All Chapters of BLOOD MOON ACADEMY : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

29 Chapters

THE THING I'M NOT

Arwen’s povI stopped shifting three years ago but nobody knows that part.The first thing I notice every morning is the sound. Even now, it's still dark outside, that weird time between night and actual morning, and the howls that start right on schedule. I lie in bed listening to the pack transform in the clearing behind our property, and I wonder what's wrong with me that I can't do what they make look so easy.Today is my eighteenth birthday, and I'm still human.I get out of bed and go to the window because that's what I do. Sarah Chen is already down there in the clearing, her bones cracking and reforming like they're putting on a show just for me. I've watched her do this a hundred times. Jake Morrison follows, his transformation faster than hers because he's been doing it longer. Everyone transforms better than me. Everyone except me never actually tries."You coming down?"I jump at the sound of Margaret's voice. My adoptive mom is standing in my doorway in her old robe, the

THE GATHERING

Arwens povThe pack house smells like wet dog and expensive cologne, which is basically what happens when you mix supernatural creatures trying to look civilized with a bunch of visiting alphas who've driven for hours to inspect potential mates. I can feel the testosterone in the air before I even walk through the door.Margaret squeezes my hand as we step inside, which means she's nervous about something. Margaret doesn't get nervous. She handles pack drama with the same calm she uses to make breakfast, so whatever's about to happen today must be significant enough to rattle her."Stay close," she whispers.The gathering room is packed. I recognize most of the faces from our territory, but there are about twenty people I've never seen before. The visiting alphas stand in a loose group near the fireplace, watching everyone with the kind of intensity that makes me want to disappear. They're evaluating. That's what these things are really about, even though everyone pretends it's just a

THE LETTER

Arwen’s povThe drive home takes exactly seventeen minutes. I know because I watch the clock on the dashboard the entire way, and it's the only thing keeping me from completely falling apart. Margaret doesn't turn on the radio. She doesn't try to talk to me. She just drives with both hands on the wheel, her jaw clenched so tight I'm worried her teeth might crack.When we get home, she parks in the garage and sits there for a full minute without moving. I can hear her breathing. I can hear my own breathing. I can hear the sound of the garage door closing behind us like a coffin lid."Go to your room," she finally says."Margaret, I need to understand what happened back there. I need to know what's wrong with me.""Your room. Now."I've never heard her use that tone before. Margaret doesn't do authority. She does gentle guidance and quiet wisdom and the kind of parenting that makes you feel supported even when everything is falling apart. But right now she sounds like a different person

THE GHOST

DRAVEN'S POVThe courtyard smells like rain and old stone, the way it always does this time of year. I'm supposed to be helping Headmistress Thorne with new student logistics, which is basically code for standing around looking intimidating while lesser alphas pretend they're not terrified of me. It's not my favorite way to spend an afternoon."You could try smiling," Marcus says, leaning against the stone wall next to me. "Just once. Show the new kids that alphas have feelings too.""Alphas have one feeling. Dominance."Marcus laughs like I'm joking. I'm not joking. I've spent the last seven years making sure everyone at Blood Moon Academy understands exactly what I am and exactly what happens if they challenge me. Smiling would undermine all of that work.The gates swing open and the first batch of arrivals start filtering through. New students are always the same type. Nervous humans with one supernatural parent, looking for answers. Vampires who move like they're calculating the d

FIRE AND BONES

Arwen's POVNobody told me the most dangerous thing at Blood Moon Academy would be standing in my doorway.He fills the entire frame. Not just because he's tall, though he is, the kind of tall that makes rooms feel smaller. It's the energy radiating off him. Pure, suffocating alpha power that presses against my skin like a physical weight and demands that I fold. Submit. Disappear.I don't fold.I don't know why I don't fold. Every instinct I was raised with is screaming at me to bare my throat and make myself small, because this is an Alpha, the real kind, the kind that makes wolves forget their own names. The silver light flickering around my hands clearly didn't get the memo."You have no idea what kind of fire you've walked into." His voice is quiet, which somehow makes it worse. Loud anger you can brace for. This kind of quiet means he's already decided something. "But you're about to find out.""I just got here," I say. My voice comes out steadier than I feel. "I haven't done an

THE PULL

Draven's POVI don't sleep.This isn't new. I stopped sleeping through the night seven years ago and at this point insomnia is just part of the routine. I train from midnight to two. I review pack correspondence until four. I sit at my desk and stare at nothing and try very hard not to think about my mother's face on another girl's body.Tonight is different.Tonight my wolf won't stop pacing."You need to stop," I tell her, not out loud because I'm not completely unhinged, but in that interior space where the two parts of me have been negotiating power since I was twelve years old. "She's not ours. She's a threat and we're going to treat her accordingly."My wolf does not care about any of this.Marcus is leaning against the wall of my room when I emerge from the shower at five in the morning. He has coffee and the expression of someone who didn't sleep either, for different reasons."Tell me I'm wrong," I say."About which part?" He hands me a coffee. "The part where she's a Blackth

WHAT BLEEDS

Arwen's POVThe cafeteria at Blood Moon Academy is designed to make you feel small.High ceilings. Long stone tables. Natural light that comes in at angles that illuminate every face, every expression, every moment of weakness. Whoever built this place understood something fundamental about power. They knew that it's not just about strength. It's about making sure everyone can see exactly where you fall in the hierarchy.I carry my tray to the only empty section of the room and sit down alone.I'm used to being alone. I've been alone at pack gatherings, alone at family dinners, alone in a house full of people who didn't know what to do with me. Alone at Blood Moon Academy is just alone with better architecture.What I'm not used to is the staring.They're subtle about it, most of them. Quick glances that slide away the moment I look up. Whispered conversations that stop just long enough to be obvious. But every supernatural in this room can feel my magical signature the same way I can

CLOSED DOORS

Arwen's POVDraven Hunter's office looks exactly like him.Dark wood. No clutter. A desk that probably cost more than everything I own combined, sitting in front of floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the training grounds. Books on the shelves but arranged by purpose, not decoration. A single photograph on the wall—a man with Draven's jaw and a wolf's eyes, taken before something terrible happened to the person looking at it.His father, I realize. It has to be.I stand in the centre of the room and do not sit down because he hasn't told me to and I'm not giving him anything he hasn't asked for. My shoulder still aches from the training mat. My pride aches worse, but underneath both of those things is something electric and restless that started when I redirected Brynn's momentum and hasn't settled since.Draven closes the door.The click of the latch is very loud."Sit," he says."I'm fine standing."He looks at me. "That wasn't a request.""I know."We stay like that for a moment

WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND

*Arwen's POV*The door to my room is unlocked.I know I locked it. I remember the specific click of the mechanism, the way the handle resisted slightly before catching. I locked it because Elena showed me the trick of it on my first night — push up while you turn, otherwise it doesn't catch properly. I pushed up. I turned. It caught.It's unlocked now.Draven puts his arm out before I can reach for the handle. Not touching me. Just a barrier, solid and certain, that says *wait* without needing words. He tilts his head and I watch him listen to something I can't hear yet."Elena's inside," he says quietly. "No one else.""You can hear her?""Heartbeat." He drops his arm. "It's elevated. She's frightened."He opens the door.Elena is sitting on her bed with her knees pulled to her chest and her face doing something complicated. She looks up when we enter and the relief that crosses her expression is immediate and genuine and laced with something else underneath. Something that looks lik

THE BOY WHO CHOSE

Arwen's POVThree days after Ashcroft searched my room, I stop sleeping with both eyes closed.She didn't take anything. That's the part that keeps me awake. A woman who came to this academy specifically because of me went through every item I own and left it exactly as she found it, which means she wasn't looking for an object. She was looking for information. Evidence of something. Confirmation of a theory she already has.I don't know what she found.I don't know what there is to find.Maya thinks it's about the locket. She's been researching Blackthorne bloodline history in the restricted section of the library for four days, using access privileges she won't tell me how she obtained. She comes back every evening with more questions than answers and the specific energy of someone who has found something alarming and is deciding how to present it."Soon," she says, every time I ask. "I need to be sure first."Elena thinks I should report Ashcroft to the headmistress. Elena has been

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