by May Dawson
If Faro’s pack ever connected the demon-bear with the attempt to protect me, instead of believing it was yet another random, hate-filled witch attack, they’d want me dead like they wanted to murder Jensen.
We emerged a while later in a clearing with a big stone house. A long driveway stretched through the trees.
“How long have you lived here?” I asked.
“We moved in the middle of my senior year of high school,” he said. “Eliza was dead, and my father wanted to get out of our old house. And of course, this was the chance at a position where he’d be even more important…as long as he did what people wanted him to do.”
There was a bitter edge in his voice.
“Do you think they wanted him to collect all that stuff about Eliza and her patrol?”
His gaze flickered to me. He hesitated, then said, “No. I’m surprised he bothered.”
He keyed in his access code and seemed to exhale when the lock actually clicked open. Well. He and his dad sure seemed to have a stellar relationship.
The house was big and empty. He moved through it briskly, getting money and weapons from a back bedroom, before he grabbed a set of car keys from a bowl next to the door to the garage. I followed him into a three-bay garage with a Range Rover and a BMW.
“Dad must have taken the Audi. Good.” He hit the unlock button on the Rover, and its lights flashed as it beeped. He popped the trunk and threw our bags into it, and I slipped my backpack off my shoulder to toss it in.
“What happened to your car?” I asked.
“It’s really Will’s car, but he passed it down to me,” he said. “I let Chase borrow it.”
“That was nice of you.” My voice came out full of doubt.
He must’ve picked up on the note in my voice, because one corner of his mouth twisted. “That’s me. Saint Jensen.”
He climbed into the driver’s seat, and as I slid into the smooth leather of the passenger seat, I had a brief out-of-body experience.
Am I really getting into Jensen’s car to watch his back while he works out his inner demons?
Well, to work out a few of them. Jensen seems to have millions of inner demons.
Jensen was right. I was an idiot.
I could text Lex right now and shut this whole shit-show down before it went any further.
Jensen would never forgive me, but worse, what if I guessed wrong and the team wouldn’t actually have his back? I frowned. Lex and Rafe weren’t perfect, but I couldn’t imagine them ignoring Jensen’s mission, even though that was clearly what he expected.
“You going to close your door or are we just driving off like that?” Jensen asked as he started the engine.
I swung the door shut, leaving my common sense parked outside.
Chapter Fifteen
Penn
When Tyson and I got off the plane, my dad’s truck was waiting on the curb. For a second, my heart lifted. I thought he wasn’t feeling well enough to drive anymore.
But Mel flew around the front of the truck and jumped into Tyson’s arms, wrapping her arms and her legs around him so that she clung there like a baby koala. “Honey!”
For just a second, his arms didn’t close around her.
Then he hugged her. “Hey, Mel.”
He planted a kiss on the top of her head before she slid down his body like pancakes flopping out of a skillet.
She frowned, then moved on. Typical Mel, moving fast and talking fast, covering up all the tension.
“No hug for your little brother?” I asked drily. Mel was just a year older than me, but she didn’t have to attend the academy. My father would never send his precious daughter, his pack princess.
“Of course I have hugs for you,” she said, throwing her arms around me too.
I hugged her tight. Nothing was simple when I came home anymore, but just for a second, it reminded me of when we were kids. We’d fought like crazy, but we got along even more than we fought. Now, it felt as though we were strangers.
We threw our bags into the truck, and even though it would piss off my dad, I got into the backseat of the cab.
Let Tyson talk to his girlfriend. Or his ex-girlfriend. Whatever she was. It seemed like maybe they didn’t know either.
On the way home, Mel caught us both up on what had happened lately in the pack. I half-listened. I’d been away during the summer too. I’d worked for another alpha in the mid-west since Dad hoped our packs would form strong ties.
I’d liked being away.
“How’s Dad?” I interrupted.
She shrugged. “He’ll be glad to see you. The golden boy.”
“Whatever, Mel.”
It would be easier if I was the firstborn. Then she wouldn’t be so pissed about the fact I was supposed to be alpha.
She pulled a face. It just pissed her off more that I didn’t care about being Dad’s favorite, that I didn’t want to be the alpha.
She didn’t realize how much it sucked to have the weight of all those expectations.
Whenever our father did pass, along with my grief, I’d have to deal with the challengers for alpha.
I’d have to fight and kill, for something I didn’t even want, or I’d dishonor my father’s legacy. The thought made dread settle in my stomach.
Jensen had gone after me before about how I wanted to be a lone wolf. I just wanted to be free of everyone.
And yet, when Maddie’s body seared to mine, when my lips were against hers, I could feel the ties slipping around the two of us, binding us together, even if I knew I should keep us both free…
“Tell me about school,” Mel finally said as we turn into the compound. Lots of the pack lived outside, but our parents raised us here, surrounded by other wolves. Mel had never lived outside these walls in her life.
Her life had sucked in a completely different set of ways than mine.
Silence hung. When I didn’t answer, eventually Tyson picked up the slack. “It’s good.”
“I heard you’re in the misfit patrol, Penn.” She smiled at me over her shoulder.
“Don’t,” I warned her, sitting forward between the seats. Of course she’d want to piss me off, but if Dad heard, it was going to stress him out.
And every time he stressed, he died a little faster.
Her lips parted. Tyson glanced at me in the rearview mirror, a quick flicker of his eyes that seemed to gauge too much. He slipped his hand across his thigh. “He’s right. Let’s have a good visit. We’re only here four days.”
She brightened just a little at his touch. She probably had her own idea of what constituted a good visit. They’d dated for what felt like forever, but Dad had never let it go any further than, well, Tyson’s hand patting her thigh like it was now.
When the truck came to a stop in front of the alpha’s house, the big one at the center of the dozen houses that ringed the compound, I bolted out of the car.
“I’ll put your bag in your room,” Tyson said.
Behind me, Mel told him, “You don’t have to do that.”
“It’s not a rank thing,” Tyson said. “Jesus, Mel, not everything is about that. I’m trying to be nice.”
“Nice?” she sounded skeptical. “Is that what they teach you guys at the academy?”
“Unfortunately not,” he said drily.
The front door was unlocked, as always, and I let myself in. A medicinal scent tainted the house, a faint tang of copper and antiseptic. I headed for the stairs before Dad’s voice caught me, low and husky in a way it never was before.
“In here, son.”
He was in the living room, in a transplanted hospital bed. When I left, he was still doing his best to put on a show for the pack. Now there was no hiding it. My old man was dying.
I didn’t trust my voice, so I just hugged him hello, being careful of the IV and the wires.
“Tell me all about school,” he said, his voice gravelly. He patted the bedspread, but I poured him a cup of water since he sounded funny. He shook hi
s head when I offered it to him. “Come on. I want to hear all about it.”
“I’m in a patrol with that pack princess,” I said. “And Tyson’s on my team.”
“Good, the two of you can look out for each other.”
“We’ll get our review marks when we get back from this weekend, but I think I’m doing good with all my classes.”
“Of course. You’re smart.”
He said it matter-of-factly, not proudly. He’d never valued how easily school came for me.
He talked about how there was a difference between being wise and being smart. He prided himself on being wise. He’d joked sometimes about how he hadn’t meant to fall in love with a woman as smart as my mother. He’d usually been affectionate when he said it.
“So, tell me about the princess. Are you two still getting to know each other?”
God, he wanted me to date Maddie badly. Everything that had happened between Maddie and me was natural, but when he asked these questions, it sounded so dirty.
“She’s a good friend,” I said.
Understanding flickered in his eyes, as if he read between the lines. His eyes looked shrunken in his face, which had changed since I saw it last; he’d always been such a big man, but now he was nothing but bone, his muscle wasted away. Even his cheeks had caved in.
We could fight monsters, but the biggest monster was cancer, and there was no stopping it, not this late.
“A good friend,” he repeated. “But you haven’t been friend-zoned?”
I shook my head as I tried to change the subject. “She’s loyal, kind, smart. It’s taken some time for our team to gel, but I think it’s starting to work out.”
“Do you think you could claim her…”
“Maybe she’ll do her own claiming,” I shot back. “She seems to know her own mind.”
“It would be good to bring her back here,” he mused. “You as alpha, with your own pack princess by your side, ready to breed the next generation. It’ll help cement your standing.”
Nausea roiled through my stomach, as if the dread became its own sickness. “Dad, I don’t want to talk about when you die—”
“It’s going to happen whether we talk about it or not.”
“I know, but I’ve been home ten minutes. Can’t we just make small talk before we go into pack politics and who’s going to challenge me and how I’m going to hold on and oh, yeah, your imminent demise?”
“It’s your birthright,” he said.
“I know. I’m aware.” I’d heard it many, many times before.
“And it’s not that imminent,” he grumbled. “I can hold on a while longer.”
“Christmas?” It would mean a lot to Mel to have one more Christmas with him. To me, too.
“Thanksgiving,” he said, as if it was a negotiation, and maybe for him, it was. I could believe that old bastard could fight through anything.
“I’ll hold you to it, but I really want Christmas.”
For a minute, the tension between us eased.
“Did you sleep with her?”
“Dad!”
“Come on. If you won’t tell your alpha, tell your dying dad. All I want is to know you’re going to be settled, that you’ll take care of the pack and your sister.”
“Of course I will.” I didn’t need to manipulate Maddie into a relationship, no matter what my father thought.
“And it’ll sure help if you claim that younger Northsea girl like I told you.”
Behind me, there was a faint rustle, and I turned. Shit. Tyson. His face in profile gave no sign of what he’d just heard, but tension spiraled through my stomach. He was already heading up the stairs, carrying my bag for me.
Mel closed the front door quietly behind her.
“I’ll get you guys something for dinner.” She was playing the role my father liked her to. “You must be hungry after your trip.”
“I’m fine,” I said. I pulled back, starting to tell my father that I’d wash up from the trip, then come back down.
His hand flashed out and grabbed my arm. “Did you?”
I hesitated, but his eyes were so hungry for my answer. He really thought it mattered, and I could put his mind at ease while he was dying. Since he didn’t believe I was enough on my own.
“Yeah.”
His eyes lit up with triumph. He released me. “Good. Good work, son.”
“It’s not like that,” I said, guilt crawling through my stomach. It didn’t matter, though.
That was how everyone would see it.
Chapter Sixteen
Lex
“Stay awake, man.” I smacked Rafe’s chest, and he snorted as his eyes opened.
Earlier in the night, we had stopped at a diner for a late dinner and switched drivers. Thank Cain. Rafe had been weaving across the road like he was going to kill the three of us.
Dani leaned forward between the seats. “Let the poor man sleep. You two are so exhausted from wearing out those poor cadets.”
“Trust me, they’re wearing us out,” Rafe grumbled, closing his eyes again as he leaned back in his seat. “I’m pretty sure no one else has had such a collection of trainwrecks…”
“Our instructors, maybe?” I asked, and Dani grinned. Her big smile seemed out of proportion to the joke, and I glanced at Rafe. No, man, don’t leave me alone with her. I’d rather start a familiar argument all over again. “Anyway, you picked them.”
“You picked the biggest pain in the ass for our team,” he mumbled, rubbing his hand over his face.
“I like her,” Dani said.
“He didn’t say which one it was,” I said.
“No, Dani’s right.” Rafe pulled his baseball cap low over his eyes. “Jensen is a close second, but Maddie just barely edged him out this week.”
“You’re the one who’s all about seeing their potential,” I reminded him.
“I’ll have a lot more capacity for recognizing their potential once I’ve had ten hours of sleep, half-a-dozen donuts, and the chance to have an entire conversation without a smart-ass remark and a sir thrown in at the end.”
His grouchy words hung in the air.
“You’re right,” I said to Dani. “We should let him sleep.”
It wasn’t long before Rafe snored softly again.
“So, what will you do next year?” she asked. “When you graduate the academy? Will you go back to your pack?”
Hopefully not. I desperately wanted to serve with the Council’s Own, but I didn’t know if I’d be invited.
“Usually, everyone returns to their own pack and joins the patrols there. But when the packs have to come together, we know each other, we have standardized protocols. Hopefully, eventually, we’ll be more effective fighting back against the wi—covens.” It seemed like an important distinction to make, since she was a witch, but not our enemy.
She smiled. “Thank you.”
“Did you go to the Hunters’ academy as a student before you became faculty?” I asked.
She nodded.
“So how did a witch find her way into the Hunters’ academy?” Hunters aren’t always friendly to shifters, but they certainly don’t care for witches.
“I wasn’t given a choice. I misspent my youth. I was on the run for a while, and I made plenty of powerful witch enemies because, I don’t know, I have a face people love to hate.” She pursed her lips in a self-deprecating smile, and I wondered about the parts of her life she’d just skimmed over.
She went on, “Eventually, someone from the academy convinced me they didn’t want to execute me. They wanted to use me.”
“That sounds better than being murdered, but not all that pleasant.”
“Well, it wasn’t,” she said. “At first. But now they seem to accept me as one of their own. I like the work, and I like being a part of something so important. It turns out, we humans are all pack animals.”
“How’d you feel about the swap, and coming to our academy?” I’d been irritated Will accepted an assign
ment like that, which seemed inherently dangerous to me. The Hunters couldn’t be trusted. The truce between Hunters and shifters probably wouldn’t last long once we eliminated the common threat of the covens.
“Not great,” she admitted. “I was a little worried someone would eat me.”
“It’s bad manners to eat a guest.”
“You’ll have to forgive me not trusting my mortality to werewolf manners.” Her voice was amused, taking any sting from her words.
“We’re not any different than you all, really.”
Her eyes were warm when I caught a glimpse of them in the rearview mirror. She rested her hand on my shoulder, and my hands tensed on the wheel. “Very different, believe me. I grew up in a coven, Lex. They were power-hungry and cruel. Nothing like you.”
“You’re not like them either.” She certainly wasn’t power hungry or cruel.
“Oh?” she said. “Then why do I make you so nervous?”
“You don’t make me nervous.”
She leaned over the console, running her hand from my shoulder down to my right hand on the steering wheel. She ran her fingertips meaningfully over my white, taut knuckles as she flashed me a look of challenge.
“It’s not because I don’t trust you,” I said. “If I didn’t, believe me, I wouldn’t go with you to the Hunters’ academy.”
“Fair enough,” she said.
She leaned back, her touch falling away. My heart beat too quickly, even though that made no sense. Dani was no danger to me.
“Tell me what it’s like being a witch in a Hunter’s world,” I said.
“I like to think it’s my world, actually.” She smiled at me.
The two of us made small talk as I drove us through the night toward the academy. She was funny, and I could see why Rafe liked her.
“Do you want me to drive for a while?” she asked when I started to pull over for gas. “You must be as tired as this guy.”
She patted Rafe’s shoulder. I was pretty sure he had a crush on her, so it was too bad he wasn’t awake to enjoy it.