by May Dawson
I shook my head. I wasn’t touching that nonsense about magic; I didn’t want to fight with Dani. “She’s a cadet.”
It wasn’t exactly a denial, though. The first time I’d seen Maddie, it had been easy to see her as just a cadet—and my best friend’s ex, too. She was pretty, but I could ignore that. But there was something about the combination of her sunny, light-hearted personality and the steely toughness underneath.
She drove me fucking crazy—she was reckless and rebellious and stubborn—but I couldn’t deny that my heart raced when her gaze met mine.
And when she smiled…I was lost.
“She’s something special,” she said, just as blunt and certain as she’d been before.
“You’ve barely spent any time with her,” I said, curious how she came to that conclusion. There was something disarming about Dani.
“You don’t think so?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at me.
I rolled the mug between my hands, refusing to answer.
“Well, she is,” she said, patting my leg. “You never know how much time we have on this planet, Rafe. You should kiss the girl.”
I shook my head. “We’ve got rules.”
Not only did I have to follow the rules about avoiding personal relationships with cadets—and get my idiot friend to follow them too—but there were rules about magic, and Maddie played fast and loose with them.
Last time I got close to a girl who played with magic, my brother turned up dead.
“Who’s got time for rules?” She stood, reaching out to ruffle my hair casually as she glanced behind me.
I stared at her, perplexed. No one touched me like that. At least, no one had since my older brother Michael used to give me condescending advice and rifle my hair like I was a kid. She grinned at me in response, completely unashamed.
“Hey,” I said, understanding dawning for me. I’d seen the way Lex looked uncomfortable when Dani got close to him, as if he felt a claim between him and Maddie. Dani saw way too much. She must have seen Lex’s reaction too. “Why have you been pushing Lex? You didn’t really want him to kiss you, did you?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, a smile tilting her lips. “No, I would like to kiss Lex. I have a one-hundred-percent genuine crush on him. I mean, he’s smart, handsome, fearless, sexy as hell.”
I wasn’t sure I could handle all the remaining days of the long weekend if they were going to be full of revelation and witchy machinations. “You’re manipulating us.”
“I’m trying to help you all out.” She took a step back, shrugging. “You’ll be more effective as a team.”
“We are a team.”
“Not when you’re all lying to each other,” she said. “And maybe to yourselves. Be brave, Rafe. Tell the truth recklessly. You’re strong enough to face the fallout.”
She stood abruptly, hoisting her cup in my direction. “Thanks for the chat. I have hungover Hunter students to torment while I can. I’ve missed them.”
She waved over her shoulder as she ambled off.
I frowned as she headed across campus. It seemed like an excuse to leave, not a genuine mission. “Where the hell are you even going?”
“Lying?” Lex asked over my shoulder, and my heart raced at his voice so near me and unexpectedly, as if he’d caught me.
“She’s crazy,” I said. I rose from the bench. The fact that I was rattled made me say something I never would’ve otherwise. “Crazy witch.”
Lex ran his hand through his tousled brown curls as he gazed at me. “We never lie to each other.”
“Never,” I agreed.
Lex nodded, as if he was satisfied by that, but his face was still troubled. “Come on, let’s go check out their gym and dojo. See if they’ve got us beat there too.”
An hour later, the two of us were pounding on each other in the dojo. The big room was air-conditioned but although the air had felt cold when we first walked in, I was sweating hard.
I stopped to drink some water, energy rippling through my body as my favorite song came on the radio.
Nothing cleared my head like fighting, and the ridiculous conversation with Dani felt distant now. The stuff she’d said about how little time we had was eerie. But witches were weird. Sweat rolled down my torso as I stripped off my t-shirt.
Lex had already stripped down to his shorts. When he turned his back to me, taking a long sip of his water, the faint scars across his back rippled with his motion. They’d faded during our years at the academy, and now he never hesitated to yank his shirt off, apparently unashamed of them. When we were first-years, he’d done his best to avoid undressing in front of anyone. They’ve been healed but still vivid then.
He didn’t talk about what he’d done to catch a beating like that in his old pack, but whatever it was, at least he didn’t think it defined him anymore.
He turned back, catching my gaze, and his brow furrowed slightly. “What’s up?”
“Nothing.”
He pushed his hand through his hair, heaving a sigh. “You’ve had something you’ve wanted to tell me.”
“If I wanted to tell you something, Lex, you’d know what it was.”
His brows rose at my bristling words. I hadn’t meant to sound so pissed off. But I was still rattled by what Dani had said. I didn’t want Lex to push me into a conversation I didn’t want to have.
I cocked my head to one side. Best defense was a good offense. “How come you didn’t kiss Dani when she tried to kiss you?”
“I don’t want or need to talk about this,” Lex told me evenly. “Come on, let’s get back to it.”
But I ignored the invitation as he raised his fists again.
“You’re done with Northsea, right?” I asked. “So, there’s no reason you need to reject a girl who is in your bed, who thinks you are, to quote, handsome, smart and sexy as hell.”
“Like you said, she’s crazy,” Lex deadpanned, unfazed by the compliments Dani had paid him.
If he’d met that pretty, smart witch a year before and she’d climbed into his bed, I was sure Lex wouldn’t have hesitated. But something had changed since then.
He hadn’t been the same since the day he met Maddie Northsea. If she were a witch, I would’ve thought she put a spell on him.
And on me.
She was supposed to be a shifter, not a witch, but when I thought of that damned pendant she wore, of the tricks she’d played, I had to wonder. The thought of someone using magic on me, forcing them to do what I wanted, made terror unfurl in my stomach.
My brother’s face rose in my mind again, the way it had been blank and unseeing when I found him, dead from magic. But I pushed it away, as always.
Maddie wasn’t a witch. Just a spoiled, albeit fixable, brat.
“Unless you aren’t really done with Northsea,” I ground out.
Lex’s jaw set. “More fighting, less talking.”
“That’s why you asked to take my car,” I said, finally connecting the dots. “You left your car for her. Shit, Lex. That child does not need wheels.”
“Knock it off,” Lex said.
He had it so bad for her that he was blind to the fact I was drawn to her too. Small mercies, I guess.
Dani’s words about how we wouldn’t be a team as long as there were lies between us bugged me.
“You were just looking out for her,” I mocked him. “Like you would any cadet.”
Lex’s eyes took on a familiar stubborn cast. He didn’t miss my sarcasm. “Yep.”
I shook my head. He knew better.
“What do you want me to do?” Lex demanded roughly, his walls breaking down. He never could lie to me. “I’m trying. I’m done with— I’m not sleeping with her—”
“You’re making everything harder for her!” I hadn’t known how protective I felt about Maddie until the words exploded out of me.
Lex stared at me, his gaze furious. “I can’t help it.”
“You should,” I said. “What kind of asshole is in
a position of power over a girl and still has sex with her? You should’ve never slept with her to begin with.”
“I didn’t know she was coming to the academy. I thought she changed her mind.”
“A girl like that, she’s just not going to do anything with her life?” I demanded. “She was meant to be one of us.”
“You sound awfully protective of her now, Rafe.” Lex’s jaw was stiff. “I talked to the Dean about it. He even thought we should make sure she was on our team, where we could look out for her… He didn’t think our history would be a problem…”
I snorted. “Some job you’ve done looking out for her.”
This time when Lex hit me, it might have been to end the conversation and get back to training…or it might’ve been because he meant it. He punched me across the jaw, his eyes smoldering with anger, and I rocked back a step.
Then I caught him around the waist, slamming him to the ground.
The two of us struggled to pin each other, throwing elbows and fists whenever we could find an opening.
“What the fuck are you pretending for,” Lex demanded, managing to pin my jaw with his elbow. “On your high horse? If she was just a cadet to you—”
I bucked him off, and the two of us rolled smoothly to our feet, facing off.
“She is just a cadet to me,” I said. “I’ve never said a damn thing to her or to anyone to suggest otherwise.”
“So, if it would’ve been you, you’d have kissed Dani.” His chest heaved.
I stared back at him without answering.
“That’s what I thought,” he said.
He turned and headed across the dojo mats.
“You’re full of it, Lex,” I called after him.
He raised his hand to flip me off, something he never would’ve done at our academy, where a cadet might see us. “So are you, my friend.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Tyson
Someone crept into my room. As I woke up, I rolled out of my bed. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I slammed into them, knocking them into the wall.
Mel. I caught her scent a second too late, when I’d already pinned her to the wall.
She looked at me, her nostrils flaring, as my hand pressed against her throat.
“You either need to slow down or speed up your reflexes. Either way.” Her voice was soft.
“Sorry.” I released her, taking a step back, raising my hands. “What are you doing in here, Mel?”
I didn’t need the alpha’s daughter in my bed. He’d made it clear he’d rather see me dead than sleeping with Mel.
I’d resisted temptation when we were teenagers even though I’d wanted her so badly, but something had changed since then. I had to tell her, and I wasn’t sure how. Mel and I used to have big dreams of getting out of here together. But she didn’t want to defy her dying father.
And I wanted a different life now, far away from this pack.
With a different girl.
“What do you think?” She yawned as she tumbled into my bed and smiled up at me sleepily from the crumpled sheets. “Come on. For old time’s sake.”
I let myself fall into the bed beside her, and she wriggled over, putting her head against my shoulder.
“Why’d you say it like that?” I asked.
“Because.” She absently traced her fingertips across my chest, following the path of my tattoos, then diverting to one of the scars across my pecs. “You used to hug me back.”
“I still hug you back.” No matter what happened between us, she was one of the best friends of my childhood. “Dating or not, I’ll always hug you back.”
“You used to hug me back differently than last night,” she said. “It sure felt like a message, Ty.”
“I didn’t mean it to be one.” That would be a pretty crappy way to handle the situation. She deserved a real conversation. Still, relief flooded my chest, like maybe I was being let off the hook.
“It’s just because we’ve spent so much time apart,” she said, and that relief curdled. “When Penn comes home, promise you’ll come too? Help him?”
“Penn has almost four more years before he graduates.”
“He doesn’t have time to graduate, and you know it.” She sat up on her elbow, flashing me a look that was all exasperation. “Dad isn’t going to last that long.”
I fell back in the blankets and pulled the pillow over my face. “That’s it. You mentioned your father. Morning wood, deceased.”
She smacked my chest. “Ty.”
She smiled, but we knew each other too well. I could see the edge of frustration underneath her easy grin.
Was she upset because I’d changed? I couldn’t help it. It felt like we were growing apart, even when I was right here.
“Hey.” I rested my hand against her face. “I don’t want to lose my best friend, okay? Whatever happens.”
She pressed her hand against mine, molding my fingers to the sharp angle of her cheekbone. Her pouty lips parted as if she had something to say, then pressed close again.
Guilt twisted through my gut. “What is it? Mel, talk to me.”
She bit her lower lip, her teeth indenting in the soft pink pillow. “I don’t know if being your best friend is enough for me anymore, Ty.”
Well, right now friendship felt like about all I had to offer anyone. My life was complicated enough without a girlfriend.
“Maybe you should come to the academy,” I said.
Her lips parted in a mirthless smile. “I can’t do that without the alpha’s permission, even if I wanted to go. And I don’t.”
Well, she didn’t have a lot of choices. Neither of us did. It didn’t matter if those choices sucked.
“There’s another girl at the academy now,” I said, swinging my legs out of bed, pushing her gently out of my way. I was halfway across the room to grab a t-shirt from my bag when I realized how reckless that was to say.
“Oh?” she asked, her voice barbed. “I hadn’t heard.”
I pulled my t-shirt on as I turned back to her. “I’m just saying that you wouldn’t be the only one. You need to get out of here. See a little more of the world.”
“Trade one set of walls for another?” She swiped her hand through her hair. “No thanks.”
“You’d see the world once you graduated, fighting in the patrols.”
“See? More like slay the world, you mean.”
I sat on the side of the bed. Mel had a fierce edge that she had always denied. “I think you’d be good, Mel. And I’d be there too.”
She groaned. “Ty, don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Talk to me like this is a valid life option. I’ve been raised for one thing. Well, two.” She raised two fingers to tick off options. “Being someone’s wife and being someone’s mother.”
It was true that Mel, as much of a tomboy as she’d been when we were growing up together, seemed more polished and pretty than anything else now. But I didn’t think that was really who she was—at least, it wasn’t all she was. I gently punched her arm.
“I miss you, Mel,” I said.
I didn’t mean that I missed her when I was gone at the academy.
I missed the old her.
The door opened, and I jumped from the bed, ready for a fight. Even though Mel was wearing sleep shorts and a tank top, she still instinctively yanked the blankets up to cover her chest.
It was Penn who stood in the door. Irritation wrote itself over his features as he took in the two of us.
“What?” I hated when Penn looked at me that way, like he was already the alpha.
I’d spent half of our teen years keeping his rebellious ass out of trouble. I loved Penn like a brother, but it seemed ridiculous to me that Mel and their father talked about him as though he was the savior of the pack, the only one who could be the alpha. He didn’t even want the damn job.
“Mel, get out of here,” Penn said.
“Don’t be a jerk,” she told him, b
ut she scooted to the edge of the bed. “You’ve got no idea what it’s like here without you guys.”
His face shifted. “Then talk to me, Mel.”
Shaking her head, she slipped around him in the doorway. Penn looked skyward, his jaw setting.
“Missing the academy already?” I asked. That was how I felt when I came back here. At least at the academy, things were simple, clear. There was no pack politics to deal with.
“What the hell are you doing?” Penn asked.
So much for sympathizing with him.
“I don’t know, man.” I wanted to tell him that I didn’t need or want his sister slipping into my bed, but the door was still open to the hall behind him. If Mel overheard, it would hurt her feelings. “But I’m pretty curious what you’re doing with Northsea.”
The words hung between us. I couldn’t take them back, and I didn’t want to. I’d never doubted Penn genuinely liked Maddie until I heard him talking to his father.
I thought the way he looked at her would be hard to fake. But still, the doubt ate at me.
“I’m not talking to you about this here,” Penn said, like he was the boss.
“Fine, “I said. “But you are going to fucking talk to me about it, Penn.”
He raked his hand through his hair, the expression on his face aggravated, then strode out of the room.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Maddie
When I woke up, my head was on Jensen’s shoulder.
I eased away from him, hoping he wouldn’t wake up. My heart beat too fast, afraid of being caught when I was curled against him so comfortably. His arm was draped over my side, his fingertips brushing casually against my bare skin where my t-shirt had slipped up.
Jensen’s body was warm and solid and comforting against mine.
I wasn’t supposed to feel that way.
I let my head fall into the pillows on my side just as his eyes opened. He blinked at me sleepily.
“So what’s on the agenda for today?” I asked, eager to distract him from the way we’d slept. “Are we going to find out why the Kierney pack has your sister’s sword, or are we going to visit the wolf who hates having women in the patrols—as if that’s so unique?”
