Chapter 14

Anila POV

I stepped back as four more girls rushed into the room with large and curious eyes. My heart was pounding rapidly in my chest as they all turned to face me. The first girl, with the feathers, stepped closer to me and reached her hand out for me to shake.

“My name is Penny Penson, and I am your roommate!” She said happily.

I knew I recognized her face.

I raised my brows at her name as I hesitantly took her hand and shook it.

“Penny…. Penson?” I asked, curiously.

She smiled.

“I know, it’s weird, right? My parents certainly have a sense of humor.”

“It’s unique,” I told her honestly. “It’s nice meeting you. I’m Anila Montgomery.”

“Oh, trust me, we know who you are,” Penny chuckled. “We got here earlier today, and we were out exploring when we saw you holding Damien West’s wand!”

My eyes widened at her words.

“I know everything there is to know about this school and the top students. I’ve been preparing for this school my entire life and I’m so excited to be here finally. But only the wand’s master can yield it so imagine our surprise when we see you holding it without any repercussions,” Penny continued excitedly.

She spoke so fast; it was hard to keep up with her.

“It was the coolest thing we had ever seen,” one of the girls said.

Upon further examination, I realized two of the girls looked almost exactly alike. They were very short with round faces and large eyes; they were adorable. The only difference was the fact that one of them had short, dyed brown hair, styled to perfection and the other had wavy blonde hair that went down her back.

But their faces were uncanny.

I had never met identical twins in person before, but it was clear that’s what they were.

They were both standing on their toes so they could get a better look at me.

“This is Sadie,” Penny said, motioning for the brown-haired girl who gave me a polite smile. “And this is Sally.” Penny motioned for the blonde-haired girl who gave me a quick wave.

“How did you do it?” Sally asked, excitedly. “Did it hurt when you touched it?”

I stared wide-eyed at her, not sure how to answer that question. I didn’t really feel anything when I touched it, but I knew that answer would disappoint them.

Before I could actually answer, Penny cut in.

“Don’t bombard my roomie with questions, Sally,” she scolded playfully. “There’s plenty of time for that later. She just got here. Give her room to breathe.”

Sally pouted, but she said nothing more.

“I’m Rebecca,” a girl with long, curly blonde hair said. She was thin, tall, and gorgeous with the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen, equipped with long dark lashes. “But you can call me Becca.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said with a small smile.

The only other girl left was the girl that stood beside Becca; she had short black hair and she had piercings on her face. A small golden stud on one of her nostrils, and a bunch of colorful piercings on her ears. She wore dark makeup which brought out the emerald green of her eyes and brought her pale features to life.

“And this quiet ball of joy is Sage, my roommate,” Becca said, with humor in her eyes as she stared at Sage.

Sage shrugged and offered me a half-wave.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said to her, nodding my head and unsure of what else to say to them.

Penny surprised me by looping her arm through mine and pulling me toward our shared couch, plopping down and making me sit beside her. The others piled around as well. Sadie and Sally sat on the other side of the couch, while Becca curled up on the floor in front of the coffee table with her knees pressed to her chest and a fond smile on her lips. Sage took over the loveseat that sat next to the coffee table.

All of them stared at me.

I felt my face warming from the attention.

“So, what’s your ability?” Penny then asked.

I looked at her, confused by her question.

“I’m sorry?” I asked, my voice came out breathy.

“Are you a shifter?”

“Oh… uh—” I stammered, nervous.

“Maybe she’s a vampire,” Sage teased; it was the first time she spoke. Her voice was quiet and calm, not as eager as the others. I instantly liked her.

“She wouldn’t be in this section of the dorm if she was a vampire,” Sadie said, shaking her head.

My entire body froze.

“There are vampires here too?” I asked, my mouth hanging open.

They all looked at one another.

“You aren’t from around here, huh?” Penny asked a timid frown on her face.

I shook my head.

“I grew up in the mortal world with a mortal family. I only knew about the world of magic and mythical beings from books and TV. I never dreamt that I’d ever get to go to a school like this. I never dreamt that I could be… special,” I stumbled on that last word but once it was out of my mouth, I felt my face heating.

Penny chuckled.

“You’ll get used to it,” Penny assured me. “Yes, there are vampires here but not many I’ve heard. A few years ago, when they started to let vampires attend this school, they redid the entire basement for them. There are no windows, and they are more comfortable under the ground. They don’t really bother anyone unless you get on their bad side.”

“Do they…” I stopped for a minute as fear consumed me. “Do they drink blood?”

They all gave one another strange looks before looking at me.

“Kind of,” Penny said shrugging. “But they can learn to control their blood lust. Actually, it’s a requirement for them to learn to control it before they are allowed to attend this school. They mainly drink from normal animals.”

“Or Bloodslaves,” Sage added, visibly wincing from the word.

“Bloodslaves?” I asked, raising my brows.

Penny sighed and then she nodded.

“They aren’t allowed at this school,” Penny reminded her before turning to me. “Bloodslaves are humans who are bound to a vampire. Vampires can turn a human of their choice immortal and basically use them as a juice box. They will never die or run out of blood, and it satisfies the vampires without them having to kill anyone.”

My mouth fell open for the hundredth time during this conversation.

I didn’t want to talk about vampires or Bloodslaves anymore. Desperate to change the subject, I said, “So, my mom was a witch. She went to this school a long time ago. I was told I’m a werewolf, but I guess I won’t know until my birthday in a couple of weeks.”

They all surprised me by cooing excitedly.

“I’m an owl shifter,” Penny said proudly. “If you hadn’t noticed with all the feathers. My owl is all white and very rare.”

My eyes widened.

“An owl shifter?!”

She nodded, a large smile spreading across her lips.

“There are other shifters besides bears and wolves at this school?” I asked in awe.

Some of the girls chuckled and I truly did feel ignorant.

“There are tons of different shifters. Of course, wolves and bears take up most of the population. They are the strongest of all shifters.” Penny explained. “But there are a ton of other shifters.”

“Should we tell her about the rarest shifter at this school?” Sally asked. “We were warned when we first got here by another student. Maybe we should warn her too.”

“Warn me about who?” I asked, staring around at their worried faces.

“Moxie Revera. She’s the only fox shifter at this school,” Penny answered. “Fox shifters are extremely rare. We’ve been told to stay clear of her. She’s basically the queen bee and nobody messes with her. A girl was showing us around school when we first got here and that was one of the first things she said.”

“Noted,” I said, trying to hide the nerves that surfaced in my belly. “Did you all know each other before you arrived?”

They all seemed so close already; it was hard to believe they had just met today.

“Penny, the twins, and I met on the plane here,” Becca explained. “We got to talking and bonded almost right away. I met Sage when I got to my room.”

“Are you all shifters?” I asked.

“Yes!” They all said at once.

“Sadie and I are mice,” Sally said happily, looping her arm through Sadie and resting her blonde head on her sister’s shoulder. Sadie patted her head and chuckled.

“It’ll make sneaking into the boy's dorm, fun,” Sadie added, making the rest of us laugh.

“I’m a wolf,” Becca said and then she looked at Sage. “And Sadie is a cat.”

My mouth fell open as Sadie looked at the twins with a menacing look.

They only rolled their eyes, making Becca and Penny laugh.

“That’s so cool,” I breathed.

It was going to be fun getting to know these girls.

From my peripheral I noticed Sadie leaning over to Sally and whispering something in her ear, making her chuckle.

Penny nudged Sadie in the arm and whispered something to them both.

“What is it?” I asked, peering over at them with a frown.

I knew they were whispering about me; I wasn’t stupid.

They all looked as if they were caught in the act.

“They want to ask you about the Alphas,” Becca said with a sly grin. “We saw you with them earlier and I can’t lie… we are all very intrigued.”