Bound: A Why Choose Academy Shifter Romance (Thornbriar Academy Book 2)

by Cali Mann

  Cali Mann

  Bound

  Thornbriar Academy Book Two

  Copyright © 2020 by Cali Mann

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  First edition

  Cover art by Victoria Cooper Art

  This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

  Find out more at reedsy.com

  Contents

  Hailey

  Adrian

  Brenton

  Hailey

  Sciro

  Hailey

  Hailey

  Adrian

  Hailey

  Brenton

  Hailey

  Hailey

  Sciro

  Brenton

  Hailey

  Adrian

  Sciro

  Hailey

  Hailey

  Adrian

  Sciro

  Brenton

  Hailey

  Brenton

  Hailey

  Sciro

  Brenton

  Hailey

  Hailey

  Sciro

  Hailey

  Brenton

  Hailey

  Hailey

  Hailey

  About the Author

  1

  Hailey

  Lifting my hand, I let the snowflakes fall on my bare skin. They lingered on the surface instead of melting because my flesh was colder than normal. I might not have turned into a vampire at puberty as Sciro did, but when the air shifter phase was upon me, I had many of the same skills and deficiencies. Once at Hastings House, I’d stolen a raw steak from the kitchen just to slurp the blood and sate the thirst. Mr. Hastings had me whipped for that, but it had been worth it. It was harder at Thornbriar Academy to feed the instinct and keep my secret.

  I stepped down off the log, my booted feet sinking into the fresh snow. Thick warm boots had been my Christmas present to myself and they’d been worth every penny. I was not immune to cold, even during an air shifter phase, just resistant. With these boots, I was able to roam wherever I wanted on the property, even into the dense woods where the snowdrifts reached my knees. Although they wouldn’t help me climb the fence that encircled Thornbriar Academy. The top was lined in an electric wire. My skin still itched with the need to cross that boundary, but I took a breath and tried to focus.

  Ever since my phase had changed, I’d been trying to shift into an air form. A crow, a hawk, even a bluebird would have been fine. All shifters derived their power from the elements and there was plenty of brisk air around me. But no matter how much I concentrated, I hadn’t been able to transform. As a rare spirit shifter, I should be able to take any form. That was what the books said, anyway. There weren’t any other spirit shifters around for me to ask.

  I bit my lip, tasting the warm metallic blood. My stomach roared with hunger and picking the bloodiest cuts wouldn’t sustain me for long. Was I not able to shift because I hadn’t fed the vampire? Did I need to steal a blood bag from the kitchens? I knew the school stocked them. A blood lust rampage wasn’t a pretty sight and by keeping the hunger at bay, the air shifters stayed on an even keel. But since my spirit shifter nature was a deadly secret, I couldn’t exactly walk in and fetch one.

  All around me the snow was unmarred except for my footsteps. The crisp whiteness would change tomorrow as students returned from their holidays and classes resumed at Thornbriar Academy. This was my last chance to try to shift before prying eyes were everywhere, but it wasn’t going to happen. I sighed and crossed the yard in long strides, heading back to the dorms.

  With a huff, I watched my breath fog the cold air. I hadn’t seen Adrian or Sciro at all in the past two weeks. Adrian had gone home for the holiday and Sciro’d been holed up in the library working on some special project. Terrin and I had fun, regardless. The school had stayed open, offering activities for students who had nowhere else to go. We’d gone on all the organized trips: skiing, snowboarding, even to the local pizza parlor to play arcade games.

  I smiled and twisted the charm bracelet around my wrist. The guys had given the bracelet to me before the holiday. Each charm represented one of the guys’ shifter forms: a jaguar, a crow, and a merman. The wolf had been a surprise present I found on my doorstep Christmas morning. I didn’t know who had left it. I assumed Mr. Reed, my recruiter had, but I hadn’t seen him since last semester so I hadn’t been able to ask.

  I wandered back into the building and toward the boys’ suite. I’d basically moved in here over the holiday, and no one seemed to notice or care. I suppose I’d need to return to my room in the girls’ dorm tonight. I had to admit it’d been nice to spend these dark winter nights wrapped up in Terrin’s arms.

  Opening the door, I brushed my snow boots on the mat. When I looked up, I froze. Adrian stood at the back of the couch, rubbing his hair with a towel. His skin wet and warm from the shower glistened. Warmth curled in my gut, and I swallowed. “Adrian.”

  “Hailey.” He dropped his towel over his shoulders and turned toward his room.

  Tripping over my tongue, I said, “Wait.”

  “What?” he asked. His casual tone was belied by his stiffening shoulders.

  “How was your trip home?” There was so much more I wanted to ask, that I had no right to ask.

  Twisting to look at me, he shrugged. “It was fine. Mom was pretty busy, so I didn’t see her much.”

  “Did you hang out with Monica?” I couldn’t keep the jealous note out of my voice. I had insisted on my freedom with Terrin, and here I was acting grudgingly about who Adrian saw. I kicked myself mentally.

  He gave me a glare. “After what she did to you?”

  I frowned. “You have been friends for a long time.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “She’s dead to me.”

  Wow. I hadn’t intended to kill a friendship. She’d left me the information I was looking for, and she’d torn up my bedsheets. It wasn’t like she’d actually hurt me. And why did Adrian care so much anyway? “Why have you been avoiding me?”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’ve been away, Hailey. Not everything is about you.”

  Well, that stung more than a little. But I pulled up my big girl panties, and I asked, “Are we still friends?”

  Stomping across the room, he yanked me into his arms and laid his lips on mine. The kiss was a typhoon, ripping away all my thoughts. I melted against him, savoring his saltwater taste and curling my fingers in his blond curls. I hadn’t known how much I’d missed this until I had it again. I scraped my nails along his skin, and my vampire enhanced senses pricked at the smell of blood. I moaned against his mouth.

  Lifting his head, he stared down at me, and I drowned in his sea-green eyes. “No, Hailey, we are not friends.”

  Then he let me go, and I stumbled on my jelly-legs. I leaned against the door frame, letting it hold me up.

  Adrian marched into his room and slammed the door.

  What the hell was that supposed to mean? He pushed my buttons, then just walked away? What was wrong with him? Anger curled in my stomach like a
hard pit, and I scowled at the closed door like I could burn a hole through it with my eyes. He didn’t make any sense.

  “Hey,” Terrin said from behind me.

  I spun around, snarling, and he held his hands up.

  “I come in peace,” he said, with a small smile.

  Closing my eyes, I took a breath, letting his calming presence wash through me. He was better than a Valium. The wardens had sometimes forced the pills down our throats when we lost control, back at Hastings House. My ire started to rise again, just thinking of that awful place, but I took another steadying breath.

  “Hey,” Terrin said. His hands grasped my shoulders and pulled me against him.

  I breathed in his fresh forest scent and smiled. “How do you know just when I need you?”

  He made a rumbly sound in his chest, almost like he was purring.

  2

  Adrian

  Shit. One kiss. I leaned back against the cold door, letting it cool my overheated body. Rubbing my shoulder where my mate tattoo lay, I glared at the naked women on my walls.

  I’d gone home to get Hailey off my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was her luscious curves and smooth skin. She beat any of the women on my walls by a mile. Fuck.

  Sciro had given Terrin and me some thick theater makeup to cover our tattoos while we figured this whole thing out. With Mom at Council and Dad in whatever rehab he currently resided, there had only been me and the servants bumbling around the house over the break. I’d been bored, and all I could think of was my mate.

  Mine and Terrin’s. I cried deep in my throat. People didn’t have two mates. Shifters bonded once and for life. That’s how it worked. I ran a hand through my wet hair. Until Hailey.

  Over the holiday, I’d hung out at my usual places and even picked up some of my regular companions. They were hot, smoking hot. Kissing them was like eating cardboard and my dick refused to rise to the occasion. Every. Damn. Time.

  Yet, one kiss from Hailey, and here he was, tenting my towel. Dammit.

  I dried off and yanked on a shirt and jeans, grimacing as the seams rolled over my tender skin. Every inch of me craved her touch. Water the only thing that soothed it. Even though I’d just left the shower, I considered going for a swim.

  Sciro was supposed to fix this, or at least explain it. I needed to talk to him.

  3

  Brenton

  I turned the corner and froze. There they were again. Terrin and Hailey. Kissing.

  Fury rolled through me and I curled my hands into fists. A low roar filled my ears. Nearby classmates recoiled, diving for the walls. I wanted to punch him and fuck her, and I had no right.

  Sure, I’d helped rescue Hailey when she’d been stupid enough to go wandering in the caves below the school. What thanks did I get for it? Nothing. Not a word. Instead, I got treated to the sight of them all over each other for the last two weeks. Every time I’d turned a corner, there they were. I should have left her in the damn caves. Stupid bitch.

  Spinning on my heel, I stomped back the way I’d come. My cell vibrated against my hip. Pulling it out of my pocket, I glared at the call id: Dad. Just what I needed today. I’d stayed on campus to avoid him over the break and I was sure he was calling to ream me out for it. I’d avoided all his other calls, but I had to talk to him, eventually.

  I took a turn into a little-used hallway and clicked accept. Forcing a smile across my lips, I said, “Hello, Dad.”

  “Where the hell have you been, boy?” he yelled in my ear.

  Lifting the phone away from my ear, I said as calmly as I could. “I had make up work to do. I told you this.”

  He growled. “We had community functions to attend, boy. Do you know how it looks to say my son couldn’t be bothered to come home for the holiday?”

  Not that he really wanted to see me, but just that it made him look bad. Public events were more important to him than family ones. “How’s Mom?”

  “Disappointed in you just like I am.”

  A shiver of guilt ran through me. He’d probably taken his aggravation out on Mom and I hadn’t been home to protect her. I’d been telling her to leave him for years, but despite her frail appearance, she was still a fire shifter. Stubborn to the core. “I’m sorry.”

  “Too late for sorry now, isn’t it? You and your waste of a mother,” he muttered. “I never have should have married again.”

  That was the crux of the issue, really. It wasn’t Mom or me; it was the fact that his first wife, his mate, had been executed. He’d remarried to lift his social standing, so he wouldn’t be known as the man who mated a spirit shifter, but he didn’t give a damn about us. Never had.

  Fire licked along the inside of my skin, desperate to escape. I tried to take a steadying breath, as my mentor had taught me, but I couldn’t stop my hand from slamming into the stone wall, anyway. The rough rock scraped my knuckles but absorbed my punch. I was getting better. I hadn’t put my full strength behind it.

  “Get control of yourself,” my father said. He knew, even though he wasn’t here. He still knew.

  I lifted my hand, staring at the spots of blood on my fingers. Part of me really wished my dad was here, so I could have punched him instead.

  A female voice asked, “Are you okay, Brenton?”

  I shuddered, keeping my gaze on the floor. She’s the last thing I needed when I was in this state. Fuck. It was mostly her fault, anyway. “Go away, Hailey.”

  My father’s voice changed, an oily slickness slipping into it. “Hailey? Is that the new girl?”

  A frown creased my forehead. How would he know about her? It was never a good sign when he sounded like that. Dad’s priority was business, and some contact of his must have an interest in Hailey. I forced my brain to think through the fog of my anger. What would my greedy father want with her?

  I looked up at Hailey, her lips were parted and on the edges of her perfect white teeth, two fangs hung down. Her eyes were glued to the blood on my hands. Oh, shit. I hadn’t known she was an air shifter. Had she skipped a feeding?

  “Yes, I’ve got to go, Dad,” I said as calmly as I could manage. A vampire in a blood lust was never a good thing.

  “Brenton—” he began.

  I clicked off the phone. She needed me, but, I swallowed, she’d need to touch me. Part of me craved her touch as any warm-blooded shifter would. The other part of me remembered all the pain touch could cause and shuddered. This was Hailey though. She wouldn’t hurt me.

  She stepped toward me as if pulled by a magnet.

  Scowling, I glanced behind Hailey at the students passing by. Classes had finished, and they were out in droves. Hailey didn’t even notice. If a vampire didn’t get blood, well, things could get ugly. I had to do this.

  Grabbing her arms, I yanked her toward me. Her hands closed over mine and brought it to her mouth. I winced at her cold touch. Spinning us around, I shielded her from prying eyes with my body. Taller and broader than most guys, I easily sheltered her small form.

  Hailey’s tongue darted over my skin, licking the blood, and my knees almost buckled.

  Hold it together. She needs you right now. Not your hormones.

  I couldn’t resist letting my other hand stroke her dark hair.

  Normally touch activated my inner fire, and I lashed out, but her gentle licks were stimulating a different kind of blaze. My cock strained against my pants, and heat roared through me. With an iron will, I held myself in check, studying her as she fed. Hailey’s skin had never been this cold, and we’d had enough accidental run-ins that I should know. I’d never seen a fang slip, as we called them here at Thornbriar. She wasn’t generally pale, or reticent of sunlight. Nothing before today would have told me she was an air shifter.

  In fact, I suspected she wasn’t one.

  Only one kind of shifter mimicked other forms. A hard pit settled in my stomach. A spirit shifter. At Thornbriar Academy.

  Shit. No wonder my father was so interested. I wondered if
she even knew.

  4

  Hailey

  I wasn’t getting enough blood, just little licks. Flipping over the hand I was holding, I bit into the wrist. The hot liquid flowed down my throat. I sucked at it eagerly, feeling my nerves hum with the living energy of the blood. A bit of fire roared through me, like the taste of hot pepper, and my heartbeat echoed in my ears. Like Sciro had said, vampires weren’t dead.

  A guy moaned, and I glanced up, meeting Brenton’s smoldering eyes. They weren’t full of anger this time, but sheer passion. Heat curled between my legs. My fangs retracted as another kind of lust filled me. I licked his wrist and let it go. I turned, to kiss him, and our bodies separated.

  I blinked. This was Brenton. Anger-filled, hate-mongering Brenton. What was I doing?

  “Hailey,” he said, his hand stroking the bulge in his jeans.

  Backing up a few steps, I leaned against the cool stone wall and tried to think. My thoughts ran frenzied through my mind. I’d drunk Brenton’s blood. Would I be able to shift now? But it had turned him on. Well, honestly, it turned us both on. Was that just a side effect?

  He stepped toward me, and I put up a hand. “I need a minute.”

  With a frown, Brenton stopped, tilting his head slightly as if trying to make sense of me.

  Though he appeared to be patiently waiting, I could feel his energy like the crackle of a fire, spitting sparks at me across the distance. I glanced around the hallway and passed him to the empty hall beyond. How had I ended up here? I wracked my brain. I’d been with Terrin and then headed off to my next class, when I’d smelled the most delicious scent.

  My breath caught in my throat. I’d fed off Brenton. I eyed him and paced back and forth across the space. Did he know what I was supposed to be? A wolf? Sciro said you couldn’t tell just by looking, and Brenton and I had never had a conversation about forms. He didn’t look disgusted, so maybe he thought I was just an out-of-control air shifter.