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

by C. S. Churton

  Draeven shook his head.

  “No, I mean, by phone. You have his number, right?”

  “Oh.” I shook my head. “No. He’s got mine. He said he’d call if they wanted the cure, but he wouldn’t give me his.”

  “Pity. Convincing him to speak with us might have been the only thing that could have saved his life.” He pulled the door open. “No matter.”

  Chapter Twelve

  When Blake released me late that evening, sparing me a second sleepless night spent questioning every decision I’d ever made, I made straight for my dorm, where I discovered two things. First, my friends had been let out a full twenty-four hours earlier and had spent the entire day hassling Blake for my release until he’d threatened to lock them up with me again, which made me feel a hair better about my extended incarceration. All four of them were waiting in my dorm when I got back there – Leo having all but moved in with the rest of us outcasts, since his own roommates had made it clear what they thought of him when he first arrived from Dragondale. Second, once I got some charge into my phone, I found I’d missed three calls and a text message. From Ryan.

  “What does it say?” Mei asked.

  “Who cares what it says?” Leo snapped. “She needs to tell Alpha Draeven, right now.”

  I ignored them both and thumbed it open. Cam, sitting with his arm wrapped around me, read it over my shoulder.

  “Jade, I’m so sorry. Had no idea he was planning that. He said he just wanted to talk. Pls answer.”

  The text had been sent yesterday morning, followed by another missed call. Crap. He must have thought I was still pissed at him. I wasn’t. The opposite, in fact. This proved he’d had nothing to do with the attack.

  I brought the number up on my phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “What does it look like? I’m returning his call while I’ve still got signal.”

  “Are ye sure that’s a good idea, lass?”

  “It’s not,” Leo said, prowling up and down the room. “As soon as Alpha Draeven finds out she tried to call Ryan rather than take it straight to him, he’ll have her right back in the cells. Or worse.”

  I lowered the phone back into my lap and glared at Leo.

  “What’s your damned obsession with Draeven?”

  “He’s our Alpha of Alphas. That should be enough for you. But since it’s not, I’ll tell you.” He stopped pacing and glared right back at me, punctuating his words with a furious hand. “He could have had me executed two years ago. Hell, he could have pushed to have Kelsey executed. He could have executed Ryan, but instead he gave him a fair chance. He could have executed Dean without a trial. And he could have had you executed today, but he didn’t. He’s the first Alpha of Alpha in generations to choose mercy over vengeance, and you want to repay him with treason!”

  I took a breath and resisted the urge to raise my voice in reply. I didn’t have a shifter family to have passed down horror stories of our previous Alpha of Alphas. But I knew that some of them had been bad, and most of them had persecuted hybrids and non-wolf shifters to the point of near extinction. Mei had told me that much, and she would know. It wasn’t easy being a leopard in an academy of wolves. And looking round my friends’ faces, I could see they all felt the same way. Draeven was better than his predecessors. In my eyes, that just meant his predecessors had been arseholes, but if that was your standard for normal, then I guess Draeven must look like a saint. Arguing with them on that would do nothing but drive a wedge between us.

  “Alright, I get it. And you’re right. If Draeven wasn’t our Alpha of Alphas, half of us probably wouldn’t be here right now. But he told me that if Ryan was willing to talk to him, it might be his last chance to avoid the death sentence. If he’s half as merciful as you all think, then that’s exactly what he wants. But what do you think will happen if we give this number to Draeven and the enforcers without convincing Ryan it’s in his best interest to talk with him?”

  “The enforcers will trace the number,” Dean said. “And Ryan will fight them when they come.”

  I nodded. “If he fights, it will be to the death this time. You all know that. He at least deserves the chance to make his own choice.”

  No-one said anything, so I hit call on the phone and raised it to my ear. A mechanical voice told me that the number could not be recognised. I pulled the phone away from my ear and cursed.

  “Disconnected. He must have ditched his number as soon as he couldn’t get hold of me.”

  “Now will you take it to Blake?”

  I glanced at the clock.

  “You know what? It’s kinda late. I reckon I’m going to get some sleep in an actual bed first.”

  And if Blake wanted to know about Ryan sooner, well, maybe he shouldn’t have left me locked in a cell even after Draeven was done with me. I caught the look the others shared but ignored it. A handful of hours would make no difference on a disconnected number, anyway. And I really did need to get a decent night’s sleep.

  *

  Alpha Blake didn’t seem thrilled that I’d tried to call the number before telling him, but he didn’t have me thrown back in the dungeon, so that was a plus. The next few weeks dragged past, with us being confined to the academy, keeping our heads down, and me trying to ignore Madison’s increasingly less subtle digs every time we crossed paths with her – which was pretty frequent, since we were in all the same lessons.

  I started taking healing as an elective, in between my lessons with Underwood, and my portalling elective with Brendon. I figured it was best to stay busy and keep my mind off everything else. Shaun seemed to approve and got me special dispensation from Blake to join the class late. Maybe he figured it meant I’d decided not to take the cure, and to embrace my life as a shifter. But honestly, every time I thought I’d made a decision, something happened to change my mind. I liked being a shifter – most of the time. But I hated the rage curse, and my grasp on my magic was as tenuous as ever. The last thing I needed was to fail a magic assessment and find myself sentenced to study at yet another academy. Either way, there was no denying that if I ever wanted to try to convince a pack to take me, being able to heal might tip the scales in my favour. Or they might just laugh in my face. That would be something to look forward to.

  “Good afternoon, everyone,” Shaun addressed the twenty-one of us who had gathered out on the grounds for the second of our twice-weekly tracking lessons. I couldn’t help but notice we were a couple of people short, probably on account of the crappy December weather. I also couldn’t help but notice that sadly, Madison wasn’t amongst those who’d decided to skip today’s session – because she was already giving me sideways glances and muttering snide remarks that were just loud enough for me to catch.

  “Thank you for braving the cold and wet to join me. Should you happen to see your classmates, please do remind them that it’s witches who melt in the rain, not shifters.”

  There were a couple of chuckles, and then he carried on.

  “Right, let’s get straight down to it, then, shall we? We’ll be working in groups of four today, and,” he paused to do a quick head count, “one group of five.”

  That sounded good to me. I shared a look with my four friends and we all stepped a little closer. Good. At least this way none of us would have to work with Madison – it was bad enough that I’d saddled myself with her in shifting. Not that Mei was complaining about our change of partners. I glanced over at the blonde pack princess, grouped with Tiffany and Madison, and her latest beau, Dylan – the heir to a small pack somewhere in North Wales. No prizes for guessing what she saw in him. And she was literally all over him. It was enough to turn my stomach.

  I risked a glance at Dean, but he was busy not noticing Madison’s display. Whatever I might think of her, Dean had been smitten. Their relationship had started off as one of convenience, encouraged by both their parents, but Dean had really cared about her, and he’d obviously thought she cared about him, too – right up until
he wasn’t good enough for her anymore.

  “Today we’re going to be working on scent detection in your shifted forms,” Shaun called above the rising wind. “One person from each group at a time will go into the woods and attempt to identify as many of the aberrant scents – that means ones that are out of place, Jeff – as possible.”

  Jeff flushed red and shared a laugh with the rest of his group.

  “There are fifteen scents in total. Between your group, I want you to identify them all. Remember that although shifting enhances your senses, it also means the scents you don’t want are going to be stronger, and you’re going to be more prone to distraction, so try to hold your focus. You’ll each have ten minutes to shift, detect the scents, and shift back. If you’re late, the next member of your team will have less time. Jade, your team will send two people to start with. The first team to identify all the scents each gets a pass to let you cut the queue in the dining hall for the next week. Ready?”

  He scanned our faces, and I nudged Dean and nodded to Leo.

  “You two first, get ready.”

  I didn’t want Dean to have more time than necessary to stand around getting psyched out by Madison. And I was pretty sure Leo would stop him doing anything stupid while he was shifting that might cost us the competition.

  “Three, two, one, go!”

  Dean and Leo took off for the woods at a sprint, along with one each from the other three teams. We cheered them until they were out of sight in the treeline. I didn’t hear them shift, but I smelled the slight ripple of magic in the air.

  “You’re next when they get back,” I told Cam.

  “Trying t’ get rid of me already, lass?” he asked with a grin. In answer, I stretched up on my toes and pressed my lips to his. Madison made a disgusted sound that carried across the open air to us, but I paid her no attention. Unlike her, I was with Cam because I liked him, not because I was in love with his status.

  When I did break away from him, he caught hold of my hand and kept me close. That was fine by me.

  “I’ve been thinking, lass,” he said.

  “Uh-oh. Nothing good ever started with those words.”

  “Yer a funny one, did anyone ever tell ye that? I got a call from Catriona yesterday, she wants tae know what time my portal’s due next week – and if I’m bringing anyone with me.”

  I chewed my lip. Friday next week was the start of our Christmas break. I’d come from a small family, and Christmas had always been a quiet affair. Now my mum was living abroad, and my uncle, whose farm I’d been staying at, was in a nursing home. Christmas with Cam’s pack was… magical. It was like one huge family, and the whole highlands seemed to ring with laughter, and excited kids screaming, and the food was incredible.

  This might be my last chance to go, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. If I took the cure, I’d never set foot in the pack again. Was there any sense in tormenting myself? On the other hand, I really wanted to go, even more so if it’d be my last time ever.

  Then I glanced up at the deserted treeline and sighed.

  “What about Dean? We can’t leave him on his own.” And somehow, I didn’t think his family would be welcoming him anytime soon. I was pretty sure the reason Tara went into town most nights was just to avoid him. “Maybe I should go to the farm and invite him to stay.”

  “I think you’ll find,” Mei said with a sly grin, “that’s taken care of.”

  “It is?”

  “He’s coming to stay with me and my father for Christmas.”

  “He is?”

  “Did I miss something between yous two, lass?”

  “Get your mind out of the gutter,” she said, but I could have sworn I saw a slight pink flush against her tan skin. “Just as friends.”

  “For now,” I said, and elbowed her. She flushed again.

  “Anyway,” she said, “it means you and Cam can spend Christmas in the highlands. Very romantic.”

  I stuck my tongue out at her, and Cam turned his puppy-dog eyes on me.

  “Well, lass?”

  Ah, what the hell. If this was my last year as a wolf, I was going to enjoy every damned minute of it. I’d deal with the heartbreak when – if – it came.

  “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

  I reached up and touched my lips to his again, and suddenly winning the competition seemed a whole lot less important. I’d already won everything I wanted.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Christmas was every bit as magical as I’d anticipated – and over far too quickly. It seemed like I’d barely had time to blink before I was stepping back through a portal, ready to spend my final few months at Fur ‘n’ Fang. There was a time when reaching that date would have seemed like the best thing in the world… but a lot had changed since then. Most of it for the better.

  Our last ever semester of classes would start in the morning. Me and Cam had barely made it to our dorm room – it looked like our portal had arrived before Dean and Mei’s – when a knock sounded at our door. I swung it open, expecting to see Leo, and found myself staring at Shaun. I blinked at him.

  “We don’t have a session booked today.”

  “Hello to you, too.”

  “Oh, uh, yeah. Hi. We don’t, though, right?”

  “No, we don’t. Alpha Blake wants to see you.”

  Cam nodded, dumping his bag on his bed, but Shaun shook his head and held up a hand.

  “Just Jade.”

  Cam looked like he was about to argue, so I shot him a quick smile. There was no sense him getting into trouble before the semester even started. At least one of us should try to keep their noses clean – and we all knew it wasn’t going to be me.

  “I won’t be long,” I told him. “Tease Mei for me when she shows up.”

  I stepped out into the hallway and fell into step beside Shaun.

  “Alright, hit me with it. How much trouble am I in this time?”

  “Would you believe me if I said none?”

  “No.”

  “The instructor-student relationship is nothing without trust,” he teased, and then his face grew more serious. “He just wants a chat.”

  I snorted. Right. And I just shifted into a puppy-dog. We didn’t pass anyone on our way – the students who had arrived were most likely settling into their rooms or making the most of the opportunity to grab some food from the main hall before it got busy. I should have asked Cam to grab me something. On the other hand, he’d probably have eaten it, too, and after two and a half years, it’d be a shame to have to kill him over a steak.

  Shaun raised a hand and rapped on Blake’s door.

  “Come,” a voice commanded from within. I froze. That wasn’t Blake’s voice.

  “Alpha Draeven is here?” I hissed at Shaun, but he opened the door before I could panic and bolt, and gestured me inside. Shit.

  I stepped into the office and dropped onto one knee.

  “I see you, Jade Hart,” Draeven said, and I rose, then perched on the edge of one of the seats. Judging by the expression on Blake’s face, standing at Draeven’s shoulder, I probably should have waited to be invited. I gave a mental shrug. Shifter etiquette was wasted on me. If I hadn’t grasped it in the last two and a half years, I didn’t like my odds of getting it now. Sure, there might be some sort of human etiquette about not sitting until you were invited – but I wasn’t great at that sort, either. And now wasn’t the time to contemplate it.

  “You wanted to speak to me, Alpha?”

  I wasn’t really sure who to address my question to, so I kind of directed it at the space between them.

  “Yes,” Draeven replied. Crap. There went my last hope that it was just coincidence he was here. It had been a long shot, to be fair.

  I waited, trying not to think about how busy the dining hall might be right now, and whether Mickey had ordered enough steak for the first day back at the academy. Turkey was all well and good, but I was craving some red meat.

  “I’m sure yo
u know why,” Draeven said, after a long silence in which neither of us seemed inclined to speak. My eyes darted to his face, and I wrenched them away.

  “Uh… no? Should I?”

  “I hope you don’t intend to play any of your juvenile games, Jade.”

  “I’m not, Alpha Draeven. I don’t–”

  “I want to know if Ryan has been in contact,” he cut across me.

  I started at Ryan’s name. He hadn’t been caught, then. Which meant Brad and Laura were still out there, too – along with anyone else they might have bitten.

  “Answer Alpha Draeven,” Blake snapped.

  “No, Alpha Draeven,” I ground out, my voice just about the right side of disrespectful. I made an effort to moderate it. “I haven’t heard from him.”

  “Since he left the voicemail for you last semester?”

  I nodded. I hadn’t forgotten Draeven’s implied promise – that if Ryan spoke with him and came in peacefully, he’d spare his life. I didn’t have to be Draeven’s biggest fan to believe he was a man of his word. If I’d heard from Ryan, I’d have done everything I could to convince him to see sense and at least speak with Draeven. But even though I’d kept my phone with me, there hadn’t been so much as a text.

  “But there’s still a way you might be able to contact him.”

  “There is?”

  “You told me that he waited for you at The Wolf and Sheep the first Friday after every full moon. It’s a full moon tomorrow. On Friday, you will go to The Wolf and Sheep.”

  “You realise he’s not going to show, right?”

  “The thought had occurred to me, yes. Contrary to your apparent opinion, myself and my crack team of enforcers are capable of making basic deductions.”

  I blushed. How the hell did I manage to keep insulting this guy every time I opened my damned mouth? And in front of other people, too.

  “Sorry, Alpha Draeven. I didn’t mean–”

  Draeven waved my apology off, which was just as well, since that was exactly what I’d meant.

  “You will go to The Wolf and Sheep, and you will be sure to be noticed. I have no doubt that word will get back to Ryan. He seems to have taken a special interest in you.”