79. Aurelia

Chapter 79

Aurelia

D amien has been on annual leave for the past few days, and Lyle has taken full advantage. With the full moon approaching, the mated wolves requested a night hunt for the millionth time and Lyle finally obliges them.

It's basically a time where reginas and rexes of each pack run under the full moon and their mates get to hunt them. Sometimes it was just for fun, but it usually led to a whole heap of sex. With so many packs hunting in the dark, it could also get dangerous. You had to be willing to put up with the possessiveness of other packs. And with reginas running wild, accidents were bound to happen.

That was why Lyle had never approved it. In the outside world, packs hired out closed parks for this sort of thing. But Lyle has been in a really good mood, and he's approved it for all packs, not just the wolves. Everyone had their allocated slot, for safety, across the next few days, to minimise lethal fights on the grounds.

There would only be avian guards keeping watch from the sky in case of an emergency, but that was it by way of safety.

"It'll be good bonding for the packs," Lyle says over breakfast in a very serious voice. "Everyone's been restless lately."

"Right," I say, grinning into my plate. "Great bonding."

Savage nudges me with his nose, almost exactly like a domestic dog. So I nudge him with mine right back, making him choke back laughter.

I know my friends and my mates are all trying to distract me from recent events. Keep my mind occupied and away from the sadness and grief. My surges of power come and go. Sometimes in class, the windows rattle and sometimes even in my sleep when a nightmare about fire and burning wood strikes, the entire dorm building shudders. Lyle wakes me up on those nights, bringing me a cold face cloth to mop me of the sweat that drenches me afterward. I see visions of my mother that night we rescued her, get impressions of snake-shaped shadows chasing us and a turbulent, violent sea that tries to drown me. Yet another heat lockdown passes, and to my dismay, both Scythe and Xander leave the academy for those days. There is so much anxiety in my mind lately, so much rough, irritable energy that we are all glad when Lyle puts his plan in motion.

When we emerge from the lockdown, Lyle puts up the call sheet for the three nights of the full moon hunt in the dining room for all to see. Everyone gets an hour's slot through the night, with the wolves getting the slots in the deepest part of the night as per their request, and the lions and avian flocks getting the sunrise slots.

I'm happy to see ‘The Boneweaver Pack' written in the first slot of the first night: 8–9 p.m.

Minnie and I begin planning immediately with the help of our animas. We both want to surprise our packs, and perhaps I want to poke Scythe just a little bit too. He signed my contract the same as the others, but has not approached me just yet. The fact that he is coming with us on the hunt is very promising.

My insides itch for him. My anima pines for our shark, and a little whine threatens to come out of my throat anytime he passes me a little too closely, and when I catch him staring, more heat than cold radiating from those eyes.

Sometimes, when I'm just about to fall asleep, or if I'm dozing on the couch after class, I feel the brush of his fingers along my calf or arm. Always featherlight, always in innocent spots. They were moments I treasured when they happened, my skin feeling his touch for hours afterwards.

But Friday night is my night, and when the day finally arrives, there's an excited buzz around the entire school. Damien is still on leave, so the academy is in good spirits with Lyle taking up temporary deputy headmaster duties.

The only thing he can't seem to overrule is releasing the nimpins. Damien has them hidden, and zookeeper Rick is far too terrified of the phoenix to tell Lyle anything.

The old cockatoo is probably shedding feathers in a dark room or something, plotting his next evil move on the students.

As the sun slips past the horizon, my mates head out of the room to wait at their starting point. Xander and Eugene leave for the rec room. That leaves me alone in my room to get ready.

Giddily, I change my clothes into the ones my animas helped me pick out, then Minnie arrives to help me with the finishing touches.

When we're done, she looks at me, clasping her hands under her chin, before jumping up and down excitedly. Together, we run to the trick stairs to the lower floor of the animus dorm. There, the bearded Forklift Twins, Ernie and Bernie, wait for us, casting their eyes down respectfully and murmuring that they're to escort me to the regina and rex entry point to the Hunting Games stadium.

I've never actually been to a Hunting Game. Even though it was a national sport for animalia, I'd never taken too much interest. Savage and Xander spoke about the state and national players sometimes, and often watched the Saturday night game with the other males in the rec room. For the next three days, however, that sports field would be used for a much more fun purpose.

Minnie doesn't leave my side as we follow the two mountainous, burly bodies into the night and across the grass to the stadium. The air is crisp and dry, making me sharp with anticipation, and as we enter the stadium excitement flutters in my belly. In front of the long line of bleachers, there's a little white tent with a spotlight over it and a metal gate in front that marks where my mates are probably not-so-patiently waiting. The gate system at the front of it reminds me of the ones they use for bulls in rodeo.

I immediately fling up all of my shields except the mating mark one. They're not going to get it easy tonight. Not at all. They could hunt on feel alone. However, if my mating mark wasn't visible to them, then I couldn't see theirs either, and that would put me at a disadvantage. With only the swell of the moon for light, our mating marks would be like little beacons in the night. That would help me dodge them.

For my mating mark, I have my own plans.

Ernie and Bernie lead me to a second, smaller white tent about twenty metres from the other. The difference with this tent is that, instead of a gate system, it has a spotlight focused on a small three-stair platform out front. The intent of it gets my heart racing.

If Xander were here, he might be the one of my mates able to hear my heart from this distance. But no doubt, he wants to be as far away from us as possible.

Ernie and Bernie lead me to the tent and open the flap to let me in. They show me a poster with the instructions on it.

The first bell is for the pack to exit into the mustering gate.

The second bell is for the regent to exit onto the platform.

The third bell is for the regent to be released

The fourth bell is for the pack to be released.

Once the twins leave, I nervously wait within the four bare walls of the tent, scrunching my toes in the grass and mentally going over my strategy.

The first bell sounds. But it's not a high-pitched tinkling sound like I imagine. It's a low, booming siren made to spike the adrenaline. They can probably hear it inside the dorms.

I blow out a shaky breath. It's worse because I can't communicate with my mates and my senses are all the more heightened because of it. Electricity bounces through my veins and the tent shudders around me.

Two minutes later, the second siren booms, and I push the tent's opening flap aside.