Blood, Tome 1 : False Blood

One - Everything Changes

Gasping, I jolt up from the bed, shocked at how real the dream felt. I’ve been having the same dream for three years, since I turned eighteen, and I don’t know why. Sometimes it feels so real that it’s hard to focus on anything else for the rest of the day. Other times I wake up, barely remembering what happened.

It’s the same every time. I’m surrounded by three dark figures. They each state I belong to them. Then they tell me it’s time to come home before biting me, sucking my blood just as vampires do. The worst part about it, I like it! The pain, the feeling of belonging to them along with the arousal that shoots through my body every time I’m in that dream. If I told anyone from my pack, they’d kill me for such blasphemy.

Glancing over at my clock, I still have an hour before training starts. Sighing, I decide to get dressed, and get an early start to the day.

Every day before school, we participate in mandatory training. But it’s more like a ‘beat the hell out of Emerald,’ session. The whole pack thinks I’m weak. Well, that’s to be expected when you project yourself as being meek. What they don’t know is that I’m so much stronger than any of them. I’ve been slowly increasing my strength these past few years to better protect myself. Being half human in a pack of wolves has increased the need to defend myself. That hasn’t eased the cruelty of training, though.

Our trainer, Jeremy, is one of the senior wolves in the pack. He used to be an enforcer before my father downgraded him to trainer. He was abusing his enforcer role by taking wolves on unsanctioned hunting trips, which led to many of our own being killed.

Ever since then, he’s been a grumpy, old pain in the ass. He’s made it his mission to make my life hell, and anytime I try to fight back, he hits harder. It’s reached the point where I let him beat me in front of the rest of my class. I thought that by letting him, his ego would be appeased, but unfortunately, I’m not that lucky.

I haven’t gotten my father involved yet, only because it hasn’t reached a level I can’t handle, though it’s getting close. Dad must suspect something, because he’s been giving me extra training sessions at night after he gets home from patrolling and in the mornings, before he leaves.

Those training sessions have helped me greatly these past few months even if it’s decreased my interest for mates.

Once a female wolf turns twenty-one, she’s given the choice to mate for the pack or contribute a job that’s just as worthy. We’re given a year to make the decision and once it’s made, it can’t be taken back. Today I turn twenty-one. Dad asked me yesterday if there was someone in the pack I was interested in but none have caught my interest. Well, actually, there is one, he just doesn’t want to acknowledge I exist. We had one night of amazing fun, then it was as if I had some kind of contagious disease that he needed to steer clear from.

Safe to say, my beast and I were in total agreement about never forming an attachment again, so we only ever hooked up with members of the pack for a night of release. Besides, not many can handle how ferocious my beast makes me in the bedroom.