Wild Packs Bundle

The Lux Academy breeds destruction and hatred. Now, I will breed its end.

All my life, I’ve trained to kill shifters, and now I’m one of them.

My parents were murdered by wild packs, but the Lux Academy saved me and raised me among other orphans like me. They taught me about the shifters’ cruelty and how to destroy them.

But everything changes when the Academy turns on me, and I escape only to get captured by the packs.

They think I’m a shifter and an alpha, no less. They want me to lead a powerful group of sexy werewolves, one of which thinks I’m his fated mate. But I want nothing to do with them, especially the one that keeps insisting he'll make me his.

A dark truth will come to life. My dreams will be destroyed. And one thing is for sure, my life will never be the same.

I whirled in the dark, searching for
Tello. Where was he? He’d been behind me just a few seconds ago. My breaths
were so loud I couldn’t hear anything else. The night was an oppressive, dark
shroud, and the trees around me were giants that served as hiding places for my
enemies.

“Jaz! Don’t, stop!” Val urged, ahead
of me as he ran. He was almost to the top of the hill, about fifty yards away.

“But Tello,” I hissed desperately.
“I don’t know where he is. He was right behind me.”

Val halted, glancing back, and
gesturing with one hand for me to hurry. “Magistrate Magnus will keep him safe.
C’mon, hurry!”

I hesitated a moment but had to
trust that they’d be all right. With one last glance back, I started climbing
uphill again. My legs burned, but I had to keep going. We needed to get out of
wildling territory.

A shape flew at me from behind a
tree. I cried out in pain as a shoulder rammed into my side and thick arms
enveloped me. We rolled down the rocky hill, grunting and struggling. When we
finally came to a stop, my attacker was on top, pinning me down. I stared into
luminous green eyes. Sharp canines gleamed as the savage leered at me with
hatred.

“Filthy city rat,” he said in a
barely intelligible voice.

I tried to reach for my weapon, but
I couldn’t move.

He leaned closer. His fingers dug
into my shoulders, claws prickling through the fabric of my uniform coat. Panic
building in my chest, I pushed, but he was a wall of pure muscle. His chest was
bare and his skin and taut sinew shone under the dim moonlight. I bucked. He
pushed a leg between mine and jammed it against my crotch. I froze in shock at
the brazen move.

The wildling angled his sharp teeth
toward my throat. I growled, pushing, but it was useless. When his mouth
touched my skin, he stopped and inhaled deeply. I shuddered as he went utterly
still. I braced myself for death, but he pulled away.

His shifter eyes locked with mine.
He appeared confused. His savage features softened slightly. He opened his
mouth as if to say something, then his head and gaze snapped up.

“Get your filthy paws off her,” Val
screamed as he barreled in our direction.

My attacker jumped off me with
inhuman speed, and a split second later, Val’s sword slashed through the air
right at the level where the wildling’s neck had been. Val ran after him toward
the trees, shouting hoarsely, sword held high.

I rolled onto my side, wincing.
“Val, no!”

Gratefully, he stopped and we
watched the wildling disappear among the many tree trunks and bushes.

Clenching my teeth and holding my
side, I rose to my feet.

Val faced me. “Are you all—”

“Run!” Magistrate Magnus ordered,
appearing at a bend at the bottom of the hill. “Run, you idiots!”

We ran, and it wasn’t until we
reached the top of the hill that I stopped to wonder where Tello was.

***

The wolf wildlings killed Tello, and
now, all we could do was watch from the top of the ridge as they tore him to
pieces.

Val had an arm around my waist,
holding me back as I fought to get free and do some tearing of my own. I wanted
to run back down there and kill them, rip them apart, and spread chunks of
their flesh all over the forest for all the wild packs to find.

We’d lost so many of our peers this
way that I couldn’t stand the thought of losing another—even if that was the
nature of Lux Academy.

“Settle down, Initiate Jazmin!”
Magistrate Magnus growled. He was standing a few paces away, his back to us,
with the dark sky and large moon as his backdrop.

I kept struggling.

“Please, Jaz,” Val whispered in my
ear. “You’ll get us all killed. We’re outnumbered, and it’s a full moon.”

I went limp, his words piercing
through my anger and turning it to acceptance. Val released me and I dropped to
my knees, a choking pressure in my throat.

Magistrate Magnus was standing at
the edge of the ridge, looking at the valley below. He wore the hood of his
black robe over his head, obscuring wrinkles too deep for his age and a beard
that had gone white ahead of his light brown hair.

“They desecrate him,” he spat, in
his grumbling voice. Anger trembled in his words and swept through us.

Val joined the Magistrate, his back
straight as a rod. He would watch and learn firsthand about the wildling’s
savagery. The lessons were almost over for us and—after Proventus, our
graduation—this would become our lives. There was no running from it. Not that
we wanted to. Skews, perverse supernaturals, infected the rest of the world, but
they didn’t belong here, and we would fight to root the infection from our
lands.

I stood on shaky legs and went to
stand next to Val and the Magistrate. Tello wouldn’t get a chance to graduate
because he’d been brave and had tried to fight. I couldn’t be a coward and also
miss my chance. Few were chosen to fight the wild Skews, and those who hid from
the truth were not among them.

As I joined them, Magistrate Magnus
glanced at me sideways and gave me a slight nod. He would forgive my outburst,
see that I’d gotten myself under control. The other Magistrates might not be so
forgiving—discipline was paramount—but he was reasonable, more than most of
them anyway.

I forced myself to watch, same as
Val.

Our long coats flapped in the wind,
and below, a trail of smoke snaked toward the sky. The wildlings had started a
fire and had lain Tello next to it.

Under the glow of the moonlight and
the flames, I could make out his outline. He had fought bravely, giving us
three the chance to escape. Guilt washed over me again, the same way it had as
we’d run up the mountain while he stood his ground and faced the Tetrad—three
werewolves and their alpha. I would’ve gone back and fought beside him, but
Magistrate Magnus didn’t allow it—not when we’d told him of the wildling that
had attacked me.

The magistrate’s magic had disguised
our path, and we’d managed to confuse the wildlings’ keen senses, but we’d lost
Tello. I clenched my teeth to hold back a scream.

Damn wildlings and their barbaric
ways!

“Not many initiates get to witness
this,” Magistrate Magnus said. “I was twenty the first time I saw.” His
voice wavered.

I lowered my head, not daring to
glance in his direction. I’d never heard him be anything but firm—even when he
named the dead after our dawn cleansing sessions. I wondered who he’d lost the
first time he saw that still made him falter now.

Howls rent the night.

My eyes snapped back to the dancing
flames and Tello’s immobile shape on the dusty ground.

Three wolves had positioned
themselves at Tello’s feet, facing their alpha who stood by Tello’s head. The
leader’s tattooed arms stretched toward the heavens as he swayed from side to
side. I knew from my studies that he was chanting in victory, but I couldn’t
hear him from where we stood.

After a long moment lost in his
ecstasy, the alpha dropped to his knees and opened Tello’s blood-soaked shirt,
revealing his broad chest.

I fought the urge to turn away at
the sight of his ruined torso. It looked as if the wolves had tried to
disembowel him, but it was no surprise. Their savagery and violence knew no
limits, and their thirst for blood was insatiable.

Just to prove my point, the alpha
pressed his hands to Tello’s chest, then brought them up to his face. Swaying
on his knees, he wiped the blood across his cheeks. The wolves howled again,
stirred into a frenzy, waiting for the next step in their barbaric ritual.

Pulling a knife from the belt at his
waist, the alpha presented it to his pack. They howled once more, lowering
their heads, eyes flashing with the firelight. My fist closed around a handful
of my coat. Next to me, Val shook on the spot.

When we left Lux City so late in the
afternoon, we’d known the dangers, and yet, we’d been excited to accompany
Magistrate Magnus, Tello more than Val or me. The Magistrate had met with
someone, a woman who’d given him a sealed parcel. We didn’t know who she was or
what was in the package, but it wasn’t our business to ask. We’d come on foot,
an hour north of the Academy.

“Maybe we’ll run into a Tetrad, and
we’ll teach them a lesson,” he’d said, always so ready to fight, so brave.

I wished we would’ve stayed in our
dorm, talking, fooling around. Instead, now…

The alpha lifted the knife with both
hands and held it over his head.

By the Light!

The blade came down.

I held my breath and imagined a thud,
followed by a wet, squelching sound.

The alpha’s arms worked up and down,
up and down. When he was done cutting, he dropped the knife to the ground and
stuck his hand in the hole. It came away bloody. He ran his fingers over his
face. Was he tasting the blood? I couldn’t tell from this distance, but
whatever it was, it was horrid. Beasts!

We stood frozen, too shocked to turn
away from the horror. My stomach clenched painfully, and my heart lodged in my
throat. I could barely breathe.

After a long moment, Magistrate
Magnus gave an audible inhale and said, “We must go.”

“But…” I protested. “Maybe we could
bury him when they leave.”

“You know well there’ll be nothing
left to bury,” he said, walking south in Lux City’s direction.

The earth must return to the earth.

It was the only way to give anyone
proper rest, and now Tello wouldn’t even have that. Instead, he would be
devoured, digested in the guts of those filthy beasts.

Magistrate Magnus stopped and
extended a hand to indicate we should walk ahead of him. He wanted to keep an
eye on us, probably expecting us to linger or attempt something even more
stupid than that.

“We must tread carefully,” he said.
“My magic is exhausted.”

Val and I exchanged a glance. Like
me, he was probably wishing we were already able to cast magic, but that
wouldn’t be possible until after Proventus, once the ink bracelets around our
wrists—our codas—were complete.

Pulling up my sleeve, I examined
mine under the moonlight that seeped through the trees.

“We’ll get the last of our ink
soon,” Val said. “Don’t worry.”

There was only a half-inch gap left
to fill and make one end of the tattoo connect with the other. Each different
pattern in the bracelet represented a year at Lux, and once the bracelet was
complete, we would no longer be initiates. We would be apprentices, assigned to
one of the Magistrates.

I looked over at Magistrate Magnus
hoping, as always, to be assigned to him—if I was even selected, and not
dismissed back into the world.

“We’ll make them pay for what they
did,” Val whispered. “We got a good look at one of them. We’ll find their
pack.”

“We will!” I said, too loudly.

He put a finger to his lips and
threw a quick glance over his shoulder. I nodded once, Tello’s jovial face
flashing before my eyes, and the desire for revenge swelling in my chest like a
disease.

A month from now was the Last Day of
Indulgence, and he wouldn’t be with us to enjoy it. I held back my tears and
made a silent pledge.

They’ll pay for what they did to
you, Tello. I promise.

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