When the plane took off, I had a few moments of panic, both sides of me protesting the sensation of rising from the ground. I pulled back the curtain and stared out the window for an entire hour before I could tear myself away. Seeing the world this way, from so far removed, was endlessly fascinating. But so was Cardi, who had come to give us warm towels, which I had no idea what to do with, and warm nuts, which I ate, though I didn’t know why they needed to be heated up.
When we’d finished eating, our father chimed a little bell, and Cardi came mincing in like the goddess she was.
“What will it be tonight, sir?” she asked, going to a liquor cabinet.
“Scotch, neat,” he said. “And whatever they want.”
He was giving us alcohol?
I glanced at Alarick. He shrugged.
It wasn’t like we’d never drank before. We’d tried a lot of things at different foster homes, not to mention that we worked at a club that served us whatever we wanted. But our father knew how old we were.
“Scotch and soda,” Alarick said.
Mr. Wolf’s eyebrow quirked for just a second, and I caught that flash of surprise and again, approval.
“Gin and tonic,” Adolf said.
“And for you, sir?” Cardi asked, turning to me. I thought my heart would stop. I’d talked to lots of women before, of course, but none who knew what I was. None who called me sir and looked at me like she’d like to spend the night with her legs wrapped around my face.
Adolf kicked my shin, hard. I gritted my teeth, my face warming as I turned back to Cardi. “Seven and Seven, if you have it,” I said.
Alcohol wasn’t a big part of our lives, but it was a part. It obviously hadn’t stunted our growth, and Alarick had never come down on us like a parent. He was the oldest triplet by a few minutes, but he was the leader by a mile. Still, he was our brother, not our dad. It was obvious our dad didn’t mind, either. Some tiny part of me was disappointed by that, to my surprise. I probably wouldn’t have listened if he’d forbidden it, but the fact that he didn’t made it a little less appealing.
“Let’s talk about what your future will look like at Ravenwood Academy,” Herbert Underwood said. “I’m the headmaster, but I also teach classes. However, you’ll have most of your classes with the other two boys at the academy who share your abilities.”
“There are two more wolf boys there?” I asked, nearly jumping out of my chair. People like us. People who might make us feel less like freaks, who could teach us all we’d missed by not growing up with parents who understood what we were.
“Please don’t ever let me hear you use that phrase again,” Mr. Wolf said with a patronizing scowl.
“What do you call yourself?” I asked. “A werewolf?”
“That would be fine,” Mr. Wolf said. “And yes, there are two more wolves at Ravenwood. It sits on a large piece of property in the woods of Northern Washington, so you’ll have plenty of space to hunt and test your abilities.”
“Hunt?” Adolf asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Wolf said. “Wolves do that, you know.”
Alarick’s anger flared at Mr. Wolf’s condescending tone, but I ignored it. Something primal and wild was stirring inside me at the thought, pushing toward the surface with hope so raw it choked me. Running free in the woods with my brothers—as a wolf. The image ached behind my eyes, and I felt sorry for the poor creature inside me that had lived its whole life being denied these most basic needs, denied its very existence. I had put it in a cage and draped it in a shroud, making it live its life in the dark. Now, it would finally be free. I could let it step into the light, could embrace it as part of myself instead of confining it to the furthest corners of my mind.
“Our students take basic courses to keep up with public school curriculum, but they are also able to train in combat and learn skills to develop their natural abilities and master their supernatural side. Each student does an independent project as well, though you may choose to work with others of your kind.”
Others of your kind.
Sweeter words had never been spoken.
“What’s the catch?” Alarick asked.
“Excuse me?” the fussy professor asked.
“You’re inviting us to live with you, go to your school, hunt on your land. What’s the catch?”
“No catch,” our father said. “We need you. It’s that simple. The wolf population is too low to continue naturally. I’ve been searching the country for years, as well as Canada, keeping tabs on wolves. In the past few years, there have been a number of attacks on our already critically low population. As far as we know, the three of you, plus the two boys at Ravenwood, are the only remaining natural wolves under the age of twenty. You can see why it’s of utmost importance to protect our remaining population.”
“Yeah, but there are no girls,” I pointed out.
“Exactly,” Alarick said. “We can’t carry on a species by ourselves. What’s the catch?”
Mr. Wolf smiled and sipped his scotch. “Unlike ordinary humans, we have ways to create our kind through means beyond reproduction. It’s not preferable, but your mother was one such wolf.”
“How?” Alarick asked.
“She was not a natural born wolf,” our father said. “She was created to be my mate.”
We all sat in silence absorbing that for a moment. “How do you make a wolf?” Adolf asked. “Can you get rid of one the same way?”
“No,” Mr. Wolf said with another indulgent smile. “As you learned the other night, our kind is extremely hard to kill.”
“And yet, we’re almost extinct,” Alarick said.
“Wolves can be created artificially, but it’s not a simple process,” Mr. Wolf said. “It’s not as straightforward as a vampire, which just has to bite a human and exchange blood. For a human to become a wolf, their entire DNA must be altered. If they die, they don’t simply come back as a wolf, as vampires do.”
“So, it would kill someone,” Alarick said.
“If it doesn’t ‘take,’ then yes,” Mr. Wolf said. “But it’s our only option.”
“There’s the catch,” Alarick said, crossing his arms and frowning at our father.
“You must be joking,” Mr. Wolf said. “There are literally six billion people in the world, and only five young wolves in existence.”
“And you’re going to create some more,” Adolf said.
“With or without your help,” Mr. Wolf said. “We have two more boys who are enthusiastically pursuing suitable mates in their independent study.”
“Then what do you need us for?” Alarick asked.
“It would increase our chances as well as the genetic diversity of our species,” Mr. Wolf said, smiling at me. “Not to mention, you get a mate out of the deal.”
Was I that transparent? Everyone on the plane seemed to think I was girl crazy.
“What’s this mate stuff?” Adolf asked. “How does that even work?”
“Once we’ve successfully completed the transition, and we have a female wolf, we test her fertility. As hard as it is to create a wolf, it is a hundred times harder to make one who can create natural wolf children. So far, we haven’t succeeded in that aspect. If we do make such a wolf, she’ll be your mate,” Mr. Wolf said.
“Mine?” I asked, almost choking on my drink.
“All of yours,” Mr. Wolf said.
“Wait, what?” Adolf asked.
“I’m afraid it’s necessary,” Mr. Wolf said. “Otherwise, the cost in human lives and years of waiting are too high. Artificially created wolves are seldom able to produce a natural wolf child. But, in rare instances such as your mother, it has happened. That’s our last hope. We can’t afford to wait years and years to find you each a separate mate.”
We all looked at each other in silence. I hadn’t dared hope I could have a girlfriend in my life, and now I found it was possible. I wasn’t really going to complain if she was also the girlfriend of my brothers.
“How are you going
about finding these humans?” Alarick asked.
“Your mother was human, but she had enhanced natural abilities, what some might call supernatural sensitivity. We’ve been focused on finding girls with similar aptitudes and hidden abilities, mostly through exhaustive research done by the two wolves already at Ravenwood.”
“When we find them, we invite them to enroll in our academy, then test to see if they are compatible with our wolves,” Dr. Underwood said.
“And if they’re not, they die,” Alarick clarified.
“It’s like the world’s bloodiest episode of The Bachelor,” Adolf muttered.
We’d spent most of our lives trying not to hurt humans, and now we had free rein to just kill them for experimental purposes. I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I could feel how against the idea Alarick was. He had a strong moral code, and he’d never abandon it, not even for the sake of our species. I could already feel the intention forming in his mind, the plan he was developing.
Well, shit.
We weren’t going to help them with this operation. We were going to stop it.
8
Adolf
It was one thing to hear about this fancy-ass school Dr. Underwood and our father ran, and another thing to see it. I’d known our dad had made it big from the private jet he flew us back in. I just hadn’t known the school would be quite like it was. I don’t know, maybe I was expecting a secret lair carved out of the side of a mountain like a superhero would have. After all, we’d just learned that we actually were kind of supermen, not just freaks who turned into hairy, violent beasts on occasion.
Ravenwood Academy was remote, but it wasn’t hidden. Anyone driving by could have seen it. After a thirty-minute drive along two-lane winding roads through dense evergreen forests shadowed by looming grey clouds, we pulled up to the gates. Inside them loomed the formidable, solid stone facade of the main building, the wings stretching to either side across smooth green lawns.
I leaned forward, craning to see out the windows of the car. I spotted at least a dozen students outside, the girls wearing plaid skirts, the boys wearing khaki’s and blazers, all of them wearing ties. They didn’t look like monsters or freaks. A couple sat together on a blanket on the lawn, their shoulders pressed together, chatting with three guys standing over them. Another group was playing with a hacky sack, and yet another played Frisbee. A pair of girls sat on a bench watching us pull up to the gate.
“Welcome to Ravenwood,” Dr. Underwood said as the gate swung open before us, putting a strange crackle in the air, and I smelled the toasted scent again. “You may have noticed we are protected by magic. That keeps humans from noticing anything out of the ordinary when they visit.”
“There are no humans here?” Donovan asked.
“A few,” Dr. Underwood said. “They are kept from knowing the true nature of the place, though.”
“The guinea pigs,” Alarick muttered.
“Don’t worry, if by some chance they did discover that this is more than an ordinary boarding school, they wouldn’t be able to run and tell anyone,” Mr. Wolf said, narrowing his eyes at Alarick. Shit. He’d made one too many comments opposing the experiments going on here.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“The magic that surrounds the place also strips the memory of magic when a human leaves,” Dr. Underwood said. “Even if they stumbled across a potions class, for instance, and they knew something supernatural was afoot, they would be allowed to continue their education here. But if they couldn’t handle the knowledge and chose to leave, they wouldn’t be allowed to take the knowledge with them.”
I could tell Alarick wanted more detail, but he had also noticed our father’s suspicion, and he didn’t want to alert him further.
“Is dating allowed here?” Donovan asked, always reliable for changing the subject. “I mean, provided we’re physically compatible.”
Dr. Underwood smiled. “It is a co-ed school. We encourage our students to focus more on their training and magical growth, but some fraternization is inevitable.”
Magical growth. That sounded so fucking cool. I couldn’t wait to start combat training, to learn what we could really do—without worrying about killing someone.
“What…uh… What kind of people go here?” I asked as the car wound along the one-lane drive toward the building.
“All kinds,” Mr. Wolf said, shooting a dark look at the headmaster.
“It’s true,” Dr. Underwood said lightly. “We allow all supernaturals, even those historically opposed to each other. Our aim is to foster an environment of tolerance and peace, even between warring races, and we believe that can only be achieved by sharing our common humanity. There are vampires here, but they are no threat to you. We have a strict zero-tolerance policy for violence of any kind. Of course there are occasional training accidents, but the safety of all students is our top priority.”
I heard Alarick’s brooding inside my head, and I realized he was dwelling on the irony of that, considering they had probably killed at least a handful of human test subjects already.
“What do you teach?” Donovan asked our father. “Are you going to show us how to… Be wolves?”
“I don’t work for the academy,” Mr. Wolf said. “I’m a local businessman.”
“What kind of business?” Alarick asked.
Mr. Wolf gave him a haughty smile. “Oh, I dabble in a few different things,” he said. “Staying on top of trends. It’s quite lucrative.”
“Obviously,” I said, thinking of that insane plane ride.
“But don’t worry, you’ll see me around the school from time to time,” Mr. Wolf said. “And just because you live on campus, that doesn’t mean you can’t come see me any time. My house is just through the woods.”
“Wait, we won’t be living with you?” Donovan asked. “I thought you said…”
“Ravenwood is a residential program,” Dr. Underwood said. “All the students live on campus, but you are free to go home on weekends. During the week, you must get a pass to leave campus.”
“But you three will be free to come and go as you please,” Mr. Wolf put in, shooting Dr. Underwood a meaningful look.
“Of course,” the professor said, licking his lips and gripping the steering wheel as he pulled into a garage hidden behind the school. At least ten cars were parked inside, ranging from modest luxury to utter extravagance.
“How much does tuition at a school like this cost?” I asked, eyeing our father. Was he going to pay for this after letting us fend for ourselves for the past ten years? True, we were doing good now, but it hadn’t always been like this.
“Don’t worry about that,” Mr. Wolf said, opening the door and climbing out. “I’ve taken care of everything.”
“What does that mean?” Alarick asked. “Now you’re going to make yourself feel better about abandoning us by throwing some money at a fancy school?”
“I don’t feel bad about placing you in a safe place far away from me,” Mr. Wolf said.
“Well, you got one thing right,” Alarick said, slamming the door behind him after climbing from the back seat. “We were better off without you.”
“As far as tuition,” Mr. Wolf said, his gaze on me. “This school was built on my land. I assume Herbert won’t charge tuition to my sons.”
“Of course not,” Herbert said, shooting Mr. Wolf a nervous glance. Herbert Underwood might be the headmaster of the school, but it was clear who pulled the strings.
“I’ll take care of the admissions,” Mr. Wolf said. “You boys can get settled in your new rooms. Herbert, can you call for Jose and Vance? I’d like the boys to meet them right away. And maybe one of your more easily charmed girls for Donovan. He clearly craves a female to fill his needs until his mate is found.”
Donovan’s face turned ten shades of red, and I couldn’t help but laugh. When I threw my arm around his neck, he punched me in the ribs, but I didn’t release him. “Baby bro’s about to get laid,” I said t
hrough my laughter.
“Like you’re so experienced,” he muttered, wrestling himself free as we left the garage and crossed the back lawn, which was free of students.
“The garage is off-limits without a pass,” Dr. Underwood said, looking as uncomfortable as Donovan at the conversation we’d been having. “Our students may park a car in the garages, but it can only be accessed for approved outings.”
“Those are student cars?” I asked. Shit. I hadn’t thought about the fact that this was a legit boarding school. We’d be thrown in with a bunch of rich pricks.
Hell, now that Mr. Wolf had claimed us, maybe we were rich pricks.
As we came around the side of the building, a couple girls strolled by on the path, their shiny hair fluttering behind them as they walked. When they saw us, they gave us shy, curious glances, smiling and lifting their hands in a small wave.
I grinned and waved back.
“Don’t worry, there are plenty of girls willing to fill the needs of all three of you,” Mr. Wolf said, smirking at me.
“How would you know?” Alarick asked. “Is this where you pick up dates?”
“Our kind is a rarity,” Mr. Wolf said. “That guarantees you the interest of the best girls—the adventurous ones. Isn’t that right, Herbert?”
When he added a wink to that statement, I nearly ralphed. Way too much information about our estranged daddy-o.
“In a school this small, newcomers do enjoy a certain celebrity status,” Dr. Underwood said, sweating visibly at the turn the conversation had taken. “Novelty will always have a certain appeal.”
We stepped into a tiled lobby and followed the headmaster into a small office that looked like it belonged in a swanky hotel more than a school. Dr. Underwood asked a blonde secretary to contact Jose and Vance, and then he started discussing admission with our father, apparently assuming we were in. I guess we were.
After a minute, two guys wearing the school uniform appeared in the doorway. They were both big, with broad shoulders and defined muscles, and looked about our age. The black guy with a buzz cut introduced himself as Vance. The other guy, Jose, stuck out a hand and gave us an excited grin, flashing dimples in his round cheeks. He looked Hispanic, with brown skin and thick, unruly black hair.
Paranormal Academy Page 20
