Wolf's Secret (District Shifters Book 3) Read online

  Wolf’s Secret

  District Shifters

  Lola Gabriel

  Wolf’s Secret: District Shifters

  Text Copyright © 2020 by Lola Gabriel

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First printing, 2020

  Publisher

  Secret Woods Books

  [email protected]

  www.SecretWoodsBooks.com

  Contents

  Secret Woods Books

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Other Books You Will Love

  Thank You

  About the Author

  Secret Woods Books

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  1

  Brianna Lake felt nervous but excited as she pulled open the heavy glass door of the University of Nebraska, taking a deep breath and smelling the long-forgotten smell of an academic institute; books, floor polish, and possibilities.

  She smiled, telling herself not to be so damned corny. The place smelled just like the University of Houston, where she earned a biology degree. But, that hadn’t been Brianna’s favorite time. Now, though, it would be different. It wasn’t like she was being forced to attend, and she had more than enough money not to have to worry about coming to school here after she had received a large sum of money from Logan, the bear shifter who had also saved her life.

  She was attending school again because she wanted to make something of herself, give her life some meaning. And this time around, she would be studying medicine, something that had always fascinated her.

  “Hi. Are you here for orientation?” someone asked.

  Brianna turned in the direction of the voice. A woman who looked a few years younger than her twenty-five years was smiling at her questioningly. Brianna smiled back. Something about the woman made her feel at ease, and she nodded.

  “Yes. Are you?”

  The woman nodded and stuck her hand out. Brianna shook it.

  “Macey Reeves. God, I’m so nervous,” she said.

  “Brianna Lake, and me too,” Brianna said back.

  The doors opened, and a few more people came in.

  “Do you have any idea where we’re supposed to go?” Macey asked.

  “Yeah. The main hall. But I have no idea where it is.”

  “It’s this way,” another voice said.

  Brianna turned around to see a short woman beneath a shock of blonde curls.

  “I’m Caroline,” the woman smiled. “Caroline Maynard. I turned up half an hour early to find the place so I didn’t have to ask for directions I would never be able to follow.”

  Brianna and Macey introduced themselves as they fell into step beside Caroline. She led them along a hallway covered in photographs and news clippings.

  “The university’s hall of fame,” Caroline commented.

  Brianna slowed down a little, looking at some of the photographs and captions.

  “I don’t recognize any of them,” she said.

  Caroline laughed, an infectious sound that made Brianna want to laugh herself.

  “That’s because no one ever gets famous going here. You want fame? Nebraska is the last place to come,” she said.

  The thought didn’t upset Brianna. In fact, it reassured her. She had moved to Nebraska because she wanted to disappear, fade into the background, and not be noticed. And if Caroline’s assessment of the place was anything to go by, then she’d picked the right place.

  “Why come here if you hate the place so much?” Macey asked.

  “I grew up here,” Caroline explained. “It just made sense for me to stay local to save money. But you two both have accents.”

  “I’m from California,” Macey said.

  “I’m originally from Texas, but I’ve been living in New York for the last couple of years,” Brianna said.

  “New York, huh? So why come here? I mean, there are great medical schools there. And the night life has to be better than anything you’ll find around here,” Caroline said.

  Brianna shrugged, not sure what to say. She could hardly tell Caroline she’d run away from New York after a Matchmaker who had discovered she had the Sanmere protein in her blood had abducted her and planned to sell her to an immortal shifter. After being rescued, she learned that having Sanmere in her blood gave her the ability to bear immortal children, which is why she was being sold. Luckily, she had been rescued, and one of her rescuers, Logan, had even given her enough money to start a new life. However, that was way too much information to tell someone she had just met.

  Instead, she settled on a half-true story.

  “I went to New York to live the dream, but somewhere along the way, the dream changed. I changed. And New York didn’t feel so glamourous anymore,” she said with a shrug.

  “Right. But Nebraska does,” Caroline laughed. She turned her attention to Macey, and Brianna was glad of the reprieve from her questions. “What about you? A California girl, huh?”

  Macey nodded. She looked uncomfortable for a moment, and then she shrugged. “The University of Nebraska has a great medical program. Besides, I wanted to get far away from my parents. This way they can’t keep such a close eye on what I’m doing.”

  “Tell me about it,” Caroline said. “I mean, there is just so much more to life than studying, isn’t there?”

  It seemed a strange way for someone to think if they wanted to go to medical school, but Brianna held back from asking about it. It was none of her business, and she didn’t want the conversation coming back around to quizzing her. Macey, on the other hand, didn’t hold back.

  “Well, not for me at the moment. It’s going to be studying and more studying. How on earth do you plan to graduate from med school without studying?” she asked.

  Caroline winked at her. “Magic.”

  “Yeah? Well, when you find the spell for brains, send it my way,” Macey laughed.

  Caroline led them into a large auditorium, and they took seats towards the back of the room. Brianna watched with interest as the room filled up. Some students had already begun talking to others like she had while some sat alone, looking uncomfortable. The quiet hubbub of polite conversation washed across the room. They didn’t have to wait long until a woman stepped from behind a curtain at the front of the room.

  Brianna smiled to herself. The woman had come in like she was about to perform on stage rather than address a group of students. Perhaps with a group this size, they were one and the same thing.

  The woman waited for the chattering students to notice her and begin to quiet down. Brianna
felt Caroline tense up beside her as she looked at the woman.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. She looked at Caroline, and instead of the nervous expression she had expected from the tension in Caroline’s body, she saw excitement.

  “You know who that is, right?” Caroline said. Brianna shook her head. “It’s Doctor Helen Ploughman. She’s one of the leading researchers at this school.”

  The explanation didn’t particularly impress Brianna. It was hardly like she was in the presence of royalty. Still, the woman seemed open and friendly, and Brianna could think of worse people to welcome the students.

  Caroline was watching Helen with a strange expression, an almost animalistic excitement on her face. Brianna got the impression Caroline was lying to her. Not about who the woman was, but about why this excited her so much.

  Stop it, Brianna. You’re being paranoid. Maybe Caroline is way more into this whole college thing than she’s implied. Maybe she’s not really all about the party, and this is the genuine excitement of meeting an academic.

  It still didn’t sit right with Brianna, but she told herself to let it go. What did it matter, anyway?

  The room finally quieted down, and Helen smiled warmly around the room.

  “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Doctor Helen Ploughman, you all can call me Helen, and I’ll be one of the professors who will be teaching you throughout your studies here.”

  Brianna pretty much switched off as the woman ran through the syllabus and the modules. She had studied everything about the course in depth before she had signed up, and she felt sure she knew almost as much about it as Helen did. She looked at Caroline again, but Caroline’s expression had returned to normal. The talk was really nothing more than a way to get the group together and introduce them to the course. Brianna didn’t even bother taking any notes. After Helen went through the syllabus, she moved on to internships, another thing Brianna had closely studied before signing up.

  The talk lasted an hour or two, but Helen’s chatty nature meant that it went by fairly quickly. Helen finished up by telling the students to enjoy the rest of the day and to be ready for the hard work to start on Monday.

  This got a rousing cheer from the group. It seemed they all preferred the idea of enjoying time off than actually studying. Brianna wasn’t so sure she was going to fit in here, but she told herself that once the hard work started, people would settle down. And if they didn’t, it really wasn’t any of her business. She had come here to get a degree, not a fan club.

  She stood up as the others did and left the room with Macey and Caroline.

  “Drinks?” Caroline said. “There’s a bar just down the road from here.”

  Brianna opened her mouth to say she would pass, but she decided to go for a couple. There was no work to be done, and she had the whole weekend to herself. It wouldn’t hurt to let her hair down a little.

  “Sure.”

  “I’m in. I mean, you heard Helen. This is practically homework, right?” Macey grinned.

  They walked along the street toward the bar, chatting about what type of medicine they wanted to practice. Brianna told them she was debating between orthopedic surgery and pediatrics. Caroline said she wanted to go into general practice, and Macey admitted that she wanted to be an ER doctor, although she wasn’t certain she had the stomach or the nerve for it.

  They arrived at the bar.

  “I’ll get the drinks in,” Brianna said. “What are you girls having?”

  “A glass of red wine for me, please,” Macey said.

  “I’ll have the same,” Caroline said.

  “Should we share a bottle?” Brianna suggested.

  The girls nodded.

  “Sounds like the start of something,” Caroline laughed.

  Brianna went to the bar and asked for a bottle of Rioja and three glasses. She paid and took it back to the table, where she poured out three large glasses.

  “To new friends,” Macey said, raising her glass. Brianna and Caroline clinked their glasses against hers, and they all took a drink.

  “Brianna, tell us more about New York,” Caroline said. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”

  Brianna thought for a moment. “It’s a fantastic city. There’s so much to see, so much to do. But it can get kind of overwhelming. Everything’s so… so big.”

  “Did you have a boyfriend back there?” Caroline asked.

  Brianna shook her head. She had almost been forced to marry a stranger, but that was a story she wouldn’t be sharing with anyone.

  “No, no one special,” she answered. “What about you?”

  “Hell no. I’m not ready to settle down at all,” Caroline said. “I want to enjoy my freedom for now. There’s plenty of time for all that.”

  “I thought that,” Macey said with a faraway smile. “But then I met Devon and fell in love. We decided to take a break while we go to school, but I think we both know that means it’s over.” Her smile faded, and for a moment, her face was clouded with regret.

  “You know how to get over a guy, though, right?” Caroline nudged her with her elbow. “You have to get under another one.”

  The three of them laughed, and Brianna felt herself relaxing. It was nice to just have a drink and get to know her new friends. She would feel a lot more comfortable if Caroline stopped with the questions, but she figured she was just trying to get to know her better. Surely it was normal to ask each other questions about their lives at this point.

  “I might just do that.” Macey grinned, her eyes lingering on the bartender.

  Brianna and Caroline snickered again. Brianna thought he was kind of cute, but she had no intention of getting into anything with anyone right now. Like Caroline, she just wanted to enjoy her freedom, and for her, that meant a lot more than just not being in a serious relationship. It seemed only right that she celebrate it now.

  Macey reached out and picked up the wine bottle. She topped up their glasses, and the bottle was done. Caroline told them some funny stories about growing up in the back of beyond in a tiny town on the edge of Nebraska, and Macey shared stories of growing up as a surfer chick. Brianna told them about life in Texas, glad to move the topic to her childhood, something she could talk about without having to keep censoring herself.

  “What’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to you, Brianna?” Caroline asked when the conversation petered out momentarily.

  Brianna felt her heart race for a moment. Caroline somehow knew who she was, what she had been through. And she was seeing if Brianna would admit it.

  “I’m sorry,” Caroline said quietly. “Too personal?”

  Brianna saw Caroline’s expression, and she realized her pause had made Caroline think something terrible had happened to her. Of course she didn’t know the truth. She was just making conversation. If Brianna was going to make friends, she had to stop thinking like this. Macey wasn’t exactly talking much, and Brianna could never think of things to say to new people. Caroline was the one who would keep them from falling into an awkward silence. It was nothing more sinister than that.

  “No,” Brianna said with a smile. “I just haven’t really done anything exciting enough to be scary. I guess moving to New York alone at twenty-two would be the scariest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “That’s pretty big,” Caroline said. “I would never have the guts to do that. What about you, Macey?”

  “I almost drowned once when I was surfing,” Macey said. “A wave came in, bigger than I’d anticipated. I lost my footing, and the current dragged me under. I was so sure I was going to die. But then my friend pulled me out.”

  “Now that’s scary,” Brianna said. “Did you give up surfing after that?”

  Macey laughed and shook her head. “No. But I was much more careful,” she replied.

  Caroline stood up. “Another bottle, ladies? Or do you want something different?”

  “Another bottle works for me,” Brianna said. Macey nodded her agreement. Bri
anna reminded herself she had only been coming for a couple, and she had already had two.

  Oh, fuck it, she thought to herself. Just enjoy yourself, for God’s sake.

  The rest of the afternoon flew by. Caroline kept up her constant stream of questions, but Brianna was no longer paranoid. The wine was loosening her tongue, and she felt herself relaxing. She answered all of the questions Caroline threw out, and before long, she was starting to feel like she knew the other two girls. The three of them had definitely clicked, and Brianna was glad she had made friends so quickly and easily. The thought of classes didn’t seem half so daunting now that she wouldn’t have to face them alone.

  After the third bottle of wine, Macey announced that she was heading back to her apartment. Brianna and Caroline tried to convince her to have another one, but she declined, telling them she was already way past tipsy, and she didn’t want to be ill the next day. Reluctantly, they let her go, and Caroline went back to the bar. She returned with another bottle of wine, and their conversation continued. Brianna was glad she had gotten used to the questioning. Now that there was only her and Caroline, the questions were coming thick and fast. Brianna decided it was time to ask a question of her own.

  “Have you always wanted to be a doctor?”

  Caroline shrugged. “Kind of. I mean, I had the kid dreams you know—popstar, movie star—but realistically, yeah. Why?”

  “Just… you seemed so excited to see Helen. I figured you’d been following her career for a while,” Brianna said.

  “Oh, yes. I’ve been following Helen very closely for a while now.” Caroline smiled.