Fur 'n' Fang Academy: The Complete Series: A Shifter Academy Adventure

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Fur 'n' Fang Academy: The Complete Series: A Shifter Academy Adventure Page 23

by C. S. Churton


  A snarl rent the air beside me – Cam’s change had been faster than mine, and his shifted form was poised to attack, hackles raised as he glared at the two wolves racing towards us through the falling darkness.

  I growled again. This was taking too long. They were going to be here in seconds, and I was only half-shifted. I willed my legs to change faster as I tore at the ground beneath me, but the change couldn’t be rushed.

  Both wolves zeroed in on me, the soft target. Shit. The one on the left, a pale grey beast whose fur was so sparse I could make out the slabs of muscle clinging to his frame, sank back on his haunches and leapt through the air. He was all power and no grace, but it wouldn’t matter. Mid-shift, I was defenceless.

  A grey and white blur smashed into him, and the pair of them smashed into the ground so hard it trembled beneath my paws. Snarls and the sounds of teeth snapping filled the air.

  Movement flashed off to my left; the other wolf, mottled black with his lips peeled back to reveal his curved fangs, advanced on me with powerful, deliberate steps.

  I gasped in pain as my hip dislocated with a loud pop and I shrank back, but the black wolf kept coming, preparing to pounce.

  Cam bounced back to his feet and leapt in front of me, snarling and snapping his teeth at both wolves. The grey wolf peeled itself from the floor and shook out his sparse coat, and the two intruders shared a look, then the mottled black barked a harsh laugh, and the pair of them advanced on Cam again.

  With a snarl, I leapt to my feet, jumping clean over Cam and slamming into the pale grey wolf. The force of my tackle sent us both sprawling in a tangle of fur and limbs. I clamped my jaws around his neck and burrowed my teeth through his fur, searching for his jugular.

  His powerful feet slammed into my stomach, once, twice, a third time, knocking the wind from me, and wrenching my jaws from his throat. He tossed me aside and I hit the ground, gasping for breath. The wolf loomed over me, sizing me up and looking for weaknesses. Determined not to show him any, I forced myself back onto my feet with a grunt, but before I could find my balance he lunged at me, clamping his teeth around the back of my neck. I struggled against him, but he was too strong. I couldn’t escape his grip, and I couldn’t reach round enough to find anything to bite. He shook me with his huge head, sending jolts of pain through my helpless form.

  I bit back a whimper – I would not give him the satisfaction – and forced my body to go limp and slammed my eyes shut, playing dead, or at least unconscious. He shook me once more, his fangs slicing further into my flesh with each movement, and then tossed me again. I landed hard on my shoulder and felt the joint buckle and pop under the force of it. Shit. Pain screamed me and I swallowed a yelp. Unconscious wolves do not yelp. I heard the rustle of movement and opened an eye in time to see the massive brute leaping through the air at me, committed to his attack. I threw myself up to meet him, ignoring the agony in my shoulder, and slashed my teeth across face. He fell back with a snarl, blood pumping freely from the wounds, and I limped a step towards him.

  He ran his eyes over my injury, and I lifted a lip and snarled at him. I might be injured, but I’d kick his arse on three legs if I had to.

  A howl of pain ripped through the air, and I spun round to see Cam’s teeth clamped around a chunk of fur and flesh – fur and flesh that were no longer attached to the black wolf. The intruder fell back, unsteady on his legs, then turned and ran. Cam spat the flesh from his mouth and snarled a warning after his retreating back.

  I twisted my head back to my pale-furred rival, and snapped my jaws in his direction, rumbling low in my throat. He looked from me to Cam and back again, then snarled in frustration, turned, and loped after his packmate.

  I started to chase after them, as best I could on three legs, but Cam aimed a nip at my uninjured shoulder, trying to get my attention. I twisted to look at him, and he shook his head and slowed. He was right. We’d never catch them now. And even if we did, I didn’t like our chances of coming off best again. Dammit.

  I slowed to a walk and limped back to where we’d left our clothes. The other intruder was still there, still in his human form, and my hackles raised as I stalked towards him.

  “Easy,” he said, and I snarled in response. This was his fault. They came here because of him.

  His eyes flicked to Cam, who moved in tandem with me.

  “You can control her, right?”

  I snarled again, snapping my jaws at the air in front of him. Control me? No-one controlled me. I was a she-wolf, a powerful shifter, a Bitten who had survived a rage curse.

  …And I was threatening a man who was no threat to me. I exhaled in a sharp huff and slunk behind the boulder.

  It took me longer to change back into my human form than it had to change out of it – a sign that I didn’t yet have full control of my wolf side. Shaun wasn’t going to be happy when he heard I’d shifted away from Fur ‘n’ Fang. And it seemed pretty damned unlikely I’d get away with not telling him – my arm was never going to heal up in time to avoid my mentor’s questions. Shifting might force my shoulder back into its joint, but it wasn’t going to heal the tendons.

  I tugged my clothes back on, wincing as the movement pulled on my shoulder. What I needed was a sling, but this wasn’t the time to be showing weakness. I held it close against my body and tried not to think about how far back I was setting my recovery. When I emerged from behind the rock, Cam was already fully dressed and waiting for me. The intruder was sitting on the floor, cross-legged and with his hands in his lap. I suspected that wasn’t by choice – or at least, not by his choice. Cam looked pissed as all hell.

  “Get up,” Cam said, yanking the man up by his shirt. He didn’t resist. I could smell the testosterone flooding Cam’s system as he shoved the shifter back towards Lachlan’s estate. I fell in beside him, watching the intruder’s every move.

  “Why here?” I blurted. “Why did you come into Alpha Lachlan’s territory? There’s plenty of unclaimed land out there.”

  The intruder stopped and looked back over his shoulder at me, but Cam gave him a shove in the back, and he took the hint and kept moving.

  “I have a message to deliver.”

  “So that story about needing food and somewhere to hide, that was bullshit?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head sharply. “That’s true. I need protection. You’ve seen what my pack will do to silence me.”

  “What’s the message?” Cam grunted, but the intruder shook his head again.

  “No dice, lad. That’s for your alpha’s ears.”

  Cam made to shove him again, but I blocked him with my good arm. There was nothing to gain from getting into a pissing contest. If he was telling the truth about the message, we’d hear it soon enough.

  “Tell us your name, at least,” I said.

  “James.”

  “And your allegiance?” Cam pressed.

  James risked another glance back over his shoulder.

  “None. I think my two former pack mates made that perfectly clear.”

  Somehow, I didn’t think Lachlan would take that for an answer, but Cam didn’t bother to press it. We were coming up on the main set of buildings, and I could see several of the pack’s mature shifters clustered together, their heads bowed in discussion. One of them had already started to discard his clothing.

  As we drew closer, they broke apart. One of them, a woman in her late twenties with red hair cut short to follow her soft jawline, stepped forward. I’d spoken to her a few times over the last six weeks. Catriona.

  “Cam, Jade. When Hilda came back without you, we thought you must’ve run intae some trouble.” She eyed James as she stalked closer. “This is the intruder?”

  “Aye,” Cam said. “He wants tae see Alpha Lachlan.”

  “Aye, I’ll bet he does,” Catriona said, circling him with unnatural grace. “What are ye doing in our lands, intruder?”

  “My words are for your alpha only.”

  “No-one sees my alph
a without going through me first.”

  His eyes widened slightly, and he cocked his head, looking at the lithe redhead.

  “You are the pack’s beta? I had heard you were progressive, but…” He shook his head. “Regardless, I must speak with your alpha. I bear your pack no ill-will. I was attacked by two of my former brothers, as these two can attest.”

  He gestured to us, and Cam dipped his chin in a curt nod. Catriona weighed his words.

  “So be it. I’ll take you to Alpha Lachlan. But be warned: one step out of line, and your life is forfeit. You two,” she nodded to me and Cam, “Follow.”

  But before we could take a step towards the modest cottage, the gathered pack members stirred and stepped aside. Through their midst strode a tall, fair-skinned man dressed in traditional Scottish attire. His black hair hung loose around his shoulders, and a day’s worth of stubble covered his lower jaw. He looked to be in his forties, but for all I knew, he could be twice that. Shifters aged differently to mundanes. I was still figuring it all out.

  “Alpha Lachlan,” Catriona said, bowing her head.

  “Catriona,” Lachlan acknowledged her. His eyes locked onto James, and the tension rolled off him in waves. “Ye dare trespass on my land, lad? Who are ye?”

  James dropped onto one knee and bowed his head.

  “Alpha Lachlan. I am James Armstrong, of the Senard pack.” His eyes flicked up as far as Lachlan’s neckline and then back to the dirt in front of his own feet. “Formerly of the Senard pack. And I mean no offence.”

  “Ye mean no offence? Ye cannae come creeping round my demesne and tell me ye mean no offence, laddie. I’ve a mind to let my pack take justice the old way.”

  “No, no, wait!” James swallowed. “I left my pack two days ago… when I heard rumours.”

  “Dinnae play coy with me. Out wit’ it.”

  James glanced around at the cluster of shifters surrounding him, all of us listening intently, then ducked his head again.

  “My alpha. He wants to rise up. Against Alpha Draeven.”

  Chapter Three

  “I can’t believe,” I said, hefting my bags higher on my shoulder as Cam scanned the dorm assignment lists, “that with everything going on, they still sent us back here.”

  Cam snorted as he ran his finger down the list of names.

  “What were you going tae do, Xena – take on the whole pack by yerself?” He jabbed his finger against the list. “Got it. Looks like yer bunking with Dean and Mei again… and me. Second floor.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t just say that I’m stuck with the pair of you this year,” a voice said from behind me.

  I turned around and grinned.

  “Dean!”

  He held his hand out to Cam and the pair of them bumped shoulders with enough force that had one of them been a mundane, there probably would have been broken bones.

  “Worried that Cam’s going to make you look bad?” I teased.

  “Nope. You’re the one I was hoping to ditch, Just Jade. I was hoping for a quieter year. Got your eye on any drain pipes this year?”

  He reached out to muss my hair and I ducked under his arm.

  “Hey, I didn’t ask you to be my chaperone. And I think it’s time for that nickname to die.”

  “That nickname is never going to die. Suck it up, Just Jade.”

  “Yeah, yeah. If I’d known you were going to be so literal, I’d have just told you to bite me.”

  “Yes, well,” a snooty voice trilled from over my shoulder, “it would seem someone already did that. Dean, please tell me you’re not going to be wasting your time with this cur again this year.”

  Cam tensed at the insult, but I placed a hand lightly on his arm and smiled at the blonde.

  “Hi, Madison. I see you didn’t manage to get that nose job you were angling for. Never mind, I’ll do a custom job in our first combat lesson.”

  “You little freak.” Her face twisted in anger, and then she smoothed it out again and tossed her blonde hair over one shoulder. “I’m going to my room. Help me with my bags, Dean? Our families will be so glad to hear we’re catching up.”

  She slid a possessive hand around one of his biceps, with all the subtlety of a kick in the teeth. Which gave me some great ideas.

  “Yeah, sure,” Dean said, and gave me an apologetic look. “Catch up with you later, Jade.”

  I rolled my eyes but bit my tongue. As the son of an alpha, he was under a lot of pressure to form a bond with the daughter of an alpha of another pack. As in, marriage. I mean, I still thought he could do a lot better than Madison, but apparently she had a good pedigree. I’d given up arguing with him about it. Now, I mostly felt sorry for him.

  “Come on, roomie,” I said to Cam, sliding my hand into his. “Let’s go lay claim to the best beds.”

  We headed up to the second floor, but when we got to our room, we found there was already someone inside.

  “Mei!” I tossed my bags on the floor and wrapped the girl in a hug. Mei-Ling was possibly the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Chinese by birth, she had jet-black hair that hung halfway down her back in a smooth curtain, when it wasn’t tied back. Her limbs were long and sinuous, and her face striking in an unconventional way. She was almost as much of an outcast as me – not because she was Chinese, but because she was the only leopard shifter in the academy. Clouded leopard, to be exact – and wolves really didn’t take well to other types of shifter. For some reason. It was another of the shifter things that I hadn’t quite wrapped my head around yet.

  Cam greeted her with one-armed hug, and then hefted his bags onto one of the beds.

  “Do we still have to make sure you don’t have a bed by the window?” Mei asked with a grin.

  “Seriously, that was like, one time. And for the record, I snuck into another room and climbed out of that window. Anyway, I’m done with trying to escape. I’ve got something to stick around for.”

  I ran my hand down Cam’s arm, and said, “By which I mean Mickey’s cooking, of course.”

  Cam grabbed me and wrapped me in a bear hug, laughing into my hair while I struggled to get free – but not too hard.

  Mei coughed.

  “Much as I hate to break this up, whatever this–” she gestured me and Cam up and down with one hand, “is, Shaun said he wanted you to check in with him when you got here.”

  “Of course he did.” I sighed with resignation and stretched up on my tiptoes to plant a peck on Cam’s lips.

  “I’ll catch up with you later.”

  Shaun’s office was a decent size, but mostly barren, other than a desk, a couple of chairs, and a few other trinkets. Someone had cleaned Dean’s blood from the floor.

  “Ah, Jade.” Shaun rose from his chair behind the desk. The dark-blond shifter sporting a rash of stubble was the academy’s Tracking instructor – and a big part of the reason I got through last year. He doubled as my mentor-slash-student-counsellor. “Thank you for coming. Please, shut the door.”

  I clicked the door shut behind me and crossed the room, claiming the chair opposite his desk. He settled back into his own chair with an easy smile.

  “You’re looking well. The highlands agreed with you.”

  “Something in Scotland agreed with me,” I said, and then remembered I was talking to an instructor. “Uh, you know, the air or something.”

  “Uh-huh. Your… personal arrangements… aside, how are you coping? It’s been quite a long time since our last session.”

  “Well, I didn’t self-destruct and try to kill anyone, so that’s good, right?”

  “I see you’re favouring your arm.”

  Oh, crap.

  “That wasn’t my fault. We were just protecting ourselves.” Granted, I had gone for his throat, but Shaun didn’t need to know that. “And I shifted back with hardly any trouble at all.”

  Shaun’s eyes widened slightly.

  “You shifted?”

  “I don’t suppose you could just forget I said tha
t?” The look on his face answered that question for me. “Look, it was life or death. They attacked us. Ask Lachlan if you don’t believe me.”

  “I’m sure Alpha Lachlan has better things to do than answer for the actions of his junior pack members and their guests. And I’m equally sure he wouldn’t want to explain to the alpha pack’s enforcers why there was a breach of the Untrained Shifters Act in his territory.”

  “So… You’re saying we can just forget it?”

  “I’m saying you should ask Healer Fenwick to fix your arm before your lessons start tomorrow. I wouldn’t want your… sparring accident… to hold you back, and it looks like it’ll take at least another day or two to heal on its own. Now, in this fully human sparring match of yours, did you reveal your other ability?”

  “My magic? No. I haven’t used it since… that night.”

  “Good.” Shaun nodded. “I think it’s best we keep it between us and the other instructors, in light of what happened. So that people don’t make assumptions about you.”

  I shivered. I was an outcast already, because I’d been bitten in, not born, and alright, maybe because I was a bit resistant to being here when I showed up last year. But most of the shifters in my year had accepted me, and I’d proven myself one of them when I passed Fur ‘n’ Fangs extensive exams last year. If they learned that somehow I had access to druid magic, that the shifter halfbreed who’d bitten me had transferred some of her druidic powers to me, I’d be an outcast all over again. And if they decided that I was as dangerous as Brad, one of the other mundanes the halfbreed had bitten, just because I could control elements the same way he could, then things could get dangerous around here for me. Wolves didn’t like uncertainty, and they weren’t known for their ability to tolerate anything that was different. Mei being the case in point.

  “You want me to bury it and forget all about it?” I asked. “Because I’m more than happy to do that.”

  “The opposite,” Shaun said, leaning back in his chair and watching me. “The only way you can avoid exposing your powers is to learn to master them. Your schedule is about to get busier.”

 

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