Their Shifter Academy 2: Unclaimed

by May Dawson

  No matter how broken things were between us, I’d missed this boy.

  “I’m not sure that’s a compliment,” I grumbled.

  “It’s just true,” he said. “You’re unstoppable. It’s something I love and hate about you. Depends on the day.”

  My lips parted—love and hate, huh?—but he went on. “So when we visit my pack, you’ll meet my sister, Rosemary, my mother Sasha, and my father. Things you need to know…”

  “Yes?”

  “Rosemary is seventeen. She should be a senior in high school, but my father pulled her out a while ago.” His jaw tightened. “He’s planning to marry her off. I’ve got to get her out of there somehow.”

  He shook his head. “Anyway, that’s a crisis for another day. Things you need to know about my father: his left eye is glass, so if you need to hurt him, remember where his blind spot is.”

  I cocked my head to one side. Normally, people don’t warn you about the best place to punch their parents. “What happened?”

  “He thought he was alpha material,” Lex said. “The pack alpha didn’t agree.”

  “Ah. Is there anything I need to know about your mother? Crises, blind spots?”

  “Oh, she’s got a big blind spot, but it’s not physical,” he muttered. He raked his hand through his hair; by now, I knew him well enough to know that was his tell when he was emotional. Did he think I’d judge him for his family?

  “Lex,” I said. “I know family is complicated.”

  He shook his head. “Your family is great. They all love you, Maddie.”

  “I’m lucky,” I admitted. “You know I’m not going to judge you by your family, Lex. I like who you are. The fact that maybe you don’t come from the best background…that just makes it more amazing you chose to be a good person.”

  His eyebrows lifted before he reached for the sunglasses in his console. He snapped them open and slipped them on before he asked skeptically, “You think I’m a good person.”

  “I think you’re one of the best people.” I ran my palm over his leg, and he caught my hand in his and raised it to his lips.

  “I don’t know if you’re just getting into character or what,” he said, “but I’ll take it.”

  He wouldn’t believe me if I said I meant it, so I just squeezed his hand before his lips brushed my knuckles. The two of us traded a smile.

  Maybe, just maybe, it was a smile that carried more meaning and trust than before everything went wrong between us.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Lex

  We left the highway and headed down the long country roads that led to my pack’s homes. Most packs didn’t care if other shifters drove through their territory, as long as they stuck to the roads and the populated areas and didn’t run as wolves. My pack was far more particular, but that’s how it is when you run drugs for a living.

  By the time we reached the first house, my pack would know we were coming. I glanced at the house, which would have been almost invisible among the trees to someone who didn’t know what they were looking for; its windows looked dark, the house abandoned, but it wasn’t.

  I took the next turn. The car jolted over rough gravel and pits in the road. Maddie grabbed the dashboard to steady herself.

  “It’s not like your family’s house,” I said, thinking of the big house in Blissford, nestled among the trees.

  I’d loved drinking coffee with Maddie on that wide front porch in the morning, with the breeze carrying the scent of the pines. Sometimes the wind would tease her hair until she sought refuge with her head against my chest, and I’d wrapped my arms around her.

  “Lex,” she said, flashing me an encouraging look, “it’s going to be fine.”

  “Yeah,” I muttered. I wasn’t nervous about betraying my own pack, or the possibility I’d be caught and punished. The pack had put me through hell before, and I was still standing.

  But I worried about bringing Maddie into danger with me.

  And I hated—just as if I’d really brought her home to meet my family—that she’d see where I came from.

  But I’d do whatever it took to bring Eliza’s murderer to justice and to find peace for Jensen and Will. It didn’t matter if it cost some of my pride.

  We turned off the dark country road into my parents’ driveway. The cabin looked the worse for wear. I’d painted it when I was in high school, one hot summer. I’d balanced on the ladder as sweat trickled into my eyes. It was already peeling, revealing strips of weathered wood beneath.

  There were no cars in the pitted gravel driveway. My father must be out. Mom and Rosemary didn’t drive. At least I didn’t have to deal with him yet.

  “Lex?” Maddie looked at me curiously.

  “Yeah.” Pretending as if I hadn’t been staring at the house, I got out of the car and went around to open her door.

  Then I popped the trunk before slinging our new overnight bags over my shoulder. At the department store near the hotel, we’d each picked up a weekend’s worth of clothing and toiletries. We didn’t want to draw any suspicion.

  And we’d also bought her engagement ring, which had been trippy as hell. Both Maddie and I had pretended it didn’t matter as we stood around the glass cases, trying to pick something quickly, but I’d never forget what kinds of rings had made her eyes light up.

  The front door was still closed as I reached to take Maddie’s hand. Maybe no one was home. Her fingers wrapped around mine firmly, and together the two of us walked up the steps.

  My mother’s dozens of plants, hanging in pots from the ceiling or lining the porch in plastic planters, filled the tiny space with chaotic green beauty. The scent of damp earth and growing things filled the air.

  I didn’t want to just barge into my childhood home, even though any shifter would’ve known we were on their property long before I reached out and tapped my knuckles on the door.

  After a pause, my mother opened the door. Her cheeks were pinched and lined like an old woman’s even though her hair still fell in dark waves around her face. She looked far older than the picture in my head, and my heart lurched.

  “Hi, Jacob,” she said. She was the only one who called me by my birth name instead of my nickname.

  “Hi, Mom.” Awkwardly, I stepped in to hug her, although she still blocked the door.

  Even though she hadn’t moved to hug me first, once she wrapped her arms around me, she clung to me tightly. I inhaled her familiar scent of earth and greenery and bitter coffee. She used to smell like home.

  “I missed you,” she murmured. “You stay away from home too long.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. Pretending everything was normal and fine, I turned back to Maddie. “I brought my girlfriend home with me.”

  She looked at Maddie curiously, as if she wanted to ask why, but my mother never asked many questions. “Your father’s waiting for you down at the bar.”

  “You called him already?”

  “He’s my husband,” she said.

  Same reason she’d always picked him over Rosemary and me. We were just her children who depended on her. Or at least, we used to.

  Maddie held her hand out to my mother, smiling at her disarmingly. “I’m Maddie. Nice to meet you.”

  They shook hands. Still standing in the doorway, surrounded by the riot of plants, I added, “Mom has quite the green thumb. She can grow almost anything.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Maddie said.

  “What’s your claim to fame?” My mother asked her lightly. “Besides being pretty?”

  Maddie was incredibly special, with her bravery and quick wit, but she just smiled. “I guess I don’t really have one.”

  I shifted the bags on my shoulder. “Could we stay for a few days?”

  “Why didn’t you call?” My mother scolded. “I barely have groceries in the house.”

  “Sorry. Spontaneous trip.” Flashing her a grin, I lifted Maddie’s hand in mine and turned it to face my mother. The ring flashed under the porch light
s.

  My mother gasped. “Oh, Jacob.”

  I let my smile dim. “That’s not really the reaction anyone hopes for.”

  “You’d better go to the bar and talk to your father,” she said.

  Great. I wanted to get answers as soon as possible, but I’d rather deal with my father privately before I tried to talk to anyone else in the pack. An audience always brought out his worst. “Now? We drove hours, Mom.”

  “I’ll be here when you two come back,” she assured me. “It’ll give me the chance to make something for you all to eat.”

  “Where’s Rosemary?” I demanded.

  “She’s at the bar too, if you want to go see her.”

  Shock jarred my chest. “Rosemary’s working at the bar? Mom. She’s seventeen.”

  My mother threw her hands up in the air. “She’s not a little girl anymore, Jacob. You don’t need to protect her.”

  “Bullshit I don’t.”

  “It was so nice meeting you,” Maddie said to my mother. She tugged gently on my hand, looking up at me with her eyes full of warmth and affection, and my heart lurched again for entirely different reasons.

  The two of us got back into the car, and I braced my hand on the back of her seat, twisting to look over my shoulder as I backed down the dark driveway.

  “What’s this bar like?” Maddie asked.

  “Dangerous.” The road behind us was dark, no headlights, so I backed out. We drove on even further into pack territory. “No place for my sister, that’s for damn sure.”

  My hands tightened on the steering wheel. I talked to Rosemary briefly every week to make sure she was okay. Even though we didn’t get along very well anymore, it hurt she hadn’t told me.

  The parking lot around the bar was full of cars, this time on a weekend evening. Lights and music spilled out of the long wooden building.

  “Stay close,” I told Maddie as I cut the ignition. “Some of the guys may try to separate us.”

  “Well, I’m not going to wander far from the man I love.” She touched my hand, still on the gear shift.

  “You sure can sell it,” I told her, my voice flat.

  She leaned over the center console and touched my cheek, turning my face to hers. When she leaned into me, I closed my eyes so I could focus all my senses on the softness of her lips against mine.

  There had to be someone watching, there had to be a reason. But at least I could have this moment. Her lips pressed mine like she loved me all over again. My hand slipped against her shoulder, then caught her, as I kissed her back.

  Then I pulled away and got out of the car. By the time I came around to open her door, she was already standing in the muddy parking lot. The ground almost seemed to pulse under our feet with the music.

  Hand-in-hand, the two of us walked into the wolves’ den.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Maddie

  When we walked into the bar, it was smoky and dim. Lex’s fingers tightened around mine. The music played on, loud as ever, but every gaze shifted our way, and conversations broke off.

  Lex’s gaze fixed on a man who sat at the back of the room, surrounded by other men and looking as if he was holding court. The pack alpha?

  But he had Lex’s bright eyes in a weathered face.

  “Son!” Lex’s dad sounded thrilled as he stood from his chair. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

  “Yes sir, holiday from school.” Lex shook his hand. Apparently, they weren’t hugging types.

  “And for once, that academy isn’t keeping you busy?” He asked the question with a sly note in his voice. Lex didn’t go home often, apparently.

  “Always, sir.” Lex pretended not to hear it. “But I wanted to bring my girlfriend home. My fiancée, actually, if that’s all right with you and the alpha.”

  His father’s gaze roamed my face, then dropped lower, before he held his hand out to me. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Rand.”

  “Maddie.”

  His father’s gaze shifted to Lex’s consideringly. I could guess what he was thinking. I was a pack princess, and possibly someday, I’d be a queen like my sister. Given how Piper controlled three packs, I’d have a host of shifter suitors these days if I weren’t at the academy.

  I might be scrubbing floors and getting my ass kicked in the pit from now until graduation, if Rafe had his way, but I was still grateful to be there. I was glad to have something else to be besides be a princess.

  “Where’s Rosemary?” Lex asked.

  “Around. Sit with me, have a drink.”

  “Let me say hi to Rosemary first,” Lex said. “I haven’t seen her in months.”

  There was an edge of genuine worry in his voice that he didn’t have to fake.

  “Sit down,” Rand repeated. The men at our table got up, taking their beers and nodding goodbye. Some of them clapped Lex on the shoulder as they left.

  Lex hesitated, his jaw tensing. Then he pulled a chair out for me, a smile plastered across his face. I could feel eyes on us, watching to see what would happen next.

  “So, I imagine you want to talk to the alpha, get his blessing,” Rand said.

  “That was my plan.” Lex took the chair next to mine, which meant he sat with his back to the room. Rand’s chair was against the wall on the other side of the table. Unease crept up my spine.

  “What’s the rush?” His dad asked lightly. He glanced at me, and his gaze lingered on my stomach. I crossed my arms in front of my chest. The way he looked at me made me feel unsettled. “I heard the two of you broke up at the end of the summer.”

  “Word gets around,” Lex said tightly.

  “It’s a small world,” his father returned.

  Right. He was staring at my stomach because he thought I might be pregnant. He must assume that was why we were getting married after our earlier drama.

  I rested my hand on Lex’s thigh, giving him a gentle squeeze, and he leaned in toward me, his face intent. Into his ear, I whispered, “Should we give your dad the good news? That he’s going to be a grandpa?”

  To Lex’s credit, his face didn’t change at all. He nodded slowly, as if he agreed. “All right. No sense waiting.”

  “What is it, son?” Rand asked.

  “Maddie is expecting,” Lex said. “Well, we’re expecting.”

  “Congratulations,” he said.

  A sudden gleam in his eye made my sixth sense tingle. I didn’t trust him. But was that because he was a danger to us now? Or because he was just an unreliable asshole?

  The team was waiting just outside pack territory, ready to storm in if we needed them. But it would take them time to get all the way to here. At least an hour. If they came any closer, the Kierney pack would know.

  “Oh, good.” Rand’s gaze fixed beyond us. “The alpha’s here. Convenient.”

  A shiver of tension passed through the room. I twisted in my seat. A tall, heavyset man with a faded red beard had just come in the door. He made his way around the room toward us, greeting some people with handshakes and claps on the shoulder.

  “Stand up, Lex,” Rand prompted him.

  Lex stood and the two of us held hands as the alpha approached. I started to greet him, and Lex caught my eye, shaking his head.

  Rand introduced us to the alpha. He went from sounding arrogant to being subservient, reminding me all over again why I loved my sisters’ mates—and why the rest of the shifter world worried me.

  The alpha eyeballed me curiously, and Rand added, “The girl is pregnant.”

  The girl. He’d literally just heard my name, but now I was the girl. Fucking shifters.

  “Congratulations,” the alpha said to Lex. “Well then, I suppose I have to give you my blessing. Saint Cain already has.”

  Lex started to say something, but his attention was pulled to the girl who sashayed out from behind the bar. She had Lex’s bright blue eyes, chiseled cheekbones and determined jaw, but she still looked baby-faced.

  Rosemary. Long, shiny brown hair, carefull
y curled, hung around her shoulders, and her tank top dipped low to reveal a flash of her small breasts.

  “Maybe we’ll have two weddings to celebrate,” Rand said.

  Lex looked at him hard, a spark of fury in his eyes. Fortunately, Rand and the alpha were distracted by their conversation, as if they’d dismissed the two of us already.

  The two of them took seats at the table, and I sat again reluctantly, even though my muscles felt restless for a fight. It took Lex a beat to catch up.

  “Hey, big brother.” Rosemary plunked down four mugs of beer on the table before she slipped her tray under her arm and leaned in to give him a hug. I caught of a whiff of vanilla perfume with her movement. “Long time no see.”

  “You didn’t tell me you were working at the bar.” His voice came out flat.

  “Because I knew you wouldn’t like it.” She smiled at him playfully. “Who’d you bring home?”

  Before Lex could finish introducing the two of us, the alpha gestured her over, grinning, and she slipped into his lap.

  Lex was so tense that a muscle in his jaw rippled. Stay focused, I begged him silently. We could help his sister later, if she even wanted help. Maybe she liked the pack alpha.

  But she perched on his thigh uncomfortably, with a fake smile plastered on her face that didn’t reach her eyes. He absently patted her hip as he talked to Rand and to the other men who began to approach the table.

  A shifter pulled out the chair next to the alpha one-handed, while he smoked a cigarette, and Lex’s gaze sharpened on him.

  Lex leaned forward, holding out his hand. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

  “We haven’t.” The shifter, who looked to be in his late twenties, stared him down without smiling, but he stuck out his hand. “Maddox Leon.”

  “Jacob.” I’d never heard him say his name without adding but everyone calls me Lex.

  I studied Maddox, curious what had caught Lex’s attention. He was young enough that he could’ve been the alpha’s son like the man we were looking for, but there hadn’t been a Leon in Eliza’s patrol.