“What the hell is going on here?”
I looked at the ground and said nothing. Madison said nothing. And all around us, the rest of the students melted away.
“You are third year Fur ‘n’ Fang students. I expect better from you both. Jade, you’ve got a session with Shaun. I suggest you get there. I’ll speak to you later.”
“Yes, Instructor Davis.” I’d pushed my luck too far for one day, and I was pretty sure I’d hit my head when Madison tripped me. It was throbbing like a bitch.
“And Madison, you can come with me.”
“But it wasn’t my fault! She attacked me.”
“Now!” She fell silent, and he rounded on me. “What are you still doing here? Go.”
That seemed like good advice, so I hurried inside before he could haul me in front of Blake. I found Shaun in his office, and though I’d gone straight there, somehow news of my fight had reached him first.
He took one look at me as I stepped through his door, and shook his head.
“On your first day back, Jade. What the hell were you thinking?”
“That someone needed to teach Madison some manners,” I grunted, shutting the door behind me, and trying to ignore the pounding inside my skull.
“Oh, and that just had to be you, did it?”
“Well, no-one else seems to give a damn that it’s fine for alpha brats to treat the rest of us like shit, so yeah.”
“Watch your language,” Shaun snapped. “And sit down. You’re getting blood on my floor.”
He gestured to the chair in front of his desk and I sunk into it as he rose from his and moved to a water cooler in one corner of the room. He was wearing his usual jeans and shirt with rolled-up sleeves combo, and even from behind I could see the tension in his shoulders straining against the shirt’s white fabric. He was not a happy bunny. Well, wolf. His dark blond hair was cropped short, and he wore an easy air of authority like a second skin. Despite that, he’d been more than fair with me since I first got here. My regular counselling sessions with him over the last two years were probably the reason I hadn’t lost my grip on my sanity – or what was left of it, at least. Abruptly, I felt guilty for acting churlish. He deserved better than my attitude. I slouched deeper into my chair.
He returned a moment later and handed me a damp cloth.
“Your cheek,” he said, and I lifted my fingers to touch it. They came away with a coat of blood. Madison must’ve got in a lucky shot.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the cloth and holding it there. It would heal on its own, but there was no harm in helping it along. And not getting blood on the floor.
Shaun settled into his chair and watched me avoiding his gaze for a long while.
“Want to tell me about it?” he asked eventually.
I exhaled heavily. Truth be told, I felt like a bit of an idiot, now that it was all done. Madison had said plenty worse than that to me over the last two years.
“I lost my temper,” I said. “It was stupid.”
“Yes, it was,” Shaun agreed. “You, of all people, know the importance of screening your more volatile emotions.”
He meant because of the rage spell, the one that had been transmitted to me when Kelsey bit me whilst under the influence of a powerful druid’s curse. She’d been cursed and he was in prison now, but no-one knew how to undo the second-generation curse, maybe not even him. Still, I’d had two years to adjust to the spell, and I shouldn’t have let it control me.
“I’m used to her insulting me,” I said. “But Dean’s already feeling like crap without her rubbing his nose in it everywhere he turns. It’s not an excuse – I shouldn’t have let her get to me, I know that. It’s just…”
“Hard?” Shaun suggested. I nodded. “Jade, you’ve had a lot to deal with. I know that more than anyone. But you have got to find a way to control yourself. Rage spell or no, you can’t go around attacking other students. You could get held back over this.”
“But shifters fight all the time!” I protested, gaping at him. They couldn’t. Not for something like this. Not after everything I’d been through. It wasn’t fair. I needed to graduate.
“But not with the daughters of alphas. She is protected by her status. You’re not. You may not like it, but that’s the way it is. If she presses this, you could be in serious trouble.”
“I know,” I groaned, dropping my head into my hands, and then hissing with pain as I caught my cheek. “I screwed up. I get it.”
I tossed the damp cloth onto Shaun’s desk, and stared at it.
“I’ll speak to Alpha Blake for you,” Shaun said. “After everything that happened last year, you probably deserve some leniency. But don’t make a habit of this.”
“I won’t. I’m still going to meditation classes. And I’m in much better control normally. It was just a slip. It won’t happen again.”
“Make sure it doesn’t. Because after this, Madison is going to be trying to provoke you.”
Oh good, that would be something to look forward to. He was right: there was nothing Madison wanted more than to see me held back. Except maybe to see Dean killed as a traitor, but I’d denied her that pleasure last year, and I wasn’t about to let her get her other wish, either. I was going to have to watch my step.
As if life at Fur ‘n’ Fang wasn’t complicated enough already.
Chapter Five
Somehow, I made it to the end of the week without removing Madison’s head from her shoulders entirely, which was probably the only reason I got away with nothing worse than a dressing down from Blake. Personally, I was quite proud – both for getting off so lightly, and for not killing the smug little pack princess. And it wasn’t easy, especially when she made a point of publicly snubbing Dean every chance she got. It was like she was on some sort of mission to prove that treason wasn’t contagious. Dean pretended not to be bothered, but he’d been one of my closest friends for two years. I could see his heart breaking every time she looked at him like he was something unpleasant she’d stepped in.
“Right,” I said, when I stepped out of the shower after a particularly gruelling fitness session. “Get your glad rags on, we’re going out.”
Cam and Mei looked at me like I’d lost it, and Dean continued staring up at the ceiling above his bed. It was a newfound hobby of his.
“Do yer nae have yer… um… yer know… lesson?”
“Magic lesson. You can say it. Laith put paid to the whole secrecy thing last year.” I flicked an anxious glance at Dean. “Not that I blame you or anything. Actually, it’s a relief that I don’t have to keep hiding it. And anyway, the answer is no. Apparently, I skipped enough lessons last year that Underwood has given up scheduling them on a Friday now.”
“Dinner first though, right?” Mei said. I shook my head.
“Let’s eat at The Wolf and Sheep. I’m craving one of their burgers. And you know half the academy is going to wind up in town tonight. I want to beat the crowd.”
It was a Fur ‘n’ Fang tradition to hit the local town on the first Friday back, and The Wolf and Sheep was one of the few bars that knew about shifters and welcomed us. There were a few that would turn shifters away at the first sign of a cuff, and anyone caught trying to sneak into one was liable to find themselves doing a spell in the academy’s dungeon. Some of the other students made a sport of it. Personally, I’d never felt the temptation to chance it, what with the food at The Wolf and Sheep being so amazing. And the barkeep there didn’t look at you funny if you ordered three steaks.
“Alright, I’m in,” Mei said, hopping up from her bed and making a beeline for her wardrobe.
“Aye,” Cam said. “Me too.”
“Dean?” The three of us turned to look at him. He didn’t move his gaze from the ceiling.
“I reckon I might just stay here and study.”
“Dean wants to study?” I said, my tone teasing. “Someone call Fenwick.”
He didn’t so much as crack a smile, so I figured more drastic mea
sures were needed.
“Nice try,” I said, swiping his feet down from the bed. “Come on, up. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“It’s best tae just do what she wants, lad. Trust me. It’s nae worth the trouble arguing.”
I shot him a dirty look, and then gave Dean a sympathetic smile.
“Look, I know you’re feeling crappy, but staying in here isn’t going to fix it. But a good night out might.”
“I don’t know…”
“Aw, come on. You’ve got to. Who else is going to stop Cam starting bar fights?”
“Ach, that was one time, lass,” Cam protested. Dean forced a smile.
“Yeah, alright then.”
“Good. Now, the pair of you disappear so we can get changed.”
*
It was a little over half an hour before the four of us plus Leo, who was always up for a night out, were ready. We headed to the front gate and through the ward shielding us from the outside world – or maybe the other way around – and started walking towards town. There were no cabs out this way, and none of us had vehicles since we all arrived at the academy by portal, but the walk was pleasant enough in the cool summer evening.
We stepped through The Sheep and Wolf’s unmarked wooden door, and Cam nodded to the barkeep. He’d been barred from here last year after our first visit had ended in a bar brawl, but we’d managed to convince Jim to change his mind. To be fair, the guy he thumped was an absolute creep and had deserved it, but Cam was a shifter and he was a mundane, and from what I heard, the punch had broken the guy’s jaw. I figured that meant he’d been pretty restrained, since he packed enough power in a punch to kill a human outright if he really wanted. Jim had evidently agreed, because he’d let us back in, and we’d become regulars ever since, stepping out from Fur ‘n’ Fang for a quiet night out whenever we could.
“I’ll get the drinks in,” Leo said.
“Aye, I’ll help yer, lad.”
“Don’t forget the menus,” I said sweetly, and then led Mei and Dean off in search of a table. It was early still, so we had our pick. I set eyes on one in the corner and made for it. I was just about to slide into a seat when I saw Dean stiffen and stare at something over my shoulder. I twisted round to follow the direction of his gaze and cursed.
“Is that who I think it is?” Dean asked.
I gnawed my lip as realisation hit.
“It’s the first Friday after the full moon, isn’t it?”
“What is he doing here?” Mei flicked an anxious glance at him and back to me. “And what does it have to do with the full moon?”
“Good questions,” Dean said, turning his flat eyes on me.
“You know I saw him at the farm,” I hedged, picking at a chip in the paint on the table. “I meant to tell you, too, Mei.”
“That doesn’t explain what he’s doing here.”
I kept avoiding Dean’s eye. We’d all been Ryan’s friend, but he’d threatened to kill them both. He was probably the last person they wanted to see – which was why I’d avoided the topic solidly since we got to Fur ‘n’ Fang. Why the hell did I have to suggest The Wolf and Sheep?
“He might have said something about waiting here on the first Friday following each full moon.”
“What’s going on?” Cam set some drinks on the table. Leo set a couple more next to them with some menus and grabbed a seat. Dean nodded to a table in the shadow of one corner.
“Is that…?”
“I’ll go talk to him.” I slid out from my seat. Cam grabbed my wrist, and I raised an eyebrow at him. He let go.
“Aye, I know. There’s no telling yer. Just, be careful, aye? I dinnae want him and his psycho buddies getting the wrong idea about you.”
“I’ll be right back.”
I leant down and gave him a quick kiss, then headed over to the table where Ryan sat alone, nursing a drink.
“You probably don’t know this,” I said, taking a seat so I didn’t attract too much attention, “but this whole place is going to be crawling with Fur ‘n’ Fang students later tonight. It’s not a smart place for a wanted fugitive to be.”
Like me, Ryan had been bitten into the whole shifter world, and like me, he was a little out of the loop about Fur ‘n’ Fang traditions. He regarded me for a long moment, and then the glimmer of hope faded from his face.
“So you didn’t come here tonight to find me?”
A pang of guilt cramped in my stomach, and I shook my head.
“I’m sorry. But Ryan, it’s not too late to change your mind. Come back to Fur ‘n’ Fang with us. Turn yourself in.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” I said, leaning across the table to him. “Come on, Ryan. This is your best chance. If Draeven wanted all of us dead, I already would be. Come in, and he’ll listen.”
“Brad, and Laura…”
“I’m not asking you to give them up.”
“No, just to turn my back on them.” His jaw hardened. “Thanks for the warning, Jade. I’ve got to go.”
“Ryan…”
But he was already rising from the table. He headed to the door without a backward glance. After a moment, I got up and returned to the rest of my group. Mei raised an eyebrow, and I shook my head. Cam took one look at my face and handed me a menu. Food might not have been the answer to all of my problems, but it sure was a step in the right direction. Especially when that food was fresh from The Wolf and Sheep’s kitchen.
“Hi, guys.” I glanced up to see Jenny, one of the bar’s two waitresses, standing in front of us with her notepad flipped open. Jim’s less-than-subtle way of suggesting we might like to stay at our table rather than keep visiting the bar. “Do you need a few more minutes?”
“Nope,” Leo said before Jenny could get any ideas about doing anything that might delay our food. “We’re ready.”
“Alright, then.” She gave him a smile that I knew was purely professional – Jim didn’t approve of his staff dating the customers. Or maybe it was just the shifter customers, I wasn’t sure. “What can I get for you?”
“I’ll take a pair of steaks, bloody, all the trimmings.”
“Same,” Mei said.
“Aye, me too.”
“I’ll have the burger, double up on the meat.” Dean tossed his menu back on the table.
“Bloody?” Jenny asked, and he nodded.
“Yeah, that works for me,” I said, lowering the menu. “But can I get some onion rings with that?”
“Oh, yeah, for me, too,” Dean said.
Jenny nodded and scribbled in her pad.
“Can I get you a bucket of wings to start?”
I glanced around the table and saw four enthusiastically nodding heads. The wings here were almost as good as the burgers.
“Better make that two buckets,” I said. We were supposed to keep a low profile when we came here, and fighting over a bucket of wings would draw entirely too much attention.
“You got it. I’ll be right back.”
She headed to the kitchen, and we chatted amongst ourselves until the food came out. The bar was getting busy with a mix of mundanes and shifters. The local mundane population were largely oblivious to the existence of the supernatural, but I noticed a couple of them clocking cuffs on wrists, and giving their wearers plenty of space. How much they knew was anyone’s guess, since officially the supernatural was a closely guarded secret, but they clearly knew something.
As far as I was concerned, a far more interesting mystery was how on earth the chef managed to turn out food as good as he did. It wasn’t by chance that this place was a favourite with the Fur ‘n’ Fang students. We devoured the wings, and the meals, and then focussed on getting some drinks inside us.
A few drinks in, I managed to put Ryan and the other Bittens firmly from my mind, and the night passed in a pleasant blur. None of us were drunk – our shifter constitutions meant it took a lot of alcohol to do that – but we were on our way when I noticed Dean had fallen si
lent and was staring at something over my shoulder. I twisted round, and it took me a moment to see what had caught his attention.
Tara, Dean’s sister, was at the bar, and it looked like she’d been hitting the drink harder than we had. Given that she was a first year, she must’ve only recently turned eighteen – this must have been one of her first legal nights out, and she was clearly enjoying herself. None of her classmates were with her. No surprise, given her new lowly status, and the fact that technically she wasn’t supposed to be out of the academy, but she’d found other company in the form of a pair of mundanes who were hitting on her, and both looked half a dozen years her senior. One of them was getting a little hands-on. No prizes for guessing why Dean was looking unhappy.
He pushed himself up from the table, jaw clenched, and his hands curled into fists by his sides.
“Dean, leave it,” I said, but he brushed straight past me. I got up, and the others rose with me. We were all too slow.
“Get the hell away from her,” Dean snarled, grabbing one of the guys by his collar and swinging him away, and shoving the other. They recovered from the shock in time to square up to him. There were two of them, but they were mundanes, which meant they were no match for Dean.
Movement caught my eye behind the bar – Jim had taken one look at us and grabbed a baseball bat. I could see his point. If the five of us packed on the two mundanes, there’d be carnage. And right now, we looked pretty menacing.
“What’s your problem?” one of them demanded.
“You are!” Dean drew back his arm and lunged forward. Cam leapt into action, wrapping his arms around Dean and pulling him up short. Leo grabbed hold of his raised arm, and the pair of them hauled him back. I glanced over at Jim again, out from behind the bar and standing ready with his bat. I was close enough to see the wards carved into it. Interesting.
“We’ve got this,” I promised him, and then turned to the boys. “Get him outside.”
Feral Bitten (Fur 'n' Fang Academy Book 3): A Shifter Academy Novel Page 3