Bloodwood Academy Shifter: Semester Two (Bloodwood Year One Book 2)

by Rae Foxx

  I was successful at neither, I was just that pissed.

  “Truths, you whore. And I think you already know the answer to that,” Selene said, breathing a little too hard in my face. “And soon everyone else will too.”

  I wasn’t dumb. I knew exactly who had told her about the magic and the parentage and everything. If Nicky was talking, if they knew everything, then this whole playing alpha thing was short lived.

  I might be short lived.

  ‘Don’t think like that,’ Howl whispered into my mind, his pinky wrapping around mine as the three of us faced the smiling wolf. ‘She was a fool for coming here anyway.’

  ‘Why? Because I burned her face?’

  ‘No,’ Howl said, the corner of his mouth jerking up into a smile as he tugged on my pinky. ‘Because she’s on your pack lands. Your jurisdiction.’

  My jurisdiction.

  I didn’t know exactly what he was getting at, but this time neither of the guys stopped me when I closed the distance between me and the pink plastic bitch and slugged her so hard she fell to the ground like a bag of potatoes and stayed there.

  I would have been worried I killed her if she didn’t moan before her breathing stabilized.

  “Holy fuck,” Howl said, staring down at the face-down princess. “You knocked her out.”

  “Yeah, might have broken my hand, too,” I said, wincing as I shook the burning, throbbing appendage. Luckily, I could feel the bones already snap themselves back together. “Still worth it.”

  Selene looked peaceful for the first time since I met her--well, if peaceful was face down in a bed of pine needles, a quickly darkening bruise stretching over her jaw to match her brand new scars. It was the only color on her otherwise ridiculously flawless white skin, well that and her black hair that was splayed everywhere.

  Like this, she almost looked nice, like Snow White, if Snow White got in a bar fight with Grumpy and lost.

  “Damn,” Finn said with a grin, staring down at her. “That was some quick work, honeybee.”

  “Yeah, well, she was getting on my nerves,” I grumbled, kicking her hand. Hard. Maybe too hard, but I needed to check if she was alive, dead, or faking. Her hand flopped around like a dead fish so at least she wasn’t faking.

  “She’s like the mother fucking harbinger of doom,” I said, kicking her other arm so that she looked more like a rag doll. “Selene, Pater, and Nicky. Man, those guys have it out for me.”

  “We always knew my father would come back.”

  I nodded in agreement. We did, but I had clearly assumed we had a few weeks. These guys weren’t surprised.

  “I am afraid there is nothing we can do about any of this,” Finn said, circling around Selene after establishing that she had a pulse. “We knew this would come. It appears the truth will follow right behind it.”

  “Well, if it tells me who my mom is I think I’ll be okay with that.” Damn, saying that out loud brought a lot more dread to me than I expected. My chest felt like it was being compressed by a vice.

  “What are we going to do with her?” Howl asked, seeing my need for a change of subject.

  “Here, let me borrow your phone,” I said to Finn, holding my hand out expectantly.

  The guy smiled warily and handed it over.

  Before he could second guess, I called Scarlet, who I knew would have a good time helping me teach this bitch a lesson.

  Not ten minutes later, Scarlet was there with Saxon in tow, the guy looking as excited as Scarlet did as he carried the chair and rope for her.

  “What the hell was she doing?” Scarlet asked.

  “Um, watching? Finn, Howl, and I…”

  Scarlet flailed her arms. “Nope. No, no, no. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Goodness, she looks pitiful like this.”

  I snickered and gave her a look, “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you feel sorry for her.”

  “Sorry? Fuck that. I’m thinking of all the ways we can get her back. Starting with tying her up like the Gorillas did to me. Give me that chair.”

  Saxon set it up eagerly before perching himself on a rock, seemingly more interested in watching the action unfold.

  “Wouldn’t she be able to bust out of this in her wolf form?” I asked as I helped hoist the unconscious bitch queen onto her chair. Damn, she weighed twice as much as I thought.

  “Naw,” Scarlet said, twisting her arms awkwardly behind her and starting to bind the wrists together. “If the ropes are like this, she won't be able to move. With the joints out of alignment, she can’t shift. She’ll have to scream for hours or bounce walk her chair to wherever the hell she came from. Damn, it’s times like this I wish I had a satellite camera I could set up.”

  Scarlet was practically giddy as she tied up Selene. All three of my boys were watching with unfazed interest, committing each twist of the rope and knot to memory.

  By the look on their faces, I could tell they were hoping for both rope and a camera.

  Well, two could play at that game. I was gonna log that shit away.

  “Done,” Scarlet announced, stepping back from her handiwork and awakening all of us from our stare down. “What do we do now?”

  “Leave her here,” I announced as Selene awoke and screamed from behind the rope that had both bound and gagged her. We were in the middle of nowhere and Howl had crushed Selene’s phone into pieces. “Have fun, Selene.”

  We left her trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, but even as we walked away, she had tipped the chair back and forth so that when I looked back, she was on her side, her face in the dirt--right where she belonged.

  Perhaps, if there wasn’t a look of murder and warning in her eyes, I would have enjoyed it more.

  Pater was coming back for us.

  I think we all knew that we weren’t ready.

  Chapter 14

  Selene didn’t show up for school the next day. Or the next. Or even the one after that.

  Freaked out that she was starving to death in the middle of the woods, I had sent Saxon out to check and possibly free her, but he said that she was gone. The chair broken. The rope gone.

  I knew I shouldn’t worry, but I had also never tied up a bitch in the forest before, especially one right after the bitch had caught me being DP’d by two of my mates and using magic that I totally used so as not to die in that fight.

  I doubt I had ever felt guilt before, but the emotion was real and crippling. There was a high chance that I might curl up in a ball and rock in the corner or some shit.

  The burden of guilt, however, was also introducing me to the joy of stress eating.

  I strutted into the lunchroom on Friday ready to drown my woes in a milkshake and French fries, dipped into the creamy goodness like they were supposed to be, of course.

  I loaded up my tray with twice as much as I usually ate and grabbed two peach milkshakes, knowing they wouldn’t go as well with the French fries but not caring.

  I couldn’t say no to a good peach.

  Taking my tray to the already full table, I sunk down between Howl and Finn and promptly stuck my face into one of my hamburgers. Not biting, just face meet bread.

  “Slow down, Tex,” Scarlet laughed from the other side of the table, surrounded by the other student members of our pack. Our group had filled out in the last few weeks. “I’m pretty sure that even as Alpha you don’t have the ability to eat through osmosis.”

  “Watch me,” I stubbornly replied, lifting my head to give her the stank eye.

  I had full intentions to slam my face back into my burger, but an entire cow had sat down across the table from me.

  “That’s a lot of steak,” Finn remarked, nodding his head toward Evan, who had a pile so high it required two trays.

  “I got to keep up these new muscles.” He stood and flexed, pulling up his shirt to reveal his abs, which were somewhere under his thin layer of fat. “Besides we have crazy Danvers next. You’d be a fool not to eat before that.”

  “Eat, or g
ive yourself a stomach ache so you can sit out?” one of the Lynx’s, Penny, I think, I asked.

  “Both,” Evan said, wagging his eyebrows at the girl in a way he clearly thought was seductive. She backed down.

  “Shut up and sit down, Evan. It’s been less than two weeks. You aren’t going to get a six-pack in that short of time.” Scarlet threw some chicken at him but he caught it and snagged off a bite.

  “Still, I look good and you know it.” he winked and Scarlet threw something else at him, a fork that time; he barely dodged it.

  Everyone broke out into laughter, a few people nudging each other playfully. It was a completely different set of people than it was a week ago.

  I’d seen the change on more than one occasion. Pack members helping each other out--training each other--studying together at the kitchen table at my house. It was more than fighting and building muscle.

  I guess naked synchronized dance fighting had been good for something.

  ‘You know it’s more than that,’ Howl whispered into my mind, his hand on my knee. I smiled, but didn’t turn. I had a feeling I was going to get all emotional and shit if I did.

  Silly little pack. Stupid bully Pater threatening to break that all up.

  I suddenly couldn’t eat my hamburger fast enough, which was good because I had spent so much time getting my food that the food hour was almost over. Gym class came up next.

  ‘Dance Fighting in a few minutes,’ I warned Howl and he nearly snorted the milkshake he had stolen from me.

  That had thankfully been limited to our subterranean gym, but it hadn’t stopped Danvers from working us to the bone in our actual gym class. She had been making us play basketball or running during gym class. It was more like a human high school than Bloodwood Academy. Still, we’d used the time to our advantage. We raced each other or did push-ups while others played. Every second was crucial to us becoming stronger. Even if that meant being stronger in dance fighting and mortal pussy games like soccer.

  I rolled my eyes as the other students got up and left. Finn leaned over to kiss me and took my tray. “After school, honeybee. Saxon will be there. He texted me earlier.”

  My mates texting cracked me up. They were like the Ivy gang, conspiring to see me behind my back and coordinating schedules.

  If it weren’t for them and Pater’s money paying my tuition, I would’ve left Bloodwood Academy, much to Nicky’s pleasure.

  I gave him a grin, a kiss, and slunk after the rest of my pack who were taking bets on which boring human game Danvers would have us play.

  One step in and it was clear volleyball had won out. I wasn’t the only one to groan, but not because of the dangerous nets that were crisscrossed over the gym.

  There was a lynch mob waiting in the middle of them for us.

  Selene was back, and she had brought the mob.

  I recognized the horde of people around her immediately, if only because they were all the majority of the people who had raced out of the pack lands like cowards.

  Too bad they weren’t cowards now, they were a snarling, drooling, growling mess that pawed at the ground and clawed at the air--something that looked both bizarre and terrifying given that they were all in their human forms.

  “Why Selene,” I said, trying to sound as diplomatic as possible as the rest of my pack filed into place behind me, Howl pressing himself against my shoulder as his wolf snarled. “I was beginning to worry about you. How was your trip through the forest? Find any woodsmen to eat?”

  Clearly, my guilt only went as far as knowing she was alive. Seeing her there, scars on her face, smug smile in her eyes, was doing something wickedly delicious to my wolf.

  I wanted to do it again. More biting. More scars.

  Damn. It was going to be hard to control my magic. I could already feel its heat move over me. The volleyball nets behind Selene and her mob were shaking as though they were just waiting for the command to heed my magic and have them in knots.

  It would have been so easy, end whatever this was before it started. Having Selene know about my magic was one thing, but she had brought an army of witnesses with her.

  Which is exactly what this was, I realized as a few of them looked around and pointed out the nets.

  ‘Easy,’ Howl echoed my own thoughts, his hand moving up and down my spine as the nets stilled.

  “I’m glad to see you made it through unscarred,” I continued when she didn’t say anything. I could have sworn I saw smoke drift from her ears.

  “Cut the crap,” Selene snarled. “They all know what you did. We are here to make you pay.”

  “Funnily enough,” I said, moving a few steps away from Howl. He matched me step for step. “I had figured that much out. So, what do we do? One on one? Is this like a tag team wrestling match? Do we need costumes?”

  With each question I fired at her my pack began to chuckle, and she fumed until it looked as though she was the one that was liable to explode.

  “I’m going to make you pay for that chair in the forest!” She roared and rushed us, everyone behind her doing the same.

  “Okay, so mob rules,” I mumbled to myself, locking my hands into fists and hopefully my magic away with it.

  “Have at it!” I yelled to my pack, all of them breaking off into a sprint, meeting Selene’s posse like waves against rocks. The larger animals lunged and swiped, their human bodies more cumbersome and slow. Meanwhile, my pack danced through their lines and promptly began kicking them in the ass.

  Okay, maybe dance fighting has its benefits.

  “You need to pay for what you did to me,” Selene snarled as she reached me, lunging forward with moves so obvious it was like she had written them down.

  I dodged, Howl kicking her before he was pulled away by another animal, his wolf growling as he began a hand to hand match of his own.

  “You can’t hide behind--” She began, but I reeled back and clocked her directly in the nose. As she bent over in pain, I took the opportunity to knee her right in the uterus.

  Again, bitch was on the ground moaning.

  “Damn. For a villain, you’re shit stupid.” I said, knocking her over again and easily dodging her lame sucker punch as she jumped to her feet. “No monologuing.”

  She looked at me, confused. I rolled my eyes, taking another swipe that missed before kicking her down.

  Unfortunately, that time she flailed as she fell and ended up accidentally clocking me in the jaw.

  “Shit!” I yelled, as both my wolf and Howl’s began growling loud enough that I was sure the classroom two over could hear.

  Rubbing my jaw, I kicked Selene in the face. I glanced around at my pack, making sure they were okay.

  I shouldn’t have worried.

  Scarlet had her partner in a chokehold, telling her to tap out. All of a sudden my best friend was some kind of ultimate fighter. Her face was red and contorted in a ‘don’t mess with me, bitch’ face I’d never seen on her before. Howl also had his opponent on the ground and was strolling around the heaving man, chuckling, daring him to get up.

  Every pack member of mine was kicking ass hard.

  I sighed as Selene had the fucking nerve to get back up and ball her fists up against me. Blood ran in tiny rivers down her face, some of it getting in her mouth and she turned her head to spit it onto the worn gym floor.

  “You don’t fucking get it, do you?” Selene snarled.

  Stumbling, she took another swing at me, but this time, I let her dig herself a grave. I slid out of the way and she ran headfirst into one of the volleyball nets, sending herself flying backward like one of those blowup punching bags.

  I couldn’t help it. I laughed hard and rushed over, preparing to kick her in the face.

  “Oh, I get it. Jealousy doesn’t suit you, Selene.” I cranked my foot back, ready for some nose breaking action. That’s when Danvers decided to show up.

  Her loud coach whistle echoed over the room and everyone froze, clutching their ears while she ran ove
r to Selene, concern written all over her face.

  “Ms. Potter, this is gym class. We spar. We play games. We do not declare an all-out war.”

  I scoffed. “Selene did that one to herself. I just moved out of the way. She needs to learn to stay down when she’s had her ass whipped.”

  That earned me a few chuckles from my pack.

  “Selene needs to go to the nurse to be cleaned up and assessed, as do the rest of the...other pack members. You and I…” Danvers’ face hardened, something yellow and dangerous that I had never seen before shining out from behind her eyes. “We need to talk. I cannot let this slide, young lady.”

  “Whose side are you on?” I asked Danvers blatantly, stepping right up to her. It took a second, but her eyes dropped, her shoulders sagging as red-colored her cheeks.

  “Yours, of course, Alpha. But I do have to keep my job. As a teacher, I must look out for all students, regardless of their pack affiliation. It wouldn’t look right for me to show my loyalty here at the school.”

  Her words sounded right, technically, but there was something about the entire situation that didn’t sit right.

  Something about the way she nodded at Selene was sending my stomach into knots.

  Chapter 15

  Unsurprisingly, the fact that we were wicked badasses had spread through the school like wildfire.

  While we all slept in the pack house, which had quickly turned into some kind of frat house equivalent, the rest of the school was talking about the throw down in the gym last night. Well, that’s what I assumed, either that or I had toilet paper stuck to my shoe, which I had neurotically checked multiple times.

  Everywhere we went, heads turned, people scowling and smiling and whispering to others behind their hands like we didn’t know what they were doing.

  There was only one universal sign for gossiping. It was either that or they had the avian flu, which even I knew wasn’t a thing for shifters. Bird shifters maybe, but I wasn’t sure if that was a thing. I’d have to ask.