"Do you want to carry Hannah?" he asked as I pulled my jacket on.
I thought for a moment. Would it look better if I was carrying her, or he was? If we were running on the fact she was Cas's daughter, then I was probably the better bet.
"I will."
He rose to his feet, easily balancing despite the fact he was carrying a baby at the same time. I had to admit that I was impressed. And a little jealous. Why didn't I find that as easy as he did? It was like life conspired against me even when it came to my own child.
He handed her to me, and I cradled her in my arms, marveling at how peaceful she looked while she was asleep. The urge to stroke a finger down her cheek consumed me, but I knew I couldn't give in. I didn't want to wake her before she was ready. There'd be hell to pay if I did.
"She's going to wake up the moment we're trying to have an important conversation, isn't she?" I asked, ironically.
"Probably." Levon chuckled. "But I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Can you tell April we're going and see if she wants to come with us?" I didn't want to just abandon her, not after we'd dragged her along on the trip.
"Sure. I'll go get her." He walked out of the door to our bedroom, so I took the opportunity to look around.
It was everything I'd expect the residential part of a magic academy to look like. The walls were stone, carved so intricately it had to have been done by a witch or wizard instead of a stonemason. Tapestries hung on the wall, showing all manner of creatures, including some I didn't want to put a name on. I'd have to study that later to see what I could learn about the world I now lived in.
A year ago, I thought I was the only one of my kind. Finding out there were other shifters had been a shock. But finding out there were even more creatures in the world, and that things like witches, vampires, and demons existed had been another level entirely. I wasn't sure why they were harder to accept than shifters. Maybe it was just because I was a shifter myself. It would have been hard to refuse to accept something that you are.
"Ready?" Levon asked, popping his head around the door.
I nodded and stepped towards him, suddenly not so sure about my choice of outfit. What if the headmaster refused Hannah just because of what I was wearing? I'd bring shame and doubt down on Cas's alpha name and do more damage than I wanted to.
"This is amazing," April said, looking around with the same wonder I was certain rested in my own eyes.
She'd had a similar upbringing as me, though she still didn't know what had happened to her parents. Cas was trying to help her track them down, but it turned out platypus shifters were even harder to find than brown unicorns.
"Would you have come here, if you could?" I asked.
"Without a doubt."
"You still could," Levon said. "You're under twenty-five, you can still apply if you want."
"Aren't people here high school age?" I frowned, confused by what this place was.
"No. It starts accepting people at eighteen. I suppose it's more like a college than a high school, but because we don't come of age until twenty-one, most of us end up in places like this. They have older students here too."
April smiled. "I'd look into it, but I have my apprenticeship now."
I loved hearing how proud she was of that. It made me proud of Kerry in return. He was doing a good job of teaching the young woman.
"Plus, don't you have a degree already?" The question was needless, all of us knew she was a qualified vet. It was one of the reasons Cas had been so keen for her and her wolf mates to return to the mountains. She was an asset to the community, and he wasn't about to let that slip through his fingers. It wouldn't make him a very good alpha if he did.
"Exactly. Maybe I'll send my kids here. I don't know how we'll afford it though."
"There'll be a way," Levon promised. "They offer scholarships, and Cas can use his weight as alpha to get them accepted."
April giggled. "I see we're planning a future that hasn't even started yet."
"It's never too early to talk schools," Levon teased.
"You were born to be a dad." I tried to keep the smugness out of my voice, but it was hard.
We turned a corner and found ourselves in a corridor full of doors.
"It's the one at the end," Levon said, pointing to a big door.
"How do you know your way around?" April asked.
"I went here. And spent a lot of time in this corridor."
"You were a trouble maker, weren't you?" I teased. I pictured it. Levon would have been the fall guy for the mischief that Cas caused, all while Kerry shook his head over the books he studied intently. The image sent a pang of sadness through me. If I'd stayed as part of the community when I was a child, then I might have been here with them.
"Some things don't change." He winked at me, though I knew he was joking. None of my guys would dare cause anyone any trouble. They put the pack first, every single time. And that meant not causing unnecessary trouble. It would only be them having to clean up the mess anyway.
Levon opened the door and gestured for April and me to step inside. We did, only to be met with the broad smile of a short, round woman, with crazy flyaway hair and small glasses perched on her nose.
"Oh my, I didn't expect to see you walk through my door," she said to Levon. "I hope I'm not going to have to give you a detention slip again." Her eyes twinkled, clearly amused by her own joke.
"Not this time, Shelia. How have you been?"
"All good. Just doing my job and making sure the kids are happy. There's nothing more important than that." Weirdly, I actually believed her when she said that.
"I'm glad. Remember the pack is there if you need us."
"I know. You remind me every time. Is Cas with you?”
“No,” Levon shook his head. “Not this time, but we brought his new daughter.” We weren’t actually sure who her father was, but Cas gave her the biggest advantage, so to the public, she was his.
“Very well. You took the alpha’s chamber?” She asked as if he’d be in trouble if he said no.
“Yes, ma’am.” Levon nodded at her in respect.
“Very good. I take it you're here to see the headmaster?"
"Yes, if he's in," Levon responded.
"He is. Just go right through." She gestured towards the second door, leaving me more and more confused by the whole encounter. This all seemed so relaxed and informal, and yet we were meeting with someone who held the future of my child in his hands.
Levon pushed open the door. I wasn't sure if he was just trying to be a gentleman, or if he was feeling a little overprotective since he realized the presents could have been threats.
He turned around almost instantly. "I thought you said he was in?" he asked Sheila.
"He was a moment ago, I just took him a coffee." She frowned, confusion written all over her features. “I don’t understand. He was just here.”
Intrigued, I stepped into the room and noticed a steaming cup on the desk. So he had been here. But where had he gone? The window was open, but we were several stories up, and there was nowhere around for the man to run.
And more importantly, why?
"Get out of the room, Leola," Levon growled.
I jumped, waking Hannah up and causing her to cry. "Why?" I demanded.
"Just get out of the room." He looked angry. Or frustrated, it was hard to tell when all of my instincts were telling me to focus on my daughter.
"But why?" I asked again.
"Because I recognize the smell, and it doesn't match the headmaster it should."
"And that's bad because..." I prompted.
"Because the smell is a familiar one. It's the same person that's been leaving you presents."
A chill ran down my spine. This wasn't good. Especially not if he'd disappeared. No one ran away if they didn't have anything to hide.
"What do we do now?" April asked.
I thought for a moment. Part of me wanted to run and get as far away from her
e as possible. But most of me wanted answers.
"Easy, we snoop around."
Levon looked like he was about to argue, so I flashed him my best don't-fuck-with-me look.
"Fine. We'll do some snooping."
Chapter Seven
“First, how did you recognise the smell if you hadn’t smelled anything off at home?” I asked as I handed Hannah to April. “Second, is there somewhere safe April and Hannah can go?”
Levon didn’t answer. He had his phone out, presumably texting Cas. “One sec,” he murmured.
I turned to Sheila. "Sheila, can you take April and Hannah somewhere that can be locked? A room with only one entrance, preferably."
"Yes, there's a closet just by my office. Come on, dear."
April smiled ruefully at me.
"Sorry, sweetie, but both of your lives are too important. You stay in there with Sheila, we'll come for you soon." I kissed Hannah's head and watched my sweet girl leave the room. A piece of my heart went with her. A very large piece.
"Okay, so the smell?" I asked. They'd said they hadn't smelled anything out of the ordinary at the house, which was part of the conundrum. How could a stranger have come in and left presents without anyone smelling them?
"You probably can't smell it. It's faint, anyway. But it's you," Levon said as he tapped at his phone. "It smells like you."
Finally putting his phone in his pocket, he turned back to me. "How long have you worn that perfume?"
My heart sank. I had completely forgotten about the perfume. It had been the second gift, and I'd absolutely loved it. It was an incredibly light fragrance, which was so important when you lived with shifters. I used it sparingly, and not often, but it lingered. The guys had all commented about liking it.
"He used the perfume he gave me to mask his scent?" I asked incredulously. "That's smart, but it wouldn't be enough."
Levon shrugged. "It could be a spell, too." We began snooping around the office. Levon started at the desk, but I was drawn to a pedestal in the corner. A large book rested on it, open to the middle.
Hannah's name was written in the middle of the page. "What the hell?" I asked. The page had rows and rows of names on it. Hannah's was toward the end of the last row, which only went down halfway. Two more names were listed under Hannah's.
Levon looked over my shoulder. "Oh, it's the registration book. It's enchanted. When a child is born to an alumnus of the school, their name is placed here automatically, alerting the administration so that they can plan for class sizes. At one point, it was a school for all ages, but since the packs have branched out they altered it to a high school and college, and now just a college type school."
I leafed through the pages, looking at all the names. I wouldn't have thought there would be so many, but every time I went back a page, the book seemed to grow or like the pages were not moving at all. "Uh," I said, turning back to Levon at the desk.
He looked up and saw me waving the pages back and forth. "It's enchanted, remember?"
Of course.
We spent nearly an hour going through the office, but it was a bust. Going out to Sheila's office, we tapped on the door to her supply closet. "Sheila? It's us."
The door clicked and opened, Sheila peering out. "There's a lock in there?" I asked in surprise.
"I conjured one. Then I put a curse on it. If anyone that wanted to hurt us tried to open the door, they would've been in for a nasty surprise."
Grinning at the older woman, I decided I liked her a lot. "You're a witch?"
She nodded. "And I'm damn good. I only do this job because I enjoy it. I love the kids, seeing them all grow. I also teach a class."
April sat on the floor playing with her phone with Hannah splayed out on her lap. "They're all coming," she said. "Except for Kerry. Levon, Cas says check your damn phone."
Levon jumped and pulled his phone from his pocket. "Whoops. I thought I had it on vibrate, but it's on silent."
He began typing, walking away from the door. "Yep, Cas and Bryce, Eric, and Caleb are on their way. April, you and your men are going to take Hannah and Leola to an undisclosed location while we handle this shit."
I snorted. "Says who?"
"Says Cas," Levon said with a shrug. “You'll have to argue with him about it.”
I lowered my eyebrows. "Oh, I will."
"Okay, Sheila, April and Hannah need to get somewhere safe until the guys get here."
"There's no safer place than the alpha's private chambers." She started out the door, but Levon sprang forward and put his hand on her arm.
"Not so fast. We have to consider the dean hostile."
Sheila furrowed her brow. "But why? What's going on? I went along with the closet, but what's the deal?"
"The headmaster isn't the headmaster," Levon said unhelpfully. "How long has this man been in the position?"
"At least a year. The previous headmaster up and quit. He left a note that he was retiring, then the next morning Headmaster Richards showed up. We had no reason to think he wasn't sent by the alpha. And we haven't seen Cas in the entire year since then, so how would we have known any differently?"
"Has anything strange happened around campus?" I asked as we walked, Levon leading the way and me in the back. I didn't love the idea of being the tail, but better me than April, holding Hannah.
"No, it's been a smooth year. Should we pull the students from their classes? They'll have a period change in about fifteen minutes." We walked slowly and carefully toward the rooms we'd used the night before.
"Can you put them on some sort of lockdown?" Levon asked.
"Of course. We have procedures." She pressed her throat and muttered a few words I didn't catch, then her voice filled the air, magically amplified all over the massive castle. "All students and staff are to remain in their classrooms until further notice. Please go into safety protocol blue. And if anyone sees the headmaster, please tell him we need his help in his office."
She removed her finger and shrugged. "Worth a shot."
We deposited Hannah and April into our bedroom first. "This is the most enchanted room in the school. No violence can happen in this room, the magic won't allow it. And nobody can walk out of here except on their own accord."
I raised my eyebrows at that one. "We need something like that at home." As we turned to leave the room so Sheila could show us to the headmaster's room, a small, square box caught my eye. It rested proudly on top of our suitcase, and it most definitely hadn't been there when we'd left the room an hour or so before.
"Levon," I said carefully. "Search the room."
He sprang into action, seeing the box, too.
I walked carefully over to it. "I smell the perfume, now that you've pointed it out to me." Picking up the box, I carefully unwrapped it. This one was oblong and about the length of my hand. Opening the box inside, I found an intricate gold dagger. "Geez."
Levon and Sheila walked over, quickly followed by April, who had put Hannah in the center of the bed.
"Damn," Levon said as he picked up the dagger. "This is worth a pretty penny." Jewels were set into the hilt, and the blade looked sharp enough to cut paper.
"He was in here," I whispered. "This is not okay."
"They're safe here." Levon put the dagger back in the box and set it down on the table. "We need to search his bedroom."
Sheila nodded and lead us into the hall. As I pulled the door shut, I kept my eyes on my baby until the last possible second. "Hey, Sheila?" I asked. "Could you do a little more enchanting?"
She nodded and put her hand on the door. "April," she called. "Don't try to open the door, okay? The room is spelled right now."
"Okay," April's voice floated through the door.
"Now," Sheila said briskly. "That door won't open until I return. Or die. Whichever."
"Geez," I whispered to Levon as we followed her down the hall. "She's intense."
"I heard that." She stopped at the last door in the hall. "His suite is on this floo
r as well as mine and the VIP suites. There are a few of the other teachers' rooms that way." She pointed down the hall toward the other side of the door to our chambers.
She turned the knob to Richards’ suite of rooms, and the door opened easily. "He usually keeps this door locked," she said. "Odd. This whole situation is so odd," she muttered under her breathe.
We walked in, staring at the most impersonal room I'd ever seen. No pictures on the walls, no trunks. The spread on the bed was generic off-white. The windows had shades but no curtains.
"Wait by the door," Levon said as he carefully checked the closet and bathroom, then disappeared through a door only to return seconds later. "Clear," he said seriously.
I fought off a giggle. He sounded like one of those cop dramas on TV. He loved watching them, no wonder.
Sheila, Levon, and I set in to search his room.
This time, I found something quickly. The ancient wooden desk in the corner was my first spot to check, and when I opened the top right drawer, the tiniest corner of a piece of paper stuck up out of the bottom of the drawer. "Hey, I think this has a false bottom," I said. "There must be a trigger for it."
I'd read this book. Feeling all around the drawer, I finally found the tiniest crevice on the bottom. When I pressed the crevice with my fingernail, the bottom of the drawer popped up, revealing a small stack of parchment paper.
"Wow," I whispered as I picked the paper up to inspect it.
"Oh my goodness," Sheila said as she saw what the drawer held. "May I see one of those?"
I handed one of the sheets to Levon and one to Sheila, then started inspecting the other stack.
The paper had words written in red ink, faded to the point of barely legible. "Can you read it?" I asked as I squinted at the page in front of me. I think it says, "They'll never be happy. They'll never something..."Then it says something else I can't read, and then, "must kill them."
"Mine says something about dying, never being happy, and it's the only way," Levon said. "Sheila?"
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