Primal Awakening: A Prime Shifter Academy Romance

Primal Awakening PRIME SHIFTER ACADEMY BOOK 1 MELODY ROSE Copyright © 2023 Melody Rose All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright holder, except where permitted by law. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously. Cover design by Claire Holt at Luminescence Covers Created with Vellum Contents Prologue 1. Sunny 2. Sunny 3. Dexter 4. Talon 5. Sunny 6. Sunny 7. Sunny 8. Sunny 9. Sunny 10. Slade 11. Sunny 12. Sunny 13. Headmaster Garoux 14. Sunny 15. Talon 16. Sunny 17. Sunny 18. Slade 19. Sunny 20. Headmaster Garoux 21. Sunny 22. Sunny 23. Sunny 24. Sunny 25. Dexter 26. Sunny 27. Sunny Epilogue A Note from the Author Prologue DECEMBER, 1999 A barely functioning silver Toyota Camry rattled down the highway as fast as it could reasonably go while a mixture of rain and snow pelted the windshield. The wipers did their best to keep the driver’s vision unobstructed but left a perfect arc of missed water across the windshield. “I swear, Wes, if you don’t slow this car way the hell down, I’m going to smack you,” a young woman shrieked to the driver from the passenger seat. She was doing her best to control her breathing as her swollen hands gripped the door and the center console with all her might. All the while, she tried to find a comfortable position for herself and her unborn child. Another contraction took hold, and it sent shooting pain down her spine and around all the way to her hips and knees. Her commands came between vicious cries of pain and calculated breaths. “You need to get us to the hospital. Now. In one piece. As fast as you can. But not too fast!” “I’m doing my best, baby,” her partner, the driver, assured her. He reached over with one hand to rub her distended belly while the other controlled the wheel. “But the weather isn’t making this any easier.” “Both hands on the wheel, buster!” the woman insisted, her anxiety mixing with her physical pain. She tried to count her breaths just like her YMCA Lamaze class taught her. Wes’ hand immediately shot back to the wheel as he tried his best to do whatever she asked of him. Anything he could do to keep her calm and happy he knew would make this whole thing a hell of a lot easier for both of them—and for their baby girl, who decided the middle of the night was the best time for her to start making her debut. If he couldn’t touch his panicked girlfriend, maybe some reassuring conversation would be enough to keep her from panicking during the last ten minutes of this uncomfortable car trip. “You know I mean it, right?” Wes began, stumbling over his words. “What are you talking about, Wesley?” she snapped. He supposed this conversation was going to have to be mostly one-sided. But it was fine. He could totally handle this. “What I’m talking about is that I mean it, Mariah,” he repeated, saying her name with a purposeful level of certainty that he hoped she recognized. “And by it, I mean, I’m done with all of it. I’m done with the secrecy. I’m done with the danger. I’m done with being this… this thing I never asked to be. I’ll talk to my mother and my clan and let them know I can’t do it anymore.” “They’re not going to take kindly to that,” Mariah moaned as she winced against another contraction. “They’ve never given you a single day of peace since…” She slowly exhaled. “Since before we met.” “I don’t care,” Wes insisted, his voice sounding more confident than ever, as if he were trying to convince himself he didn’t care as well. “No matter what I was born into, or meant to be, or whatever, it doesn’t change the fact that their world isn’t meant for me anymore. You’re my world. You and our little girl.” Mariah shot her partner a look as a bead of sweat dripped between her eyes despite the freezing temperature outside the car. “Promise me,” she growled. “Promise me you won’t let them convince you to stay.” “I promise,” Wes responded calmly, keeping his eyes plastered to the road as the weather began to turn even further toward the worst. “I promise I’ll get a real job and set us up in our own place so we don’t have to keep crashing with your mom.” He chuckled, trying as hard as he could to keep the mood light and relaxed. “I’ll work a nine-to-five and take care of you both, and my people won’t… I won’t let them touch her.” “You think they would try?” Mariah asked, clinging to the wrong part of his promise. “You think they would try to take her?” Wes came from a different world than Mariah. A world where humans and beasts were one, of ancient magic and clans whose roots ran deeper than the mountains were tall. If it were up to his world, the two of them would have never met. If it were up to his family, he would have never fallen in love with Mariah—an ordinary human being. But Wes had been cunning and toed the line he established between his world and Mariah’s, never allowing the two to cross. Until the day two pink lines appeared and sent both their lives into chaos. Until the day Wes knew he had crossed an unspoken line. For as long as she could, Mariah had remained ignorant to Wes’ comings and goings, knowing only the barest of minimums when it came to his responsibilities to his other world. She’d tried to pry more than