Academy Of Beasts X

By Becca Fanning

I can do this. Just breathe, Fiona. Just breathe...
Even if everything were as it seemed, this would be an insurmountable struggle.
This Academy still feels so strange, despite it being the only home I have now.
These Council men tempt me and torment me, but they're the least of my problems.
A chance encounter with someone I didn't recognize could come back to haunt me...
USA Today Bestselling Author Becca Fanning is proud to bring you this Reverse Harem Academy Romance serial, packed with all the action, intrigue and great chemistry you can handle!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gizmo Media
• Release date: Jan 5, 2021

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Fanning

Chapter 1

Even though things went wrong sometimes, even though I was crazy embarrassed, or the guys messed up, life still moved on.

Even here at Beast Academy, where nothing else was normal. That, at least, was still normal. The weirdness died down, wounds healed and turned into scars that faded.

On Monday morning, I was back in the gym. Because that was what we did on a Monday morning. We trained.

My nerves bunched into a knot in my stomach. I hadn’t seen Dracus since our date on Friday night. The date that had gotten completely out of hand since Enrique had thought it would be funny to feed Dracus a love potion. And Dracus had lost control of his dragon.

I didn’t know what to expect from him. I had no idea where we stood, or how he was going to treat me. I wasn’t even sure if I had done something wrong. When I thought back to that night, I felt a hollow feeling in my chest, and I tried to push all the memories of the night away.

It had been something I definitely could have lived without. Damn you, Enrique!

When I walked into the gym, I heard the rhythmic clang of weights. I looked around. The gym was empty, aside from the weights that Theo was lifting.

I knew it was Theo. Dracus never trained when I trained. He was only there to coach me. Maybe my training was just his warmup and he did his work some other time. Maybe his early morning run – at an ungodly hour, by the way – was enough for him.

Although running didn’t give you a body like that.

I shook my head. No thinking about Dracus’ hot body, Fiona. Not after what had happened.

Hey, Theo said, coming to me with a grin. His shirt was wet around the collar, a triangle of sweat pointing down to his lower stomach, and I tried my best not to follow it with my eyes, to trace the lines of his muscular body.

Morning, I said. Where is Dracus?

It’s just us today, he said.

I didn’t know why I wasn’t relieved. I was glad I wouldn’t have to face him. I wouldn’t know what to say to him. But a part of me wondered why he hadn’t come to see me since then. Why hadn’t he come to talk to me about what happened? It was very unlike Dracus not to be hands-on about anything that had gone wrong.

Maybe he had already punished Enrique, and that had been the extent of his father-of-the-house approach.

Don’t look so worried, Theo said, nudging me gently. It’s not you.

I shook my head and looked at my feet. It’s hard to believe it’s not.

Look, it’s a big thing that happened. But we handled it, and it’s behind us now, right?

I nodded.

Theo put his finger under my chin and lifted my face so I looked at him.

It’s behind us now, he said.

His eyes were intense, and the atmosphere around us was getting charged. Gods, why did this always happen? I couldn’t even be depressed or unsure or anxious around the guys without there being some kind of sexual charge involved, too.

Come on, let’s train, Theo said. We still need you strong.

Yeah, apparently this training is doing nothing, I said.

Don’t say that. You’re getting fitter and stronger. You’ve come a long way since you started a couple of months ago.

And I still couldn’t ward off Dracus on Friday. Or access my magic. So much for learning self-defense.

Theo shook his head. It was an isolated incident. It’s not the same thing.

So, are you saying that I will never get into a situation where someone loses control or uses some kind of magic and I need to defend myself?

Theo hesitated. Because he knew I was right. There was magic everywhere. And there were shifters everywhere, who were all capable of losing control if the circumstances were right. And didn’t the Slayers play dirty, anyway? We had learned about herbs that neutralized shifter magic in Shifter Mechanics. What about all the other herbs and potions that did other things? There were witches out there, working with shifters. I knew there were, it had been in the book about Leia and her harem.

She had trained with the witches. What happened when all these people were against us, and not for us? What happened if I had to defend myself against someone like that, and I just couldn’t because I had no way to actually use my magic unless my subconscious decided to jump in.

Let’s just take it one step at a time, Fiona, Theo finally said. Okay?

Okay, I said. It wasn’t exactly reassuring, but it was the only way to move forward. One step at a time. Besides, I guess this was better than doing nothing.

Although I still felt like I did on Friday. I had just looked better, still not being able to defend myself, than I had looked before I had started training and getting stronger.

But I wasn’t going to keep arguing with Theo about it. He was trying to be nice, and I could do with that.

We started on drills. We skipped meditation since it was Dracus forte. Theo was too impatient to take me through that. I knew he couldn’t sit still long enough to spell meditation, let alone do it.

We started training, but I was irritated. And the more irritated I became, the more I struggled to work through the routines. It felt like my body worked against me, not with me. I was stiff and awkward, and I was getting angrier the longer we worked.

This isn’t working, Theo finally said, stopping the training. What’s going on with you?

I just think this is pointless, I said. "What good will these drills