Blood Of The Marked

As I headed towards the Dining Hall, I nearly collided with Theo.

His bright blue eyes locked on mine. “So, you and Colton got all touchy and feely during Weaponry, huh?”

He seemed jealous.

“Seriously? You were listening to my thoughts as that happened?”

It was sort of annoying that I couldn’t so much as think about one of his pack members without him listening in on what I was thinking. I had no privacy.

“I’m always listening to your thoughts.” He shrugged.

“You’re a Professor! Don’t you have anything better to do with your time? Like, you know, teach, instead of listening to my every thought?”

He looked mildly apologetic. “Honestly, Raven? I would rather not hear your thoughts. They’re kind of…” He trailed off.

“Kind of what?” I narrowed my eyes at him as I waited for his answer.

“Hard to listen to.” He sighed and then he pulled something shiny and gold out of his pocket and handed it to me. “Put this on.”

I glanced down at the necklace in my hand. The pendant was oval shaped and looked like a locket. “What is this?”

“The locket is filled with an herbal concoction that will keep me from listening to you,” Theo explained. “Just put it on if you don’t want me listening to you. Which I’m sure will be most of the time.”

Then, without saying another word, he walked away from me. I got the feeling he was mad at me.Sighing, I pulled the necklace on over my neck as I headed to the front of the Dining Hall, where I had agreed to meet Iris for lunch.

“Do you want to eat outside?” Iris asked me as I approached her. “We’re allowed to do that?” I wasn’t sure why I was surprised. I had just figured we had to eat in the Dining Hall.

“Yeah, it says in our student handbook that we can eat outside, we just can’t take the trays with us.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Truthfully, I could have used the fresh air.

We went into the Dining Hall and grabbed our food: a turkey sandwich and French fries for me, and a chicken Caesar salad for Iris.We found a bench on the courtyard and sat down.

“Can I ask you a question?” Iris asked as she carefully took the plastic lid off her salad.

“Sure,” I replied as I unscrewed the cap on my iced tea. “Well, I saw you eating breakfast with the Darken pack.” That wasn’t exactly a question, but okay.

“Yeah, we’re sort of… friends.” If you could even call it that. Theo was the type of friend who I made out on kitchen countertops with, who I fully intended to do more with when the time was right. And I was attracted to Rhys, Colton, and Aiden, too. Were you supposed to be that attracted to your friends?

“I just noticed the way they all look at you. I’m pretty sure all of them want you,” Iris said.

“Really?”

I was sort of surprised at her words. Was it really that obvious that there was something there between me and them? Well, between me and Theo, anyway?

She nodded. “Yeah. And I’m not sure if you really know this, since you’re new to the werewolf life and everything, but the Darken are actually pretty… significant.”

“I can tell they’re popular with the ladies,” I replied, trying not to feel bitter over it. I could fully admit that they were serious eye candy, so it was only to be expected that most of the other girls in school—and probably the professors, too found them attractive. I didn’t even want to think about how much competition I had, though.

“More than that. They’re one of the most powerful werewolf packs in the entire world—definitely within the top three. They aren’t brothers, but they’re all super tight. They have each other’s backs, and let me just put it this way. Anyone who knows what’s good for themselves doesn’t mess with them because pissing off one Darken means pissing all of them off. They are Ancients, after all.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Ancients?”

“Of course you’ve never heard of the Ancients,” she realized aloud. “You’ll learn all about them in the History of Werewolves. The Ancients were the first werewolves to ever walk this earth.”

“Like the ancient wolves who lived on that island?” I recalled from Aiden’s History of Werewolves lecture. “Nocturne Island?”

“Yes, those are the ones. A lot about how the Ancients came to be remains a mystery, but it is known that all other werewolves probably descended from them. Not many of us who are Descendants have as much Ancient blood as they do. We might have just a drop or two of the Ancients’ bloodline. But the Darken are really Ancients. Although Theo and Aiden are full-blooded Ancients, Colton and Rhys are almost entirely Ancients in their genetic makeup, too.”

“Are there many other Ancients at Werewolf Academy?”

She shook her head. “No. The Darken are the only full-blooded or mostly blooded—Ancients in existence.”

“Wow,” I murmured as I bit into my sandwich.

“The thing is… you should be careful with them. If you get romantically involved with any of them, I mean.” Iris’s eyes locked on mine, and I realized then that this must have been why she had brought this up at all.

“I’m sure that it’s probably not that acceptable for a student to date a professor,” I said with a sigh. I hadn’t given much thought to how practical it would be for me to actually get romantically involved with one or more than one of the Darken.

Then again, we couldn’t get in trouble if we didn’t get caught. I was willing to keep it a secret if they were.“Well, that actually wasn’t where I was going with this,” Iris replied as she stabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork. “I was talking about the myths about falling in love with a Darken.”

“Myths?” My eyebrows lifted questioningly.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“For starters, it’s said that once you fall in love with an Ancient, you can never fall out of it.”

“Well, I definitely don’t plan to fall in love,” I replied as I popped a French fry into my mouth. I’d been there and done that back in the human world. It wasn’t exactly at the top of my to-do list to fall in love or have my heart broken—again.

“Another myth is that there’s a really high risk of getting pregnant if you have sex with an Ancient,” she said. “Regular werewolf sperm is already more powerful than human sperm, but the Ancients’ sperm is said to be like werewolf sperm on steroids.”

“Well, I am not going to get pregnant by any of the Ancients, believe

me.”

“You never know,” Iris replied with a shrug. “They’re all so freaking

attractive. If they looked at me like they look at you, I’d probably jump their Ancient bones and have a million Ancient babies.”

I laughed.

“Well, I don’t think we have to worry about that. Theo actually pulled away from me last night when we were making out.”

I lightly touched the necklace he had just given me, relieved that he wasn’t able to listen in on my thoughts right now.“Really? Just out of nowhere?”

She stared at me like someone who was watching a soap opera, waiting to see what was going to come next. The only thing that was missing was the popcorn.

“Well, no. Not completely out of nowhere. I was having… mixed feelings… about going further with him,” I admitted. Except, now, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was the real reason Theo had stopped us from going any further. I’d thought it was because he’d overheard my thoughts, but maybe it was because he didn’t want to knock me up.

“Maybe he was afraid because of the myths,” Iris read my mind. “Maybe.” I paused for a moment. “Though I do have one question about all of these myths. If the Darken are the only full-blooded Ancients in existence, how do people even know if these myths are true? Do they have a lot of babies or people who are in love with them?”

The idea that the Darken may have been major manwhores wasn’t really that outlandish. They were hot as fuck, after all. They probably all had multiple kids and girls in love with them—running around.

“No. As far as I know, none of them have any Pups—that’s what we call werewolf babies around here, by the way and I hear they’re all bachelors. Theo, especially, is known for never having been in love,” Iris replied.

“Really? But how can that be? They’ve been alive for hundreds of years.” I couldn’t help but be skeptical.

“I know. It’s crazy, but that’s what the rumor is.” She shrugged. “And as for the accuracy of the myths, the Darken are the only known Ancients who are in existence today, but there were many Ancients hundreds of years ago, but they were all killed off.”

“Killed how? I thought they were supposed to be so powerful,” I commented.

“They are, but a silver bullet is still a silver bullet,” she said sadly. “There was also a disease that was killing off Ancients, but the Darkens survived it. That’s just one example of how strong they are. There is only wolf who’s known to be stronger than them.”

“Who is it?” I asked with wide eyes.

Her eyes met mine. “Milos Santorini.”

The werewolf who had killed my parents.