Initiation (Wolf Blood Academy Book 1) by RaShelle Workman (best book club books for discussion txt) 📕

but he didn’t share the reason. “I’m super-fast,” he said. Plus, he had a friendly smile.

“Moonlight, your turn.”

“It’s Diana,” I corrected. “I’m local, but only just found out I was a wolf.”

Wyatt cleared his throat.

I quickly went on. “I’ve been taking karate since I was young, so there’s, um, that,” I said and suddenly felt really stupid. I took karate—big whoop.

“Awesome.” He gave me a secret wink. Then he pointed at another girl. “You. What’s your name?”

She blushed bright red. “Billie Jean Rivera, but you can call me Billie.”

Wyatt tilted his head to one side. “Is Sundance your brother?”

She nodded. “Yep. I’m great at balancing on high wires and puzzles.” She made a face.

“Excellent,” Wyatt encouraged before pointing at the final member of our team.

She was maybe my height but was built like a bodybuilder. “My name is Holly Spangle. Some of you may have heard of me?” She flipped her super blond hair and looked around. Billie and Fallon both nodded.

“Yeah, I think I follow your social media. Your workouts are crazy,” he said, his voice awed.

“Right, you have over a million followers or something crazy like that,” Billie said. Then she smacked a hand to her forehead. “Didn’t you win some huge competition recently too?”

Holly laughed, but she didn’t mean it. “I’ve won a lot of competitions,” she said, crossing her arms, causing her biceps to flex.

“Great, so you're strong,” Wyatt said. He didn’t sound impressed.

She put her hands on her hips, obviously not used to being treated like anything less than a star.

“As the dean said, we will be tested as a group on how far we go and how well we work together as a team,” Wyatt said. “This round isn’t about how one does better than the other. If the team succeeds, then we all do.” The last part he said focusing on Holly.

Finally, it was our turn. We’d been waiting for hours. I was thirsty and hungry, and my feet hurt from standing. My little monster friend, Oakus, was hungry too, but it was apparent we wouldn’t be receiving refreshment again until after we finished the course.

The door popped open, and Logan waved us over. “Get in there and good luck,” he said.

Each of our team went in with Penelope going in sixth, followed by Wyatt and then me. Before I stepped through, Logan grabbed hold of my arm. “Too bad I didn’t do you when I had the chance,” he said, his eyes flashing yellow as his wolf pushed against his skin.

I yanked my arm away as angry fear radiated through my body. “Don’t ever touch me again.” My wolf was so close to the surface, it felt like I might shift right then and there. It was strange to feel the animal within. Looking back, it’d been there all along. I just hadn’t recognized it. Now though, my eyes dilated, and my body tightened. One of the men who tried to kill me said something similar. This guy sounded like him too. Was he one of them?

At my wolf pushing against my skin, Logan’s eyes went wide, and he stepped back. “Sorry,” he mumbled, his head bowed.

“Damn right, you are,” I said, my wolf controlling my anger another moment. Had I dominated him? That was what if felt like. My stomach tumbled in confusing knots, and I rushed through the door’s opening as it closed. I didn’t get far before I ran into Wyatt, and I peered around his rock solid body. What I saw struggled to compute in my brain.

Chapter Ten

I moved to stand beside Wyatt, my eyes working to comprehend our next test. The others were just as terrified as me. The obstacle course seemed to go on forever and went directly into the Shade Rasa. That didn’t seem safe.

One of the teachers, an elderly man with grizzly brown hair and a matching beard, held a stopwatch in his hand. “Your time starts now!” He clicked the button on the watch, and a screen appeared in the air above us. On it was our time ticking away as well as each of our names and our ranking. Wyatt wasn’t in first, and I guessed that was my fault. He’d attacked me last night, but he’d also shown mercy. That left him in fifth, only one in front of Penelope.

“Let’s check it out,” Wyatt said and headed over to the first obstacle.

The ground completely dropped off, and lava roiled and boiled below several free-standing steps. The first one looked easy enough to attain. After that, they seemed to get further and further apart.

When we all stood at the edge of the lava, a sweet female voice announced: “Cross the lava without falling in.”

“Is she kidding?” Penelope asked.

Fallon spoke up. “Is this like your original test?” He was looking at Wyatt. “What do we do?”

Wyatt shook his head. “This is completely new,” he said. Then hurried on. “But I can tell that we should—”

Holly pushed past us and hopped onto the first step. “It’s easy.”

“Wait,” Wyatt yelled.

But she was already on the next step.

“Seems easy enough,” Cohen said and jumped onto the first step. “Plus, we’re being timed. Let’s go.”

“Hold on, dammit,” Wyatt said, shoving his hands in his pants pockets.

But they weren’t listening.

Holly was already on the step directly in the middle of the lava.

Cohen was close behind.

“What should we do?” I asked, my focus on those crossing. I didn’t have a good feeling about this.

“Cohen is right. It is timed,” Billie said, her eyes on the steps.

“I know,” Wyatt said. “But I have a feeling we were supposed to go one right after the other. Penelope, go. Billie is next. Fallon, you go after her. Then Vivian, and Diana. I’ll go—”

Before Wyatt could finish, Holly screamed. Her step was slowly moving down toward the lave. “Follow me,” Wyatt growled and quickly jumped onto the first step. He gave me a quick glance before jumping onto the next, his feet barely touching one before he reached the next.

“Wow,” Fallon said.

I