Fur 'n' Fang Academy: The Complete Series: A Shifter Academy Adventure

by C. S. Churton

  “Good work, keep her still.” Not Shaun’s voice. Blake’s. I rolled my head round to watch him as he approached, Draeven by his side. They crouched down beside me, and Draeven pressed both hands to my shoulder, holding me down. I could feel his strength, even in his human form. He looked at Shaun and nodded.

  Fresh pain screamed through me as the knife slid free. My legs kicked out and a snarl ripped from my throat. I lunged, but the hands held me down, then I lunged again and this time broke free, teeth snapping at the air. My eyes locked onto Draeven. Draeven, who had pinned me down. Draeven, who had ordered me locked away. Draeven, who had failed to stop me being bitten and turned into this mess.

  Draeven, who was responsible for everything that was wrong with my life.

  I lunged at him, ignoring the pain that screamed through my hind leg. It didn’t matter. What mattered was biting him, tasting his blood, destroying him and everything he stood for. My teeth yearned to rip flesh from bone, and every muscle quivered in anticipation.

  “Jade, this isn’t you,” Shaun said, and my eyes snapped to him. He was guilty, too. He was one of them. “You can control this.”

  I didn’t want to control this. I wanted to vent my fury. I wanted someone else to be the victim.

  Shaun? I wanted Shaun to be the victim? No, that wasn’t right. He didn’t deserve that. A whine slipped from my throat. He was right. I had to fight back, get control.

  I was more than just the crime that had been committed against me. I was more than the sum of other people’s bad intentions. I was Jade Hart, and I would beat this.

  I backed up a step, yelping as I put pressure on my injured leg. The pain sent a rush of murderous thoughts through me, and I shook my head, trying to dislodge them. I fixed my eyes on Shaun, the bloodied knife hanging limp by his side. He’d risked his life to pull it out, to stop me suffering. I didn’t want to hurt him.

  I backed up another step and lowered myself to the ground, keeping the weight off my injured limb, but the movement sent another wave of agony through it. Now I knew why my senses reacted to silver as strongly as they did. It was poison, and even with the blade gone, the damage wasn’t healing. Couldn’t heal. Not on its own. Not while the silver was spreading through my bloodstream. And no-one could help me while I was in my wolf form.

  I cast the beast aside and sought my human-self. Human. I needed to be human. I felt my bones cracking and screamed, the tortured sound unrecognisable as human or animal. Muscles twisted and reshaped themselves, tearing at my silver-damaged thigh, and I dug my fingers into the dirt and screamed again.

  Fingers?

  I looked down. Fingers. I’d done it. I was human again. And my leg hurt like a bitch. Gasping, I sank back to the ground. Someone draped a coat over me.

  “Alright Jade,” Shaun said. “Just hold on. We’re going to get you help.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “It would seem I’m making a habit of visiting people in hospital beds,” Draeven said.

  I peeled my head from the pillow beneath it to look at him, and Blake beside him. A few hours had passed since they brought me in here and left, and the resident healer had done something weird with his hands that had made the pain in my leg recede. I’d hoped that would be the last I’d see of the Alpha of Alphas. I didn’t much fancy facing the consequences of my wolf-self trying to take a bite out of him. And that wasn’t even the worst thing I’d done today. Which was presumably why Blake was here.

  I sat upright, grimacing as the movement pulled at my torn leg. I took some solace from the fact they’d brought me here. I mean, you didn’t bring someone to a hospital wing and have their wounds treated if you were planning on executing them, right? Although I was the first to admit that ‘hospital wing’ was a bit grand for what amounted to three beds, and a middle-aged shifter sitting behind a desk. I guessed there wasn’t much call for more than that, what with shifter healing speeds. Too bad they didn’t apply to silver wounds. How Shaun had resisted the ones on his neck for as long as he had was a mystery to me, but by the time the healer had attended to them, I’d seen tendrils of grey spreading through his skin. But his wounds hadn’t been as bad as mine, and no-one had insisted he be admitted. Maybe they just wanted me where they could find me, for when they decided to pass judgement.

  Which, if the look on Draeven’s face was anything to go by, was now.

  “I want to talk to you about what happened today,” Blake said. I took a slow breath and nodded, staring down at my hands.

  “What you did today was incredibly brave.”

  I jerked my head up to look at him. That wasn’t where I’d been expecting this to go.

  “Had you not acted as you did, many may have been injured.”

  “But had you not assisted in Brad’s escape,” Draeven said, “there would have been no danger to begin with. It falls to me to decide whether your actions cancel each other out. You will explain yourself.”

  “What’s happening to Ryan?” I asked, staring down at my hands.

  “Worry about yourself,” Draeven said, his deep voice gravelly and dangerous. But there wasn’t much I could say to defend myself, and someone had to speak for him.

  “It wasn’t his fault. He’d been sneaking down to the dungeon without anyone realising. Brad manipulated him.”

  “We were well aware of his visits. And yours.”

  “You were?”

  “Indeed. Have you forgotten, Ms Hart, that everyone here is capable of detecting scents that do not belong – such as two young shifters who had no business sniffing around prisoners they were not supposed to know existed?”

  My cheeks reddened. I hadn’t thought of that. We must’ve left a scent trail every time we went down there – and Ryan had been going a few times a week. That was hard to miss.

  “Why didn’t you say something?” I directed my question at Blake, because I couldn’t quite force myself to question Draeven.

  “I had hoped that seeing you and Ryan well-adapted and thriving would help sway them. But I was mistaken. I never imagined that the reverse would be true. Answer Alpha Draeven’s question. Why did you free them, and why today?”

  I lifted my eyes and pointed them in Draeven’s direction. As before, I couldn’t quite look at his face.

  “You were coming to kill the others.” His eyes bored into me and I bowed my head, because it never hurt to show respect when you were trying to save your hide. “Alpha.”

  “Was I, indeed?”

  “I heard you were coming here after the exams. Why else would you?”

  “My, Grandma, what big ears you have.”

  My cheeks burned red.

  “Ryan was beside himself with fear. Not that I’m blaming him. I’m responsible for my own actions. I didn’t think they deserved to die because of what happened to them.”

  “I was not coming to kill them.”

  “You weren’t? Then… why?”

  “Alpha Draeven visited Dragondale – the druid academy – yesterday,” Blake answered. “He made an interesting discovery, which he was coming to discuss with me. The identity of the one who bit you has finally been uncovered.”

  My breath caught in my throat. Dragondale – where Leo had been hiding out. But if it hadn’t been him, then, who?

  “It explains much of your behaviour, and the other matter Shaun brought to me – your magic.”

  “You know about that?”

  “I do,” Blake said. “Though until today, we did not know the cause of it. The wolf who bit you was a halfbreed – half-shifter, and half-druid.”

  “I… I don’t…”

  “When she bit you, it would seem she passed on not just her shifter magic, but also her druidic magic.”

  “Is that even possible?”

  “We did not believe so,” Draeven said. “Indeed, we had no reason even to consider it. Halfbreeds are rare in our community, as are those reckless enough to break our most sacred law. I know of no other case where the two have converged.”
/>
  “What will happen to her?” I wasn’t sure why I cared – I mean, she’d completely torn my life to shreds, and half of me wanted her dead for it. The other half believed in the law.

  “Nothing,” Blake said, exhaling heavily. “It would seem she, herself, was under a spell at the time of the attack. A rage spell, cast by a powerful druid criminal. A rage spell she may have passed on with her magic.”

  I looked from one to the other, trying to process. “A rage spell? That’s why I’m so angry, all the time? Does that mean you can fix it?”

  “The spell itself has been broken,” Blake said. “Whether you can be cured of its effects remains to be seen, though our own enforcers are consulting with druid experts in hexwork.”

  I sank back into the bed. My head was starting to swim. If Draeven was going to pass some sentence on me for letting Brad out, I wished he’d just get it over with, so I could get on with feeling like shit in peace.

  “Your motive in releasing Brad and Laura,” Draeven said, from somewhere out of focus, “was to save their lives, not to form your own pack?”

  I sat bolt upright and stared at him, mouth agape.

  “Our own pack? No! We had no idea what he was planning. He just said he didn’t want to die.”

  “Well, he got his wish – thanks to you.”

  I ducked my head again.

  “Not that his life was ever in danger. But I accept your intention was to prevent harm. You will be spared punishment. But I will be watching you closely, Jade Hart.”

  “And Ryan?” I asked, because apparently I didn’t know when to keep my mouth shut. Draeven’s jaw tightened.

  “Ryan was complicit in Brad’s plan after he learned of it. Threatening the life of an instructor cannot be allowed to stand unpunished. He returns to the alpha pack with me, to face judgement for his crimes.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I limped into the main hall, leaning heavily on Cam’s arm. I’d spent two days in the hospital wing – or what passed for one here – and though my leg hadn’t healed completely yet, I refused to miss this.

  “You dinnae need t’ be here,” Cam said for the third time – I’d been counting – as I hobbled towards our usual table at the back of the hall. I tried to make a dismissive sound, but it came out as more of a grunt, which did nothing for my argument.

  “Dean, will ye tell the lass she doesnae need to be here?”

  “Nope,” Dean said, walking conspicuously close on my other side. No-one was giving him a hard time about coming down here – though maybe because his burns had healed within a day. Silver took longer, apparently. “I heard she tried to take on Draeven. I’m not about to upset her.”

  I rolled my eyes and ignored the banter, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. The pain in my leg was bad – bad enough that I was starting to wish I’d done what everyone wanted and stayed in that hospital bed for another day. Not that I was going to tell them that. Besides, I was here now, and it was a damned sight further back to my bed than it was to that table.

  It was crowded in the main hall, but people made room for us to pass. Apparently, my reputation had grown from outcast to badass outcast. It didn’t hurt that Cam and Dean were glaring at anyone who didn’t move fast enough. I wasn’t fully sure why Cam was even here, but I wasn’t about to question it. It felt good to be this close to him again, and with all the bad I was feeling right now, I latched onto the one positive thing.

  “Do yer need tae stop?” Cam asked, his voice quiet enough that I was probably the only one who heard, even in a hall filled with shifters who had enhanced senses. I considered it for a moment, then nodded my head a fraction. It wasn’t going to help my cause if I collapsed, and my head was already spinning. I hadn’t left my bed in two days, and it had been a long way here from the hospital wing.

  Cam stopped immediately and I eased my weight onto my good leg – which apparently hadn’t got the memo it was supposed to be the one that still worked. My knee buckled, and I collapsed into the Scottish shifter. He caught me easily, holding me up with one arm wrapped around my body.

  “Easy lass, I’ve got yer.”

  I leaned into him, letting him take my weight, and inhaling his scent and waiting for the dizziness to pass. I leaned my head against his chest – and then realised what I was doing. My cheeks flared red and I pulled away.

  “Sorry,” I said, looking up into his eyes. “I didn’t mean to–”

  He bent his head down and caught my lips with his, cutting off my apology. I hesitated, then reached up, embracing the kiss.

  “Hey, you two, knock it off,” someone called from a nearby table. Tyler, maybe. I didn’t feel like turning to check. “Some of us are trying to eat.”

  Cam broke away and tucked a stray strand of my hair behind one ear.

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “I should have trusted you,” he said. “I had no idea what you were dealing with. When you asked about Ryan, I thought it was because you wanted to be with him, not me.”

  “You,” I said, leaning into him again. “Always you.”

  He lowered his arm around my waist, and the rest of the walk to our table didn’t seem quite so painful.

  “I still dinnae think ye should be here,” he said, as I collapsed into a chair with even less grace than usual.

  Now that I thought about it, he was probably right. I should probably be lying down when I got the bad news. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. I put on my most glib voice as he settled into a chair next to me.

  “Well, if you want to walk me back to the hospital room…”

  “I’d carry ye if I thought ye’d let me,” he said, a growl rattling inside his chest.

  A scraping distracted me from that beautiful sound, and I jerked my eyes from his face to see Mei shoving a couple of plates across the table towards us. I frowned. It must have taken us longer to get to our seats than I thought, if she’d already managed to queue up and get our food.

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” she said, claiming a seat opposite me.

  “She should still be recovering,” Cam grumbled.

  “I needed a change of scenery,” I protested. “Besides, lying there was giving me too much time to think about everything I screwed up.”

  Cam squeezed my shoulder, and I leaned into his touch. Whatever else happened today, I was glad he was back in my corner. We had some stuff to work through, but there would be time for that.

  “There’s one thing I don’t get,” I said, looking at Dean and then Mei. “What were you two doing in Shaun’s office?”

  They shared a look and Mei glanced down at her plate.

  “What?” I pressed.

  “Well…” Mei said, without looking up.

  “Shaun told us your shifting exam didn’t go well,” Dean said, also avoiding my eye. “He wanted to talk about what would happen… if you got held back.”

  “He what?”

  “He didn’t want you to have to repeat the year without anyone you knew,” Dean said. “So we said we’d repeat it with you.”

  “But only if you fail,” Mei added quickly. “Which you won’t.”

  “You guys would do that?” I looked from one anxious face to the other. “For me?”

  “Well, of course we would,” Mei said. “You’re our friend.”

  Dean shrugged.

  “It’d be dull without you around stirring shit up.”

  “I’ll go see Shaun,” Cam said, “and ask if I can repeat this year, too.” He caught the look on my face. “Not that yer going to fail, lass.”

  I rolled my eyes. I was pretty sure that was a done deal. Trying to kill your examiner didn’t tend to bode well for your grade, not even at Fur ‘n’ Fang.

  “Before we make any decisions about who’s repeating what, can we eat?” I said, nodding at my untouched plate of food. “Because I’m telling you, they don’t feed us nearly enough up in the hospital wing. I think the healer was scoffing my sh
are of the food.”

  For a while, the four of us said nothing, tucking into our breakfasts – because no-one made a full English like Mickey. We were half-way done when Madison, with Tiffany and Victoria in tow, came and sat next to Dean, giving me a filthy look first. I sighed and set down my fork.

  “Look, if you’ve got something to say, just say it.”

  She sniffed loudly and turned her head away.

  “Right, of course. Because you can’t be seen talking to one of us, right? Not after everything that happened.”

  She scowled. “Don’t downplay your part, cur. You let those freaks out.”

  “Yeah, I did. And I explained my reasons to Alpha Draeven himself, and he absolved me of any guilt. But if his judgement isn’t good enough for you, then feel free to do something about it.”

  “I’m not about to risk being thrown out on the last day of the semester for your mangy hide. But if we meet outside these walls, all bets are off.”

  Cam glared at her, but I placed a hand on his arm and shook my head.

  “Leave it. She knows she couldn’t even take me right now, never mind when I’m not healing from silver poisoning.”

  “Just try not to put my future mate in danger next time you turn feral,” she said, tossing her mane of blonde hair, and placing a hand on Dean’s arm. I bristled, but my retort was cut off by Blake standing at the head of the hall, raising his hands. The entire room fell silent at once.

  “Good morning, everyone,” he said. “And well done for getting through another year without killing each other.”

  There were a couple of chuckles, but not from me. It had come a little too close to that for my liking.

  “I’m not much one for speeches, as you know, but I want to thank you all for your efforts this past year. You should feel proud of yourselves as you go forward, upholding the ancient traditions of the Sarrenauth Academy of Therianthropy.”

  He paused, and nodded to several instructors standing behind him.

  “The instructors will bring round your exam results. Those of you who have not passed all their subjects will be required to repeat this year. There is no room for failure. Should you find yourself amongst those who aren’t progressing, spend your summer months wisely. Come back next year and apply yourself, and achieve the same success as your classmates.”