Renegade [ONGOING]

10

Renegade

I rip off the lab coat and walk up to Justina. The heat emanating from her body is enough to cause beads of sweat to roll down my forehead, despite the evening being cool.

I hear murmurs and hushed talks among the adults behind and around me, but my focus is solely on the exposed dragon shifter in front of me.

I narrow my eyes at her. "Why are you here? How are you here?"

She smirks at me and releases a puff of smoke from her nostrils. "You see, little princess, we needed to see what we were up against. Which, in my opinion, isn't much."

With that she runs off into the dark. I look back at the bumbling teachers and guards behind me. "What're you waiting for? After her!"

As soon as the alpha command leaves my lips, all the wolves take off after her. I break into a sprint, taking the lead and following Justina's distinct scent.

Her smell leads me to the school's vast field of trimmed grass. She stands in the center, looking up at the sky.

The intense wind blows strands of hair into my face, annoying the hell out of me.

"It would help you to prepare. Because we're going to be stomping and roasting your kind and the leeches, Halo!" Justina chuckles maliciously.

In the swirl of thunder clouds, a monstrous roar is heard again. This time it came from Justina. Her skin turns crimson red and horns sprout from her head. Her hands morph into leathery talons as she grows bigger. Her snake-like eyes glow like magma, as hot and bright as the liquid itself.

She transforms into a large majestic dragon, with a matte black underside. Black horns and glossy black spikes run down her serpentine body. 

Her lethal eyes scour over us one last time. A plume of smoke exits her slits before she takes off into the dark sky.

••••

"We are toast." Marco sighs.

"As soon as the dragon shifters arrive, we really are." Tamreen sighs.

Contradicting how we are seated in the pack house again with our homework sprawled out in front of us but we are discussing anything but the homework.

I twirl my pen in my hand as I think.
Why are the dragons after us? I wonder how and why the vampires are roped into this.

A hand patting my  textbook brings me out of my thoughts. I glance up and see Tamreen looking at me expectantly.

Her eyes drift to the left and only then do I realize that Gamma Anastasia has been standing by the table watching us. I was wondering why Tamreen and Marco went silent.

Gamma Anastasia crosses her arms and raises her eyebrow.
"Hey Renegade, you look like you're deeply focused on that upside down Lupine Studies textbook."

My eyes widen as I take in the upside down diagrams. I flip the book around and pretend to be immensely focused.

But Anastasia is too smart for that. She closes my textbook and smiles at me.
"Define mate bond, Renegade."

The definition instantaneously pops into my head, despite the many distractions.
"The mutual physical attraction between two shifters, resulting from the predetermined connection between their inner beast counterparts."

Anastasia nods before asking me another question, one that I did not anticipate.

"If you were an alpha, the alpha of the leading pack in Delphinea, what would be the most strategic thing to do when a new, powerful species arises and arranges for a meeting with a representative for the werewolves?"