“Thank you.”
“I’m still waiting for an answer,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. I frowned, replaying our conversation and trying to recall a question. “To my job offer.”
Shit. I’d kinda hoped Shaun would have told him about my application to UCL. What I hadn’t wanted was to be face-to-face with the country’s most powerful shifter, and turn down his offer flat. I didn’t get the sense people said no to him often.
Oh well, here went everything.
“I’m sorry, Alpha Draeven, but I’m not going to work for your enforcers.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
He shook his head, looking faintly exasperated.
“Jade, after all this time, do you truly believe me to be so imperceptive that I expect you would work with the people whose very existence offends you?”
“Um…”
“I don’t want you to work for the enforcers. I want you to work against them – as our first paid criminal defence lawyer.”
“You…” I blinked a few times while the words filtered through. “You want to create a job for me? As a lawyer?”
“Do you accept?”
Did I? UCL was waiting, everything I’d ever wanted, everything I’d ever worked for. It was finally within my grasp. But defending Dean, defending Tara, and Ryan, that had meant something, really meant something. In the shifter world, curs had nothing. No status, no protection. No voice if they fell foul of the law. I could change that. And wasn’t that what I’d truly wanted all along – to make a difference to the people who needed me most? Well, and put some smug prosecutors in their place while I did it. Draeven was offering me all of that on a plate.
“Yes, I– Yes. Thank you.”
“Good. Spend the summer with your mate’s pack – I understand there are certain… traditions… in the highland packs – and check in with me in September. You’ll report directly to me.”
Traditions? That was the first I’d heard of this. I glanced over my shoulder at the door, wondering what Cam had been keeping quiet from me.
“Thank you, Alpha Draeven, I will.”
“I’m not done yet.”
I froze, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“It takes courage to step into that courtroom. Next time you do, I’d like it to be on equal footing with those who oppose you. As an alpha.”
“You… you want to make me an alpha?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“No?”
He raised an eyebrow at me, so I answered quickly before he had chance to take offence at me throwing his gift back in his face.
“I mean, I’m honoured, Alpha Draeven, truly I am.”
“But?”
“But I can’t accept. I was brought into this world as a cur, and that made me less in the eyes of other shifters. In my own eyes. But I’m not less, and nor is any other cur. They need someone to look up to, someone to show them they’re worth as much as any other shifter. And I can’t do that as an alpha.”
I risked a glance at Draeven’s face and saw his lips twitch – in what I hoped was amusement. He shook his head.
“You were the first shifter I heard call themselves a cur with pride. I should have known you’d be trouble. Go on, head back to your mate. I’ll see you in September.”
I thanked him and hurried back into the main hall before he could change his mind about that. The eyes of my four friends – five, if you were counting Tara – followed me as I crossed the room. A few more sets of eyes did, too, including Madison’s. In between shooting dirty looks at Mei, that was. It took me a moment to work out why, and when I did, I chuckled aloud. She’d been so quick to dump Dean when he was made a cur last year, and grab the next most powerful guy she could get her claws into. Now Dean was alpha of one of the most powerful packs in the country, and Mei would become the first non-wolf shifter in the history of our kind mated to an alpha. No wonder she was kicking herself.
“Are yer okay, lass?” Cam murmured as I pulled my chair back in something of a daze, and slipped into it.
“What did he want?” Mei asked.
“I… Uh… He offered me a job.” I frowned. “And I accepted.”
“But…” She shared a quick look with Dean, and he said,
“What about UCL?”
I shook my head.
“That’s not my world anymore. Not my dream.”
“Your dream is to work for Alpha Draeven?”
I could understand their confusion. I was feeling pretty confused myself at the pivot my life had taken in the last ten minutes. But I shrugged, affecting as much nonchalance as I could muster.
“Hey, if Draeven wants to pay me to put a bunch of alphas in their place, and save my fellow curs along the way, who am I to argue?”
“Aye, because yer never argue with anyone…”
I elbowed him in the ribs, then narrowed my eyes as I remembered what Draeven had said.
“What’s all this about a highland tradition?”
“Uh, I, uh… I was going tae talk to yer about that.” He squirmed in his seat, and his face turned red. I wasn’t sure which was more adorable – but I wasn’t going to let him know that.
“Come on, spit it out.”
“Well, uh, when we finished – when we graduate, I mean, yer ken? – we, well, those of us who have mates, that is–”
I stifled a snicker. What on earth was he tying himself in knots about? He cleared his throat and tried again.
“Jade Hart, I would like tae present you to my pack. As my mate.”
“But I’ve already met your pack.”
“Nae, it’s a formal introduction, stating my intentions towards you. It doesnae mean yer have to bond with me,” he added quickly, his eyes searching mine. “Yer dinnae have to commit to anything, I’m not trying tae–”
I caught his lips with mine, silencing him. When eventually we broke apart, he turned a hopeful look on me.
“Does that mean…”
“Cam, I would like that very much.”
He made to kiss me again, and I ducked back with a frown.
“Wait, why would that mean I can’t start working for Draeven until September?”
“September?” Cam let out a low whistle. “I didnae ken the alpha held me in such high regard.”
My frown deepened, and Cam continued.
“The presentation goes on fer a while. The more respected the shifter, the longer it lasts. A month is most common.”
“Well, you are very impressive,” I agreed, running one hand down his bicep.
“Nae as impressive as ye, lass.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Leo said, but he couldn’t quite hide his grin. I wasn’t the only one being showered with good news today.
I looked around the circle of my friends. Leo, with his new job where he would no doubt be working closely with Kelsey. Dean and Mei, their futures deeply entwined, and secure ruling over Dean’s pack together, with his sister back in the fold. And Cam, my perfect Cam, the gift I’ve never thought to even ask for.
These last few years had been the strangest of my life, and they hadn’t always gone smoothly. But does life ever, really? Nothing worth having ever comes without a fight, and I’d had plenty of those. And I wouldn’t take back a single one, not if it meant never reaching this moment, at this table, with these shifters. These friends. This family.
I wasn’t feral, and I was no longer cursed, but I would forever be Bitten.
The End
She’s the new kid at a deadly school for druids. Will Lyssa graduate from spellcasting failure to school savior, or is she destined to fatally flunk out?
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A note from the author
Thanks for joining me for Jade’s third and final year at the Sarrenauth Academy of Therianthropy. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you can’t get enough of the Primal Powers universe, click here to check out Dr
uid Academy – The Complete Series and get to know some familiar faces a little better.
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Warning: Contains some spoilers for Feral Magic (Druid Academy Book 2)
Other Titles By C.S. Churton
Druid Academy Series
DRUID MAGIC
FERAL MAGIC
PRIMAL MAGIC
Fur ‘n’ Fang Academy Series
MOON BITTEN
CURSE BITTEN
FERAL BITTEN
TalentBorn Series
AWAKENING
EXILED
DEADLOCK
UNLEASHED
HUNTED
Coming Soon
CHIMERA
Fur 'n' Fang Academy: The Complete Series: A Shifter Academy Adventure Page 66