Saved: A Why Choose Academy Shifter Romance (Thornbriar Academy Book 3)

by Cali Mann

  Adrian smiled. “I think, perhaps you are looking at it wrong. Our society is missing a part of the whole. We cannot heal as a people unless we learn to accept all parts of ourselves.”

  His mother passed a hand across her mouth to hide her smile. Tears glimmered in her eyes.

  I unrolled a bit of water toward her, a small comfort for her loss. But perhaps we could change the rules and someday she might get her son back.

  “We don’t have to decide all this right now,” another Councilman said.

  I lent a bit of power to my voice so it echoed through the room. “It’s not up for debate. Spirit shifters will no longer be murdered.”

  They all stared at me.

  The Shifter world had never had an Oracle not raised and cowed in the palace. Things were going to be different from now on. “Your job as our Council is to figure out how to make it work,” I continued.

  Focusing, I tied off the stream to Kaiden’s cage. It would self-regulate now, although I’d have to add more power later.

  The Council grumbled among themselves, but they didn’t argue further.

  I called my men to me, silently, and they followed as I swept from the room. No one tried to stop me. No one dared.

  * * *

  “Did you find my mother?” I asked once we got into the outer hall. I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high.

  “We did,” Terrin said.

  “All of Kaiden’s mates were found,” Adrian said. “And we brought most of them here.”

  “Which made him stronger,” I said, thinking about Kaiden’s words. How had he felt great when one mate had died? He’d had the others so close by, he must have gained some energy from their proximity.

  “It wasn’t intentional,” Brenton groused.

  “I know.” I put my hand on his arm, feeling his grief and anger along our bond. What was going on with him? “We’ll talk soon.”

  “They’re up in my mom’s . . . in Councilwoman Hightower’s office,” Adrian said. “The mates and Lacey.”

  “Who’s Lacey?”

  “Terrin’s pet,” Adrian said with a laugh.

  Terrin grimaced. “She was Kaiden’s maid and I forced her help us.”

  “Forced?” I arched an eyebrow.

  “It wouldn’t have been safe for her to stay,” he said, casting his gaze at the ground.

  I bumped his shoulder. “Do I have to worry about competition for your affection?”

  “No,” he said. “I just felt sorry for the girl is all.”

  Adrian smirked.

  “He hurt her, and he didn’t want to,” Brenton said, a hard edge in his voice. “We all did things we regret on this trip.”

  I frowned. We were going to have to have the talk sooner rather than later. His pain was palpable. In fact, all of my guys seemed to be hurting. After we saw my mom, we all needed a little bonding time.

  As we wound our way up the stairs, I wondered what my mother was like. Had she survived her imprisonment with her sanity intact? Did she know I was alive? Had she ever wondered about me? My nerves began to fray as we approached the door.

  Adrian knocked, and a young woman answered the door.

  This must be Lacey. Pretty. She opened the door and announced our arrival. Yes, definitely the maid.

  We entered, and three other women approached. I knew my mother immediately. She had my dark hair and green eyes. “Mom?” I asked, hating the squeak in my voice.

  She stared at me. “You look like my sister.”

  I nodded. “She raised me until I was taken.”

  Stepping forward, she ran her hand along my cheek. “What name do you go by?”

  “Hailey.”

  Tears glimmered in her eyes. “She always said that’s the name she would give her kid.”

  “And she did. Until the baby died and Kaiden offered me in her place. It’s what allowed me to pass.”

  “Margaret lost her baby?” A frown crossed my mother’s face. “Pass as what?”

  “Not a spirit shifter,” I said.

  My mother backed away, her face closing. “You’re one of them.”

  I blinked. “But it’s okay. I’m mated and sane.”

  “No!” She cried. “Be gone foul creature!”

  The venom in her voice cut through me, and I couldn’t quite take a breath. I turned back toward the guys, and Sciro wrapped me in his arms. He was shaking, anger pulsating through him.

  “You should be ashamed of yourself,” Sciro growled. “She’s your daughter!”

  “I have no daughter,” Abigail said. “She’s evil.”

  “She’s no more evil than you or I,” Sciro said.

  “You don’t know anything, boy. I’ve seen the cruelty and pain that a spirit shifter can inflict, even a mated one.”

  “Kaiden was a psychopath. Hailey is not.”

  “How do you know? Perhaps she’s just not shown her true nature to you yet.” My mother wagged her finger. “Mark my words. There is a monster within.”

  “No,” Sciro shook his head. “The only evil here is your prejudice.”

  Despite the pain ricocheting through me, my heart squeezed at his defense of me. He’d been spouting the same prejudice only a short time ago. Maybe there was hope for my mother too.

  “Get me out of here,” I said, and the guys did, pulling me into the corridor and back down the hall.

  Sciro didn’t let go of me until we reached the their suite.

  32

  Brenton

  I stood by the waterfall with my friends around me. Hailey had suggested this as the perfect place to say our goodbyes, and she was right. The sun was low in the sky, and the water rolled past in a steady stream. The forest around us was blooming with spring buds and flowers. Life would continue on despite our losses.

  Hailey leaned against my arm, pretending I was supporting her. Really, she was my support, my rock, my everything. It hadn’t mattered one bit that I shared her. She deserved all the love we could give her. Every one of us.

  “Are you ready?” she asked, and I shook my head.

  She stepped forward, raising the tulip in her hand over the water. “I offer this for my sister Mary, who I knew all too briefly, but who left me with wise words.”

  “Mary,” we all echoed.

  Glancing around at each of us, Hailey smiled softly and dropped the flower into the water.

  Sciro stepped forward next. He raised the sunflower in his hand. “I offer this for Professor Samuel Ward, whose life was taken too soon. This world has lost a treasure of wisdom and heart.”

  “Professor Ward,” we said.

  He followed as Hailey had done and met each of our eyes, before letting the flower go down the stream.

  Adrian came next, lifting his lily. “I offer this lily, not for someone who has died, but for someone else I’ve lost. My mother and father loved me, but because of Council rules they no longer consider me a son. For my mother and father.”

  “For the Hightowers,” we chorused.

  He released the lily over the water, and the current carried it down stream.

  Terrin raised the dahlia over the stream. “I offer this dahlia for my grandmother and all of the family I have lost.” He swallowed, glancing around at us. “The families we have all lost.”

  “Family,” we said.

  He let it go, and Hailey grabbed his hand, squeezing it. Terrin smiled at her. “Thank you for making a new family for us, Hailey.”

  “It doesn’t replace the old,” she said.

  Terrin shook his head. “No, but it makes their loss a little more bearable.”

  She grinned through her tears. Then she turned to me.

  I took a breath. I wasn’t ready to let them go. My family had never been happy, but it was mine.

  Hailey reached out and took my hand. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  Forcing my feet into motion, I stumbled to the water’s edge. My reflection stared back at me from the water, lit in reds and golds of the setting sun. �
�I offer this rose for my mother. Her patience, her kindness, her caring—” My voice broke, and I paused, trying to pull myself together. “Her bravery.”

  “Aileen McKinnon,” they said.

  I compressed the stem, feeling the thorns bite into my skin and welcoming the pain. Hailey was right by my side.

  “Let it go, Brenton,” she said.

  Somehow, her quiet voice was what I needed. I released the flower into the stream. Hailey wrapped her arms around me and held me as I shook. When I’d pulled myself together, Hailey stepped forward, pulling out another rose.

  I frowned at her. “Who’s that for?”

  “For Judith, who died in battle, and all of the men and women lost in fights with my father.” Hailey watched me. “And for your father.”

  “No—” I started, anger welling up inside me.

  “William McKinnon wasn’t a good man, and he did some truly terrible things, including killing Aileen. But Brenton, you killed him, and you will never be free until you let him go.”

  She raised the rose over the water. “Are you ready to let him go?”

  I closed my eyes, pain ripping through me.

  “Are you?” she asked again.

  “Yes,” I said on an exhale.

  “Good,” Hailey said. “For Judith, for the soldiers, and for William McKinnon.”

  We echoed her words, and she dropped the rose into the current. We clustered together, watching the water take all the flowers away. Our grief would always be with us, but each of our losses had been honored.

  Tendrils of color chased each other across the sky as the sun set, and we all watched it silently. When it had passed beneath the horizon, we turned to walk back toward campus.

  33

  Sciro

  We’d been moved to the Oracle’s palace within the week, taking a plane ride across the ocean to the mountains of central Europe. They didn’t tell us exactly where we were going.

  The Oracle’s personal quarters were at the very top of the castle, almost touching the sky. Throughout the large suite of rooms, opulent furniture was inlaid with gold. There were game systems and pool tables, and a four-poster bed big enough for all of us. It was so luxurious that it almost didn’t feel like a prison. But I knew that, for Hailey, it still was.

  She stood on the balcony, gazing out over the snowy mountain tops and dark forests that surrounded us. We were a continent away from Thornbriar Academy but it didn’t feel much different.

  Her dark hair streamed behind her in the breeze, and her jeans clung to her perfect curves. She’d refused the Oracle’s robes, saying they reminded her too much of Hastings House dresses. But she didn’t shiver, despite the cool night air.

  “Hailey?” I said stepping out onto the stone porch.

  She turned toward me. “Sciro.”

  “I’m sorry about your Mom.”

  “I know.” She wrapped her arms about herself. “But I have hope that she’ll come around. You did, didn’t you?” She gave me a half-smile.

  “I did,” I said. “Your father? What have they done with him?”

  She frowned. “I had him brought here. The spirit cage still holds and will carry on as long as I add energy to it.”

  “Every day?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “More like weekly.”

  “The Council wanted to execute him.”

  “I know, but there has been enough death.” She sighed and twirled her bracelet around her wrist. She still wore the charms we had given her, but she fingered one I’d never seen before, a wolf.

  “Who gave you that one?”

  “I think my father did.” She studied the wolf. “Someday, I’ll have to ask him.”

  “Hailey,” I said, scratching my neck like a nervous schoolboy. “We haven’t had—”

  “Yes?” she asked with a small smile.

  Her eyes were so much older and wiser since she’d taken on the Oracle powers. I wanted to kiss her until all that burden faded away. “We haven’t had a chance to talk since it all went down.”

  Her face fell. “I don’t think you can take it back.”

  “Take what back?”

  “Being an Oracle’s mate.”

  I shook my head and reached for her, pulling her into my arms. “I don’t want to change anything.”

  She softened, relaxing against me. “Good.”

  “But you need to know—” I sighed, unable to get the words out.

  Arching an eyebrow, she traced her finger along my jaw. “I remember, you know.”

  “You do?”

  She nodded. “Every time I came to you. I thought they were just dreams. Hopes of what might have been, until the Oracle sent the power through me.”

  “How did you do it?”

  “I suppose I followed your string.”

  “My what?”

  She chuckled. “We’ve been bound since the moment we first met.”

  I blinked. “Really?”

  “And when I needed you, or you needed me, we tugged on that little string of air and spirit that holds us together.”

  I squeezed my arms around her. “It’s more than that.”

  “It is?” she asked.

  “I love you, Hailey.”

  She leaned into me. “I love you too.” Then she pressed her lips to mine, and I was drowning in the heady scent of her.

  34

  Hailey

  Dropping on to the couch next to the guys, I sighed. Terrin and Sciro were immersed in their video game. The screech of the cars on the screen echoed across the room. Adrian and Brenton played pool across the room. The space was larger, but it didn’t feel much different from the suite at Thornbriar.

  Adrian came over and leaned on the back of the couch. “What’s wrong?”

  I chuckled. “I know I feel you guys and all of your emotions, but do you feel mine as well?”

  “Yes, of course. You’re our mate.”

  Terrin and Sciro paused their game and faced us, and Brenton came over as well.

  With all of them looking at me like this, I felt silly, but there was no point in not being honest. “All this.” I gestured to the room. “It’s just like Thornbriar, a little pool for us to play in, but nothing more.”

  “You still feel trapped,” Terrin said.

  I reached out and squeezed his hand. “You always understand.”

  He chuckled.

  “Well,” Sciro said. “There’s no reason we are trapped here.”

  “The Council—”

  “Doesn’t control you,” Sciro continued. “You are the strongest Oracle in shifter history.”

  “And you have a dragon,” Brenton chimed in. “Where would you like to go, my beauty?”

  A slow smile spread over my face. “You’re right. Pack your bags, boys. Let’s go somewhere new.”

  “What do we pack for?” Adrian asked.

  “The ocean,” I said, remembering my youth playing on the beaches of Florida. “Let’s go to the beach.”

  * * *

  We rented a little beach house on a lonely stretch of coastline. We had the whole place to ourselves. Just the sand and the water and the seagulls and us. I sat on the back porch, letting the warm sun soak into my skin. I loved my red string bikini, but it barely covered anything, and most of my flesh was a lovely tan.

  Adrian set a frosty drink on the table beside me.

  “You guys still having fun with the frozen drink maker?” I asked, letting my eyes trail down his firm muscles.

  “We are,” he said, his voice husky at my perusal. “But we could be distracted.”

  I laughed.

  He sat down on the end of my lounge chair. “Is that a yes, you want to be distracted?”

  I leaned forward and kissed him, long and slow.

  He stroked his hands up and down my bare arms in fluttery little strokes. Lifting me up, he placed me on his lap, and I felt his erection press against my buttocks.

  “Happy to see me?” I asked with a teasing grin.
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  “Always,” he said.

  I gave a little tug on their elements, and the other guys wandered out from the kitchen. I lifted my eyes and gazed on them. Each one was amazing and unique in his own way; they all held a piece of my heart. I wouldn’t be here without them. I wouldn’t even be alive without them.

  Adrian turned me away from him, so I still sat in his lap, but facing the others. His hands stroked my nipples through the thin fabric of my bikini.

  Their eyes on me, smoldering with desire as he stimulated this one small part of my body, made me groan. I had never felt more wanted, more desired, more loved.

  Brenton came forward and kneeled before me. He kissed me, searing me with his lips. Then he kissed down my chest, into my cleavage. He licked the curve of my breast, first one then the other, sending tiny jolts of excitement down my nerves.

  Leaving my breasts to Brenton’s ministrations, Adrian’s hands went to my neck, untying the string of my top. The top fell down, exposing my breasts, and Brenton sucked and nibbled at their tips.

  Adrian reached between my legs, trailing his fingers across my sex. When he slid his fingers inside the fabric and swirled around the edges of my sensitive nub, I gasped.

  Pulling Brenton up to face me, I kissed him.

  Coming to either side of us, Terrin and Sciro kissed and stroked the skin of my neck and back. Their hands deftly untied the rest of my bikini and tossed the scraps of fabric away. I reached for them stroking and touching their skin, one warm and one cold even in the hot sun.

  As Adrian continued his stroking and petting, heat swirled within me and the pressure built. Their touches activated every nerve and sense that I had. Each of them connected to me emotionally, physically, and spiritually, through our magic bonds. The first orgasm rolled over me, and I came, crying out.

  Even afterward, I could still feel Adrian’s hardness beneath me. I turned around and pushed him back on the lounger. He grunted as I yanked off his swim trunks and positioned myself over him. I slid myself down, letting his hard length fill me. I swirled my hips, watching the storm of desire in his eyes.

  A hand pressed against my back and I leaned toward Adrian, still full of him. A finger opened and stretched me, and I closed my eyes, letting sensation ride me. When I was ready, Terrin thrust inside me, and I gasped in pleasure. We began to move as one, and earth and water flowed through me. Their energies weaved together, and we carried each other toward the cliffs.