Primal Awakening (Prime Shifter Academy #1)

by Melody Rose

waiting was a terrible thing to an anxious mind.

The moment they locked eyes over her soft pretzel and his blue slushy, it was game over for the both of them. Such simple, small items to be holding as the world turned on its axis toward something bigger.

A bullet dodged, if you asked me.

So, like any other person my age, I took to the internet.

Deflecting was my only option.

It was unlike me to raise my voice, often letting sarcasm and rolling eyes fight my battles for me, but I sincerely couldn’t help it.

Slade, as usual, was a wildcard. He was one you couldn’t predict in any direction—you just had to remain open to any of his extensive possibilities and accept him however he decided to come.

Talon chuckled, flashing a sideways smile that exposed a hint of his impressive fangs.

His uniform khakis were tucked into the un-tied tops of combat boots, one of which had a red bandana tied around it. Holding up his pants was a leather belt punched with silver studs, and a chain hooked around his side from his front-side belt loop to his back pocket. His blazer was nowhere to be seen, and his white button-up shirt had seen better days. A mess of wavy, shoulder-length black hair hung heavy to the side, showing off a shaved side and an ear pierced down the cartilage with several steel rings. Slade.

Female shifters were rare, and the spirits that were drawn to females were often… unusual.

She was a filet mignon being served on a silver platter to a horde of starving lions.

I pulled out my phone out of pure habit, feeling like if I had a phone in my hand, I’d, at the very least, look less dumbstruck. Right?

Prime Academy is an all-boys school. Or, at least it was an all-boys school. I kind of assumed you knew that.”

This guy clearly didn’t know how annoying I was prepared to be, first impression be damned.

He paused to catch my eye and ensure I was listening. Trust me, I was. Almost obsessively.

He was not helping his case at all.

I wouldn’t get a second chance to have my first look.

“Natura non constristatur…” I read out loud. “It means ‘nature is not saddened,’”

I wasn’t going to be just some female to gawk at. I was going to be so much more.

He was one of the most beautiful men I’d ever laid my eyes on. Not in a football player, clothing-store-model sort of way, but in a way that made me feel like he was capable of writing poetry, or would make the best playlists, or had a mind so intricate I would volunteer to get lost in it.

Immediately, I wanted to know him, experience him, listen to him talk about whatever he could possibly want to talk about,

A very serious, unexciting breakfast for what seemed like a very serious, unexciting guy.

a fruit cup—I’d selected the one with the most pineapple in it—a

“You can sit down, Sunny, nobody’s going to bite you,” Dexter insisted, scooting himself just slightly to one side. “Well, I might,” the raggedy shifter sitting across from Dexter barked. He opened his jaw as wide as he could make it and slammed it down, pantomiming himself taking a large bite out of something. “I can’t make any promises, sweetheart.”

there was something about this sarcastic asshole that told me he could stand to be humbled.

“Name’s Slade.” A ring adorned each of his fingers, and around his wrist was a leather bracelet embossed with a skull.

Truly, everything this man did was graceful.

I might… have a crush.

I had never felt both so enlightened or so ignorant in my entire life, let alone at the same time.

Garoux’s presence was immediately like a windy, overcast day, where the concrete held the smell of rain.

This was a man my mother would warn me about.

He wasn’t handsome in a swooning, teeny-bopper sort of way but handsome in the same way a black widow spider is pretty.

I interrupted—a terrible habit of mine.

Keeping my mouth shut was sometimes an impossible task.

I hadn’t been admitted and given a scholarship out of the kindness of their hearts. I was here to be their secret weapon.

This guy was harder to read than a doctor’s handwriting.

Slade, who had built up an armor made of studded denim vests and a taste for mild-to-moderate chaos.

Slade preferred rock and roll and the snuffing of authority.

The petite, red-haired, clever, and absolutely delicious-smelling elephant in the room that went by the name of Sunny.

he launched the wad of paper across the room, hitting Dexter squarely in the back of the head.

“Can I help you?” Dexter asked Slade, who was now laying on his side with his head propped up on his elbow, striking a comedic pose.

Dexter was unbothered,

“I am quite curious as to what your opinion might be that would justify such a temper tantrum.”

“He spoke about spirits, and changing into beasts…” Her voice trailed off before she reeled it right back in. “What was your father’s?” “A phoenix,” I said proudly. “Just like me.”

“But a mother will always worry about things she could have done better.

I became plagued with thoughts of tousled blue hair, hands so pale you could see the blue in their veins, and a voice so crisp it was like the first bite of a popsicle under a blue summer sky.

Small blessings were still blessings all the same.

“You don’t have to act invincible around me because I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you when I’m around.” He shrugged. “You simply don’t have to worry. If you want me around, I’ll be around. And if I’m around, you’re safe. It’s that simple.”

Umm?

As he finished the knot and slid it up to the base of my throat, his hands lingered there for a moment, and the gutter my mind had been rolling around in caused me to run directly into a fantasy about him placing one hand around my throat and shoving me passionately into a wall, where he would then proceed to have his way with me in the most unleashed, feral, we just can’t help ourselves sort of way.