Blood Of The Marked

had a feeling of disappointment when I left Theo’s class, even though I was really looking forward to my next class.I wasn’t sure what to expect from Weaponry, but it sounded like the perfect class for someone who wanted revenge.

I had never been a violent person before,Actually, I still didn’t consider myself violent. But knowing that Milos was out there and that he wanted to get to me so bad, I really wanted to learn more about what weapons I could use to defend myself from him—or from anyone else who may have wanted to hurt me.

I couldn’t allow myself to lose sight of the fact that my parents had been murdered. If I wasn’t careful, the same thing could happen to me.

Sure, I may have been safe for now, but what would happen once I left Werewolf Academy in four years and went back to the real world? Would I have to deal with Milos then? Would he wait for me that long? Maybe he’d forget all about me and move on, the same way I’d be trying—but failing to forget about him.

There were so many uncertainties. The only thing I did know was that I wanted to be prepared in whatever ways I could. If that meant I needed to learn how to use a gun, then so freaking be it.When I walked into the classroom, I was surprised to find that it didn’t look like any of the other classrooms I had been in so far. This one was different.

It looked like a shooting range.

The stone walls at the far end of the room had targets on them. Some of the targets were shaped to look like wolves, while others were designed to look like human bodies.

There were twelve booths with glass dividers so that each person— err, wolf could practice separately.Just… wow. Mind freaking blown. I definitely hadn’t been expecting this, but I wasn’t entirely sure what I had been expecting.Colton was standing at one far corner of the room, typing something onto a computer. As my heels clacked against the stone floor as I stepped further into the room, he glanced up at me.

His lips curved upwards into a smile. “Hey, you.”

“Hey.” My eyes scanned his body. He wasn’t wearing a suit and tie. Instead, he had on a pair of jeans and a light blue polo shirt, which showed off his muscular arms. He had his longish blonde hair gelled back, but a few pieces in the front still fell into his forehead a bit.

God, he was freaking hot.

I watched his face to try to determine if he had been listening to my thoughts, but if he had been, he definitely didn’t let it show on his face. He just looked happy to see me.A thought crossed my mind then, something I hadn’t ever considered until this very moment.

Why did it seem like Theo was the only one who could hear me? I wondered if it might have had something to do with him being Alpha of their pack. Maybe only he could hear me because he was the

strongest?

Pushing the thought to the back of my mind, I took a few steps closer to Colton. “So, are we going to have to, like, shoot guns?”

“Yup. And other weapons.”

I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t realized that we would actually be shooting these weapons in this classroom. I had figured that we would be learning about them and how to use them, but I hadn’t expected there to be a place here for us to actually practice using them.

It kind of surprised me, considering I was in the Crescents’ House.

Not only was I going to be using real-life, actual weapons, but I was going to learn how to use them with bad wolves.

Why would you teach a bad wolf how to use a weapon?

“So, is this… dangerous?” I asked Colton. “Learning how to shoot guns and stuff with…”—I glanced around, to make sure that no one was within earshot—“the Crescents?”

He smiled amusedly—a smile that reached his gray eyes. “You do realize you’re one of them, right?”

“Hey, I’m only half-Crescent.” I didn’t actually know if that’s what my being Sorted into two Houses meant, but I was just rolling with that. “And I would never hurt someone.”

“Are you sure about that?” Colton asked. “Because there’s something no one’s told you about werewolves yet—about all wolves, not only the Crescents.” His gray eyes locked on mine. “We all have the desire to kill.

It’s one of our natural instincts.” “I don’t.”

Well, except for Milos. I would have killed him if I could. I had a strong desire to kill him.

“You’re still new at this. You’ll have the desire to kill at some point,” Colton said. “Anyway, there are safeguards in place in this room to make sure that no one kills one another, be it by accident or on purpose.”

“What type of safeguards?” I asked.

“Like this, for example.” He reached into a bin and pulled out an arrow. Standing behind me, he wrapped his arms around me and showed me the tip of it. “See this?”

I nodded, even though I was mostly focused on the fact that Colton’s chin was pressed against my shoulder and I could feel his hot breath against my neck.

It made something stir inside of me…

“That’s brass,” Colton explained.

“Normally, arrows—the ones that are actually intended to kill werewolves—have sterling silver at the end of them. We don’t use any sterling silver in this classroom or anywhere else on campus because it can kill one of the students. So, what I’m saying is that there’s minimal risk here. Even if you were to get hurt in this classroom, it would only be a temporary injury. Your body would heal itself.”

“That’s relieving to know,” I murmured. He still had his arms wrapped around me, and truthfully?

I liked his embrace. There was something about Colton that was just so comfortable. So protective. I could have stayed in his arms forever if I let myself.

At that moment, I heard the sound of footsteps. Colton untangled himself from me as another student walked into the room.

As the classroom began to fill up with other wolves, I was glad we’d had this moment. It was my first sign that Colton may have been just as attracted to me as I was to him.I just wasn’t sure what to do with that information.

I wasn’t going to lie. I had the urge to kiss him. But he wasn’t the only Darken I wanted to kiss. I wanted to kiss them all.

I just didn’t want to destroy their pack.