Untamed (Rejected Mate Academy #1) - E. M. Moore Page 0,1

were apparently desperately trying to achieve.

Between the two turrets, the moon shines bright, and despite myself, the hair on my arms pricks, and my wolf gets restless. Electricity courses through the interior of the car. The moon coupled with this time of night is when our wolves are most alive. New shifters like me aren’t expected to control their shifts. However, I’ve been disagreeing with my wolf for so long, we don’t have that problem. Plus, she’s sulking.

The pack elder in the passenger seat pushes his door wide. With a deep breath, I wrap my fingers around the strap of my book bag lying next to me on the seat. The door to my right opens, but before I can step out, the yellow wolf eyes of the driver catch on mine through the rearview mirror. Turquoise blue flares from his pupils, ending in a starburst of sunlit gold. His cruel smirk has me exiting the fancy ride quickly, and when I straighten, I stare up at the seemingly never-ending structure. Just…wow.

The main academy itself consists of four floors of gray stone. The steeples and turrets rise up from there like they’re trying to touch the moon itself. Before tonight, the biggest house I’d ever seen was the alpha’s. His, too, is rock built and large, but this massive structure dwarfs the biggest house in Lunar by far.

“This way,” the gruff voice next to me orders. He takes off without bothering to see if I’m following and has already ascended the steps before I can make my feet move. I hike my book bag up my shoulder and march forward, quickly catching up so that when he yanks the huge, wooden door open, I’m only a few paces behind.

Our footsteps echo through the cavernous, stone halls. Every doorway that splinters off from this main artery arches high above us. A mixture of primitive and modern style meshes together with iron chandeliers and sconces for a design that is both impressive and classic. Voices drift down the corridor, but we’re alone as we traverse the building that’s half stuck in time. My wolf peeks her head up to admire our surroundings. It doesn’t last; she settles back down with a whimper almost immediately.

I straighten my shoulders and do what I always do: put on a brave face.

“Ms. Ebon is your advisor,” the Lunar Pack Council elder rattles off. “You’ll be meeting with her to acclimate you into Greystone Academy.”

A hundred questions burn my brain. Is this Ms. Ebon from Lunar? I’ve never met a wolf from another pack before. Was she rejected, too? Is that why she dares work with ill-tempered shifters like me?

For all the academy horror stories passed down, no tale went beyond its reason for existing. It was nightmarish enough that wolves were sent here, so there was no talk of what it was actually like once they stepped beyond the doors. Now that I have to call this place my new home, I’d like to understand more about it. Considering I had to leave my parents, my home, and my life—as pathetic as it was—against my will, I deserve some sort of guidance.

Attendance at Rejected Mate Academy is mandatory once you’ve been, you know, rejected.

A wave of fresh heartache pinches my chest. I mentally wall it behind a locked door to unpack later. If anything, I’m going to be the first student at Greystone that isn’t wallowing in my own self-misery. I’ll make sure of it.

The council elder stops at a door to our right, rapping on the wood, and a few moments later, a woman with long, raven hair stands before us. She pays my escort no attention, keeping her dark gaze fixed on me. “Kinsey Walker?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the council member interrupts my own confirmation. “Lunar Pack,” he grunts as if I’m a disgrace to his very being.

I guess, in actuality, I kind of am. I’m the reject—the wolf shifter the pack basically shunned. And to put the chocolate sauce on the turdburger, I’m also unwanted by the wolf I’m supposed to be fated to. My partner—my mate.

My wolf really whines now. The guard next to me shudders involuntarily, but Ms. Ebon doesn’t blink. She must have built up an immunity to newly-shifted, despair-ridden pups. If she’s worked here for any length of time, she no doubt had to.

“Thank you, sir,” she says stiffly. “I’ll take over from here.”

He retreats, his footsteps waning. I turn my head to watch him go. From when we’re pups, we’re