Terra (The Vulgari Hybrids, #1) ✔

2|Mesina|

| Lia |

Cassy returned to the inn shortly after I arrived. She slammed the door and pursed her lips at me. I opened my mouth, about to defend my actions, but she just shook her head angrily and climbed into her bed, aggressively rolling herself into her blankets and pretending to sleep. I sighed and tried to sleep but I couldn't. The image of my mate kept playing back in my head.

We still hadn't said a word to each other by the time we'd packed, checked out of the hotel and loaded our bags into the car.

Once inside the car, Cassy broke the silence and scowled. "Don't ruin this, Lia,” she warned before turning the ignition on and started driving.

I rolled my eyes. "I know. Stop being so bossy."

"I'm not being bossy. I just want you to realize how important this is for us. You nearly ruined it last night." Cassy glared at the road, her clear green eyes slightly dilating. Her knuckles went white due to her death grip on the steering wheel.

"Calm your ass, okay? Last night was a close call. It will not happen again, I swear."

"And how, exactly, are you going to manage that?"

"Well..." I faltered, not really trusting myself to stay away. But I must. For our goal, I must.

Cassy sighed. “Your mate will try and shake the Earth just to find you, y’know. Aunt Hazel warned us about that. Once you find him, there's no turning back."

I shrugged and diverted my attention to the window. I had no wise comeback to that. Cassy carefully followed Aunt Hazel's map to the academy, and my thoughts turned to the journey ahead.

Mesina academy accepted students at the age of ten. Its main purpose was to promote camaraderie and understanding among all five Vulgari races. Aunt Hazel only let us enter this year because it took us a long time to perfect the magic in concealing our wolves. Thankfully, she had a contact inside the school who could help us with the transition.

We entered a narrow road with a huge sign that said PRIVATE PROPERTY, NO TRESPASSING, and after mile we passed a checkpoint guarded by four Lupus men. Cassy pressed her foot on the brake and rolled her window down.

One of the guard peered at Cassy then me. "You’re new, aren't you? Forms," he demanded, his hand outstretched in front of him, although his nose was buried in his phone and his eyes were puffy.

I grabbed our enrollment forms from my bag and passed it to Cassy who in turn handed them to the man.

He scanned over the forms, then blinked when he came to our identical pictures and bent down to peer through the car window to first Cassy, then me. "Twins," he muttered.

I fought the urge to snicker and roll my eyes. It was like he had never seen twins before in his entire life.

He straightened and walked over to his companions in the checkpoint's cabin, waving the forms at them. They looked at the paperwork, then stared hard at us. I heard one of them say, "Ilwani vermins, let them go before they can do any voodoo magic on you." It was a whisper, meant only for them to hear. But our Lupus blood was strong enough that our hearing was as acute as theirs.

Racists. I hate them. I tried to calm myself, but my hands clenched tightly in my lap.

Coming back to us, the first guard handed our forms back and grunted. "Go."