Rosemary Johns - Rebel Academy - Curse

I hated being separated from my Charms, who I’d Claimed and Wolf Bitten. They were mine, just as I was theirs. I hadn’t understood pack before, but now I knew that it meant to protect. Not knowing what’d happened to them was a torture worse than radio show banter or some asshole scrolling through your phone’s photos without asking.

I stroked over Emperor’s muscled back; his strength was reassuring. “How’s my good wolf?”

Emperor shuddered. “Damning you on hide and fangs for making me hard in these tight pants again.”

I snickered. “You’re lucky that I’m only making you hard.”

Emperor raised his eyebrow. Pink spread down Aquilo’s cheeks and neck. I didn’t miss how Emperor clasped Aquilo’s hand, and Aquilo squeezed his fingers.

“She tried the same trick on me, but I had to consider that my suit is dry clean only.” His gaze swept over Aquilo’s pants. “It appears that you have no such worries.”

I rapped his shoulder. “I take it that you didn’t drop by just to comment on how practical our clothes are to launder…?”

“Vala’s charming gang, the Crescents, decided that I would be of use to them as an entertainer.” Emperor tossed his golden hair, before sighing. “It appears that my reputation precedes me.”

I couldn’t stop the growl. “No one’s using you like a party favor again. You have a choice now, and I thought that I’d kind of made it clear that I’m big on consent.” My gaze swung to Aquilo, who cringed. “That means you too, Gandalf the early years.”

“You’re not much of an Oxford witch, Sabrina,” Aquilo drawled. “Where’s the putting us in our place? Why would you give up your control?”

Suddenly, both their gazes were too intense and searching; I shifted.

“Because I love you,” I replied, softly.

Aquilo’s gasp was worth it. Emperor simply smirked.

Then Emperor pressed his lips to the top of my head. I closed my eyes, losing myself in his scent of honey dripping over liquorice. Yet the sharpness of the liquorice was much stronger than it’d been before.

Was he losing control of his Alpha side? What would happen if the truth of Emperor’s nature was discovered in this Kingdom of Gods? Would he be executed?

My eyes snapped open in alarm.

“The Alphas merely wish me to play the piano for them,” Emperor’s mouth curved against my head on each laughing word.

Thank Hecate…

I already knew that my second Charm, Amadeus, was being punished in the Isolation Room. But what about my first Charm, the Prince of the Wilds?

“Moon’s with you, right?” I struggled to stand, but Emperor yanked me down.

“He’s in the Pleasure Pool.” Emperor grimaced. “I don’t imagine that it refers to Jacuzzis and fun water slides. I wish that I could rescue him from the appalling name alone.”

Okay, so it was a name plucked out of an incubus’ dream, but I still desired the pleasure of Moon’s angelic eyes and sinful body. I couldn’t imagine a better named pool for him, unless it was the Lake of Defiant Rebels or The Snuggling Tree.

Emperor’s eyes narrowed like he’d caught my thought. In turn, I widened my own eyes in pretend innocence.

“I don’t trust the Alphas here,” Emperor explained. Hey, I never said that I could pull off the innocent act. “The danger is greater than I’d imagined. Some of the Alphas in my own kingdom, who I grew up with, at least strive to treat Omegas as more than objects to hide in shrines. These ones, however, are broken .”

I glanced out at the shimmering sea of Alphas with their mage lovers. “Huh, so you truly can screw too much…?”

Emperor traced over the bite on my neck, and I winced. “How sweet that you believe them safe . They train to protect their Omegas but they never can because of witches—”

“Like me…?” My voice hardened. “Harsh.”

Emperor arched his brow. “But entirely fair. Training but failing to protect the Omegas…for decades…has damaged these Alphas.” He glanced between Aquilo and me. “Can’t you see that this room is set up for war?”

I scanned the computer screens and table, which although it was littered with ice-cream and chocolate sauce, also had what looked like one badass chess game going on. Yet it could just as easily be… a war plan .

Emperor had been trained as a diplomat, and my aunt had called wolves princes in diplomacy. I needed Emperor for his skills now.

Aquilo settled back into the cushions, unraveling an ivory thread. “Who do they believe that they’re fighting and how could they win?”

Emperor studied Aquilo with such tenderness that it made my heart ache.

“War with fanatics is rarely about winning as you or I would consider it. They believe themselves already to be dead . What would someone be prepared to do who believed themselves no longer alive?” When I shuddered, Emperor rubbed his nose against mine. “A trick that I learned in my days as my mother’s entertainer: everybody talks in front of you. The Alphas bringing me here spoke of a delegation from all three kingdoms in two days to discuss the events in the covens and you …”

Two days…?

My shadows rose and fell in uneasy waves. How was I meant to stop what’d been planned maybe since the end of the Wolf War itself a hundred years ago…?

I wet my dry lips. “Don’t I feel special.”

Emperor’s teeth lengthened, as his claws bit into my shoulders. “As special as a reason to start a war. If we don’t discover what’s awaiting my kingdom and Moon’s within two days—"

“Enough gossiping, Omega.” Rubber Mage gazed down at me, raising his scarred eyebrow, and I stiffened. He crooked his finger at Emperor, and Emperor stiffly rose to his feet, brushing off his suit and straightening his robes. “We want a sing-along.”

Emperor ducked his head, but winked at me. Then he strode to the piano in the far corner of the room. He sat on the stool with a flourish, before pounding on the keys in a wild rendition of “Sweet Transvestite” from the Rocky Horror Show .

I blinked. Okay, I hadn’t been expecting that.

Aquilo chuckled as he crawled closer. “Hidden depths in that wolf, I believe.”

“Trust me, he’s not hiding.” I studied Emperor; he was a ray of sunlight in the night.

The Alphas laughed and joked, jostling around Emperor like he was already their favorite Omega. When they joined in the chorus, Emperor was as comfortable with them as old friends. Perhaps, he truly had spent time around Alphas in his own kingdom, and not ones who’d wanted to step on him like the Alphas in Moon’s Kingdom of the Wilds.

I’d imagined that the Kingdom of the Alphas would be filled with psychopathic elitists like Stella had told me, but maybe they also dressed up in top hats and suspenders, while dancing to “The Time Warp”.

Seizing the distraction, I nudged Aquilo’s shoulder, before edging out of the alcove on my hands and knees. Aquilo followed at my heels.

Who’d notice the two bad Omegas, when they had the star of the show performing?

If I only had two days to discover Vala’s plans for war, then I needed the power of my Charms united.

I had to rescue Moon .

I crawled towards the door because if the Alphas were in here and entertained , then I had the best chance to reach the Pleasure Pool.

Crack — I yelped as my head smacked into something bony.

I reached out to slide my hands up the surprisingly smooth column, which was blocking my escape.

“Look up,” Aquilo hissed.

When did anything good come of following that order?