“I hope with all my heart that Amelia’s young, reclusive Inari will make her happy,” Avelyn said thoughtfully.
“Yeah, me too,” said Delyse. “I hope he is kind and loving…”
“… and so smoking hot that she won’t feel the bite of the Alaskan weather,” added Claudia.
Yes, smoking hot didn’t hurt, but Avelyn would have added “diplomatic and peace-loving” if she could have.
***
It didn’t happen that night. Avelyn fell asleep peacefully after listening to the comforting whisper of her friends’ rhythmic breathing, then woke up to a sunny morning and a full day of walking around the school, visiting the classrooms and the library, and lounging under her favorite lime tree in the garden. It happened the next night. Right after midnight, when the gatekeeper rushed in and made Mrs. Jones wake up Miss Delacroix, everyone except Caleb and Daniel were asleep. The two Deltas were already at the gate when Avelyn, Delyse, Claudia, and a couple of other students followed the headmistress down the stairs and onto the cobblestone alley that led to the main gate. Avelyn’s heart stopped and, for a couple of seconds, she forgot how to breathe. Behind the iron gates, dozens of green eyes sparkled from between the trees and bushes.
“Werewolves…” said Caleb between clenched teeth.
Avelyn stepped beside him and put a hand on his tense arm. “How can this be?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” said Daniel. “They won’t make it past the gates.”
“Miss Avelyn, you should go back inside.”
Caleb’s suggestion was sound, and Avelyn almost turned around to head back to the school and leave the two Deltas to deal with the wolves that seemed to have surrounded the building, when she heard bones snap. A chill ran up her spine and made the little hairs on her arms stand on end. The first instinct was to reach out for Max through their telepathic connection, but she immediately realized there was no way she could contact him this way. He was simply too far away. She had to call him and let him know there was something wrong, but she had left her phone in her room, and then there was a louder snap, and Avelyn turned back to see a pair of brown eyes rising above the ground to her level.
“Sabine…”
The she-wolf stepped lightly on the grass, and smiled at Avelyn from behind the bars. The moon bathed her lithe body in its warm, silver glow, giving her that magic only creatures of the dark possessed. She was completely naked, and Avelyn could see the girl had gained a bit of weight, and her body looked stronger than the last time she had seen her. Her long, curly black hair spilled over her pointed shoulder blades in a thick mass that looked impossible to tame.
“Here we are again, friend,” Sabine said in an overly joyful voice. “Did you miss me?”
Avelyn took a sharp intake of breath and willed her heartbeat to slow down. “I’m not your friend, Sabine. I could have been, I wanted to be, but you didn’t let me.”
In a quick change of mood, the she-wolf bared her fangs at Avelyn and the two Delta werewolves who flanked her. “You couldn’t. Not after stealing everything from me: my husband, my place in the pack, everything that was rightfully mine. I was his bride, not you. I should have killed you for what you did to me, but instead I chose to be merciful and let you live. It was more than you deserved.”
Anger rushed through Avelyn’s veins, making her forget about how scared she was and how dangerous the creature behind the gate could be. She took a step forward, and she would have lunged at the gate if Caleb hadn’t stopped her by placing a firm hand on her shoulder.
“I didn’t steal anything from you! When I arrived at the Schloss I didn’t even know abou
t you, and I didn’t even want that life. All I wanted was to escape and run somewhere far away from shape-shifters, boarding schools, and arranged marriages. But you know all these things already, so I honestly don’t get you. You were merciful, you say, when in fact you bit me and left me for dead.”
“I did bite you, but I never wanted you to die. I just wanted you to suffer the way I suffered. You already had my husband and there was nothing I could do to change that, but I could make sure you never gave him the only thing I couldn’t.” Sabine made a slight gesture with her arms, spreading them before her as if to show confusion. “Something obviously went wrong and, for the life of me, I have no idea what it is. You’re pregnant. There is life growing inside you, and I can feel it, I can smell it on you.” She put her arms around her and rubbed at her own shoulders as if she had started to feel cold. Werewolves were never cold, so Sabine’s behavior didn’t make any sense. On the other hand, most of the things she did didn’t make sense. She started pacing up and down in front of the gate, shaking her head from time to time.
After figuring out what was happening, Miss Delacroix didn’t wait a second more and ran back to the school to call Max. She also urged everyone in the courtyard to get inside, but she didn’t stand a chance before Delyse’s and Claudia’s resolution to stay by Avelyn’s side and make sure she was safe. Now, the only people staring at Sabine and witnessing her mood changes were Avelyn, her friends, the two Deltas, the gatekeeper, and two guards who were on duty that night.
“Alas, I have no other choice,” said Sabine. She had stopped pacing, and she was once again facing Avelyn, fists clenched at her sides. “These iron gates won’t keep me away, and neither your pathetic Deltas.”
Avelyn wasn’t sure how to interpret her words, but she had a sinking feeling that Sabine’s intentions were deadly. She wasn’t a fool. She knew two werewolves and three humans would never stand a chance against a whole pack of newly turned werewolves. She stole a glance over the girl’s shoulder and narrowed her eyes, trying to see farther into the forest. She couldn’t count the pairs of eyes gleaming in the dark, so she wasn’t sure how many werewolves were waiting for their Alpha’s orders. A dozen? Two dozen? Three dozen? Avelyn’s eyes returned to Sabine’s face, but they immediately went back to scan the forest again when Avelyn thought she had caught something else in the corner of her eye. It had probably been another pair of eyes, but she couldn’t tell why they had made her heart pick up a maddening pace again.
What could she do? The headmistress had probably called Max already, but there was no way they could get help before morning. And Sabine knew that. Avelyn could see it in her cold eyes and wicked smile. She had to stall, she had to try to talk Sabine out of it, she had to do everything in her power to stop this disaster from happening. This wasn’t only about her and her baby, it was about all the students of Alma Venus. She remembered about the villages and towns Sabine’s pack had ravaged, and she decided that was not going to happen to the boarding school.
“Sabine, let’s talk about this. How did you even know I was pregnant?”
The girl laughed hysterically. The shrieking sound made even her own werewolves jump in surprise and shuffle around impatiently. “Do you believe me a fool? Did you really think I would run away, hide somewhere, and never check to see if my plan worked?” Sabine tilted her chin and fixed her gaze in an indefinite spot above Caleb’s head. She stayed like that for a long minute, lost in deep thought. “In fact, I did want to do that at first. I had everything planned out: make some friends, move north, maybe cross the border, do some tourism, see if I liked it better in another country.”
Avelyn raised her brow in confusion. “Why did you change your mind?”
Sabine’s gaze moved to her face, her brown eyes looking innocent and surprised for a moment. “I don’t know. I wanted to leave everything behind, I really did. I even found a couple of friends, but apparently they didn’t like the idea of leaving their homes and traveling the world with me.”
“The people you kidnapped…” Daniel had whispered the words, and he was sure Sabine had heard him. She chose to ignore him.
“Then I had a better idea: if I bit them, they would turn on the next full moon and become my friends forever. A brilliant idea, don’t you think? I only had three friends at that point, and they weren’t enough to build a pack, but the moment it struck me that I would never be alone if I had my own pack, everything fell into place.”