Chapter 10
611 Words
The reception at the House of the Divine Rite, the house of the females in the school was worse today.
I hurriedly got my books out of the common room and fast walked all the way to the main building.
I went to a Cleavemoon high. A private school that separated genders. The house of Divine Rite for the women and the House of Claw and Bite for the men.
The women were trained to understand the privilege of continuing a lineage, a bloodline or heirloom. To be a conduct between the blessing of the Moon goddess and a family she's married into. They are taught rites and how to speak on occasions, speak at ceremonies, and offer the Moon Goddess pretty prayers wrapped in obedience.
The men had it...more fun. Combat, weaponry, map reading, battlefield tactics, defence against the magic arts.
Only a few girls—a lucky few—were deemed worthy of learning warcraft or scouting.
Girls with strong wolves. Girls with strong names.
Not girls like me.
I kept my head down rushing to my first lesson.
I glance quickly at the podium to find the professor hadn’t come in yet and let out a sigh of relief.
Until body crashed into me hard. I let out a disgruntled curse as I stumbled backwards a few steps.
My books fell to the ground and my water canister rolled all the way to a pair of scuffed boots.
I didn’t need to look up when I saw those boots.
I already knew who it was.
Malcom Adal.
Built like a boulder. Smelled like ego and aggression.
He bent down, scooping up my dented canteen with deliberate slowness.
"Well, well," Malcom drawled. "If it isn’t the dainty cursed princess herself. Done fainting I see."
I stiffened.
This was the only class I shared with the boys.
Politics.
Now this boy called Malcom, he was pure evil. He didn't just hurt people. He took pride in the pain he caused.
He tossed the canteen in his hand lazily, like a cat batting a dying mouse.
"You know," he mused, "the entire ceremony went to s**t because of you. Well? Aren't you satisfied?"
He grinned. "Some people got to know how it felt not shifting for the first time in their lives. Aren't you tired of living like that. I mean I experienced it for one night and I already felt like a meaningless piece of shit."
I bent to grab my books.
He kicked one across the floor, sending it skidding far.
I straightened slowly, face blank.
I ruined the moonlit ceremony. Werewolves didn't get to fully shift and so they were cranky.
"Big woof," I say flatly.
Sarcasm and pun wholly intended. Cause f**k them.
I almost died.
Yet, I was sent to the mines and expected back at class today, no exception, no excuses.
It didn't matter I wasn't up to it.
Because cursed daughters of Alpha Kings had to study court law and divine history while bleeding from the soul.
Malcom's grin widened. "Still got that smart mouth, huh? We'll see how smart you sound after school."
I blinked and looked straight into his s**t coloured eyes, "Excuse me?"
"Hollowed Arena."
He tapped the side of his fist against his palm. "You. Me. Elio isn't here to get you out of this one."
Out of the corner of my eyes i see professor Kallus prowling into the room.
I try to catch his eyes but he ignores Malcom and I completely, like he didn't give a damn.
Which maybe he didn't.
Hello?
I'm being coerced into school violence here.
Malcom winked and turned, swaggering to his seat.
- Writer
