“Are you okay with all this?” I asked him, gesturing to the paperwork spread around. Maybe I should have chosen someone else and risked them getting pissed at me.
“I’m happier being on this side of the argument,” he said with an easy smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Yeah, I’ll bet he was. I didn’t push. He wasn’t a kid, he could make his own decisions. If he wanted out, he was capable of telling me.
“So,” I said, looking round the table, “where do we start?”
“We were hoping you could tell us. You’re the one who wanted to be a lawyer. I mean,” Mei corrected, catching the look on my face, “wants to be a lawyer. Definitely not past tense.”
Leo leaned forward over the table, taking an interest in me – too much of an interest, I thought.
“How are you going to do that? The packs don’t have lawyers.”
“They don’t?”
He shook his head. “Each alpha speaks for their own. Or… not.”
He glanced away as he said that last part. His alpha probably hadn’t rushed to his defence after he’d been caught at Dragondale.
“Well,” I said, “firstly, that’s crazy. What the hell sort of society doesn’t have lawyers? And secondly, I wasn’t talking about practicing pack law. I’m going to be a lawyer in the mundane world.”
I waited until he finished laughing, and fixed him with a glare. His eyes widened in surprise.
“Oh. You’re serious.”
“Yes, I am. Just because your psycho buddy bit me and ruined my life, doesn’t mean I’m going to let her ruin my career, too.”
“Don’t speak about Kelsey like that!”
He lunged to his feet so quickly he knocked his chair over, and I don’t think I’d fully appreciated how damned big he was until then. Then Cam was on his feet, and he was pretty damned big, too. And if a fight kicked off, we were probably all getting banned from the library.
“Leave it,” I said to Cam, and then sucked in a breath and turned to Leo. “I’m sorry. You’re right, it wasn’t her fault, and I’m trying to work past it. I am.”
He nodded stiffly and stooped to right his chair.
“But seriously,” I said, once we were all sitting again, “That’s a bit of an overreaction to someone insulting your friend. I call Dean a psycho all the time. You know, because of his taste in blondes.”
Leo’s lips quirked into something that wasn’t quite a smile.
“She’s not my friend.” He paused, like he was considering his words, then he exhaled sharply. “She’s my girlfriend.”
I tensed until every muscle in my body was rigid. And then I set about the laborious task of forcing them all to relax. It didn’t matter to me if the shifter sitting across the table was sleeping with the halfbeed who’d screwed up my entire life. And if I told myself that often enough, I might actually start to believe it. I also might turn into a flying pig on my next shift, which seemed about as likely.
The room was very quiet, even for a library. All three of them were watching me, waiting for me to make a move. I rolled the tension out of my shoulders and figured this was as good as a time as any to ask.
“You must know about what happened to her, then,” I said. “With Raphael.”
Leo clenched his jaw so hard I could see the vein standing out in his temple. He dipped his chin in a curt nod.
“Bastard managed to get close enough to curse her. Probably when she was travelling between her pack and her grove.”
“Wait, she has a pack? Even though she’s a hal– I mean, a… hybrid?”
Leo nodded again.
“They took her mother back year before last. They even let Kelsey into the outskirts of the pack. That’s all gone now.”
“My heart bleeds.”
“Save it. You won’t catch Kelsey feeling sorry for herself. She believes she deserves every punishment they throw at her. But growing up as a hybrid has conditioned her to be that way.”
I rolled that around my head a while. It was hard to think of the huge wolf that savaged me as anything other than the big bad, much less as a child – a little kid who’d been bullied and ostracised because of an accident of birth. And then Raphael came along and destroyed the life she’d managed to build. ‘Bastard’ was right. But suddenly it didn’t feel like the right time to press Leo on the subject. I grabbed the file again.
“So, how do we get our mystery suspect off a murder charge?”
Chapter Seven
The steak was cooked to perfection, medium-rare and soft enough to cut with a spoon, and the single best thing about being at Fur ‘n’ Fang. Not that I was messing around with spoons. I had two massive steaks on my plate – did I mention shifting burns a lot of calories? – with potatoes, mushrooms, peas, onion rings, the works.
As such, I hadn’t been paying the slightest bit of attention to the conversation going on around me at the dinner table. It was Friday evening, the end of a very long and very painful first week back. Except it wasn’t quite over for me yet – I still had Underwood’s torture session to look forward to after dinner, and then Shaun would expect me to report back on how I was feeling about my first week, and there weren’t adequate words for that. At least, not ones I could utter inside these walls.
“Hello, earth to Jade?”
Cam waved a hand in front of my face, and I swatted it aside, almost skewering him with my fork.
“One sniff o’ food an’ she’s no mind fer me,” Cam said mournfully. I shrugged unapologetically.
“What? It’s good food. What were you saying?”
“We’re going out tonight,” Mei said. “Hitting the local town. It’s tradition.”
I frowned, and set my fork down, cube of steak on the end of it untouched.
“Out? As in, out of the academy?”
“Unless you know of any towns inside it?” Mei said with a grin. I glanced at Dean for confirmation, and he nodded.
“Wait, let me get this straight,” I said. “We’re allowed to leave?”
“Aye. It’s an academy, nae a prison.”
That had not been my experience here last year, when I’d devoted a good deal of my time to finding ways of escaping, only to be dragged back.
“Second and third years are allowed out,” Mei clarified for me. “Once you’ve passed your first year shifting exam, they trust you have enough control not to maul the locals.”
“And that you’ll come back,” Dean added with a sly grin.
“Funny.” I flicked a pea across the table at him.
“So, what d’yer say, lass? Are ye in?”
There was no way I’d have the time – or the energy – for a night out partying by the time I was done with both Underwood and Shaun. On the other hand, I was supposed to be integrating, and it would be a shame to break an ancient Fur ‘n’ Fang tradition. I grinned.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Where are we all going?”
Dean grimaced and pushed some food around his plate. “I’m going to have to give it a miss.”
“Are ye kidding, man? This is going tae be a night tae remember.”
“It’s Madison,” Dead said, nodding to the blonde sitting a few tables around, surrounding by her usual fawning crowd. “She wants to work on the case.”
“She must be really worried that I’m going to thrash her if she’s missing a chance to party,” I said, trying not to sound too smug, and probably failing.
“Huh? Uh, yeah. I guess you’ve got her worried.”
“She should be,” I blustered. Truth was, I had zero idea how we were going to get our pretend suspect off the murder charge, because after four days studying the notes, I was pretty convinced he was guilty. But I wasn’t about to let it get in the way of some downtime. And nor should Dean.
“All work and no play makes Dean a very boring boy,” I said.
“Maybe next time,” he said tonelessly.
I shared a glance with Cam, who shrugged, and steered the conversation in a different dir
ection. It must be eating at Dean that he was stuck here tonight. No sense rubbing his nose in it.
When we finished, he headed off for the library, and the rest of us made for our dorm room, with me keeping a careful watch for instructors who might expect me to be elsewhere right now. A little under an hour later, we were ready to hit the town and blow off a little steam. I’d opted for a black skirt and heels that made the most of my slightly short legs, and a sleek top that revealed enough to make up for what I lacked in the leg department, with my hair hanging loose around my shoulders. I’d been planning to hold the ensemble back for the annual Halloween party, but this would just give me an excuse to go shopping.
Mei looked stunning – as always. She’d traded her black cargo trousers for skinny jeans that accentuated her narrow hips, and her halter top hugged her body. Her black hair hung down her back in a long wave, and there was no question that she would be getting plenty of attention tonight.
Cam didn’t look too shabby, either, with a loose-fitting pair of jeans, a shirt buttoned half-way, which hinted at his broad shoulders every time he moved. I whistled and linked my arm through Cam’s – because I didn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea about his availability – and the three of us headed down to the entrance hall, through the main doors, and out to the academy’s gates.
I could smell the acidic tang of magic, and as we approached the door, the scent grew stronger. I cocked my head, and looked up at Cam.
“What is that?”
“A ward o’ some sort,” he said, pressing his hand to the wrought-iron gate. Unlike the last ward I’d come up against, it didn’t fling him across the hall with enough force to crack his skull. Instead, the gate swung outwards at his touch. He stepped forward, taking me with him, and I felt an icy touch at the back of my neck as we passed through.
“It prevents first years from going through,” Mei said, stepping through behind us.
“Huh,” I said, turning round to watch Cam shut the gate. “I had no idea wards could do that.”
It turned out there was actually quite a lot I didn’t know about magic, probably not helped by me skipping out on my lesson. I shrugged it off, and turned my back on the academy.
“Which way?”
Cam looked his arm back through mine and nodded off into the distance.
“The town’s about a two mile stroll that way.”
I was regretting my choice in footwear by the time we were halfway there, and already starting to dread the walk home. Two miles wasn’t far – unless you happened to be wearing a new pair of heels that you hadn’t broken in, and the ground beneath your feet was decidedly uneven.
“Shall I carry ye, lass?” Cam said with a lecherous grin.
“In your dreams.”
“Aye, always.”
We made it to the town without me launching the heels into the nearest ditch – mostly because they were pretty, and they’d cost me a fortune.
“So,” I said, leaning into Cam and looking around the streets that were in that strange transition between day and night, when the last few office workers were heading home, and the first of the party-goers were starting to emerge. “Where to?”
Mei answered, nodding to a plain wooden door set into a plain, bare brick wall. The hanging plaque above it read The Wolf and Sheep.
“Landlord’s idea of a joke?” I said, eyeing the sign warily. I didn’t want to get outed for a shifter. That was a good way to get myself noticed by the enforcers, and they didn’t take breaches of the Mundane Protection Act lightly.
“He’s clued in,” Mei said, “but most of his patrons aren’t. He doesn’t mind, so long as no-one causes any trouble.”
Cramming a load of shifters who’d not long learnt control in a room with a load of alcohol and mundanes – what could possibly go wrong? Cam grinned and shoved the door open before I could raise my objections. I shrugged and stepped inside. In for a penny, in for a pound.
The Wolf and Sheep wasn’t one of those glamourous gastro-pubs that were popping up all over the country. There were no kids in here being force-fed chicken nuggets, and the only parents looked like there were here to get away from their offspring. The room was poorly lit, but of course that wasn’t a problem for my shifter eyes. The sharp tang of alcohol and bleach stung my nose. Tables were scattered around the room, perhaps a little better spaced than you might find in an upscale pub, and I wondered if that was deliberate, to cut down on fights. The floor under my feet was laminated wood, and I knew where the bleach had been used. Pretty sure I could guess why, too – the scent of blood is hard to remove.
The bar tender, a slightly overweight guy with streaks of grey in his hair and wrinkles set into his face, clocked us immediately, and nodded to us across the length of the room. Cam returned his nod, and we crossed straight to the bar. Cam ordered three vodka and cokes.
“I.D?” the barman asked.
I flipped open my bag, but Mei shook her head at me, and flashed her cuff to the barman. Cam rolled back his shirtsleeve to do the same. I stared for a moment, then belatedly showed my cuff, too.
The barman grunted.
“I know what day it is,” he said, fixing Cam with a stare. “No trouble, hear me?”
“Nae trouble,” Cam agreed, pulling out his wallet to pay for the drinks. He tipped the barman, too, which did little to improve the man’s stern expression. Nonetheless, he poured our drinks and set them on the bar.
Mei nodded to an empty table in the corner, and the three of us made our way there.
“He seems nice,” I said with zero sincerity, sliding onto one of the chairs and setting my drink on the sticky wooden table. Cam shrugged.
“Guess someone has tae keep the peace. This place is legendary – and one o’ the few bars that’ll let shifters in round here.”
I took a sip of my drink, shuddering as the alcohol hit my system – I wasn’t much of a drinker, outside of parties.
“You mean there are other,” I glanced around and lowered my voice, “mundanes around here that know, you know, what we are?”
Cam laughed, a booming sound the reverberated round the room, and drew several eyes in our direction, the barman’s amongst them.
“Kinda hard tae keep it under wraps, what with the academy being down the road. Most o’ the local boozers know what we are, and who tae call if there’s a problem.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant Blake or the enforcers, and I didn’t want to find out.
“What about the other patrons?” I asked, looking around the room at the ordinary-looking people, most of whom smelled decidedly human.
“Some do, some don’t,” Cam said. “They’re under Alpha Draeven’s protection.”
Yeah, that would be enough to keep them safe, I’d warrant. I sure as hell wouldn’t go looking for trouble with the big alpha. I narrowed my eyes at Cam.
“How do you know so much about it?”
“Catriona likes tae make sure we’re all prepared. Yer know, with t’ important stuff.”
I chuckled at that. Yeah, I couldn’t imagine any self-respecting member of Clan Lachlan letting their clanmates go off without knowing the score when it came to the local drinking outlets.
It felt good to be out of Fur ‘n’ Fang, and able to let my hair down for a change. Even with Cam’s pack I’d been constantly on my guard, worried that I was going to say or do the wrong thing, or that one of his packmates might take offence to me being a Bitten. But in here? I was just another girl in a short skirt, and sure, the barman might be sending a few glances our way in between polishing the glasses, but if anyone else had an opinion on what we might be, they kept it to themselves. By the time I’d finished my drink, I was starting to shake off the week’s tensions.
“I’ll get some more in,” I said. Cam spluttered into his drink and shook his head.
“It’ll be a hot day in Scotland before I let a lass pay fer the drinks,” he said. I was enjoying myself too much to take offence where none was meant, and in hone
sty it wasn’t like I was working, so I slipped my hand into his pocket.
“Who said anything about paying?” I grinned, helping myself to his wallet.
“I’ll help you,” Mei said, and the pair of us made for the bar. There were several people already leaning against it waiting to be served, and I watched idly as the barman set a couple of drinks down in front of a patron – then I recognised the swish of blonde hair, and the two people standing in her wake.
“Hey,” I said, nudging Mei. “That’s Madison.”
“So?”
“So, Dean said they were studying.”
“Maybe they changed their minds.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I checked my phone, but Dean hadn’t called. If he was still in the academy, he might not get signal, but if he’d come into town, surely he could have at least sent me a text. Well, apparently not. Not that I cared if he’d ditched us. I craned my neck round the bar but couldn’t see him. Whatever.
The barman worked his way through the customers – it was getting busy in here now – and I chatted with Mei while we waited.
“Hey, love,” a gruff voice said from behind us. I rolled my eyes at Mei, and ignored him. Anyone that started a conversation with, ‘Hey, love’ was absolutely not worth talking to as far as I was concerned, and it looked like Mei felt the same way.
“Oi, love, I’m talking to you.”
The barman flicked a glance in our direction, then went back to pouring drinks, but I got the sense he was listening closely. I didn’t want to draw more attention to us than necessary, so I drew in a slow breath and turned around.
“Yes?”
“What’s a pretty thing like you doing in a place like this?”
Oh, my God. He was actually for real. And he wasn’t even slurring his words – he was stone cold sober and still thought that was a good way to start a conversation. There was a shit-eating grin plastered over his face like he thought he’d come up with the best line in the history of mankind, and I wondered how best to deal with him without getting ourselves barred.
Fur 'n' Fang Academy: The Complete Series: A Shifter Academy Adventure Page 26