FREE *Blood Moon Cursed; Book 1

Early days.

I’ve reached my first class, It’s English and Mr Roffee has yet to arrive, I head towards the back rows, I’m one of the first ones here, sitting down I put my phone in my pocket, zipping it closed.

I would not let Brody’s text ruin my day.

I had my books ready to go, I sat watching as the rest of the class shuffles in one by one.

Finally the class is full, everyone listens to Mr Roffee, as he gives our first assignment for the year, we have to write a poem on new beginnings after that I must have dozed off, I'm woken by the girl that had been next to me, she shakes my shoulder informing me that class is over.

I sit up straight thanking the girl, ‘Chloe’ she smiles, telling me it wasn’t a problem but I should hurry to my next class, before walking out the door.

My next class was math, we were given a maths worksheet to complete,  after handing it in, I was told I could go early, the teacher expressed her concerns that I should go to the sick bay, as I was looking stressed.

 I agreed I'd felt tense and tired all morning, So I headed to the sick bay.

After informing the woman at the school office and she filled out a slip, asking if I needed a nurse, I shook my head, no just a nap I think.

I'm woken to find Garrett sitting in the chair next to my bed, he looks concerned.

“Whaadda you doin’ here Garrethhh?” I ask, in a sleepy voice, fighting a yawn.

“Close, Garrett.” He corrects with a chuckle, though concern laces his voice.

“I saw you pass my classroom, and a classmate coming back in, said he heard you tell the office woman you needed to go to the sick bay.” He looks away, embarrassed, at his detective work.

“I was worried, so I said I was feeling sick, earning me some looks and here I am.” He explains. “I know we aren’t really going out, but I felt obligated to my fake girlfriend.” He winks.

I feel my face strain, ending in a lopsided smile.

“Your kinda cute, Garrett-th, I’d be lucky to ever have such a boyfriend fake or real.” My eyes flutter close again, and I feel a warmth on my cheek, as I slip back into a dreamless nap.

I feel myself being shaken gently, for the second time that day and this time I wake easily,  sitting up.

Garrett there and so is the nurse, she takes my temp, looking at Garrett.

“Its ok she’s back to normal now, make sure she eats all that and drinks at least 2 cups of water.” Says the Nurse to Garrett, he nods in response, before looking back at me.

I watch her as she mouths ‘You Lucky Girl’ before leaving the room.

I look back a Garrett suddenly noticing the 3 duvets piled on top of me, I raise an eyebrow, what did I miss?

“When you feel asleep, you were running a temperature, probably from standing in the cold this morning.” He runs his hand through his hair. “I should of given you my jacket sooner, I shouldn’t of let you stand there so long talking,” He blushes, and I laughed, smiling at him.

“Garrett if you hadn’t come by when you did, I might have been there till 9 o’clock. Most likely soaked to the bone, and if you hadn’t faked feeling sick, I would still have a temp I suspect.” I continue, He gets redder again, but he grins.

“You’re still my real knight in school jacket with shining ute.” I wink, he suddenly looks awkward and shy but his chest swells with pride.

His eyes light with an idea, and he gets down on one knee, I gape, what is he doing?

“Please Ivy, let me be your designated knight and fake boyfriend from this day on. I will pick you up from school, and drop you off, so you don’t have to stand in the rain again. I also promise to be your plus one, when you need me and buy you lunch every once and a while.” He's grinning, I’ve never had a boyfriend even a fake one, So enthusiastically I nod, a dorky grin on my face..

“Yes, I accept Sir Garrett.” His eyes widen in surprise, and he grabs my hand kissing it.

Then we sat and ate lunch together, Mini Pizzas, apples and a ice coffees.

 I told him I’d pay him back, he reminded me that fake girlfriends, get a free lunch every once and a while.

Then he ensures I drink two glasses of water after I've eaten and I’m quickly feeling better.

It turns out we have a free study together, it’s the last class of the day,  so we head to the library.

As we enter, I can feel eyes on me as we walk, we sit in the reading corner, he grabs a car magazine and I grab an romantic/adventure novel.

After a few minutes, Garrett nudges me, smiling up at him,  I feel so lucky.

“Do you think I could get your number?” He asks, we're both were feeling more comfortable after his official ask of our fake relationship status.

“Of course,” I read my number out to him, he enters into his phone, he sends a text to confirm, it chimes in my pocket.

I pull it out;

'Is this Princess?

It’s Knight

Asking for a friend. '

Idiot, I look at him, and simply text.

‘Yes Sir G,

From Princess.’

He laughs the bell rings, we head for the door, we walk to both lockers grabbing our things, then head for the car.

As we walk across the parking lot, I scan the crowd, I’m not sure who I’m looking for but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary.

Garrett drops me off home, saying he’ll pick me up out front at 8 o’clock, I agree waving as he drives off.

I head inside and there's mum laying in wait, a grins across her face, says she saw Garrett.

“Hi Mum.” I say loudly.

“Hello Ivy, well how was your first day at school?” She tries to sound normal but her grin creeps into her voice.

I smile, and tell her about my day, about the bus stop, the jacket, the fake boyfriend, the sick bay and my knight.

She smiles through the whole story.

“I’m so happy what a wonderful first day back, did you see anyone you know?” mum asks, but thinking back only Lucus, I don’t think many of my friends came back for there final year, I shake my head.

Mum concludes they might just have missed the first day, otherwise I’ll make friends easy enough, I made one standing at an empty bus stop!

I laugh at that, then I think about the text dad sent, I excuse myself,  heading upstairs to change, I still have Garrett’s Jacket on and it smells comforting.

After I change I grab Garrett's jacket making it into a pillow, before laying my head on it, grabbing my laptop, I log into cruchyroll for an anime binge.

I must have fallen asleep, as I sit up blinking, I recognise I’m back in the dark forest, this time I’m in my human form and so is Agni, her she sits across from me.

She looks in her late 30’s, her black hair falls just past her shoulders, her eyes remind me of looking into my own, she has a sly smile resting on her lips.

“Well Ivy quite the first day.” She winks at me.

“Yeah very eventful, I’m enjoying the attention.” I grin back.

“This is your human form?” I ask, eyeing her curiously.

“Yes, I thought it would be easier talking to me in this form for our next lesson, and I wanted to hear all about your boy,” She presses, She looks generally happy for me, it was nice. “we’ll start with you telling me about your boyfriend.”

I laughed, grinning at her, as she waggles her eyebrows at me.

“His name is Garrett, He’s a senior like me and he saw me at the bus stop, noticing I must of missed it, and gave me a lift to school.”

“AND…Asked if you’d be his fake girlfriend.” Agni added.

“Yes and that.” I blushed, thinking back to the attention Garrett had given me all day.

Suddenly Agni was Sombre.

“It’s a shame he isn’t our true mate.” She signs, I nod agreeing with her.

“But I still think you guys should date.” Agni shrugs.

“Without our mate, doesn’t mean you can’t date others, plenty of wolves do.” She smiles at me.

“I would like to, I feel like it would be beneficial distraction, a lot of my friends from last year must have decided against graduating, plus the Brody issue.” I know I don’t need to finish; Agni nods with understanding.

“I think a little distraction would be good, plus I really like him.” Agni giggles, she’s more like an older sister then an inner wolf.

“We are agreed then, I’d really like to hand out with him more anyway haha.” I reply.

We smile, and chat more about my day, then we get onto the serious conversation.

“Brody wants you to come looking for him now, he doesn’t want you to have time to practice your gifts or prepared yourself.” Agni remarks, spitting his name.

“I know but I won’t play into he’s hands, I’ll take every bit of the two years he’s allowed me.” A wicked grins spreads across both of our faces.

“Let’s get training then.” Agni replies, as she brought her foot up, aiming for a kick to the jaw, only to meet my forearm, I wink and our combat training began.

Sometime mid fight Agni transformed into her wolf, I've matched her blow for blow barely, struggling to match the wolf forms speed.

Agni’s jaws snapped an me in a frenzy, never slowing enough for me to shift if I could, this was the training I’d need in an ambush.

After was seemed like hours, I managed to land a hard right hook on Agni’s cheek; the wolf form was knocked back with such force it caused it to roll twice.

I was breathing hard, shuddering with exhaustion, as Agni slowly rose to her feet, her eyes watching me, fluttering with the effort.

She exhaled, on shaking legs she took two steps towards me, I raise my fists with the last of my strength, as her legs buckle, she fall on her belly with a thud.

“Victory is yours, I underestimated you MMA training it seems, even against a werewolf.” Agni mind-links me, I shudder in relief, slumping to the ground.

“Hahaha you almost had me.” I reply, the relief flooding me was overwhelming.

We both laughed with relief, the last of our adrenaline fading with our strength.

We stared across at each other, finally catching our breathe.

“Well that’s all the training I think we can handle for tonight, you’re definitely strong in that area, we’ll try another one tomorrow.” Agni says.

“hahah thanks, I think I’ll need all day to recover.” I reply.

I feel the forest darkening, and Agni’s outline blurs.

“Goodnight Agni.” I smile.

“Goodnight Ivy, goodluck.” She winks and I feel myself blushing.

I wake up, I’m back in my room, looking over its 10.30pm not as late as I thought, mum had left me dinner beside my bed, it’s cold butter chicken and rice, it still tastes amazing.

After I’m finished, I pick up my phone, 2 msg, my heart speeds up, 1 from mum; Goodnight, Love you xx, the 2nd is from Garrett and I relax;

‘Dear Princess, will pick you up around 8am, btw best first day ever, Your Knight Sir G. ;) x’ I laugh, what a dork. I text back a reply then put my phone on charge, before I fall back into a content dreamless sleep.