Feral Bitten (Fur 'n' Fang Academy Book 3): A Shifter Academy Novel

by C. S. Churton

  “I escaped once.”

  “Yeah, and they’re not going to make the same mistake again. Please, just think about it, okay? You could be safe, have a normal life – or whatever passes for one for us now.”

  “And all I have to do is turn my back on Brad?” He got to his feet. “I don’t think so, Jade.”

  I got up, searching the shadows in case I’d missed something, but we were still alone.

  “Brad was under the same curse as us. If he took the cure, I’m sure Draeven would be lenient.”

  “Right.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Because they’re so big on leniency. Remind me, why did you get locked in the dungeon after you were attacked?”

  “That wasn’t about the attack.” No, it was about not betraying a friend, which was much, much worse. “Please, just think about it. You could have a future, Ryan.”

  “I already have one,” he ground out. “You’re the one with no future if you keep blindly following a tyrant.”

  I stepped back as if he’d slapped me. In truth, I wished he had, rather than throwing those words at me. Was that what I was doing? Was I following a man I should have been fighting? I mean, no-one was ever going to accuse Draeven of being a saint, but…

  “Come with me, Jade,” Ryan said, his voice low and urgent. “You don’t have to follow him. Help us fight.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can. Don’t you see? This is the only way shifters will ever truly be free. You can be a part of that, you just have to come with me.”

  I shook my head. “No. I’ve made my decision.”

  He straightened, and a shadow fell over his face.

  “Then we’ve got nothing more to say.”

  He turned away and started for the treeline.

  “Ryan, wait!”

  “For what?” he said, without turning. “You can’t change who you are, Jade. And I won’t change who I am.”

  I heard the snarling before I saw where it was coming from. Ryan spun around at the same time I did, and six large wolves stalked towards us from different directions. No, not us. Him. My stomach dropped. Draeven had lied to me.

  “You set me up?” Ryan said, his voice horrified, and the pain of betrayal etched into his face. It hardened before I even had chance to deny the accusation. “You’ll pay for this!”

  He sprinted for the trees, and all around, the wolves broke into a run.

  “Stop!” I screamed as one of them raced passed me, but they didn’t.

  “Eachlais!” Ryan shouted, and a portal opened up at the edge of the treeline. I stared at it, mouth open. Stealth wasn’t the only thing he’d learned in his exile.

  He leapt into the air, twisting and writing with a snarl that changed from human to animal, and when he hit the ground, it was on four legs. He raced across the clearing, but even on four legs, the enforcers were gaining on him. I clamped a hand over my mouth, holding in a squeak of terror. If even one of them got hold of him, it was all over, and they were closing on him faster than he was closing on the portal. As I watched, one grey wolf, his pelt split with old scars, edged closer.

  Ryan turned and snapped at the grey wolf closing on his flank, then crouched for half a beat, and launched himself through the portal. It blinked out of existence before the grey could follow him, leaving me here alone with the six enforcers.

  And the knowledge that Draeven had gone back on his word.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Where the hell is Draeven?” I snarled, pacing the room.

  “Jade, lass…”

  “He used me!” I snapped. “The lying bastard went back on his word.”

  “Do ye want to say that any louder? I think there’re some shifters on the next floor who didna hear ye.” Cam reached over and shoved the door shut, leaving us alone in our dorm. I slumped down onto my bed and he sat next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I thought about shrugging him off for a moment, but it wasn’t him I was pissed at right now. I exhaled heavily and leaned into him.

  “I screwed up, Cam. I should have seen what he was planning, and now Ryan thinks I set him up. And I’m starting to think everything he said about Draeven was right.”

  “Look, I willnae defend anyone who lies to you, but Alpha Draeven must have had his reasons.”

  I glared at him, and he held up his hands.

  “I’m nae saying he was right–”

  “Good.”

  “–but Ryan has been on the run for six months. That cannae look good on him.”

  “Because that’s clearly the most important thing.”

  I pushed myself up off the bed and glared at him, and he held his hands up in surrender.

  “Just promise yer willnae go looking for trouble.”

  “He won’t even see me right now. He knows he was out of order.”

  “So there’s no point in you telling him?” Cam asked hopefully. I barked a bitter laugh. He squinted up at me. “Just try to stay out of the dungeon? I feel like a third wheel around Dean and Mei when yer not here.”

  “Wait, are they–?”

  Cam shrugged.

  “If they’re not, I dinnae ken why. They’re out ‘training’ together right now.”

  I grinned, and then remembered I had more important things to worry about. My expression sobered, and I crossed to the door before looking back.

  “If Blake throws me in the dungeon, come break me out, okay? Because that floor plays hell on my back.”

  I ducked into the corridor before he could tie me to the bed – not that I’d object to that in other circumstances – and made for Blake’s office. I’d worked myself back up into a fury by the time I got there. I mean, he gave me his damned word. That was supposed to mean something. And those enforcers? I wasn’t sure they’d have settled for bringing Ryan in alive. He swore. And thanks to him, Ryan didn’t trust either of us now.

  I hammered on the door, then tried the handle. It swung open at my touch, and four faces turned to glare at me. Blake, Shaun, Fletcher… and Draeven.

  Good. I ignored the squeezing in my chest. I wanted to see him and tell him what the hell I thought of his betrayal. It was just… well, with the four of them staring at me, it was kinda hard to actually coax any of the words from my throat.

  “May we help you, Ms Hart?” Blake said, his voice a low challenge.

  I started to shake my head, then grew a backbone and nodded instead.

  “I need to speak to Alpha Draeven.” I locked eyes with him across the room, sitting, as usual, in Blake’s seat behind the desk, and ignored the sharp intake of breath from someone off to my left. Shaun, probably. I’d have thought he’d be used to my blatant defiance and lack of self-preservation by now.

  “How dare you–?” Fletcher’s voice shook with fury, but Draeven rose to his feet, silencing him. He held my eye, and I could feel the urge to bow my head boring into the back of my neck. Not an alpha compulsion, just the weight of his anger, and my sense of self-preservation kicking in late. But I didn’t give in to it. I was angry, too.

  “You have something to say?” Draeven said. I nodded. Neither of us broke eye contact. Words still refused to work their way up my throat.

  “Then please, go ahead. But I suggest you lower your eyes first, because I doubt your instructors would appreciate trying to get your blood off this floor.”

  “Who says it’d be my blood?”

  “Jade!”

  “Enough!”

  “Silence!” Draeven bellowed, cutting across both Shaun and Blake. From my periphery, I saw Fletcher fold his arms across his chest. He looked just a little smug about my impending disembowelment. “Do you wish to challenge me, girl?”

  Fuck’s sake, this was getting us nowhere. And pissed off or not, I really didn’t want to end the day dead.

  “No, Alpha Draeven,” I ground out, wrenching my eyes from his and fixing them on a point over his shoulder. I felt some of the tension leave the other three in the room, but it was a long moment before
Draeven dipped his chin in a nod.

  “Then speak.”

  “You sent six enforcers to attack Ryan,” I told the wall behind him. “After you gave me your word you’d let me convince him to come in.”

  “And they were under strict instructions not to act until after you had failed. Which you did.”

  I nodded and swallowed. It was true – they hadn’t attacked until Ryan had made to leave. Shit.

  “Or perhaps your anger towards me has more to do with what the Bitten said to you? Perhaps you regret not joining his uprising to overthrow the tyrant.”

  Double shit.

  “Is that why you’re here?”

  “No, Alpha Draeven. I–”

  “Because I will not tolerate you inciting a fucking rebellion in my academy!” he shouted, and I flinched.

  “Alpha Draeven,” Shaun started in a respectful tone, but Draeven silenced him with a glare. Probably for the best. Draeven always tolerated more attitude from me than he would from anyone else. I hoped today wasn’t the day that changed, because this entire room stunk of testosterone and stress.

  “My loyalty remains where it’s always been, Alpha Draeven.”

  “Which is where?”

  “With whoever leads the shifters best.” I drew in a breath and turned my eyes to his chin. “Which I still believe is you.”

  A silence fell over the room. After a long moment, Draeven nodded, and lowered himself back into his seat.

  “Good. Because I have bigger concerns than a juvenile wolf trying to get herself killed.”

  I clamped my mouth shut and tried not to take that personally.

  “Tell her,” he said over my shoulder.

  “We kept your farm under close watch this evening,” Shaun said, and then hurriedly added, “for your own protection. We had no way of knowing if you were walking into an ambush.”

  I swallowed the objection rising up in my throat. Sure, they might be insinuating that I wasn’t able to take care of myself against three or more other wolves – but it wasn’t like it was an unfair accusation. I could maybe take Brad in a fight – but not if he had Ryan and Laura and his mystery pet backing him up.

  “What we weren’t expecting was that the ambush would take place somewhere else.”

  I jerked my head round to stare at him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “There was an attack at The Wolf and Sheep. Over two dozen mundanes were injured. Witnesses report at least half a dozen shifters, none of them wearing cuffs.”

  “Brad?” I said. Shaun nodded, but it was Draeven who answered.

  “Yes. He’s been recruiting his own pack. But he didn’t attack these mundanes to bolster his numbers. He bit them and left them there. He was sending a message.”

  “They were…” I forced the words out. “They were bitten?”

  While Ryan had been keeping me and the enforcers distracted. Dammit! I should have known he was playing me. And now people’s lives had been destroyed. Again.

  “Have any of them turned?”

  Draeven shook his head.

  “Too early to tell. We’re not going to know until the next full moon.”

  It was the full moon tonight. That meant we’d have to wait twenty-eight days for the next one – and they’d have to be watched that entire time. That was going to be tough to explain.

  “What will you do with them until then?”

  “That’s what we were discussing – until you interrupted us with your temper tantrum.”

  Oops. My stomach was still churning too much for me to feel embarrassed, but I was sure that would come later.

  “I believe,” Draeven said, “that we have no choice but to isolate them here until then.”

  “How?” The word burst from me. “You can’t keep them locked in the dungeon for a month.”

  Draeven fixed me with an unimpressed look, probably because yet again I was questioning him. I really needed to learn to think before I spoke. But then, it’d be a shame to break the habit of a lifetime.

  “We all know how well that turned out with Brad and the others,” I added.

  Draeven went rigid, and I couldn’t hear anyone else even drawing breath in the wake of my criticism.

  On the other hand, maybe it was time to consider breaking that habit.

  “All I mean, Alpha Draeven,” I added quickly, “is that by locking them up, we might be doing exactly what Brad wants.”

  “We?” Draeven said, and amusement flickered in his eyes. Somewhere behind me, the others started breathing again. I shrugged.

  “They used me to lure the enforcers away so they could maim people. The only thing I want to do with the other Bittens now is see them destroyed. This is as much my fight as it is yours.”

  Draeven worked his jaw a moment, then nodded.

  “So be it. You really should consider my offer when you graduate. Assuming you’re not interested in the druids’ cure?”

  I scuffed my feet and stared at the floor.

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “Clock’s ticking, Jade. As you keep pointing out, you’re not like the others. You control your rage spell, not the other way round. Most of the time. You have no need of the cure. It would be a shame to see you throw away a bright future.”

  In a world I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a part of. But I knew one thing – before I made any sort of decision, I had to make amends for the people my complicity – albeit unwilling – had harmed.

  “I’m a shifter right now. Let me help. Please.”

  Draeven nodded again.

  “You have a better suggestion for what to do with the potentially infected mundanes?”

  “Expand the medwing,” I said. “And make it off-limits to students. They can be healed up in comfort, and Fenwick can tell them they’re being kept under observation for–” I shrugged again. “Rabies, or something.”

  “Rabies?” Draeven raised an eyebrow. “You do realise there hasn’t been a case of rabies originating in this country in nearly a hundred years?”

  “Or something,” I repeated.

  “But it isn’t a bad idea. Alpha Blake, make the arrangements. Instructors Fletcher, Miller, ensure the students are confined to their dorms – we don’t need the mundanes seeing anything they shouldn’t. I’ll have my enforcers tell the mundanes they’re been monitored for symptoms of a rare strain of tetanus. We’ll bring in additional healers to assist.”

  “Yes, Alpha Draeven,” Blake said, bowing his head.

  “Good. Then we have work to do.”

  Draeven rose to his feet, but before any of us could leave, and before I could ask what I could do to help, there was a knock at the door, and it swung inwards. Caleb stood outlined in its frame, his bulk blocking most of it. He laid eyes on Draeven, and immediately dropped into a crouch.

  “Speak,” Draeven commanded.

  “Forgive the interruption, Alpha Draeven, Alpha Blake. But we have a problem. There is a crowd of mundanes outside the gates.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Instructor Miller,” Draeven said, rising from his chair and making for the door, barking orders as he went. “Confine the students to the academy. And if any are unaccounted for, send someone to head them off. We don’t need them trying to fight their way back through a mob. Enforcer Morgan, find Dawson and Mitchell, and meet us at the gates. Make sure none of the victims are brought in until this is sorted. Alpha Blake, Instructor Fletcher, with me.”

  Shaun and Caleb broke away from the group, and the other three marched through the hallways that I knew led to the front entrance. I followed behind – I mean, sure, I hadn’t been invited, but I hadn’t been not invited, either. And a mob of mundanes at the gates? There was no way I was missing this. Although if any of them were carrying pitchforks, I might be the first to dive for cover.

  Draeven reached the entrance hall and paused, one hand on the huge oaken doors.

  “No-one speaks except me, no matter what the mundanes say or do, a
m I clear?”

  “Yes, Alpha Draeven,” Blake said.

  Draeven glanced at me, and his eyes narrowed.

  “I don’t recall requesting your presence.”

  I shrugged, not quite meeting his eye. Now wasn’t the time for a pissing contest.

  “I was one of them until a couple of years ago. I might be able to help.”

  He stared at me for so long I thought he was going to send me away, but instead he shoved the doors open and stepped out into the night air. Enough of the moon shone from behind the clouds to cast a dim light over the crowd gathered outside. No, Draeven had used the right term. Mob. This was a mob, and they were pissed as all hell. I could smell their anger, and even if I couldn’t, the abuse they were shouting was hard to miss. There had to be about fifty of them gathered there – no match for the shifters inside the academy, but then, we lived by a creed, and that creed meant we couldn’t hurt them. I was pretty sure they couldn’t say the same about us.

  Draeven strode to the gates without breaking his stride, and the mob quietened a fraction – even the most furious and hate-filled amongst them wanted to hear what he had to say.

  “Why are you here?” he asked, his voice carrying easily through the night air. Someone jeered in response, and a voice called out,

  “Your kind aren’t welcome here anymore!”

  One figure at the front of the crowd raised his hands to quiet the mob and detached himself from the group. I recognised him at once. It was Jim, the barkeep and owner of The Wolf and Sheep. He ignored Draeven, instead fixing his eyes on the face he knew and recognised: Blake.

  “We have always been fair to you,” he said. “Tolerant.”

  “And we thank you for your tolerance,” Draeven replied for him. Blake, at his shoulder, stayed silent. “We have co-existed in peace for many years.”

  “Until tonight,” Jim said, glaring at Draeven, and then his eyes shifted back to Blake, dismissing the dominant wolf. I saw him bristle in response, and a split-second later, get control of himself again. And that was before any proper insults had been traded. If someone didn’t do something, this was going to go south quickly.

  I heard footsteps on the damp grass behind me and wrenched my eyes away from the mob for long enough to see Caleb and the two other enforcers arrive and take up stations flanking their alpha.