I look around at the angels laying on the ground, most of their wings bent at odd angles. Bruises already cover their bodies and I wouldn't doubt that several have broken bones.
The wolves are on them immediately, locking them in handcuffs and dragging them away to the pack's prison. I flinch when their pained screams meet my ears.
"That was brutal," Diana mutters, standing beside me as we watch the angels disappear from view.
Daniel suddenly walks up to us, his arms crossed over his chest. "Hopefully we can finally get some answers."
"Yeah," I murmur, turning away and walking towards Daniel's house. I can hear him following me all the way to my room. "What?" I snap, whipping around when he tries to follow me into the room.
"Are you okay?" He asks so gently that my face falls and guilt stabs at me.
"No, it reminds me too much of what they did to my parents," I sigh, sitting down on the bed.
He closes the door and sits down at the edge of the bed, deliberately staying a few feet away. "What happened to them?" He asks softly.
I take a deep breath before starting. "My parents knew that having me was a death sentence, so I grew up in a small house by a lake deep in the mountains and completely hidden from everyone.
"One day they found us so we ran. We didn't stop for weeks until I was just too tired to keep going; that one night we stopped was enough for them to catch up. My mom died first," I mutter, my voice thick with emotion.
"We were in a field somewhere—the grass was super tall so I couldn't see much of what happened. But my dad and I both saw her die right in front of us. He told me to go ahead, that he would catch up after telling her goodbye." My voice cracks on the last word and I feel a tear run down my cheek.
"But he didn't. Instead, he fought off the angels that were coming to get me. I watched him die too—an arrow hit his wing, and then I watched him fall. I'm pretty sure he was dead before his body even hit the ground." I pull my knees to my chest and let the tears run down my face. "They chased me until I fell—I was knocked out because my head hit a rock. When I woke up, I was in the Cage. I was there for a while but eventually woke up in a hospital room and my wings were just gone. The pain had me screaming every moment I was conscious for weeks, so they had to keep me sedated for most of the time."
"Did it scar?" Daniel asks lowly.
I nod numbly and turn to take my shirt off, then pull my hair over my shoulder. I feel Daniel's fingers trace the scars on my back with the lightest of touches.
"Does it still hurt?"
"Yeah, if I put too much pressure on it." My eyebrows furrow in confusion when I realize that his touch made it fade a bit, even the tightness in my chest lessened.
"And then you came to Academy?"
"I stayed in the Cage for another year—maybe longer I don't really remember—but then yeah. For the first few years I was at the Academy they had a guard watching me at all times. They did testing on me every few months for a long time. I am still the only angel to have had their wings taken before they were 18 years old."
"What did your wings look like?" He asks and a smile forms on my lips.
"They were giant for starter wings, they dragged on the floor when I walked. They were white but the tips of the feathers were black—my father used to tell me that when I was a baby people were so jealous of how beautiful my wings were that they tried to set them on fire and that's why they looked like they were burned," I murmur, the memory bringing a small smile to my face.
The happiness starts to fade though as suddenly the image of my mother laying dead in the grass fills my mind. I look at Daniel, desperate to find something else to talk about.
"How old are you?" I ask Daniel, realizing he doesn't look 18 at all.
"34," he says and my eyes widen.
"Seriously? How the fuck can you be 34?"
He chuckles a little. "Well werewolves and angels can easily live to be a few hundred years old and since I have the blood of both, I age about half as fast. In human terms I'm about 17."
"And since those are definitely starter wings, when do you get your permanent wings?"
He shrugs. "36, I'd assume."
"About that—can you shift into a wolf too?" He nods, his lips turning upward. "What's your wolf look like?"
"Black, like so dark it's almost blue. Or at least that's what my legs look like, I've never actually looked in a mirror or anything," he chuckles, a grin on his lips.
I smile, imagining it in my mind. "If you let your wings out and shifted at the same time, could you become a flying wolf?"
"No, believe me that was the first thing I tried to do after I shifted," he laughs.
I turn to look at him and see he is very close to me. My breath catches in my throat as I realize exactly how handsome he is. His black hair is messed up perfectly, there is not a single flaw on his face, and his eyes are the most amazing dark blue.
I don't realize I am leaning in until I feel his hand touch my face. But by then, I am too entranced to want to pull away.
He quickly closes the distance, crashing his lips onto mine with a force that makes me moan. I close my eyes, melting into the kiss. My hands move of their own accord and tug up the hem of his shirt. He pulls away for a second to yank it over his head before kissing me again.
My fingers run over his chest, feeling every solid muscle under his perfectly bronzed skin. His arms wrap around my waist and pull me closer until I'm straddling his lap.
His mouth leaves mine to start a trail of kisses down my jaw. Then he gets to my neck and pauses. "The mark is almost healed," he mutters before placing a kiss on it.
I shudder when his lips touch my skin, the contact sending a wave of pleasure through my body. "How did you do that?" I gasp out and he chuckles.
"You're my mate, and this is my mark, that's how," he says, placing another kiss on it. Another shudder rips through me, making me collapse onto his chest, my head on his shoulder as I suck in sharp breaths.
"That's not fair. You shouldn't be able to do that," I mutter.
"Why not?" He asks, sounding upset.
"Because it makes it that much harder to try to stay away from you," I sigh.
He lets out a heavy breath and wraps his arms around me tightly. "I'm sorry. There must be some way this can work out between us, without you getting hurt anyway," he sighs.
I close my eyes for a few moments before something suddenly crosses my mind. "Maybe there is," I say, sitting back.
He looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "How?"
"Well with my wings I was an extremely powerful angel—if I get them back then I think this could work."
"Wait what do you mean? How powerful are we talking?"
My lips curl into a smirk. "Well let's just say there's a reason I was the only child the Council ever put in the Cage. A little bite isn't going to cause me any harm."
YOU ARE READING
Angel Academy
Werewolf**cover by SodaliteSilver** Luciana Morgenstern has been hunted all her life. The High Council told everyone it was because she was a hybrid, but Luciana knows they merely consider her a threat because she has abilities that make her far more powerf...
