Chapter 11

Since my next class was in the Crescents building, Iris and I parted ways, agreeing to find each other during our lunch break, which we had at the same hour. It was a huge relief that I didn’t have to worry about finding someone to sit with.

I was more excited about Taming Your Dark Wolf class with Theo than I had been for any other class so far, mainly because I couldn’t wait to see him again.

It was a strange feeling, but I almost felt like I was having withdrawal from being away from him for so long. It was as though I craved him.

Snap out of it, Raven, I thought to myself. You’ve only just met him.

This can’t be healthy.

But the feeling of wanting to see him again, of wanting to be closer to him, just didn’t seem to go away.

As I opened the door to the building, an odd feeling crept over me. I entered the hallway, and the oddness continued until it was this nagging, overwhelming feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I wasn’t sure if it was the dim lighting or the dark nature of the artwork that hung on the walls, but everything about this building just felt so… dark. It put me on edge.

I just couldn’t help but feel like I didn’t really belong here, in this building or in this House at all.

What if the witch’s potion had somehow messed up? What if I wasn’t actually supposed to be one of the Crescents?

I wondered if it was possible for me to contest it. But even if that was a possibility, it would have meant not having Theo as my professor, and did I really want that?

The answer was no. I needed this. As crazy as that sounded, I really believed that I did need to see him every day or I was going to go out of my mind.

I wanted to see and have class with all of the guys, but especially with

Theo. It was like I couldn’t get enough of him.As I walked into the classroom where our class was being held, I was surprised to find that I was the first one there.

I chose a seat towards the center of the classroom. While I normally preferred to sit in the back, I wanted to be closer to Theo.

The next student who came into the classroom was this guy with blue hair and an eyebrow piercing.

I remembered him from the Sorting Ceremony. He was hard to forget.

“Hey,” he said, sliding into the chair next to mine. “I’m Vince.” “I’m Raven.”

“I know.” He paused and then explained, “Everyone knows who you

are.”

“I’m getting used to that,” I replied with a chuckle. It was even

getting to the point where it wasn’t even bothering me anymore. I kind of just expected it now.

“So, you’re half-Crescent. That’s pretty cool, if you ask me.” “Yeah?” My eyebrows lifted in surprise. “That’s one word for it, I

guess.”

“You don’t think it’s cool?” Vince asked.

I shrugged. “It just makes things more complicated. Having to split my classes between the Crescents and the Descendants and stuff.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it would make things more complicated,” he agreed with a nod. “Have you decided what club or team you’re going to join?”

“Club or team?” I glanced over at him with wide eyes.

“We’re required to join at least one extracurricular activity every year that we’re at the Academy. I’m surprised no one’s told you.”

“Oh, crap. I had no idea.”

“It was on your application,” Vince said. “You were supposed to choose at least two that interested you.”

“I didn’t apply to go here,” I admitted. “Oh, you were invited?”

“Actually, I was pretty much dragged here,” I explained.

“So, you were basically hand-selected,” Vince replied. “I’m not surprised.”

“Why?”

“Well, you are Raven Gallagher.”

I suppressed an eye roll. I was sort of getting sick of my name being tossed around like it really meant something around here.

“What type of clubs and sports do they even have at this school?” I asked, wondering if there was a sport that was designed specifically for werewolves.

“Pretty much everything you would expect to find back home,” Vince explained. “They don’t take away all of the things people enjoy or else some of us would probably revolt and go back to the human world or something.

What type of extracurriculars did you do back in the human world?”

“None. I usually just went home or hung out with my friends after school,” I admitted. My guidance counselor had always gotten onto me about it because it wouldn’t look good on my college applications. I didn’t regret it, though. Now that I was pretty sure I’d never go to a human college, I was happy that I’d chosen to spend my time with my friends instead.

“Well, there’s football and cheerleading. Band. Track is really huge here. Since werewolves are way faster than humans, they get crazy competitive about their running speeds. Werewolves are also really good at javelin, since we can throw really far. There’s also soccer and baseball.” He paused. “There are non-athletic extracurriculars, too. Art club. Yearbook club. Drama club. I’m going to join the Yearbook Club.” He glanced over at me. “What do you think might interest you?”

“I don’t know. I need to think about it,” I replied, just as more students began filtering into the room.

“Well, are you athletic? Artsy?” Vince pressed.

“I don’t know. I don’t really think I’m talented at anything,” I replied with a shrug.

“Don’t say that, Raven. I’m sure you’re talented at something, even if you haven’t figured out what it is yet.”

“Thanks,” I replied with a smile.

A moment later, Theo strolled into the room. I stared at him.

Sometime since breakfast, he had changed into a dark gray suit with a light blue undershirt and matching tie. He looked hot as hell. I tried not to swoon too hard. I wished that making out with him could have counted as an extracurricular activity.

He glanced over in my direction with a smirk at that moment, and I knew that he must have been listening in on my thoughts.

I realized then that I felt… better. That withdrawal I had felt for him—that craving,immediately seemed to subside the moment he had walked into the room.

We hadn’t even spoken to each other or touched or anything, but it had all seemed to just fade away. I had even had a headache for the past half hour or so, and that was gone, too. What The Hell, How was that even possible?Theo’s light blue eyes met mine. It looked like he wanted to say something to me, but he couldn’t in front of all the other students.

“Welcome to Taming Your Dark Wolf, everyone,” Theo said as he stood in front of the classroom. “As you already have probably figured out, there’s a reason you’re here.

This course is only available to the Crescents. The whole purpose of this course is to help you tame the darkness inside of you. The interesting thing about being a Crescent is that each of you has both darkness and light—good and bad within you. We refer to this as your two wolves: the dark wolf and the light wolf. This class is about embracing your inner light wolf and bringing it to the surface, while burying the dark wolf inside of you.”

I frowned. That sounded great and all, but…

What if you didn’t even really know, for sure, if you had a dark inner

wolf?