Found: A Reverse Harem Academy Shifter Bully Romance (Thornbriar Academy Series Book 1)

by Cali Mann

  Well, I’d gotten used to it. I barely remembered what my parents looked like. Black hair and dark green eyes like me I supposed. Sometimes I could hear my mother’s voice, and I think she used to sing me to sleep. I wondered if they still looked for me, or if I’d been presumed dead. Had they been shifters like me? You’d think if they’d been magical, they’d have had some way to find me. Some tracking skill or something. Maybe they were dead.

  My heart ached at the thought. Had I still somehow held on to the hope that they were out there? That they’d come and try to rescue me like Mr. Reed? Stupid. That’s what Rose would have called me, and she’d have been right.

  I slipped under the covers and closed my eyes. Tomorrow was Thursday, laundry day for Hastings House. My best bet of getting out undetected was to climb aboard the truck or hide in the bin. I needed to get on laundry duty.

  I could do this on my own. I didn’t need Mr. Reed or his promises. My stomach swirled uneasily. Did I?

  3

  Hailey

  At some point in the planning process, I must have drifted off to sleep. I’d been running with another wolf in my dream this time, a reddish brown animal. We howled and chased the rabbits across the grass . . . until a sound blared out louder than the howling, and I sat up in bed. Red lights flashed at all the windows. The wardens appeared at the doorways beckoning the girls to follow them. Groups of sniffling children and young women moved toward them, including Cassie and Rose.

  I ignored them and ran to the windows. People in blue and white police gear streamed across the lawn under the full moon. The four rottweilers and the guards had been lined up to the side of the drive. Metal cages held the dogs, and the guards kneeled with their hands at their backs. Why had the cops come? Had someone reported what this place really was? Had Mr. Reed? My heart knocked against my rib cage. Glancing back at the wardens and the girls departing the room, I grinned. I didn’t really care why the police were here. This was my chance.

  I yanked a navy blue dress over my nightgown and pulled on some shoes. Looking around, I was glad I had no possessions. Nothing to take. Nothing to worry about. I ran to the window and unhooked the latch. I’d learned to climb the metal piping almost from the moment I’d arrived. It was always good to have an escape route. I’d shown Cassie when she first turned up too, but she’d been too frightened to try it.

  Clamping down on my useless concern for the other girls, I shimmied down the piping and dove into a nearby bush. The front yard was illuminated by the police cars’ flashing lights, and the back was awash with moonlight, but there were plenty of hiding places for those who knew the territory. Rabbits and squirrels darted ahead of me, running from the wolf who still lurked within.

  I hid in bushes and behind trees as I picked my way across the side and front yard. It helped that the police were focused on the main house. A policewoman wandered close to my bush with her flashlight out, but I waited, still and silent, until she passed. I held my breath as the scent of her sweat and nervousness tripped over me. She must be new.

  As soon as she was gone, I took off for the main gate. It was wide open. I grinned, tasting freedom for the first time in my life.

  Glancing back and forth, I darted through the gate and down the gravel drive to the main road. There weren’t any other houses nearby, much of the property around us was undeveloped.

  When I reached the main road, I skidded to a stop. The asphalt stretched out in either direction, and I had no idea which might lead to town and which didn’t. Beyond the road, woods continued up the hill, and the moon hung low in the sky.

  A howl echoed down through the trees, and my wolf eyes could just make out the blur of red on the wooded slope. The red wolf was real? Was he Mr. Reed or some other wolf who’d heard me? I stepped toward him, onto the blacktop.

  When I’d run with the wolves in my dreams, I’d been free. Finally able to choose what and who I could to be, I knew that’s what I wanted. I wanted to smell the fresh pine and hunt rabbits and dance under the stars. Tears wet my cheeks, and I took another step toward the red wolf.

  Roaring filled my ears as a dark car sped toward me. I froze, blinking at the over-bright headlights. The car skidded to a stop in front of me, and the door flung open.

  “Get in,” Mr. Reed hollered.

  I frowned at him and glanced back at the slope. “But the red wolf?”

  “He’s here?” Mr. Reed asked, scanning the forest behind himself.

  He smelled like fear, like the rookie cop I’d run across earlier. Why would another wolf shifter scare him? Weren’t they all on the same team?

  Loud voices came from the path behind me.

  “I see her!” a man shouted, and boots crunched gravel.

  “Get her,” said another.

  Mr. Reed held out a hand. “Please, Hailey, get in.”

  Glancing back and forth between the police and the red wolf, I grimaced and climbed into the sleek sports car. I’d barely closed the door when Mr. Reed slammed on the gas and we were in motion. The wheels squealed on the pavement, and I smelled the burned rubber.

  Looking back through the window, I saw the police officers running towards their cars. They’d never catch us. My gaze was tugged back to the forest. But he might.

  “Who is the red wolf?” I asked, squeezing and releasing my hands in my lap.

  “Kaiden Hartsman,” Mr. Reed said, staring at the road ahead of us.

  He had a death grip on the wheel, which I appreciated, since we hadn’t slowed from our hundred miles per hour speed. A hard pit sat in my stomach. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to open the window and hang my head out in the breeze or throw up. “And who is he?”

  “A very bad . . .” Mr. Reed glanced over at me and then back at the road. “Creature.”

  “He’s a wolf shifter like . . . us?”

  Mr. Reed grimaced. “Not exactly.”

  I frowned. How was Kaiden different? “What is he?”

  “The headmaster will explain everything when you are safely ensconced in Thornbriar Academy. Right now, we need to lose him.”

  I glanced back through the rear window. “Is he following us?”

  Mr. Reed nodded tightly. “I expect so.” He exhaled. “But we can outrun him; he’s on foot.”

  “Did you call the police?”

  “No.”

  My eyebrows drew together. I had been sure it was a distraction so he could rescue me after all. Biting my lip, I hoped the police freed the other girls and took them home. Especially Cassie. She hadn’t been gone so long that her parents would have stopped looking. “Were my parents shifters?”

  “Likely,” he said. “Now hush. I have to concentrate.”

  We took a sharp turn out of the woods and into town. The car slowed as we joined the flow of traffic. There seemed to be a festival going on, as some roads were blocked and large groups of people gathered around tents pitched on the green spaces. Music spilled from the tents, and I grinned. I wanted to jump out and dance. It’d been so long since I’d done something for fun.

  Looking down at my dress, torn from my run through the bushes, I frowned. I’d be instantly recognizable. “I wish I had other clothes.”

  Mr. Reed snorted and gestured toward the back seat. “I grabbed something for you in the back.”

  Climbing over the seat into the back, I opened the bag and stared at the ragged jeans and tee shirt. I couldn’t help the grin that spread over my face as I slipped on the clothes. He hadn’t included a bra or panties so I had to keep the scratchy ones from Hasting’s House, but it was worth it. The feel of real blue jeans and soft jersey was amazing. Even if they were old and shabby, I felt like a real girl again.

  “There’re sneakers in there too,” he said, eyes still on the road as he dodged drunk pedestrians.

  I pulled out the well-loved sneakers and socks and kicked off the impractical ballet slippers. My feet felt heavier with them on, but sturdier. I could run and run in these. The thought settled into me, and I knew
what I had to do.

  When the car jerked to a stop at a red light, I flung open the door and hopped out. I took off through the crowd, dodging the dancers, and headed into the thickest section of the partygoers. The smell of fried chicken, beer, and sweaty humans assaulted my nose, but I only laughed. I was free. My toes picked up the beat, and I started to dance, my long black hair swirling around me. Closing my eyes, I allowed the music to soak into me.

  A man jostled me, and my eyes snapped open.

  “All alone out here, sweetheart?” he asked. His fat chin was dotted with whiskers.

  My wolf growled, and he blinked stupidly at me.

  “I’m always up for partying with a pretty young thing like you.” Swinging an arm around my shoulders, he tried to pull me toward him. Alcohol fumes washed over me, and I gagged.

  Kicking out with my foot, I slammed his shin, and he fell forward. With a gasping breath, I shoved my palm against the tip of his bulbous nose. Blood gushed over my hand and he squealed, backing away.

  I smiled after him, satisfied. I wasn’t easy prey.

  A hand came down on my shoulder, and I turned, ready to attack again. I met Mr. Reed’s gaze.

  “That’s enough,” he said with an unyielding tone.

  My heart beating rapidly with the adrenaline, I kicked out toward his shin. Faster than I could blink, he grabbed my throat with his other hand. Snarling, I stared up at him. My entire body thrummed with the need to strike out, to assert my dominance.

  He squeezed my throat just a little bit, letting me know that he could cut off my air supply. I bowed my head slightly and cast my gaze to the ground.

  “Let’s go,” he grumbled, released my neck, and grabbed my arm instead. He yanked me out of the festival and down a dark street to his black sports car. This time he pushed me into the backseat and clicked the child safety locks. Then, he climbed in the front and sped away toward the highway.

  I stared at the white lines on the road. Trapped. Again.

  “I’m doing this for your own good,” Mr. Reed said with a sigh. “You need what Thornbriar can teach you.”

  I pressed the button on the door, and the window rolled down half-way. The cool night breeze rolled over me. From one kind of imprisonment to another. It didn’t feel much different to me.

  4

  Hailey

  As the car rode along—at a saner speed—I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew I was being hustled on board a small airplane. “Where are we?”

  “On our way to the academy,” Mr. Reed said, pushing me into a seat and then sliding into the adjacent one.

  Facing us was a woman in a green suit with kind amber eyes. Her black curls had been cut close to her head, but it didn’t make her look severe the way the wardens did. I wondered sleepily if she was a kind of warden for Thornbriar Academy and if maybe her eyes weren’t as kind as they looked.

  “Did we lose him?” I asked.

  The woman’s gaze darted sharply to Mr. Reed, and I smelled the whiff of fear. Why did the red wolf scare these people so badly? What had he done?

  Mr. Reed patted my hand. “Yes. He’s gone.”

  I leaned back in the warm leather seat and closed my eyes again.

  * * *

  What seemed like seconds later, Mr. Reed shook me awake. I growled at him, but he laughed good-naturedly and placed a tray of hot food in front of me. When I caught the scent of steak and mashed potatoes, saliva pooled and I grabbed the silver fork.

  Mr. Reed grinned at me as I shoveled the food in my mouth. When I finished, he handed me an embroidered cloth napkin. The letters “TB” were monogrammed in gray and green on the lower right corner.

  Thornbriar Academy. I shivered. I hadn’t had any education at Hastings House. The last time I went to school, I’d been in the first grade. I was lucky that I knew how to read and write. My mother had been a big reader, and she’d encouraged my love of books. I’d read anything I could get my hands on at Hastings House: newspapers, cereal boxes, and a few random books the wardens left lying around. Doe Eyes had been partial to murder mysteries, and Hawk Nose liked romances. Go figure.

  Still, other than a decent vocabulary, I’d be way behind the other students, both magically and academically. “How old do kids usually start Thornbriar?”

  The woman smiled, her red lips bright against her brown skin. “Children are enrolled at fourteen or fifteen—”

  My face must have fallen, because her smile wavered.

  “But they stay until they turn twenty-one and we can be sure that they have control over their shift and their beasts.”

  Twenty-one? My heart sank. Three more years of imprisonment before I could go free? No way. I wouldn’t allow myself to be held captive again.

  “It’s not a prison, Hailey,” Mr. Reed said.

  Had he read my mind? Crossing my arms over my chest, I asked, “Will I be allowed to leave?”

  Shoulders slumping, he shook his head. “Not until we can be assured that you have control over your beast and you’ve learned the basics of our world.”

  “Sounds like jail to me,” I snarled.

  Turning my back to them, I stared out over the clouds. Mountain caps poked through them, and, where the puffy whiteness thinned, I could see dark green forests below us. Miles and miles of wilderness. Would I feel free there?

  I felt the warmth of a body close to my shoulder, and the woman said, “Thornbriar Academy is situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

  “Those are on the east coast, right?” I said, surprising myself by the awe in my tone. I’d never been in the mountains before. Hastings House had been in a cold and hilly area, but nothing so large. They were really beautiful. Before I was taken, I lived in Florida, near the beach. I remembered because I loved to play in the water, but I’d never learned to swim.

  “Yes,” she said. “It’s beautiful country.”

  I nodded. Turning my face toward her, I asked, “Who are you?”

  “Professor Frank,” she said, holding out a hand.

  I frowned at her hand for a moment, then I shrugged and shook it. “Nice to meet you. You work at Thornbriar?”

  “Yes, I teach control to new shifters. Mr. Reed thought I might be of help to you.”

  Glancing over at him, I smiled wryly. Of course he did. He thought I was too wild. “I haven’t shifted yet.”

  “Most don’t until after they turn eighteen, but the techniques of control and management are good to learn at any time.” She leaned back in her seat. “Even for humans. They call it: meditation.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. “Will it relieve the itch?”

  She smiled. “Somewhat. It helps it be more manageable. We encourage physical outlets too especially for those approaching their first shift.”

  “Physical?” My eyebrows drew together.

  “Exercise such as running, weightlifting, sports, dance, and so on.”

  I grimaced. We’d gotten plenty of physical activity doing chores at Hastings House, and it hadn’t helped much. I thought of the green forests we passed over. Maybe a good long run in one of those would make a difference. “Are we able to leave the campus?”

  “No farther than the property line,” Professor Frank said. “But that encompasses many acres of woods, so there’s lots of room to roam.”

  My mouth dropped open. “Did you read my mind?”

  She chuckled. “No, Hailey, we aren’t mind readers.”

  “Good.”

  “But it’s not hard to know what’s on a young wolf’s mind. I’ve had a lot of experience.”

  “You don’t seem old.”

  “Well, thank you, though I am in human years around seventy.”

  My eyes widened.

  “The magic that makes us shifters gives us longer lives than humans.” Her eyes darkened. “But it doesn’t make us invulnerable to physical or magical attack.”

  “Is it dangerous at the Academy?” I didn’t like the squeak that slipped into my voice, but ther
e was nothing I could do about it. Hastings House had been horrible, but I knew the dangers there.

  “No, no.” She shook her head. “You’ll be perfectly safe at Thornbriar Academy.”

  The question hung in the air between us: would I be safe outside of it? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer right now. The way they had reacted to the red wolf, to Kaiden Hartsman, told me there were dangers, and I had no idea what they were. Part of me longed to be free, but part of me also wanted to be protected. I could handle human dangers, as I had the man at the festival, but what about shifter ones? I had no idea this world even existed until a few days ago. How was I going to make my way in it?

  I glanced over at Professor Frank. She seemed nice, but so did Doe Eyes at first. How could I know who to trust? I swallowed.

  The plane jerked, and static echoed from the speaker. The captain said, “We’re beginning our descent into Thornbriar now, folks. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.”

  I hadn’t removed my seat belt, but Mr. Reed and Professor Frank buckled themselves in. The air around the mountains was choppier than it had been before, and the small craft shook as we descended.

  Looking out the window, I got my first glimpse of Thornbriar Academy. Surrounded by mountains and forests, the buildings of the school rose like old castles I’d seen in pictures. The roofs looked blue in the evening light. Their slanted tops mimicked the pine forest that surrounded them.

  The plane landed on a strip a fair distance down the mountain, and when we climbed out, I looked up trying to make out the school through the trees. I couldn’t see it. “How far are we from the academy?”

  “Not far,” Professor Frank said with a reassuring pat on my arm.

  We crossed the tarmac in a huddle because the wind had picked up and bundled ourselves into a car. The driver loaded Mr. Reed and Professor Frank’s things in the back, and then we headed up the hill. The road had tighter and tighter turns as we reached the top. The clouds seemed to drift toward us in the breezy air. Trees clustered along the roadside, leaving little room if a vehicle came down at the same time we were going up.