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

by C. S. Churton

  “Nice try, but you’re going to have to do better than that.”

  “Fine.”

  I flexed my wrist and hammered a fireball straight into his chest. He let go of me and rolled away, roaring in pain. I slammed two more fireballs into him and scurried after him, clutching one hand to my ribs in a futile attempt to ease the pain.

  Flames flickered over the beta’s chest and he beat frantically at them with both hands as he squirmed on the floor. I sucked in a breath and scuttled over to him as he beat the last of the flames out, and jammed the knife to his throat.

  “If I was you,” I said, “I’d be very still, little boy.”

  He scowled at me but lay unmoving. If looks could kill, I’d have been six feet under by now, but they couldn’t, so I paid his fury no attention. I did, however, see his hips tense and prepare to flex.

  “Uh-uh,” I said. “I wouldn’t. Trust me, I’d very much like to open a hole in your throat right now, and I don’t think anyone would mind much if I did. So you’re going to lie there like a good little boy, and you’re going to tell your pack to stand down. And if you don’t, I’m going to kill you, and then I’m going to find out how flammable wolf fur is. Understand?”

  “Dex,” he called, the movement pressing his larynx to the blade, and drawing a thin line of red. Good. “Oz, Niall. Stand down.”

  “Guys,” I called, not daring to take my eyes from the beta, whose neck had already healed. “What’s going on?”

  I couldn’t hear any more snarling, or the snapping of teeth, which I figured had to be a good sign, but there was no answer, either – which probably had something to do with the fact that wolves and leopards couldn’t speak.

  “Tell your pack to shift back,” I ordered the beta, keeping the knife tight to his throat. “Now.”

  “You heard her,” he spat. “Shift back.”

  “They are shifting back,” Mei called. She must have started changing back as soon as the others had backed down. I hoped she wasn’t standing there naked in front of this disgusting letch.

  I heard paws padding our way, but I didn’t move my eyes. All it would take was one second of distraction for the beta to get away from me, and I didn’t think he was going to underestimate me twice.

  “Cam is coming to you,” Mei said. “The three wolves are human again.”

  I heard Cam reach me, and then he planted one of his paws on the beta’s chest, pinning him in place. I moved the knife and scooted back, wincing as the movement pulled on my ribs, and pulled a fireball into existence, just in case he tried something. But he’d have to be truly stupid to do that when Cam’s teeth were inches from his face, and he didn’t seem to have forgiven the beta for what he’d said about me earlier. If he’d seen what the man had tried to do to me, I suspected the beta would already be dead.

  “Over there!” The voice was distant, but I recognised it. Shaun. Thank God. That was just about the most welcome sound in the world right now, because frankly, this was above our pay grade. Way above.

  It was followed by the second most welcome sound I could think of – the snarling of wolves. Wolves that belong to our side. As they drew closer, I could make out several outlines: two humans, five wolves. I recognised the mottled grey pelt of Fletcher amongst them. He might have been my least favourite instructor at the academy, but at least he was one of us. I crushed the fireball to nothing in my hand.

  The seven of them ignored us and surrounded the rogue shifters. Shaun and Lewis wasted no time cuffing the pack. Cam stepped out of the way to allow them to snap the cuffs shut around the beta’s wrists, and then they hauled the four of them to their feet.

  Shaun came over to where I sat and crouched next to me.

  “Hey, Jade,” he said. “Do you feel like putting that knife down?”

  “Huh?” I blinked, and realised I still had the blade clenched in my fist. “Oh. Yeah.”

  “Yeah?”

  I prised my fingers loose from around the hilt one by one until the knife fell to the ground with a soft thud.

  “So, you just had to save the day, huh?”

  I stared down at my hands, and my voice came out small.

  “I broke my ribs again.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  They say no good deed goes unpunished, which must have been true because yet again I found myself sentenced to an overnight stay at the academy’s med wing. By the time the following morning rolled around, I was in a foul mood. Healer Fenwick had fixed my broken ribs when I came in – which was so quick that I felt like a bit of an idiot for being a martyr about it last time round – but for some reason he refused to explain, he still wasn’t letting me go. And he’d threatened to chain me to the bed if I tried to sneak out again. No sense of humour. He’d even made me wear a crappy hospital gown. Worse, they hadn’t even brought me breakfast.

  I was contemplating another jailbreak, and to hell with the consequences, when the door to the med wing swung inwards. I tugged the sheets back over my legs and leaned back against the headboard, trying to look like I hadn’t been about to make a break for it. I probably would have been able to feign nonchalance, too, if the smell of food hadn’t hit me. My mouth was already watering.

  Shaun came in, with a tray in his hands, and shut the door behind him. I guess I wasn’t getting out just yet.

  “Well, I have to admit I’m half-surprised to see you’re still here,” he said, handing me the tray. The plate was piled high with a full English – sausages, bacon, eggs, fried bread, tomatoes, mushrooms, hash browns, beans – the works.

  I didn’t bother to answer his question, because I was too busy shovelling the food into my mouth. Don’t judge – I’d had a normal appetite before I became a shifter. And I was pretty sure that last night’s fun had burned off more than enough calories to compensate for the ones I was currently devouring.

  I was so engrossed with the food that it took me a moment to realise Shaun was still here and had pulled up a chair. It looked like there was a price to pay for my room service. I lowered my fork long enough to raise an eyebrow at him.

  “How are you feeling today?” he asked me.

  “Fine,” I said, chasing down a piece of fried bread with a mouthful of coffee. I grimaced: it was cold.

  “Don’t look at me. That coffee was hot when I brought it up here. You were just busy.”

  I shrugged unapologetically. “I think Fenwick is trying to starve me. He doesn’t like me much.”

  “Yes. I heard he doesn’t take kindly to his patients trying to sneak off during the night.”

  “Well, I don't see why I got sent here and no one else did. I just broke a rib.” Or three. “Mei was bleeding, and no-one made her come here.”

  “Because you were the only one sitting cradling a knife.”

  “I was trying to breathe! Have you ever tried to breathe with broken ribs?”

  “Yes. Many times. I've never sat cradling a knife.”

  “I wasn't cradling it! I just... kinda forgot I was holding it, is all.”

  “Well, Healer Fenwick thinks you were in shock, and I'm inclined to agree.”

  I snorted, because I couldn't actually find any words to dispute that, and busied myself mopping up some bean juice with the remains of the bread.

  “Shifter healing can take care of physical wounds,” Shaun said, “but it doesn't extend to mental trauma.”

  “Exactly. Which means Fenwick can't do anything about it.”

  “Not magically, no. But does it really surprise you to learn he has medical training?”

  Yes, it did, as it happened, because I'd kinda assumed being able to channel healing magic meant you got to skip med school. I set the tray aside, the plate empty, and the less said about the coffee, the better.

  “Whatever. I'm fine now. Can I get out of here?”

  “Soon.”

  I huffed and leaned back against the headboard, folding my arms over my chest and staring at the far wall. I already memorised every inch of it from my l
ast stay here. There was a new smudge in the paintwork, but not much else had changed.

  “I thought you might like to hear what happened last night after you were brought here, first.”

  I uncrossed my arms and turned back to him. No-one had told me a thing since I was brought in. It was worse torture than the starvation and the gown. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat.

  “Is everyone okay?” I asked. “Leo, and... Kelsey?”

  I wasn't sure why I cared, but that stuff I'd said to her yesterday, that wasn't me. I wanted the chance to set it right.

  “Yes. They both survived the battle at Dragondale with minor injuries. Dragondale's healer is treating their wounds, and then Leo will be transferred back here.”

  “He doesn't want to be here, you know.”

  “I know. But it's not in my power to change the law, and the law dictates that he studies here until he graduates.”

  I nodded. I knew that. I'd fought the same battle myself last year, with the same result.

  “Mei and Cam have both recovered from their wounds – though Alpha Blake has warned them not to disturb you, under pain of being locked in the dungeon, which seems to be the only way he could guarantee your rest.”

  I pouted. I’d have risked being thrown in the dungeon for them. And then my curiosity got the better of me.

  “The battle at Dragondale – what happened?”

  “Raphael led an assault there. The druids were able to overcome him, and he is currently incarcerated at Daoradh, the druidic prison. I doubt he’ll be seeing the light of day for a long time.”

  I sagged back against the headboard. Raphael was in prison. He wasn’t going to be coming after anyone any time soon. Too bad the damage was already done. Still, I couldn’t help asking, “Did he say anything about the rage spell?”

  “I’m sorry. As far as I know, no-one has interrogated him yet. He was badly injured in the battle. They believe he’ll recover, but there’s no way of knowing when he’ll be able to answer our questions.”

  That was better than nothing. I’d get to cling to my hope for a while longer. Because there was only one reason I could think of that I’d wanted to tear Kelsey – who’d been just as much a victim as I was – apart, and that was Raphael’s damned curse. And if he set it, maybe he held the solution to lifting it. Right now, maybe was better than nothing.

  “What about Draeven?” I said, belatedly realising I should probably act as if I cared. “Is he…?”

  “He is still Alpha of Alphas,” Shaun replied. “Thanks to your information, Alpha Blake was able to send word to Alpha Draeven. He sent a contingent of enforcers to thwart Alpha Cooper’s attack at Dragondale, and he confronted Cooper in battle.”

  “Then…” I wasn’t sure how to word my question. But Dean’s alpha hadn’t been the only one who’d wanted to see Draeven overthrown.

  “In defeating Cooper, he cemented his position as Alpha of Alphas, and silenced his critics. For now, at least.”

  “And Dean’s father?”

  “Did not survive the fight.”

  I swallowed. Poor Dean. Everything he’d been through this year already, and now he’d lost his father, too? It just didn’t seem fair.

  “It was an act of kindness, Jade,” Shaun said, lowering his voice. I opened my mouth to ask how the hell murder was supposed to be an act of anything other than malice, but he cut me off. “If Dean’s father had survived, he would have had to face the judgement of the alpha pack. And there’s only one punishment for the crime of treason.”

  I nodded. I’d spent two years studying law here, I knew what that punishment was. He’d be torn apart by the alpha pack – each and every wolf taking a lump from him. If he survived, they’d do it again. And again. It was a slow and painful way to die. A quick death in battle was a mercy compared to that. But it didn’t change the fact that Dean had lost his father.

  “What about Dean’s beta, and the others?” I shuddered to think of the man’s hands on my body. Now that was someone who deserved Draeven’s brand of justice, and the world would be none the worse for him not being in it.

  “They’ll face the judgement of the alpha pack. You don’t need to worry about them anymore. What did he do to you?”

  “Huh?” I stared into the space over Shaun’s shoulder and tried to look confused by his question.

  “Come on, Jade. We know each other well enough by now. It wasn’t the fight that sent you into shock last night.”

  “He, uh…” I stared down at my hands twisting in my lap. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

  “Well, when you’re ready, okay?”

  My eyes burned hot and I blinked a couple of times, then decided a change of subject was in order. I frowned.

  “He called me a halfbreed. I’m not, though, right? A hybrid, I mean.”

  “That’s not what’s bothering you.”

  “Indulge me anyway.”

  He pursed his lips, clearing thinking it over. Which wasn’t an outright denial. Which was bloody annoying.

  “So I am?” I hazarded. Great, just what I needed. Another label.

  “Not in the traditional sense. But you’re a shifter, and you have magic, so I suppose…”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m the curse Bitten halfbreed cur. I get it. But…” I cocked my head at him. “You don’t like hybrids. I’ve seen the way you are around Underwood. You’ve never been like that with me.”

  I dropped my eyes to my hands and picked at my nails. I wasn’t sure why it bothered me as much as it did. It was hard to be more hated than I already was for being a Bitten cur, although this latest title might just pull it off. It was clear Shaun hadn’t thought of me as a hybrid before. I should have kept my mouth shut.

  “Does that mean you won’t want to tutor me anymore? Now that we know what I am?”

  He sucked in a breath, and I looked up in time to see a pained look flash across his face. Guess that answered my question. I looked back to my nails.

  “No,” he said, surprising me, and I chanced another look at him. “Nothing has changed, Jade. Not about you, at least, and not between us. I will be your mentor for as long as you’re inside these walls, and after you graduate, if you still need me. Perhaps… perhaps the prejudices of my forefathers belong with them. Buried.”

  I swallowed and nodded. That was no small thing he’d just said. Wolves didn’t do change well. He was a good man. Not every guy was like Dean’s beta and his ilk.

  “Shaun?” I said. “I’ll tell you about what happened with the beta when I can, I promise.”

  “I know. And I’ll be ready to listen when you do.”

  I nodded again. Time for another change of subject.

  “What happens to the rest of Dean’s pack, now that they don’t have an alpha? Does someone else get promoted, or something?”

  “No.” Shaun looked away and then back to me. “Alpha Draeven gave the order last night. Dean’s pack is to be disbanded.”

  “But… He can’t do that!”

  “Yes, he can.”

  I shook my head. “Without a pack, they’ll all be curs.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s not fair!” My hands curled into fists around the sheets, and I forced them to open again. “They can’t all have known what was going on. Some of those people were innocent. Without a pack, they’ve got no status, no protection.”

  “I know.”

  “And what about Dean?”

  Shaun grimaced and avoided my eye again. I searched his face, an uneasy feeling welling in the pit of my stomach.

  “What about Dean?” I said again, but this time my voice was little more than a croak. Shaun’s shoulders lifted as he took a deep breath and then fell as he let it out again.

  “Dean has been called to face the judgement of the alpha pack.”

  “They can’t do that! He helped. He fought back against his beta. He saved my life. Hell, he saved all of our lives. You told them that, right?”

 
; “I did, and I’m afraid it made no difference. He confessed to conspiring against Alpha Draeven, and the alpha pack intend to make an example of him.”

  “But it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t have a choice. And if he hadn’t told us about the rest of his pack last night, we would never have known until it was too late.”

  “I know, Jade.” Shaun rubbed a hand over his face, and for the first time I noticed the bags under his eyes. I guess he hadn’t had any more sleep than me last night. But unlike me, instead of lying uselessly in a bed feeling sorry for himself, he’d been trying to save Dean. I set my jaw. I was done with the self-pity. Dean needed me.

  “When’s his trial?”

  Shaun shook his head.

  “He’s not having a trial. He has no alpha to speak for him. And even if he did, I don’t think he’d accept. He was in a pretty bad way last night after he learned about his father.”

  My stomach churned. Yeah, I bet he was blaming himself for everything that happened last night. But if he wasn’t going to speak up for himself, and he didn’t have an alpha to speak for him…

  “They’re going to kill him.”

  Shaun nodded. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do.”

  “Bullshit!” I shoved my bed sheets aside, almost sending my tray crashing to the ground. “They’re not killing him, not after he risked everything to save us. Draeven owes him, and this is a pretty crappy way to repay him.”

  I climbed out of the bed before Shaun could stop me and started to pace. He watched me with wary eyes, like he thought I might collapse at any moment, or curl up in a ball and cry. I did neither. After Fenwick’s miracle cure last night, I was feeling about as good as I’d ever felt in my life. Physically, at least. And I wasn’t the curling up and crying sort. Not when I had a friend to save.

  “Do you think you could get Draeven– uh, Alpha Draeven to meet with me?”

  “Why?” Shaun said, with an edge to his voice. I wasn’t sure whether it was my sudden attempt at diplomacy, or my previous track record that had him suspicious, but I didn’t intend to give him time to dwell on it.