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

by C. S. Churton

  The alpha leapt onto the downed wolf, slashing his teeth across its throat. The red Bitten shuddered once, and then the rise and fall of its flanks stuttered to a halt.

  The one remaining Bitten spun in a circle, taking in the four wolves surrounding him, and I could see the moment he knew his cause was lost. He lowered his head, swaying on the spot – from blood loss, if the red streaks staining his pelt were all his – and planted his splayed paws on the ground.

  Draeven prowled towards him, heckles raised and fangs bared. The beaten wolf whimpered, then lowered himself into a crouch at the alpha’s feet, averting his eyes. Draeven towered over the wolf as it cowered, belly pressed to the floor. He lowered his head and sniffed at his defeated rival. Then he clamped his jaws around its neck, burying his fangs in the beast’s fur. The wolf squealed in pain and fear, thrashing on the ground, but the alpha’s grip was unrelenting. When he pulled back, his maw was dripping blood, and the wolf was unmoving.

  I backed away, gasping in horror, and felt my limbs tremble and blur. I welcomed the change back to my human form. Anything that took me further from the form of that… that murderer was a good thing. Bones cracked and sinew tore, but the pain was just a distant distraction that couldn’t quite break through my shock at what I had seen. That wolf had submitted, had given himself up to Draeven’s mercy, and he’d killed him, anyway.

  I wrapped my arms around my legs, staring at the dead wolf. From the corner of my eye, I saw Draeven cock his head at me – like I was the one who was acting illogically – and Cam moved slowly to my side, nuzzling the goose-pimpled skin of my forearm with his furry nose. He shuddered, and then his face twisted in pain as he, too, shifted back into his human form. I watched in silence.

  “It was necessary,” he murmured in my ear. “And nothing the Bittens wouldn’t have done to us.”

  I wasn’t so sure about the necessary part, but I couldn’t disagree with the rest of it – the dead enforcers in the last corridor we’d passed through were proof of that. I nodded, trying to put more confidence than I felt into the gesture.

  “And if we’d taken him alive,” Cam added, seeing straight through me, as always, “he’d have faced trial, and a much worse death than that one.”

  At that, I shuddered. The same death I’d been due to face. Might still face, if Draeven really believed I’d sent Caleb’s men into that ambush on purpose.

  “It was a mercy,” he whispered. “Come on, we can’t stay here.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. Brad’s men could be all around here. Blake was in a bad way, and Draeven’s last enforcer injured. I thought ‘mercy’ was a stretch, but there’d be time for me to worry about Draeven’s actions when I was trying to sleep tonight. First, I had to survive the day.

  I pushed myself from the floor, pretending I couldn’t sense Cam’s anxious gaze following my movements. Across the hallway, the enforcer had changed back to his human form, too, and was leaning heavily against the wall, staring down at something. I was right – his left leg was broken and hanging at an unnatural angle, and it was obvious every movement was agony for him. I quickly turned to Cam and shoved him towards the enforcer.

  “Go help him!”

  Cam crossed to the enforcer and looped one hand under his shoulders, supporting the man’s weight. He started to say something, then cut off, staring at the ground, too. I hurried over, slipping passed them and taking care not to jostle the injured enforcer – I knew how much broken bones hurt until they healed. And then all other thoughts left my mind.

  Lying on the floor was another Bitten – the one I’d flung away from Cam, if the tooth-marks on his shoulder were anything to go by. It was hard to be sure, because he’d shifted back to his human form. It wasn’t that alone that was making my stomach churn. I wasn’t looking at an adult man. I was looking at a teenaged boy, fifteen at the most. He stared up at me, his face etched with terror, poorly concealed behind a transparent mask of derision.

  Draeven approached, still wolf, dripping blood between his fangs, and Cam and the enforcer moved aside to make way for him. Draeven grunted a guttural snarl, and the boy’s façade fell away. He trembled, righting himself and backing up against the wall. If he’d stood, rather than sitting, I had no doubt Draeven would have killed him, too. His version of mercy was very different to mine.

  “What’s your name?” the enforcer demanded, while Draeven towered over the boy.

  “Bite me,” he retorted, curling his upper lip. Draeven snarled again and snapped the air an inch in front of the boy’s face, and he flinched back.

  “Who is he?” he said, a quiver to his voice.

  “Alpha Draeven, the Alpha of Alphas, most powerful shifter in four countries,” the enforcer said. “His word is your law.”

  The Bitten swallowed and didn’t seem to know where to look. His gaze settled at Draeven’s feet – some instinct, maybe, warning him not to raise his eyes further.

  “I’ll guard him while you decide where we’re going,” I said.

  If Draeven had been in human form, he’d have raised an eyebrow at my outrageous presumption. As it was, he managed to get all of his scepticism into one look.

  Trust me, I mouthed, knowing I had no right to ask that of him. Go over there and make some noise.

  I gestured to one end of the corridor with a flick of my eyes, and Draeven continued to stare at me for a long moment, no doubt weighing whether I could be trusted to guard the prisoner, or whether I should be under guard beside him. Eventually, he dipped his chin and moved away.

  His shift back into human form was seamless, and the fastest I’d ever seen. One moment he was a wolf, the next, a man. I blinked, and for the first time, wondered how old he was.

  He didn’t say a word to me. Instead, he led Cam and the enforcer a few steps away, and engaged the two of them in a loud discussion about what we should do next. I paid it no attention, other than to hope whatever he decided on involved getting that enforcer to a healer.

  The Bitten eased his head round towards them, no doubt trying to glean some information.

  “Hey,” I said. “Don’t look at them, look at me.” He did, and that was the exact moment I realised I was completely naked. “Eugh. Scratch that. Look over there.”

  He glared at me, then did as I said, staring at a distant wall. I glanced over at the three shifters, then crouched down next to him. I spoke close to his ear, my voice quick and low.

  “Listen to me. My name is Jade. When I say, you’re going to run down that corridor, and you’re going to take a message to Brad. I want him to leave me and Cam alone – forever. Jade and Cam. He never comes after us again. And in return, I’ll give him Draeven. We’ll be on the grounds, where we fought the first time he was here. He knows it.” I glanced over at the others, but they were still caught up in their discussion. “Go!”

  He leapt to his feet and tore along the corridor, hare-like. I let him get halfway before I shouted.

  “Hey, stop!”

  Draeven was by my side in a flash, his outline already blurring, but I blocked his path with a raised hand. He looked like he might tear that hand from my wrist, so I quickly dropped it back to my side. The kid was already out of sight.

  “What the hell are you playing at?”

  “Setting a trap for Brad. Are you in?”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  I slid one arm under Blake’s shoulders and eased him into a sitting position. He was in a bad way, but I was pretty sure he’d live, as long as he got some help soon. Our little crew was in bad shape. In hindsight, my idea might not have been the best.

  “Tell me your plan,” Draeven said, as if picking the thoughts from my face.

  Cam chose that moment to reappear from round the corner, holding our discarded clothes. He tossed mine to me and I snatched them out of the air before tugging them on, glad not only that I wasn’t going to have to finish the defence of Fur ‘n’ Fang in my birthday suit, but also of the excuse to look away from Draeven.

>   “That kid is going to run straight to Brad and tell him I’m planning to lure you out onto the grounds and deliver you to him in exchange for mine and Cam’s freedom.”

  “You want to use me as bait?”

  I sneaked a look at him and saw his lips twist into a savage grin. I figured that meant he probably wasn’t going to kick my arse just yet. Small mercies. Then I remembered Draeven’s last ‘mercy’ and my grin faded.

  “It gets Brad out of the castle and well away from the shifting lab where Dean’s evacuating the rest of the students.”

  Draeven nodded his approval, snatching up a discarded and bloody pair of jeans. I wasn’t sure who they belonged to, but I was glad they’d taken them off rather than just shredding them. Three years at Fur ‘n’ Fang still wasn’t enough to inure me to the nudity that was a side-effect of hasty shifting.

  “He won’t come alone,” the alpha said, and turned to his enforcer. “Take Alpha Blake down to the shifting lab and see that he gets some medical attention. Then portal to the alpha pack and tell them to send reinforcements. We’re going to need them.”

  “He can’t,” I protested, because what the hell. I was already a dead woman walking. Contradicting the Alpha of Alphas in front of his men was the least of my concerns. “He’s hurt.”

  “I’m fine, Alpha,” the enforcer said, bowing his head to Draeven, despite not being able to stand unaided. “I will not fail you.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Fine. Cam, go with him.”

  “What? I’m nae–”

  I crossed to him and took his hand.

  “You have to. He can’t go alone. Look at him. He can’t even support his own weight on that leg.”

  Cam looked like he was going to protest again, so I didn’t give him chance to speak.

  “Go with him to the alpha pack. Me and Draeven will be fine. And the sooner you get help, the sooner this whole thing will be over. Go!”

  “I dinnae like it, lass.”

  “I know.”

  “I’ll be back soon.”

  “I know.”

  I planted a peck on his cheek, and he raised his hand.

  “Eachlais!”

  Nothing happened. I realised at the same time as he did – we were still too close to the ward in Blake’s office.

  “Can you walk?” he asked Blake. Blake nodded and struggled to his feet. “We don’t have to go far, just away from the ward.”

  I wrenched my eyes from him and turned back to Draeven before my resolve could waver.

  “We should get going, too. Uh, if you’re ready, that is, Alpha Draeven.”

  Draeven eyeballed me – I still wasn’t nailing the whole diplomacy thing, apparently – then strode past me along the corridor. I shot one last look at Cam, then hurried after him. His ridiculously long legs made it an effort to keep up with him. I was fast, but I was also five foot nothing on a good day, and his extra inches of leg gave him a distinctly unfair advantage when it came to striding down hallways.

  “Hold up,” I called to him.

  “Move faster,” he replied, tonelessly.

  Dickhead. I did, though, because I didn’t want to be left alone when the rest of the Bittens could be lurking anywhere. We made it round two more corners before Draeven was satisfied we were far enough away from Blake’s ward. He stopped dead, and if I’d been able to keep up with him, I probably would have crashed right into him, so at least that was one thing that had gone in my favour today. Hopefully, I hadn’t used up my quota.

  He summoned a portal into the air in front of us, then stepped through. I hurried through behind him and found myself in the grounds outside the castle.

  “What are we doing here?”

  “What do you think?” Draeven asked, looking like he was wondering if I’d hit my head. “Being bait.”

  “You said it yourself. Brad’s not going to come alone. We need to get some backup first.”

  “Enforcer Dawson has gone to the alpha pack. They’ll arrive when they can.”

  “What about the instructors?”

  Draeven shook his head. “They’re fighting their own battles. The wards could be back up any moment, and we’ve wasted too much time already. We can’t afford to get tied up in the castle and miss our best shot at stopping Brad.”

  Dammit. He was right. We were never going to get another chance as good as this. And all we really had to do was keep Brad here until the wards went up. The alpha pack could handle it from there. We didn’t need to be around to see the end of the fight.

  “I can do this without you,” Draeven said, searching my face. “Go back to the castle and help your friend evacuate the other students.”

  I shook my head sharply and raised my chin.

  “This is my fight,” I told him.

  He opened his mouth to reply, then his shoulders stiffened. I tasted the breeze and caught the same disturbance that must have distracted him. Fresh scent. Someone – no, more than one someone – was coming our way.

  “Shift,” Draeven commanded. “I’ll stay human long enough to lure them in.”

  I didn’t waste time arguing. We could both smell wolf on the wind, and it would take me longer than him to change forms. Brad wouldn’t see anything amiss with me being in my shifted form – he’d just assume I was taking precautions. I yanked my hoodie over my head, then glared at Draeven.

  “Hey! Turn around.”

  He shook his head in amusement, then turned his back on me. I shed my t-shirt and trousers, took a slow breath of the crisp afternoon air, and reached for the wolf inside. Pain flashed through me and when it passed, I was on four legs and covered in fur.

  My eyesight and hearing sharpened at once, and my ears twitched, pinpointing the source of the fresh scent. A small whine escaped my lips. It wasn’t just one, or two. I could make out at least five steps of footsteps. Maybe more.

  Then I looked to Draeven’s stoic face, and the sound died in my throat. If he could stand there, fully human and vulnerable, waiting in silence to face what was coming, then I in my more durable wolf form would, too.

  I scraped at the floor restlessly with one paw, and a tremor ran along my spine, setting my shoulder muscle twitching.

  “Steady.” Draeven’s voice was quieter than the breeze whispering around us, but in this form, I couldn’t miss it. I made a conscious effort to still my muscles, but every one of them remained coiled, ready to defend myself from the coming danger.

  Our wait wasn’t a long one. The scents we’d both detected on the breeze grew stronger, the sounds of approach louder.

  My lupine eyes picked them out before Draeven’s weaker human ones. Six wolves and one human, moving at a steady trot. They did not look like they’d come to negotiate, but then, I hadn’t expected them to. They were here for Draeven, or maybe they were here for us both – it didn’t much matter which. They’d come to kill, but so long as we kept Brad trapped here until the enforcers arrived, our sacrifice would be worth it.

  My heart skipped a beat as I scanned the pack. I snorted, and scanned them again, just to be sure. The human was Laura, and none of the wolves she led was Brad. He hadn’t come.

  I shot a panicked look at Draeven, and he dipped his chin: he’d seen it, too.

  “Easy,” he warned me under his breath, his lips barely moving.

  Easy? The only thing that was easy was going to be how they kicked our arses – and it was going to be for nothing. He’d seen right through us, and he’d sent her instead. A snarl worked its way up my throat, and I didn’t bother to check it. Screw easy. If nothing else, I was going to settle a score with that bitch. She’d stabbed me twice now. It was my turn.

  Her face twisted into a savage sneer as she laid eyes on me. I felt the hair along my back stand on end, forming a sharp ridge that demonstrated the extent of my fury even more than the sound ripping from my throat – but not as much as my teeth would the second she came close enough.

  She slowed to a walk, and the pack slowed to match
her pace.

  “Where’s Brad?” Draeven asked. “I’ll surrender myself, but only to him.”

  Laura laughed; a callous sound outstripped only by her expression.

  “We don’t want your surrender. We want your blood – and we’re more than happy to come and take it.”

  Draeven lifted his chin and spoke a single word.

  “Try.”

  Then he loosed a roar that morphed from human to beast in a split second. I blinked: I’d never seen anyone shift that fast, and from the look on Laura’s face, she hadn’t either. She wasn’t feeling cocky about her six wolves anymore – now, she was wondering if she should have brought more.

  “Don’t just stand there,” she shouted at the wolves surrounding her. “Attack!”

  They raced forward as one, and I tore my eyes from Laura as she started to shift. Beside me, Draeven snarled, and I added my voice to the cacophony. I didn’t care that there were six, soon to be seven, wolves charging us – I was bloody glad he was on my side.

  He surged forward, meeting the charge of a slate grey wolf, and slammed it to the floor. It screamed in pain and writhed under him and as he leapt back, I saw that its front leg was spasming in the air, hanging at a sickening angle where it met the joint. Dislocated, or maybe broken. Either way, the wolf was out of the fight until it healed.

  A russet-coloured wolf raced past him, straight at me, and I crouched low, ready to spring into the air and go for the back of her neck. She saw my intentions when she was still two strides away, and rose up with me, her front legs crashing into mine. She was taller than me and bent her neck to snap at my face. I snarled again, feeling her weight crushing down on me, and ducked my head low to snap at her throat. Her thick fur blocked my grip, but I felt my fangs score the flesh and the wolf leapt back with a snarl of pain.

  She circled me more warily and I turned with her, keeping my teeth between her and my flank. Behind me, I could hear Draeven giving the pack hell, but I didn’t dare take my eyes from the russet wolf. One mistake and she would be on me.