Primal Awakening (Prime Shifter Academy #1)

by Melody Rose

Their baby would be beautiful. Beautiful and powerful. Beautiful and coveted. Beautiful and… in terrible danger if he didn’t stay far away from her.

“I don’t know what happened, sweetheart, and it’s not my business,” the nurse continued as she tucked a length of Mariah’s dark hair behind an ear. “But I do know that the storms make us appreciate the sunshine that much more.

Then, at an hour and a half after the nurse came and sat by her side, Mariah’s mom burst into the room with such love and fury she may as well have been a mother bear coming after her cub. Without saying a word about Wes, she simply did what needed to be done.

There was nothing that needed to be said about the elephant in the room. About how Wes clearly was not coming back, and that he definitely hadn’t just forgotten something in the car. Despite all the sadness, despite the heavy feelings of betrayal and horror at the thought of doing this without her partner, there was still so much to celebrate. There was a life growing inside of her that was about to make her debut.

“He would tell me he had a beast inside of him, a kind of creature as old as myths, a primal spirit that was as much a part of him as his own heart and soul,” she’d said as she stirred me a cup of tea after the hair-on-fire incident. “I never saw it with my own eyes because he said it was too risky, but from what he told me, he could change into this creature at will.”

I slid onto one of the bar seats that ran along one side of the kitchen island and just stared at the strange piece of mail, which was packaged in a tall envelope with my name and address written across the front in a combination of intricate script and bold Times New Roman. The return address? Prime Academy.

First, based on the image my mother had painted for me of the shifter world, it was a surprise to learn that they had establishments like Prime Academy that sent elaborate embossed letters in the mail, inviting folks to their “most decorated school.” It certainly didn’t match the cruel, bloodthirsty, life-ruining picture I had in my head.

Second, how did they know I was here? How did they know where to find me? It felt entirely unlike my mother to apply on my behalf, and I certainly hadn’t, so that had to mean that whoever sent this letter had sought me out.

And third, if I really did have a prestigious family history, this was the first I was hearing about it.

I worried that if I didn’t go, I would lose out on the opportunity to know this side of me. The side of me I shoved down to the darkest depths of me for my own safety as well as for my mother’s.

“Of course I didn’t want to deal with it because I think the shifter world is full of lying, secretive, elitist, dangerous assholes, and I didn’t want you to deal with it for the same reasons!”

“Obviously, I didn’t believe him at first. Who would, you know? But then he showed me how he could set himself ablaze, and I shut right up.” Immediately, I felt a tug at my heart, and I looked down at my own hands as the memory of the first time I caught fire appeared in my mind. I was so scared of my power, and I was scared of what it could do.

Talon slumped forward once again and rested his arms on the table in front of him. For his human form to be as bulky as it was, he was surprisingly graceful. Must have been the feline in him, Dexter always thought. Otherwise, there was no way a six-foot-four linebacker would be able to be so fluid in his movements. Hell, he was the heaviest and tallest of the three friends, and yet he made the least noise when he walked around the dorm at night.

Slade made the most noise, which, after learning what his spirit form was, actually made perfect sense.

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

“A female!?” Talon said quietly, his voice toeing the line between angry and excited. “Garoux is a mad dog if he thinks that’s going to go over well…”

“With all the rules and tradition he’s bending for this chick, it really makes you wonder what kind of spirit she’s got.” Slade chuckled. “With any luck, it’ll be something kinda sexy—I’ve got my heart set on a sphynx or a siren.”

Dexter looked around the hall, starting with his own two friends. Something had changed. Something had evolved. The news that there would soon be a female in their midst did something instinctual and wild to the student body, though whether his peers realized it yet was up for debate. But Dexter could see it plastered across each of their faces. He could feel it in the air just like he could sense a storm coming.

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

Slade put one hand on his hip and shook a finger at Talon, speaking in a faux-female mocking tone, “Now you listen to me, my little cubby, you treat that young lady with as much respect as you do me! You hear?”

“How likely do you think it is that I can opt out of having to involve myself in this?” “Not at all likely, champ,” Slade said in a tone of mocking encouragement. “Ol’ Baron’s not exactly known for his kindness and flexibility. You’re gonna be the poor, innocent new girl’s guide-beast, and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it.”

“Awesome,” Slade added, sucking on his teeth. “Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out, there, Talon.” “Yep,” Talon confirmed, taking a deep breath in as he got to his feet and collected his multiple plates to place in the dish tub. “I’ve definitely got it figured out. For sure. And it’s all gonna be super okay.”

“I thought about sending a professor or perhaps even going myself, but I thought it would be good for her to meet one of her classmates before anyone else to sort of ease her into life here at the academy. And besides, until we learn more about her primal spirit and the power she possesses, we cannot dismiss the possibility of her being in your own Clan one of these days.”

There was no standard course of action for what the Council would do if they found a lost female shifter because the likelihood of it ever happening was close to nil. But even so, Talon couldn’t help but feel there was something else going on.

He had no reason to believe there was something going on behind the scenes. There were no obvious signs. This wouldn’t have been the first time Prime Academy accepted a lost shifter into its program. It could have very well just been Headmaster Garoux’s regular coldness that gave the entire situation an air of mystery, but as Talon made his way back to the dorm to gather his things for class, he couldn’t dismiss the feeling that things at Prime Academy were about to get weird. Very, very weird.

“Don’t let them pressure you to do anything you don’t want to do, my sunshine,” my mother whispered into my hair as she held me tight. Being in her arms made me feel like a kid all over again, like it was the only place I would ever truly be safe. “You are capable, and so smart, and a power to behold even without their world. Remember that.”

I know I tried to talk you out of going. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but I’d be a fool if I didn’t tell you I was proud of you for making a decision and sticking to it. But I am going to worry about you.

She wrapped her arms around herself like a hug. “Now, go on. Go and learn and grow and be safe!”

There had to be a reason for my mother and father’s pact that I would never be involved in the shifter world, but I had to know why. I had to know what my father kept from my mother, and what my mother kept from me. I only had a small handful of pieces to a thousand-piece puzzle and couldn’t even begin to make out the bigger picture.

I had to admit to myself that Talon was handsome. Beyond handsome. Handsome enough that I could be in trouble—especially if all the boys at Prime Academy looked as good as he did.

“I know what a dorm is,” he interrupted, his eyes squinted in my direction as if he was staring at something so unusual he couldn’t quite make sense of it. “But there are no girls’ dorms or co-ed dorms. There are your quarters, and… everyone else’s. Prime Academy is an all-boys school. Or, at least it was an all-boys school. I kind of assumed you knew that.”

resort I’d ever seen, even on television, though with a very obvious robust woodland flair. A polished oak floor stretched across the entire first floor,

Before us was a stone pathway, which wound toward a castle that looked like it was plucked straight out of a storybook. Stone turrets pierced the sky, banners hung out of a multitude of windows, and a matching flag flew proudly out front. It was like the image of any college campus in America was superimposed on top of a fairy tale illustration.

Unlike the train station and Stonepaw Lodge, I took my time, wanting to commit every feeling to memory—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,’” Talon explained from where he’d stopped several feet ahead.

“Prime Academy is filled with males who can probably already sense you’re out here, waiting to go inside. Some of them might not have an opinion of you at all, but most of them likely already do, and it’s that you’re weak, you’re a liability, and you’re not worthy of the special treatment you’ve already been given.”

“So, you tell them whatever you want, but remember that unless you, yourself, are going to do the work and learn your shit and rise to the occasion and show them that you’re someone worth respecting,” Talon’s face was only inches away from mine, warnings flashing across his eyes, “then they won’t respect you. Be ready for that because it’s definitely not my job to hold your hand and tell you what to say and who to say it to. That’s for you to figure out.”

The fire within me sparked to life, and I could feel it prickling at my heart and in my palms. For the first time ever, away from humans, it felt like an old friend rather than a horrifying secret to shut down.

The only difference between me and the mouse was that the mouse didn’t have the power I had. I felt that I could come out the victor, that there was something inside of me that wanted to prove herself in all the ways I wasn’t expected to, in all the ways my mother had tried to prevent and my father had failed to tell me about. In a lot of ways, this felt like more than just my first day of school. It felt like the first day of my real life.

“This place is pretty big, and I understand I’m starting in the middle of a term, so it’s going to take a minute to get in the swing of things.” “And also, Talon is occasionally a bumbling, loud-mouthed, empty-headed moron who is more concerned about showing off and making an ass out of himself than he is with ensuring a new student is equipped with all the information they would need to find success,” Dexter mused, his voice never rising or falling, but the vaguest hint of a smirk appeared in the corner of his mouth. “But I’m only allowed to say that because that bumbling, loud-mouthed, empty-headed moron is one of my oldest friends.”

I wondered if Dexter would still want to go over all my first-day stuff with whom I assumed was another one of his friends around. Talon’s behavior the night before had given me the impression that hanging out with the likes of me in any way other than purely sexual was not exactly good for one’s reputation.

“Poor chick looks like her head’s already about to burst,” the one Dexter had called Slade chuckled from across the table as he picked at his chipping black nail polish. “Don’t worry, girlie, I’m sure your femalian brain will adapt to all this new information. And if it doesn’t? Well, at least you’ll still have your good looks.” “Which is a hell of a lot more than you can say for yourself, isn’t it?” I snapped back.

Otherworld History with Professor Fjord was a humbling experience to say the least. I had never felt both so enlightened or so ignorant in my entire life, let alone at the same time.

“I apologize if I came off as rude,” Garoux mused as he leaned over his elbows onto the desk. “It’s just that your father was a great man and a powerful shifter like our world had never known, and the leadership in our world mourned his loss with such violent roars and wolfsong that the echoes are still bouncing through the mountains. When we learned of your existence, Soleil, it was a great, great joy to the Council, and your mother stood in the way of getting you to your, well, rightful home if I may be so bold.”

“My father is dead?” I asked, knowing I already knew the answer. My fingertips were fire, my eyes were fire, and I could feel flames creeping up my back and up onto my scalp. “He is,” Garoux said softly and apologetically. “I am so sorry, Soleil. I had no reason to think you and your mother did not know. Although, then again, how would either of you have known? An ignorant assumption on my part, I suppose.”

I hadn’t been invited to this school because the shifter world wanted me to learn about my roots and connect with the power inside me. I hadn’t been admitted and given a scholarship out of the kindness of their hearts. I was here to be their secret weapon.

“If being in the presence of a female truly feels all that complicated and difficult to you, I would turn it around and suggest that you’re the one being that stupid,” Dexter explained, keeping his tone as steady and cool as it always was.

From a very young age, shifters with Thunderbird spirits were required to take extra precautions, extra classes, and extra training courses to keep themselves under control. A thunderbird entirely unleashed and at large could be catastrophic in a modern society. Powerlines, cell phone towers, water towers, electricity grids… they were all at risk due to the sheer power that even one thunderbird could provide.

So for Dexter to let even a fraction of that power show meant things were much worse for him internally than he was letting on. It meant something had disrupted the very foundation of what made Dexter, well, Dexter.

“But now I can mourn him properly, and I can say his name proudly, and I can look at all the features of yours that came from him, and I can admire them more fiercely than I ever have before.”