orion, and thank you so much for guiding me and opening my doors. It’s good to know some people around here know how to treat their queen.”

His growls were kicking up a racket in my jangled head. I turned to leave, and got a split-second look at her ring-covered knuckles before they were flying at me.

Wham!

Pain exploded in my face. The force of the punch knocked me off my feet and dropped me flat on my ass. And Orion made zero effort to catch me.

“Oh my gods,” the blurry figure standing over me screamed. “Daciana, are you okay?”

My nose told me what my watering eyes couldn’t. “T-Tracy? What the hell!”

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“You’re sorry?!” I shrieked over Orion’s raucous belly laughs. “You just punched me in the fucking face!”

“I didn’t mean to! I mean, I didn’t want to!” Tracy whipped around. “It—it was a command! From an alpha,” she cried.

“What alpha?” I blubbed, tears stinging my eyes as I hauled my broken cartilage back into place. An awful necessity unless I wanted it to speed-heal crookedly.

“I... I don’t know. I didn’t see them, I just heard it. A voice from another room. They said to punch you.” She clapped her hands over her mouth, crying as much as me. “I’m so sorry, Daze. I can’t believe some alpha bastard made me do that. What is wrong with them! I swear, they’re worse this week than they’ve ever been.”

“They really are,” I muttered, the pain beginning to clear in my nose, but pound harder in my head—Orion’s howling making it worse. “It’s okay, Tracy, it’s not your fault.” I flicked down to the water bottle in her hand. “Just do me a favor and we’re even?”

“Anything.”

“Let me have your water bottle for a second?”

“My water? Oh, yeah, of course.” She handed it over.

I took it, popped the top, and promptly dumped the water on Orion’s crotch.

“Hey!” he bellowed, laughter drying up quick. “What the fuck!”

I walked off without another word, done with the whole damn day and it was only eight o’clock in the morning.

Going up to my room, I jumped in my bed and crashed. Everything I was failing at wouldn’t find me in sleep.

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