The Haunted High Series Boxed Set

by Cheree Alsop

  Rhett turned hate-filled eyes on Meg. “You killed him!”

  “You killed him when you broke the rules,” she replied. She looked at me. “Just as you killed your vampire friend.” Her gaze moved to the werewolves around us. “Stun them and throw them in the truck. They’ll be bear food in the morning.”

  The thought of Vicken dying because of me made me reckless. I threw myself at Meg. I didn’t know what I would do if I reached her. Instead of finding out, a bullet hit me in the back and dropped me to the ground. Rhett fell beside me. I closed my eyes against the sight of tears streaming from his dark gaze that was still locked on his father’s face.

  The hands that carried us into the back of the truck were gentle. The glimpses I caught of the faces of the werewolves around us showed their sorrow. It was obvious no one had thought the night would end like this. A woman with Lunera’s long red hair sat in the corner of the truck with her face buried in her hands. A man rubbed her back as her shoulders shook. Other werewolves were also already in mourning. The thought that they had expected to welcome Ross and Durnin into their pack made me sad.

  When we reached the Den, Rhett and I were thrown into the cage. I wondered if Meg had forbidden visitors because nobody even walked near the bars. Kiyah was conspicuously absent. I wondered if she would get in trouble for feeding Vicken. The thought that neither of us would survive the Den made me angry, but it was a futile, vain anger that had no outlet. Rhett lay in silence where they had set him. Though I heard his quiet sobs, I knew there was nothing I could do to ease his pain. I wish Dara was there to help, then retracted the thought. At least the girl I loved was safe.

  When the numbing effects of the stun bullet lifted, there was nothing to do but sit and wait. Our thick handcuffs left us with few options. I couldn’t help thinking of every step of the Gauntlet again. Guilt at what Rhett had gone through pressed against me.

  “I’m sorry about your father,” I said quietly.

  Rhett glanced at me. His dark eyes were red, but he appeared to be out of tears. “You’re dying because you chose to save my life.”

  “If we did it again, I would still pull you from that river,” I replied.

  Rhett watched me silently for a moment before he said, “Even if it means being eaten by bears?”

  “Does it have to be bears?” I replied. At the shadow of a smile on his lips, I nodded. “Even then.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  I waited in silence for him to continue. When he did, his words gripped my heart.

  “Why are we supposed to fight for each other and live for each other if to do so during the Gauntlet means death?”

  I lifted a shoulder. “I think someone has too much power here.”

  “Meg,” he whispered in a tone thick with anger.

  I nodded. “For a people whose motto is to follow hierarchy, it doesn’t make sense to put someone in power who is the same rank.”

  Rhett glanced at me. “We need an Alpha.”

  I shook my head. “What you need is a fair government where everyone’s voice is heard. She’s grown too attached to her power, and so she gets rid of those who threaten her position.”

  “Like us,” Rhett said with realization dawning on his face.

  I nodded. “Like us.”

  Footsteps sounded down the hallway. Ten armed werewolves appeared.

  “Is it morning?” Rhett asked. He made a show of glancing at the windows above. “Still looks dark to me.”

  One of the werewolves unlocked the cage. The door swung open with a creak.

  “I’m sorry about this, Rhett,” the werewolf told him.

  “You were brave out there, boy,” a woman said to me as she hooked a chain to my handcuffs.

  “We’re praying for a quick death for both of you,” another told us.

  “That’s reassuring,” Rhett said dryly. “I’m sure that’ll help.”

  He shot me a nervous grin. I returned it. We would go out bravely and without tears, at least until we saw the bears.

  That thought solidified when we were led to a thick metal door embedded in the wall. Stix waited next to it.

  “I’ll see that your father’s body is properly laid to rest,” he told Rhett.

  “I would rather you’d have fought for him,” Rhett replied, his gaze level.

  Shame filled Stix’s face before he lowered his eyes to the floor. He pulled the door open without a word.

  “Unlock their handcuffs,” a werewolf instructed.

  The cuffs were unlocked. The guns of the werewolves kept me from entertaining the impulse to fight back. With my heart thundering in my chest to bely the calm expression on my face, I stepped inside. Rhett’s shoulder brushed my own. We both waited until the door closed and was locked behind us. For a moment, the light was shut out, leaving us in total darkness. The musky, pine-tinged scent of bears flooded my nose.

  “Ready for this?” Rhett asked.

  “No,” I replied. “You?”

  “Definitely not.”

  Lights flickered on. My first glimpse was of a cavern lined with cameras. They apparently wanted to get a good view of our deaths. I had no doubt Meg required every werewolf in the Den to attend our slaughter. It was disgusting.

  “Let’s give them a good show,” I said, stepping forward.

  “I’d rather not give them a show at all,” Rhett replied with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

  A growl rumbled through the cave to cut off my reply. Scents of hunger, anger, and frustration wafted from a tunnel on the far side of the cavern. I felt the fall of heavy paws on the floor through my bare feet. Great snuffling sounds preceded a massive head that poked from the darkness into the light of the cavern. The huge brown bear blinked its beady eyes as its head swayed from side to side.

  Chapter Six

  “Where did they get these bears?” I asked as the one in front of us lumbered out of its cave. It was easily twice the size of the possessed bear Vicken and I had run from in the Academy forest. It lifted its head to sniff again. The hunger in its gaze was unmistakable. It focused on us and let out an earsplitting roar that made both of us cover our ears.

  “We’re in trouble!” Rhett said.

  “Tell me about it,” I replied.

  A second bear followed the first. Soon, there were four massive bears watching us from in front of the tunnel. One licked its chops. It was easy to see how hungry they were. Instead of thick, healthy bellies, and full coats, these bears were gaunt with scraggly fur and a scent of desperation. The question wasn’t if we were to be eaten, it was which bear would get to us first.

  “Should we phase to wolf form?” Rhett asked with fear in his voice.

  I shook my head. “Wolves will fight bears like predators. We need to think strategy.”

  A bear charged.

  “My strategy is to run!” Rhett shouted.

  He took off to the right. The bear seemed to think he was the most tempting morsel of the two of us because he moved in a lumbering gallop after the werewolf.

  His actions fueled the other bears. Rhett’s circuit around the circular cave sent him back toward the animals. He glanced at the two bears behind him. Desperation must have fueled their strength, because they were gaining on him. With two bears in front and two behind, Rhett was quickly running out of options.

  I looked around the cavern, but there was nothing I could use as a weapon against the animals. Maybe Rhett was right. If phasing was the only chance we had to defend ourselves, at least we would go out fighting.

  I reached for the wolf side of me and was about to phase when the biggest bear lunged at Rhett. Given his size and proximity, I was about to see the werewolf be torn in half.

  “No!” I shouted and pushed at the same time.

  It felt as though the seconds slowed. The bear paused with its jaws open and claws raised, Rhett slid to a stop in front of the other bears, and the last bear behind him turned and gave me its full attention
. For that instant, every creature in the room waited for me to act.

  A tremor ran over my skin. I sucked in a breath. My hands were up. I couldn’t remember when I had lifted them. My fingers tingled the way they did when I pushed memories at someone. Only instead of memories, I had pushed a command.

  I swallowed and said, “Back up.” I pushed the thought along with speaking it, sending the bears an image of backing away from Rhett.

  Rhett also backed up and almost tripped over the biggest bear.

  “Not you, Rhett,” I said.

  He stopped, his expression confused. The bears also stopped. I felt the intense stares of each of them.

  “Rhett, come here,” I said as I pushed, “Bears, stay.”

  I could only stare as Rhett obeyed and the bears didn’t move. Relief filled me when Rhett was far enough away to not be eaten.

  He reached my side and then stared back at the bears. “What did you do?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied honestly.

  Rhett’s eyes widened. “Finn, you compelled me. I had to do what you said.”

  “What are you taking about?” I replied, still trying to get my mind around what was going on.

  “Finn,” Rhett said breathlessly, “You’re an Alpha!”

  The bears ambled closer. I only had to hold out a hand and say, “Stay,” for them to stop.

  “They listen to me because I’m an Alpha?” I asked.

  “I guess so,” Rhett replied. “I’ve never met an Alpha before. I don’t know what you can do.”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” I replied.

  I walked toward the bears. When one opened its mouth, I pushed an image of what I wanted it to do. The biggest bear closed his mouth, watched me for a moment, then lowered to the ground. The other bears did the same. With my heart pounding so loud I was sure the spectators could hear it through the cameras, I stretched out my hand toward the closest bear.

  Projecting images of calm, I set a hand on the bear’s wide forehead. It merely watched me, its breathing steady and the look in its eyes more curious now than angry. Under my touch, the bear’s eyes closed. After a moment, it turned its chin up so I could scratch beneath it. A smile spread across my face at the satisfied grunt the bear gave when I took my hand away.

  “That’s incredible,” Rhett breathed.

  He walked quietly up behind me and stretched out his own hand. The bear snapped his fingers.

  He scooted back behind me. “Okay, uh, well, we know it’s not me,” he said. “You just, uh, keep them calm while we find a way out of here.”

  An idea struck me. I had no clue if it would work, but given the thickness of the metal door we had walked through, they could just starve us to death along with the bears. I wouldn’t put it past Meg.

  I projected calmness toward the bears and Rhett. The werewolf’s nervousness around the animals was likely to set them off again. Each of the bears settled quietly on the ground with its eyes on me. I watched them out of the corner of my eye when I turned to face the camera.

  “What are you doing?” Rhett asked from behind me.

  “Everyone is watching us, right?”

  “Yes,” he replied. Bitterness showed in his voice when he said, “They’re waiting to see us get eaten.”

  “Not if I can help it,” I replied. I chose a camera and glared at it. Pushing with all of my might, I said, “You will unlock this door and let us out.”

  “Is that going to work?” Rhett asked.

  I ignored him and lifted my hand. Pushing the command down my fingers the same way I sent memories, I repeated, “You will unlock this door and let us out.”

  Rhett and I turned our attention to the door. After a few minutes, the werewolf’s shoulders slumped. One of the bears rose to its feet. I was about to face them again when a sound outside the door made me jerk back around.

  “It’s opening,” Rhett whispered as if saying the words louder would jinx it.

  I wondered who my compulsion had worked on. Expecting to see one or two werewolves, my heart leaped into my throat when the door was flung wide to reveal werewolves packed down either side of the hallway so thick there was barely standing room.

  Rhett’s wide gaze turned to me. “They. All. Listened.”

  I felt as if I was living a dream when I made my way to the door and the werewolves parted without a word.

  Stix cleared his throat and then lowered his gaze when I looked at him.

  “What about the bears, um, Sir?”

  The title caught me by surprise. I fought back the edge of manic laughter that threatened to undo everything I had accomplished. A glance behind me showed that the four bears had followed close behind Rhett. When they poked their heads out of the cavern, the werewolves quickly fell back.

  “Lock them inside,” someone suggested.

  “No,” I said louder than was necessary. I had been in too many cages to turn my back when other creatures were suffering. I put my hand on the biggest bear’s head. “They’re coming with me.”

  Everyone fell back at my pushed order. My heart hammered in my throat and the voice in the back of my mind warning that everything could turn on me in a second. I willed my breathing to slow and turned to walk up the hallway with one hand on the massive bear’s head and Rhett on my left side. The sound of the other bears’ shuffling footsteps were followed after a respectful distance by the hundreds of werewolves.

  “This is amazing,” Rhett whispered.

  I couldn’t have agreed more, but I didn’t dare to admit it. It felt as though I kept control by a tenuous thread that would snap if I lowered my guard for one second. Strangely enough, I felt safer with the bears than with the adult werewolves who walked around us with brands on their forearms that matched my own.

  The realization that Meg hadn’t been with the group that released us from the cavern hit me as soon as we stepped out of the tunnel and into the open arena. Meg waited with twelve armed werewolves on either side of her. The guns they pointed directly at me were no joke, and each guard had his or her finger on the trigger just waiting for Meg’s command.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.

  I ignored her and focused my attention on the guards standing on her right side.

  “Lower your weapons,” I said with a push.

  The guards immediately obeyed.

  “What are you doing?” Meg demanded.

  I turned my attention to the guards on her left. “Lower your weapons.”

  “Don’t you dare!” Meg said with an edge of panic in her voice.

  The guards did as I commanded without even looking at her.

  “If Meg goes for her guns, shoot her,” I commanded.

  Every guard turned to face Meg.

  Meg looked at me. “What’s going on here?” she demanded.

  I stepped forward. The bears and Rhett followed, but I stopped them with a gesture. I continued toward Meg alone. Her hands twitched near her holsters, but she knew better than to draw.

  I stopped about two feet from her. “Meg, I understand the hard work you have put into this place. You built a Den where werewolves could be safe and protected from the dangers of the world.”

  She opened her mouth, but I cut her off with a shake of my head.

  “But the problem with the kind of power you’ve gained here is that it’s easy to keep too much control for the sake of control instead of for the sake of keeping your pack safe.”

  Meg shook her head. “I did this to protect them.”

  My voice was calm when I replied, “Meg, you killed children on the pretense of doing so for the good of the Pack.”

  Meg sputtered. “But I didn’t! We need our werewolves to be strong.”

  “But not strong enough, right?” I replied.

  Meg stared at me. “What does that mean?”

  I watched her closely. “You know exactly what I mean. If one of your young werewolves starts to show signs of being an Alpha or commanding the re
spect of the other werewolves, you set him or her up to fail.” I motioned in the direction of the Gauntlet. “No one is supposed to survive this new and improved Gauntlet, are they?”

  I heard the werewolves surrounding us, waiting for Meg’s answer.

  “Of course they are,” she began.

  I shook my head. “I was out there, Meg. The odds of survival without assistance was impossible.” I glanced back at Rhett. “Rhett might have been able to save Lunera on the wall, but he couldn’t because he knew it would break the rules, and now she’s dead.” The guilt in the boy’s eyes was enough of an admission of truth for me to continue with, “And who knows? Maybe if Durnin had been able to have help or followed one of us through the tunnel of saws, he might be here with us right now.” A sob from someone within the crowd said that he was mourned. “And when I saved Rhett’s life, you shot his father and then threw us in with the bears.”

  I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “What good is being a werewolf if we can’t rely on our pack? Isn’t that what you teach here? Isn’t that the point of the Den, so that werewolves can have each other’s backs to protect? Then why isn’t it allowed in the Gauntlet?” I met her gaze with a glare. “It’s because you’re afraid of those who show leadership abilities. You’re afraid they’ll take over the Den and be a better leader than you are.” She opened her mouth to argue, but I cut her off with, “You preach about hierarchy, but you’re afraid to follow.”

  I looked around us and met the gaze of every werewolf I could. I lifted my hands to push when I said, “From now on, no one is to follow Meg’s rules or her commands. The Den can still be a place of safety, but it is not a dictatorship. You run your own families and see to their safety.”

  I met the gazes of several of the teenagers who had come to the cage. “As for your youth,” I said with another push, “Those who are ready to break free of the laws and iron fist under which they’ve been governed will come with me to The Remus Academy for Integral Education where they will be welcomed as students.” Several adults began to protest, but I raised a hand. “Parents are welcome to stay in contact with their children and can visit them if their children so wish.” I looked around with steel in my glare. “But none of you can stop those who choose to leave the Den of their own free will.”