Werewolf Academy Year Three - Jayme Morse

Chapter 1

The sun streamed in through my window, casting its warm golden glow over the bed and right into my face.

Old me used to get annoyed when I was woken up by the sun streaming into my face, but new me was just thankful to see sunlight. I had spent a long three months without seeing the light of day at all.

As my phone alarm started to go off, Theo groaned loudly against my ear. Loosening his hold on me, he stretched, untangling himself from me.

Ever since I had returned, he slept with his arms in a tight embrace around me. It was clear that he wasn’t about to let me go. And honestly? I didn’t want him to.

“Good morning,” he whispered, lowering his mouth to mine.

I kissed him back, allowing my lips to linger on his. “Good morning.”

I ran a hand through his short black hair. His five o’clock shadow was more prominent than usual.

His ocean blue eyes stared into mine for a long moment before he finally sighed. “I really don’t want to leave this bed… or you.”

“Then don’t,” I replied. “I’ll stay here with you all day.”

“As nice as that sounds, we both know we can’t do that. It’s the first day of school.” He kissed me one more time before rolling out of the bed.

As he began to pull his clothes on, I kicked the satin comforter off of me and climbed out of bed, too.

I eyed my closet, deciding on the same black dress I had worn last year. The only difference this year was that I didn’t even want to go to school.

Nope, I hadn’t been kidding about wanting to just stay in bed all day.

But I still pulled the dress on, anyway. Then I headed over to the vanity where I applied mascara and some lip gloss in a completely half-assed attempt at trying to make it look like I had my shit together.

In reality, I didn’t have my shit together. Not even the slightest bit together.

“So, have you given it any thought yet?” Theo asked me.

He didn’t have to explain for me to know what he meant by “it.” He was talking about the decision I still had yet to make.

Which of my mates was I going to choose?

Ever since I had managed to escape from Milos’s dungeon, all of my mates had been pushing me to make a decision.

I understood their reasoning. I had spent three long months without them. It made all of us realize just how precious our time together was. I didn’t want to spend another minute without them again.

But even though all of my mates wanted me to make a decision sooner rather than later, Theo was, by far, the pushiest. He wanted me to choose, once and for all, who I wanted to be with for the rest of my life.

He wanted me to decide which of the Darken I wanted to marry. I still wore the engagement ring the pack had gotten me, with the promise that I would choose one of them to spend the rest of my life with once I was ready.

The problem was that I wasn’t ready. Not yet. And I hated that I wasn’t ready because every part of me wanted to make a decision, too. But there were just too many new factors that complicated things.

Factors like him.

I completely got why Theo wanted me to choose so badly. But what he didn’t realize was that the more he pushed me to choose, the more I wanted to do exactly the opposite. I just wanted to bury my head in the sand and pretend that the problem didn’t exist.

“No, I honestly haven’t even had time to think about it,” I replied with a shrug, trying to play it off coolly as I glanced across the room at him.

Theo nodded, but I could see the disappointment behind his light blue eyes. He wanted me to pick. And he didn’t want me to pick just anyone; he wanted to be the one who I chose to spend forever with.

If only it was that easy.

Once Theo and I were both dressed, we headed down to the kitchen to join the rest of my mates, who were already having breakfast.

“So, you guys, I’ve been giving it some thought, and I don’t think I’m going to school,” I announced as I entered the room.

I wasn’t sure why I had even bothered getting ready today. This feeling wasn’t a new one. For days, I had thought about