Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“Done,” I broke in, walking away. “Melisent, Dora, get him and throw him over the gates, please. Rowan Kai is expelled.”
“What?!” Melisent and Dora fell on a guy with long, dark hair and a hooked nose. “Hey! What are you—? You can’t do this! Get off me!”
His shouts continued on until they faded down the hall. Raquelle didn’t speak a word, just sitting there gaping at the door he was dragged through.
“Anyone else?” I sang.
“Real nice, traitor.”
My gaze turned on Mateo Gatens.
“I see how your new setup works out real nice for the fishes, but what about us?” Golden eyes burned me where I stood. “You keep talking about a revolution, but you damn sure aren’t pulling one off with alphas, so what do we get in return?”
“Hmm, well, I believe I already mentioned revealing all your deep, dark secrets on Loop-Garou if you don’t do everything I say, but that was the stick. Here’s the carrot: join me, and I’ll expel you from the academy and rip away your chances of becoming an engineer, and on that special day, I’ll gift you a camera.”
His expression melted away. “What did you say?”
“Oh yeah, I know you don’t want to fucking be here and you never did. Your dream is to be a wildlife photographer that doesn’t just travel the world, you want to travel through all the dominions—photographing all the wonder, beauty, and magic you see. But your mother had bigger dreams for you, and she smashed all your cameras two seconds before handing you an application, saying apply or else.”
Mateo was tenser than the chains.
“But even if she supported you, you couldn’t be a wildlife photographer because it’s damn sure not on the approve alpha job list. Only betas can,” I said. “You don’t have to fight for my dream, Mateo. Fight for your own.”
He forced a laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding. You can’t possibly think I’ll sell out my people and commit treason against Wolf Nation, all to take some photographs. What kind of self-absorbed psychopath do you think I am?”
I knelt in front of him, my grin going nowhere. “The kind that’s in love with an omega girl.”
His eyes widened. Mateo really believed they did a good job hiding their relationship. And they did, until I moonwalked into his room one night and found them cuddled up in bed.
“If dear old Mom still isn’t letting you run your own life at twenty, something tells me she’s not going to suddenly ease up when you walk through the door with an omega on your arm.” I rose up. “So what’ll it be, Mateo, because you’ve still got a choice between carrot and stick. Are you choosing utter humiliation and a sudden, violent expulsion over the academy gates, or are you choosing happiness and love?” Another snap and his chains were gone. “Choose wisely.”
Mateo shot up, claws bursting free as quickly as his fangs. He shoved in my face—snarls leaking hot breath over my chin—and stopped. Backing down, Mateo swore foully... and crossed to my side.
So it went.
Many shouted, bleated, cursed, and tried to attack me. They swore they’d never join me, and swore that mother wolf or not, they would take me down. But even more came to my side.
Every single omega except two. Half the alpha class. And then the entire beta class when I ordered all the alphas who refused me to either be locked up in the castle’s dungeons or launched over the gates. I stole a phone off one, and while they were flying, I posted all their secrets on Loop-Garou.
“Congratulations, my pack. My clan.” I swept over the uneasy, satisfied, determined, and nauseated faces. “You were promised I, the mother wolf, would bring about a new, better era for wolves, and today I have delivered. Welcome, everyone, to the Villain era.”
Ava, Melisent, and the epsilons laughed out loud.
“And now you.” I turned on my fates. “Ladies, put them somewhere uncomfortable for me, please.”
Badr brimmed with such hatred, he glowed—his sun power bursting to get free.
“Their trials start first thing in the morning.”
Still gagged, the five of them shouted uselessly at me as Ava and the others hauled them away.
I watched them go, waiting as the doors swung shut and I was finally alone in that grand, cavernous hall. Only then did I kneel beside the ashes of my mother’s letters, and weep.
Chapter Nine
The next morning, I surveyed my domain.
Classes were suspended while the professors were confined to their rooms—awaiting the inevitable moment they realized fighting me was pointless, and serving me was so much better. But the same couldn’t be said for all of the staff.
Pretty much everyone else from the kitchen staff to the janitors were omegas, and they suddenly got over their hangups when I offered them shorter hours, better accommodations, and three times their salaries.