Academy Of Beasts XIII: Shifter Romance

By Becca Fanning

Something has been itching at the back of my skull, a feeling that just won't go away.
Something about Daniel: I didn't know him very well at all, but what happened to him still bothers me, and I need to find out what's going on.
But I wouldn't have thought walking down this path would lead me to this discovery...
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: Mar 22, 2021

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Fanning

Chapter 1

When I woke up, everything was different. Better. I peeked through my curtains. The sun was barely on the horizon, just a thin line of silver slicing through the night, suggesting that dawn was on its way. It was dark, and without the sunlight, it was still cold. The weather here at Beast Academy – or rather, in the Shifter Realm – was weird. It was never very cold or very hot, and there weren ’ t really any seasons to speak of.

Sometimes it rained, sure. Thunderstorms still existed, thank the Gods. But there was no winter or summer; there was no snow and frost or new blossoms. Everything was very much the same all year round.

I left the window and dressed for my training session with Dracus. When I was ready, I skipped down to the gym, flying through the hallways.

"Morning," I said brightly.

Dracus and Theo were already in the gym, waiting for me. Theo went through a warmup routine. Dracus also wore training clothes – a black tank and sweat pants, black shoes – but he wasn’t training. After he ran five miles in the morning, long before anyone even thought about being awake, he was probably warmed up enough.

"You’re in a good mood," Theo said.

He looked hot in his training clothes. A bright green shirt that matched the color of his eyes. His curls were a little disheveled after his sleep – he hadn’t bothered running a brush through his hair. It only made him hotter. Gods, I had a thing for Theo. I had a thing for all of them, mind you, but for Theo, it was different.

"Yeah," I said. "I had a good night. Nothing like being well-rested, right?"

Theo laughed and his green eyes sparkled with amusement.

But it wasn’t just because I slept well that I was in such a good space. I felt good about Ren. We had connected over the past week and things were great between us. I still wasn’t quite sure where we stood, but with Ren, everything was different. He wasn’t the type of person you could apply to a routine or a recipe like everything else. He was different.

And that was fine because I was starting to understand him.

Everything else was still a question. The message after the explosion, the concept that my parents might have been involved with Slayers, and the idea that it was all aimed at me. But that didn’t bother me so much. Not since I had decided that I wasn’t a Slayer. It was all up to me and my decisions, Priscilla and Enrique were both right. So it didn’t matter what the Slayers wanted from me.

What mattered was what I wanted from me.

"Well, seeing that you’re in such a good mood, we can work a little harder today," Dracus said.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. He was always so damn serious, sometimes it could really kill a mood. Don’t get me wrong, there was something delicious about his seriousness, about the way he always faced everything headlong and took charge no matter what. It was probably the weight on his shoulders that made him so serious. It couldn’t be easy to be a Prince, to have so much responsibility at such a young age, and deal with all the threats on campus.

But sometimes, I just wished he would brighten up a little, too. Smile a bit.

Dracus guided me through a rigorous warmup routine that had me heaving and sweating by the time it was over. And now I was supposed to train after all of this? But Dracus liked pushing me to the edge of my limits. "It makes you stronger," he always said, and he was probably right.

"Alright, let’s start," he said.

"Can I just catch my breath?" I asked. I was bent over, leaning my hands on my knees, breathing hard. My back was wet with sweat, the flyaway hairs that always escaped my ponytail clung to my face.

"You have a minute," Dracus said. And best know that when he said a minute, he meant sixty seconds on the dot, it wasn’t a figure of speech. "Today, we’re going to focus on balance again, core work. And meditation."

I groaned. "Why did I warm up then? If I’m going to stay practically still?"

"You always want to be ready, Fiona," Dracus said.

I glanced at Theo, who shrugged and started lifting weights with a grin. He was watching me. I liked it when he watched me. But it was just as unnerving.

"Alright, time," Dracus said. "Let’s start with your balance work."

I didn’t argue. I lifted my leg, knee bent, toe pointed up. I focused on keeping my spine straight, my shoulders squared and chose a spot to focus on. Dracus had taught me all these things.

While I balanced, I sunk into the space that I went to when I meditated. I shut out the world, became quiet, and connected with the innermost part of myself. It had become easier and easier the more we had worked on it, but today I was focused, calm, and collected almost immediately.

"Fiona," Dracus said, pulling me slightly out of my state. I glanced at him.

"Oh, sorry," I said and opened my knee outward, the next pose in the balancing sequence. But Dracus shook his head.

"How are you doing that?"

"What?" I asked.

Dracus had an expression on his face that I couldn’t read. And Theo had set down his weights. He was just staring at me.

"Can’t you feel that?" Dracus asked.

I focused on what I was feeling. On what was around me. And suddenly, I felt it. The power. It was there, hanging around me like a cloud. Warm, but not overly so. And thick, but not so that I couldn’t breathe. It was like a presence, but only if you noticed it.

"It’s your Calm," Dracus said. "You