Page 9 of The First Year Continued (Marked Blood Academy #2)

Odin

“Fuck!” I screamed into the night.

A noise from behind me made me jump and I turned, ready to attack the person I’d been chasing all night. Except, instead of the shadow person, I found myself in front of Sol and Evander.

“What the fuck, man?” Sol said. “What is going on?”

“There was someone in the bushes when I was with Roxy. He leapt from the bushes and ran, almost like he wanted me to chase him.”

“Where is Roxy?” Evander asked, scanning the area. We were back where we started. The bench where I’d kissed Roxy right next to me.

“I don’t…I don’t know. We were running together but she was behind me for a bit. Then I lost her. I lost her!”

“Okay,” Sol said. He was trying to remain calm, but I saw the way his chest heaved, working for each breath. “We need to find her. More than whoever you were chasing, we have to find her.”

He was right.

“Where do we even start?” I asked. “What if he got to her? What if I failed?”

Evander clapped me on the shoulder. “We can’t think like that. Focus, Odin.”

I nodded and took a cleansing breath. “You’re right. Let’s shift and scent her out. We all know her scent. We can make better time that way.”

We stripped as fast as we could and shifted into our wolves. We took our clothes into our mouths and began to run. As a pack. Together.

It was too bad we couldn’t speak to each other as packs did, in our minds.

Where is she? Where are you, mate?

There were trails of her scent everywhere. Hints of her around every corner but nothing solid for at least an hour or so. It felt like years went by when we saw her silhouette in an area near the dining hall. Darkness was all around her but there was one light above her.

My mate was not okay.

We ran over and saw her shivering. Her eyes were wide. Darker. She wasn’t herself.

There was nothing behind her eyes.

“Roxy!” I said, shifting back and putting on a pair of pants, only.

“What?” she asked.

I took a step toward her but when I reached out to touch her, she gasped. It was loud and pronounced, like she was trying to suck in all the oxygen out of the world. She cried out as a shift took her over. This wasn’t Roxy shifting. The shift was taking her.

In seconds, she was a wolf in front of us. Silent. Not moving.

Something was happening to my mate. The shift wasn’t natural.

But in its wake was a scent I didn’t recognize. Not shifter. Not the blood of a vampire, metallic and tangy.

The scent was something or someone I didn’t recognize. Sol and Evander were still in their wolf forms. “Scent her,” I asked. “Did someone touch her?”

They would know if she was hurt by someone. Touched by someone. The scent would be all over her.

“Shift back. Let’s get her to her room before they come back.”

Evander and Sol shifted back to two legs and got dressed, but Roxy hadn’t moved.

She shook in her wolf form. Whether it was cold or fear, I couldn’t decipher.

Either way, we had to get her to safety.

She was my first priority. I’d been a fool, chasing that thing, person, around and not making sure she as behind me—safe with me.

Such a silly male thing to do.

“Roxy, can you shift back?” Sol asked her, crouching down so that his eyes were level with hers.

“We have to get out of here,” I reiterated. We weren’t safe here. He knew that.

“I get that, Odin. I do. But if we’re seen carrying Roxy in her wolf form around campus, it’s not going to be a bit alarming? We will be called into the office and it won’t be to become some weird guy’s spies.”

Ugh. He was right. I hated when Sol was right. I would surely hear about it later.

“What do we do? She’s freezing and clearly in some kind of shock. Plus, whoever we were chasing or was chasing us, I’m not sure which now, we have to get her away from them.”

Just as Sol opened his mouth, probably to argue with me, Roxy shifted back to her human form. Her clothes were in shreds, but we managed to get one of our sweatshirts and a pair of sweatpants on her while trying like hell to keep her modesty.

“Well, that takes care of that. Let’s go.

Rox, we’re going to carry you to your room now.

” Evander spoke to her so softly. He picked her up, honeymoon style, and we followed them across the common area, trying to stick close to the shadows and then to the dorm building.

Roxy’s room was on the second floor, but Evander didn’t seem exerted at all.

Roxy was far too thin for her own good. She needed to eat more, but we weren’t yet in a position to coax her to do so.

Once she knew how much I cared about her. How much we all did—we could maybe ask her to eat more.

For now, we had to get her to safety.

Up the stairs and into her room, Desi saw us. “Is she okay?” Roxy’s friend asked. I’d never spoken to Desi much before Roxy came along, but she was good to our girl. Cared about her.

“We think so. We’re going to bring her to her room and warm her up. I’m sure she’ll tell you everything. Don’t worry.” Sol stopped to speak to her while Evander and I rushed toward her room.

Inside her room, we wrapped her up in blankets but she was still shivering. Her lips had lost all their color. Long gone was the blush she’d had only hours ago when we were kissing under the alcove. She was paler than I’d ever seen her.

“Roxy, sweetheart, can I put you in the warm shower?” Her eyes flicked up to mine, the first sign of life since we stopped chasing the person or thing from outside. “I won’t look. I swear.”

She opened her mouth to speak but instead of saying anything, her teeth chattered and her chin quivered.

Instead, she nodded.

“Come on,” I said to Evander.

Sol came in and closed the door. “Desi is worried but said she trusts us to take care of her. Where are you going?”

“She said we could put her in the shower. We can’t look.”

Sol nodded. “Of course. Let me help.”

In minutes, all three of us were in our boxers, and Roxy was covering her front private parts and breasts with a small towel.

As soon as her body hit the warm water, she let out a groan of contentment.

Her knees wobbled, so I reached out and held her by the hips. “Tell me when you’re ready to get out.”

She stayed under the spray for what felt like hours. Finally some blush returned to her cheeks and the trembling subsided.

“Can you get yourself dressed?” I asked. Sol and Evander were outside the shower with their backs turned. We were nothing if not gentlemanly.

I wouldn’t betray my mate like that for anything in the world.

“I can. Thank you.”

I made sure she was out of the shower and had enough towels and a robe before we left the bathroom. We waited outside, listening to the sounds, making sure she hadn’t fallen or hurt herself. When she came out with a robe on and looking better, we all let out a breath of relief.

Somewhere along the line, we really needed to have a talk about us and who Roxy was to us.

“Do you need something to eat? Are you ready to talk?”

She sat down on her bed. “I’m fine. I think…I think I can talk about it now.”