by Cheree Alsop
“Boris, we don’t have a problem here. Mr. O’Hare and I were just leaving. We won’t come back up this way.”
“No, you won’t.”
Boris’ pack stepped to the side at the sound of Torin’s voice. The other Alpha made his way through them as if he didn’t see any of Boris’ werewolves. Torin’s gaze burned with anger.
“Did you come here to threaten our students?” he demanded.
Mr. O’Hare seemed to realize why Alex was standing between him and the Alphas. He stopped pushing and even had the presence of mind to take a step back into Pack Jericho’s quarters.
“I came here to ensure that the quality of education provided by Vicky Carso’s Preparatory Academy meets the standards set by the Board of Education,” Mr. O’Hare replied, though his tone was a bit less haughty than Alex was used to.
“So why are you investigating our living quarters?” Torin demanded.
It seemed Boris was content to let the other Alpha do the questioning. He folded his arms and leaned against the wall as if enjoying the show.
“Because where a student eats and sleeps is also essential to success. If you were living in shambles, it goes to follow that your grades would be diminished as a result of poor living conditions.”
“And what did you surmise?” Torin asked, his tone matching the human’s.
Alex saw Mr. O’Hare’s reluctant acceptance out of the corner of his eye.
“Your quarters are acceptable,” he said. “We have concluded our business here. Alex?”
Alex stepped out of the man’s way. When Mr. O’Hare brushed past him, the human’s hate-filled scent was intermittent with the sour lemon smell of fear. A slight, begrudging amount of respect surfaced in Alex’s chest when the man walked past both packs and down the stairs without showing any of the fear Alex knew he carried.
Thankfully, both Alphas let him go, though the occasional growl or disgruntled mutter from the packs voiced how the other students felt about that.
As soon as the man was down the stairs and out of earshot, both Alphas grinned.
“Did you see the look on his face?” Boris asked.
“I thought he was going to pee his pants!” Torin exclaimed.
Alex stared at them. “You were joking?”
Boris chuckled. “Of course. Do you think we’re stupid? We’re not about to attack a human on school grounds. Let him wander the forest, though…”
Alex rolled his eyes at what the Alpha left unsaid. “You guys are ridiculous,” he admonished. “My job is to help him approve our Academy, not let him be scared half-to-death by the students.”
Torin’s smile faded. “He already hates us, Alex. He’s not going to pass the Academy; you know that.”
“He’ll pass it out of the sheer fact that he’ll have no reason to fail us if I can keep the students,” he speared them both with a glare, “from messing things up.”
Both Alphas had the presence of mind to look somewhat apologetic.
“Sorry, Alex,” Boris apologized. “We don’t like the way he treats you like a lapdog. We’ve all seen you showing him around. He’s an entitled tool.”
“A tool with the power to shut down our home so we have nowhere else to go,” Alex reminded him.
Torin nodded. “Just the same, nobody has a right to treat anybody else like that, regardless of their race. How do you think it looks to the other students that he can push you around?”
Alex lifted his shoulders in a shrug to hide how much it bothered him. “I can handle it. Just trust me and try not to scare him so much that he leaves the Academy. As it is, he’s the only Board member who dared to come out. We have to give him credit for that."
“Do we?” Sid, Torin’s Second, muttered from behind the Alpha.
“Yes.” Torin’s response was firm. “We’ll trust Alex.” He gave Alex a steely look. “But if that fails, we will rely on our own means to protect our Academy.”
“I understand,” Alex said.
He walked down the stairs after the human.
Chapter Five
Alex found Mr. O’Hare sitting in his office with his forehead on his desk.
“Mr. O’Hare?” Alex asked.
“Get out,” the man growled in a voice that would have done a werewolf proud. He raised his head and glared at Alex. “Didn’t your dean,” he said the word with heavy sarcasm, “teach you manners? You don’t walk into an office without knocking and waiting for a response. Get out. Now.”
Alex didn’t move. He knew it was fear that made the man so gruff. He hoped that perhaps he could get through to Mr. O’Hare with sympathy.
“I know it’s a strange school and—”
“GET OUT!” Mr. O’Hare shouted so loudly Alex knew half the school heard it.
“Fine,” Alex snapped. He spun on his heels and retreated through the door, pausing only long enough to slam it behind him.
Alex leaned against the wall with his heart thundering in his chest. He felt like he had run a hundred miles. His muscles tightened and released, and it was all he could do to keep the Demon from forcing its way forward. Nothing in all of his experiences had taught him how to deal with someone like Mr. O’Hare.
“I need a run,” he muttered.
He crossed to the back doors and shoved them open. The warm sunlight fell on his face and shoulders. Alex took a deep breath of the fresh air. The scents of the forest filled his nose. Pine and aspen heated by the August sunshine mixed with the loam and mushroom smell of the shadows. A tickling hint of clover and clay told him that a rabbit was eating beneath the bushes inside the wall. Alex made a mental note to mention it to Dray. It wouldn’t do for the rabbit to get into the professor’s greenhouse, and the other werewolves weren’t especially kind to animals they found within the grounds.
Alex pulled the gate open and stepped outside the wall. He phased in the shelter of the trees and left his clothes next to another bush. He shook himself, grateful to be in wolf form once more. The colors became more segregated with heavier shades of gray, and the scents separated into the stories of the individual plants and animals that gave them. He could tell in his wolf form that the rabbit had been grazing beneath the bushes all morning. The scent of dew from the early hours still lingered on its soft, downy fur.
Alex glanced down at his forearms, then stared. He looked over his shoulder and his chest tightened. Alex gritted his teeth and took off running.
His paws knew the forest. Each fallen trunk and windfall was a part of his home. The scent of the sunflowers that grew thickest in the meadow just south of the river flooded his sense, but he barely thought about it. The rush of deer hiding in the next thicket failed to pike his interest.
Alex didn’t slow until he reached the lake. The cliff that towered above it gave shade to half of the water. Alex stopped just outside the shadows and looked down at his reflection. The wolf that stared back at him with his same dark blue eyes had a coat of solid black. His scars showed through his fur as patches of gray, the only reminder of the wolf he had been. Looking down at his reflection, it was unmistakable. Somehow, and for reasons he couldn’t explain, Alex had truly become an Alpha.
His best friend Trent knew it, and the way the other students, especially the Alphas, treated him said they guessed as much. The fact that Torin and Boris had acted with such amiable deference when he asked for them to lighten up on Mr. O’Hare said they regarded him as an equal. His coat announced that he was an Alpha; whether he felt like he deserved it or not didn’t matter.
“Help!”
Alex’s head lifted. He stared back in the direction he had come. A growl sounded. Alex’s eyes widened. It hadn’t been the growl of a wolf, but of a bear.
“Help me!”
Mr. O’Hare was the one in trouble.
Alex spun and ran back toward the Academy with a speed only a few of the students could even match. Thanks to the challenge presented by Tennison’s skills, Alex had constantly pushed himself to work harder. Since his heart
no longer gave him problems, he usually stopped when he was on the verge of collapse. Luckily, Mr. O’Hare was much closer than that.
Alex slid to a halt just inside the sunflower-filled clearing. He stared at the sight of Mr. O’Hare cowering at the base of a windswept pine. A grizzly stood on its hind feet and towered over him. A snarl of rage rumbled from the animal’s deep chest.
Alex searched the area quickly. The only things he knew made a bear upset was when someone got between the animal and its chosen food or the animal and its cubs. Alex’s heart slowed. A glance in the pine tree the human huddled beneath showed two cubs up in the branches. One gave a plaintiff cry. The grizzly bellowed at Mr. O’Hare again.
Alex knew he had to get the human away from the tree before the animal attacked. Whether Mr. O’Hare was aware of the cubs didn’t show. He merely cowered lower at the bear’s angry advance. If Alex could get to him before the animal dropped to all fours, he might have a chance.
The bear lowered back to the ground with a thud Alex felt through his paws. Before he could so much as bark a warning, the animal charged.
Alex darted through meadow and hit the bear’s side just before her huge, swiping claws could reach Mr. O’Hare. The force of the blow rolled the grizzly along the ground and threw Alex over her shoulder. He leaped back to his feet and placed himself between the bear and human. The animal rose to her feet and shook her head from side to side, her small eyes narrowed in anger at this new threat to her cubs.
Alex had to get Mr. O’Hare away from the tree. The bear wouldn’t stop until her little ones were safe. As long as the human cowered beneath the pine, Mr. O’Hare’s life was in danger.
Alex backed up next to the man without letting his gaze drop from the bear. He pushed Mr. O’Hare with his shoulder.
“Get away from me!” the man shouted. He hit Alex on the head.
Caught off-guard by the surprise attack, Alex growled at him. The bear, taking the growl as a danger to her cubs, attacked. Alex jumped to the left to avoid a swipe of the bear’s huge claws and latched onto her shoulder, stopping a second swipe at the human.
The bear tried to shake him off. When she couldn’t, the animal dropped onto her right side in an effort to dislodge him. Alex leaped free before he was crushed and placed himself between Mr. O’Hare and the danger once more.
He didn’t know how to convey to Mr. O’Hare that he needed to get away from the tree. If he didn’t, they might both get killed.
Alex barked as the bear lumbered back to her feet. Mr. O’Hare merely stared at him with wide eyes like a startled deer. Alex barked again and motioned with his head.
“W-what?” the human asked.
The bear charged. Her angle of attack meant that she realized Mr. O’Hare was the weaker of the two. If she could take one of them down, perhaps she could then focus on the other and eliminate the threat to her cubs.
Alex saw Mr. O’Hare tense out of the corner of his eye. There was only one thing he could think of to do to get the human out of danger. As the bear rushed past him with the speed of a raging bull, Alex surged around the animal at full speed and charged headlong into the human. Mr. O’Hare went sprawling to the ground the same time that the bear’s thick claws sank into Alex’s back. He let out a yelp of pain and spun around to protect himself.
Using the strength of the Demon, Alex dove at the grizzly’s throat. The force of his attack propelled the animal up and over onto her back. Alex held tight. The bear swiped at him, but he closed his jaws tighter and gave the grizzly a warning growl. The animal did something that seemed completely opposite of her instincts. Instead of fighting him, she held still like a wolf in the same submissive situation.
Alex saw her small eyes flicker to the cubs in the tree. They were about the size of a small wolf, probably born that winter. Both cubs had thick brown hair and gave plaintiff calls. A small moan of worry came from their mother.
Alex glanced below the tree. Relief filled him that Mr. O’Hare had found the presence of mind to leave the area. The bear struggled for breath beneath his grasp.
Alex knew letting go might be the last thing he did, but he wasn’t about to kill a bear, especially one with cubs. He slowly released his grip and took a few careful steps away from both the grizzly and the tree.
The blue faded from the edges of his vision as the Demon vanished. Every muscle tensed when the bear rolled to her side, then back to her feet. The animal was breathing heavily. She looked from Alex to the tree. He could smell her relief that the human was gone.
The grizzly rose on her hind legs and bellowed at him. The animal’s breath smelled of dirt and grubs from the rotten log next to the tree where the bears had probably been foraging before Mr. O’Hare surprised them. When the animal hit the ground again, he could also smell the fear she had for her cubs.
Alex took a step backwards, then another, hoping space would give the animal peace of mind. For a moment, she glared at him, swinging her head from side to side in a warning. Then, to his relief, the bear turned away and ambled back to the tree. She gave a grunt and the little bears answered with happy cries. They more tumbled than climbed down the tree and wrestled happily with their mother. Alex left the clearing to the sounds of the mother bear’s reassuring grunts.
He could smell Mr. O’Hare’s progress through the trees. The journey pulled at the healing wounds along Alex’s back. He wished it was night so the moonlight could help while he padded back toward the Academy, but evening would be soon enough as long as Mr. O’Hare avoided angering any other animals.
Alex reached his clothes and phased. He stifled an exclamation at the pain when he lifted his arms to pull his shirt on. The stickiness of the blood made the material cling to his back. Alex wished he could skip the shirt altogether, but he didn’t want to alarm anyone. He had visited the Academy’s medical ward far too many times, and his mother, as the main nurse, wouldn’t be thrilled to see that he had managed to get injured once again. The wound would heal quickly enough on its own.
“I thought students weren’t allowed outside of the grounds during school hours.”
Alex’s head jerked up at the sound of Mr. O’Hare’s voice.
“Technically, the forest is part of the school grounds. It was given to Rafe as a grant from the government in gratitude for—”
“Save it for someone who cares,” the man said, cutting him off with his curt tone.
Alex stared at him. “I just saved your life.”
The human glared at him. “Am I supposed to thank you? It’s probably your fault the beast went after me in the first place. You probably sent it.”
Alex sputtered. “I can’t send a bear after you even if I wanted to!”
“So you admit that you want to,” Mr. O’Hare replied with heavy venom in his voice.
Alex shook his head, then changed his mind and nodded. “Yes, maybe. Not to kill you, but perhaps to show you how much this school means to me. This is my home, Mr. O’Hare, and you are intent on destroying it.”
“From what I’ve seen, you’re doing a pretty good job of that on your own.”
Alex glared at the human. “What does that mean?”
Mr. O’Hare met his glare. “If a werewolf student has the ability to send a bear against an academic professional, who’s to say that the world would be safe coexisting with such a creature?”
“I didn’t send the bear to attack you!” Alex protested. “You were between the grizzly and its two cubs in the tree. It would have killed you to get to them!”
“So you admit that it wanted to kill me.”
Alex clenched his hands into fists in an effort to stay calm. “Mr. O’Hare, I didn’t send the bear to attack you. You had the stupidity to stand between a mother grizzly and her two young cubs. Any person, or werewolf, for that matter, would get mauled to death in that situation. As it was, we got off with our lives, so we should consider ourselves lucky.”
Alex spun on his heel and stormed toward the Academy. He didn’t ca
re if the man followed; he would almost rather Mr. O’Hare go visit the grizzly again.
“Hey, Alex!” Trent said as soon as he stepped through the doors.
Alex turned so his friend wouldn’t see the blood through his shirt. “Hey, Trent. How are things going?”
“Great!” Trent exclaimed. “Professor Mouse let me demonstrate electrolysis using a battery and pencils. It was awesome!”
“I’m glad,” Alex told him. Trent had always been the science expert of Pack Jericho. It was good to see him in his element. “You didn’t blow anything up?”
His friend grinned. “Nope. That’s your job, remember?”
Alex chuckled. “I guess that’s why they assigned me to Mr. O’Hare instead.”
“So you can blow him up?” Trent asked.
Alex lifted his shoulders and was reminded about the lacerations down his back when his shirt stuck to the skin. “I might, if things keep going the way they are.”
“Not so good, huh?”
Alex shook his head. “He hates me, and before you say I shouldn’t be surprised, he hated me before he got here. I could save him from a bear and I don’t think it would matter.” Alex grimaced at the poorly veiled truth.
“I’d stick with something smaller than a bear,” Trent said, missing Alex’s expression entirely. “How about a raccoon? Of course, those things are mean, and a lot of them carry rabies. Plus, they’re born with masks. How good can you be if you’re born wearing a mask?”
“Trent?”
“No, seriously, Alex. Perhaps we should look into that. Raccoons are always breaking into Professor Dray’s greenhouse and stealing stuff. Maybe there’s something to that. It could be ingrained into their genetic makeup, and nature’s given us a warning, like how poisonous frogs have bright skin or—”
The bell rang, cutting him off.
“I guess I should get to class,” Trent said.
“Back to Mouse’s?”
Trent shook his head. “All the senior boys are supposed to be with Vance to help train the football team. You might have to fight for quarterback against Torin and Boris.”
