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

by C. S. Churton

  Then Draeven turned his attention to me, and Blake came over. I noticed something hanging from his hand – a cuff, but not like the one I was wearing. It was a suppressor cuff, designed to trap a shifter in their human form. Resentment rolled across my shoulders. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I’d been trying to stop Leo.

  Draeven snarled and I whined in answer, pressing myself flatter to the ground. I could feel his yellow eyes boring into the back of my neck, and I squirmed uncomfortably. He snarled again, a low, menacing sound, and I forced myself to go still.

  Blake crouched beside me and snapped the suppressor cuff around my wrist. A shudder ran the length of my body, and I felt it rejecting the wolf form. With a deep-seated sense of relief, I started to become human again.

  *

  A few minutes later, we were all human, and sitting inside Blake’s office. Draeven had taken the large chair behind the desk, and the rest of us were on smaller seats throughout the room. Blake had dug out some spare uniforms for me and Leo – most rooms in the academy had an abundance of clothing thanks to the tendency of new shifters to shred them regularly – and after I’d stubbornly denied needing to see the healer, had insisted that my interview with Draeven went ahead, because apparently almost being turned into wolf-confetti wasn’t enough to get me off the hook.

  The suppressor cuff was still locked around my wrist, and Blake had said it would remain there until a contingent of enforcers had determined what had caused our training cuffs to malfunction like that. I glanced down at the single cuff. It only took one to stop me shifting, apparently, which was interesting, given that they’d made me and the rest of the Bittens wear a pair when we got here. Either they’d been worried about how strong we were, or they had serious trust issues. Or maybe Blake was just trying to make them go further right now. I got the feeling that if there were enough for the entire academy, every student would be wearing one. I must just be lucky. Story of my life, right?

  I shivered, and then winced as the movement agitated my ribs. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, I was really starting to feel the injury, and my stupid shifter healing was taking its sweet time doing anything about it.

  Shaun got up and handed me a blanket. I accepted it with a grateful smile and wrapped it round my shoulders with as little movement as possible, which was still enough to send another lance of pain through my ribs. Maybe I should have agreed to see the healer – at least then I wouldn’t be stuck here with Draeven, who’d barely spoken two words since forcing me and Leo to submit.

  Leo had barely said a word, either, other than to apologise to me about twenty times when he first shifted back. Apparently, it was catching – I stared at the floor in silence, holding the blanket close against me, in the hopes I could avoid any more painful shivering, and preferably, something completely embarrassing, like my teeth chattering. I clamped my jaw shut, just to be safe.

  “I would like to know,” Draeven said, his voice a low rumble, “why Ms Hart seemed less affected by the corruption of her training cuff than Mr Boulton.”

  I shot a glance at Leo. I was pretty sure I knew why, but I didn’t want to get into it with Leo sitting right there. He wasn’t exactly a friend, and he was a damned sight more loyal to Kelsey than to me. Which was fine, but I didn’t like the thought of her knowing anything about me at all. Bad enough she’d already ruined my life, without her poking her nose into it.

  “Speak,” Draeven commanded.

  I ducked my head again, drew in a deep breath, winced, and let it out again.

  “The rage spell, Alpha Draeven.”

  “Rage spell?” Leo said, twisting round to look at me. Just great. I continued without raising my head.

  “I fight its effects constantly.” My voice came out a little above a whisper, but it carried easily in the silent room. “When the cuffs got messed up… I guess I just have a lot of practice at controlling that side of me.”

  “Indeed,” Draeven said. “Interesting. We will discuss this in greater detail once the enforcers have finished their investigation.”

  Joy. That was a conversation I’d look forward to about as much as a root canal. Without anaesthetic.

  He looked across at Leo.

  “You may leave us. My enforcers will summon you should they need to speak to you further.”

  Leo rose from his chair and dropped into a crouch.

  “Yes, Alpha Draeven. Thank you.”

  He backed away without turning his back on Draeven or raising his eyes, and slipped out of the door, leaving me alone with Blake, Shaun, and Draeven himself. Like he couldn’t have sent Leo out before he made me bring up the rage spell. I was starting to get the feeling he didn’t like me very much. I had the sense to keep that feeling to myself.

  “I have some questions to ask you,” Draeven said. “If you answer honestly, you will have nothing to fear.”

  Nothing to fear from the most powerful shifter in the country – hadn’t we been here before? I didn’t believe it any more this time than I had last. Nor did I miss the implication that there would be something to fear if he thought I was lying. I had one of those faces that automatically looked guilty the moment anyone suggested I’d done something wrong – whether I had or hadn’t, which didn’t bode well for this interview.

  “Have you been in contact with the Bitten, Ryan Walker, recently?”

  I shot a look at Shaun. Was that some sort of trick question? He met my eye.

  “Answer the question, Jade,” he said, his voice not so much a reprimand as a reminder that I shouldn’t keep Draeven waiting. I turned my eyes back in the Alpha’s direction without looking right at him.

  “How could I, Alpha Draeven? The enforcers have him in custody.”

  “I am not here to answer your questions, you are here to answer mine. I suggest you do so, before I have no choice but to have my enforcers interrogate your associates and their packs.”

  My stomach churned. Draeven was really rattled about Ryan, he had to be if he was threatening to turn the enforcers loose on my friends. And I didn’t doubt for one moment he’d do it. An image flashed through my mind of a squad of enforcers turning up in Scotland to interrogate Cam’s pack, tearing their home apart. I blanched and swallowed the lump in my throat.

  “No, Alpha Draeven. I haven’t seen him, or spoken to him, I swear. I doubt he’d want to speak to me again, anyway.”

  Not after I’d convinced him to lay down his weapons, and the enforcers had still dragged him away and locked him up. But I’d never seen Draeven rattled before, and that had to mean he wasn’t locked up anymore.

  “Don’t underestimate the value some people place on juvenile friendships.”

  I flicked a glance to Draeven’s stern face and away again. After everything that happened last year, he was still questioning my loyalty. Did I like what the enforcers had done to Ryan on his orders? And what he’d had Blake do to Brad and Laura for months? No. But if I’d wanted to overthrow Draeven, I could have joined forces with the other Bittens last year and attacked him the moment he came through the portal, human and vulnerable. Instead, I’d fought back with everything I had, almost losing my life in the process. And it still wasn’t enough to prove my loyalty.

  I clenched my jaw, then unclenched it enough to speak.

  “I don’t. He threatened the people I care about.”

  Because Brad had coerced him into it. Because he thought it had been the only way to save the life of the man he loved.

  “And yet your anger seems more directed at me than him.”

  I didn’t have an answer for that which wasn’t likely to get me thrown into the dungeon, and I wasn’t about to lie to the Alpha of Alphas, so I kept my head down and said nothing. It hadn’t been a question.

  “There have now been three incidents inside this academy where the use of magic has resulted in students being harmed.”

  That wasn’t a question, either, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from jerking up to stare at Draeven. It didn’t need
to be a question, because it was a god-damned accusation. How dare he sit there and try to pin this on me? I hadn’t asked for this curse, but I’d done everything they asked – and more – to learn to control it. I held his eye and answered coldly.

  “I’m aware. The first one hurt was my friend, the second my boyfriend, and the third was me. If I’m trying to bring down the people I don’t like inside these walls, I’m doing a pretty shit job of it.”

  “Control your temper.” Draeven held my eye, his stare boring into me with a cold brutality that said everything his tone didn’t.

  I flinched away, shivering inside my blanket, and dropped my gaze to the floor. Draeven was right. If I didn’t get control of myself, it was going to be a long night.

  Chapter Nineteen

  It turned out to be a long night, anyway, and the next morning I felt like crap – not helped by my partially healed ribs. Welcome back to Fur ‘n’ Fang. Sucked to be me. I indulged in my pity party for a full ten minutes before reluctantly peeling myself from my comfy pit, bitching to an amused-looking Cam about out-of-control shifters and injustices.

  “And I can’t believe,” I said, tugging on my cargo trousers, “that I have to go and sit on the ground for an hour of meditation before I can even get some breakfast.”

  “Ye always have tae do an hour’s meditation before breakfast,” he said, holding out my t-shirt.

  “Yeah, but I don’t always have recently broken ribs.” I took the t-shirt from him, made to pull it over my head, and winced.

  “Here,” he said, taking it from me. Between the two of us, we managed to get it on without too much pain. Apparently, I could expect it to be at least a couple of days before they were back to normal, which was going to be great fun. I took one look at my hoodie and decided I’d rather freeze than try to pull that on. It wasn’t like I was going to get a whole lot of meditating done, anyway.

  Despite my reluctance to embrace the new day, we made it down to the lake with ten minutes to spare. Even in the middle of winter, meditation was held outside – storms, ice and snow were the only things that had us moved inside, and even then, it had to be bad before Isabella would consider allowing us to meditate inside the academy.

  We weren’t the only ones to get here early – nearly half the academy were milling around, the first years stamping their feet to keep the cold at bay, and the handful of third years just shoving their hands deeper into their pockets. We caught up with Mei and Dean – no sign of Madison yet, but she really wasn’t a morning person, which was great, because I didn’t think I could stomach her right now. I rubbed my arms and barely suppressed a shiver.

  “Are ye sure ye dinnae want my hoodie?” Cam asked. I shook my head. I wasn’t sure shivering was going to help me, but I damned well knew that wrestling a hoodie on wouldn’t. I cast around for a distraction and spotted a lone figure standing by the lake.

  “Hey, that’s Leo. We should go talk to him.”

  “Now?” Mei asked, glancing around. Despite Draeven’s instructions not to, I had of course immediately filled them all in when I finally got back to our dorm last night.

  “Would you rather speak to him alone in a dark corridor?”

  “Fair point.”

  We headed over, and as we got close, Leo turned around. He looked like he’d had even less sleep than me.

  “Jade, how are you today? I’m so sorry about yesterday.”

  “Stop apologising,” I said, holding up a hand that was already going white. I frowned at it. Maybe I should have braved a hoodie, after all. “It wasn’t your fault.”

  I scrutinised his face, watching for any sort of reaction to my words, but there wasn’t one. At least, not one I could put my finger on. Screw it, it was too cold for subtlety.

  “Unless,” I said, “it was your fault.”

  “It is. I should have been able to fight the spell.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  He frowned, and his gaze flicked between the four of us before settling back on me.

  “I don’t follow.”

  “So you didn’t tamper with the cuffs?” Draeven’s enforcers said a ward had been placed in the corridor, set to activate as soon as someone in a cuff walked down it. It would have kept going indefinitely, but they’d disabled it and said that our cuffs should work normally again. But someone had set that ward, and there was only one person I could think of with the motive, and the means.

  “What? Of course I didn’t! Why would I do that? How would I do that? I don’t have access to that sort of magic.”

  “Underwood does,” I said. “He could have given you the ward to set.”

  “So now I’m conspiring with Underwood to set traps in the castle? I was in as much danger as you were, Jade. How could you even think I was involved?”

  “I heard everything you said yesterday. You hate it here, and you were desperate for Underwood to get you out. You all but begged Shaun not to take you to Blake’s office.”

  “Yeah, because I’m bloody terrified of Alpha Draeven! If you had any sense, you would be, too.”

  I glanced at Cam, and he shrugged. Alright, so maybe Leo had a point about Draeven being a solid ten on the intimidation scale. But that didn’t explain the rest of it.

  “And yeah,” Leo said, before I could open my mouth. “I hate it here. I asked Underwood to take me back to Dragondale because I don’t belong here anymore. I’m a year behind everyone I knew, and half the academy won’t even look at me because of what I was accused of doing. The other half hate me because my pack disowned me and now I’m just a lowly cur.”

  His voice was bitter, and his face twisted, and I believed every word he said. I knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of that, and I of all people couldn’t blame someone for wanting to run away from it. I’d spent enough time trying last year.

  “But you hate Draeven,” I said, my voice uncertain.

  “Hate him?” Leo shook his head. “Alpha Draeven fought tooth and nail for me last year, so that I could at least have the honour of facing pack justice.” He stared out across the lake. “Sure, they’d have killed me, but after months in a cage at Dragondale, it seemed the lesser of the two punishments.”

  “Then why do you want to go back to the druid academy?” Mei asked. I answered for him.

  “Kelsey.”

  He nodded.

  “I felt more at home with her than I ever have here.”

  A voice sounded from behind us, startling me.

  “Good morning, everyone. Please take your places and prepare to begin this morning’s meditation.”

  I groaned. Time to spend an hour sitting on the cold ground with broken ribs. Just great.

  *

  “Yer telling me ye bought that?” Cam gave me an unimpressed look over his breakfast plate.

  “Yeah, I did.” I carved a piece of one of my sausages.

  “He hero worships Alpha Draeven for trying tae have him killed?”

  “Yeah, okay, that’s a little odd,” I admitted. “But I’ve been in a cage. It’s not that much of a stretch to think he might feel some sort of gratitude for anyone who tried to get him out. What do you think, Dean?”

  “Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. Maybe. I’ve gotta go.”

  I twisted round to follow the direction of his gaze and rolled my eyes. Little Miss pack princess was making her way to a table with Tiffany and Victoria trailing in her wake. Dean scooped up his tray and hurried over to their table, getting there in time to pull out a chair for Madison. Seriously. He was much too good for her. I turned back in time to see Mei watching him with an odd look on her face, but she covered it up as soon as she saw me looking. Whatever. Not my place to pry.

  “And Leo’s the only one other than you guys who knows about Underwood. So if Leo’s not involved–”

  “That’s a big if.”

  “–Then Underwood can’t be either.” Which frankly made me feel a whole lot better about my lessons with him.

  “Then, who?” Mei
asked, tearing her eyes from Dean long enough to join in the conversation.

  “No idea,” I said, putting my knife and fork together and pushing the plate away. “And that’s not our biggest problem.”

  “A psycho using magic to disrupt the academy isn’t our biggest problem? Ye sure about that, lass?”

  “Underwood said that if the druids didn’t get their shit together and do something about these cursed academies, Draeven is going to handle it for them. And not in the comradely kind of way.”

  “Aye, that was his exact wording, was it?”

  “Don’t you get it?” Mei said, silencing us both. “Alpha Draeven has been losing the respect of the packs. His position has been undermined. The only way to silence their doubts is with a show of strength. And what better way to do that, and unite them, than with a war against the druids?”

  “A war?”

  I blanched. I might have been new to the shifter world, but even I knew what that would mean for us – entire families would be wiped out on both sides. We were too evenly matched for there to be one clear, easy victor. The druids outnumbered us, and they had magic, but they were already facing some sort of threat from within – one that was cursing their academies. We had sheer strength, and our shifter resilience. And Mei was right – tensions were boiling between the two races, and it wouldn’t take much to ignite them. One word from Draeven would be enough, and he would cement his position as Alpha of Alphas while doing it.

  “You think he would do that?” I asked. “Command everyone to risk their lives, just so he could hold on to his power?”

  And it would be a command, not a request. One none of us could refuse. Would he demand that students joined the battle? I was willing to bet that if the situation got dire enough, he’d order anyone who could shift onto the front lines.

  “Just to hold on to his power? No. But if someone is taking control of the druidic academies and the druids can’t stop them? Alpha Draeven wouldn’t allow that to stand, not when it could affect us all.”

  “Wait.” I held up a hand and looked between the grim faces of my two friends. “I don’t get it. Why would the druid academies affect us all?”