Their Shifter Academy 2: Unclaimed

by May Dawson

  When I stood again, it was as a wolf. The guys around me tried to run, but I bounded on top of them, knocking them down.

  Blake screamed. Silas grabbed him, pushing him into the passenger seat of his car. I raised my bloodied mouth from the throat I’d just torn out and growled at Silas.

  “Still your friend,” Silas told me, raising his hands in the air as he locked eyes with me. He didn’t seem scared, and he gave me a nod. He opened the car door. “Get in the car.”

  I understood him only vaguely, but whatever. For some reason I trusted him. I bounded into the back seat, and he closed the door behind me.

  Blake twisted in his seat to look at me, his eyes wide with fear.

  “Don’t be scared of him,” Silas said. “He’s still your brother. He’d do anything to protect you, regardless of whether you deserve it or not.”

  “And who are you?” Blake demanded.

  “I’m trying to be his brother, or like one—I’m not sure there’s a good word for it in English.” He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Let’s get Blake home. I’m sure you felt that. It seems like Maddie has found trouble.”

  Silas pulled away, leaving the front lawn behind us, and the scent of blood and gunsmoke hanging in the air.

  Silas added, “Our Ms. Northsea seems to be re-writing the prophecy without any help from me.”

  I stared at him, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. By the time I shifted back, I probably wouldn’t remember a damn thing to ask him.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Maddie

  “How far away is that cavalry?” Jensen asked me.

  His long, lithe fingers still gripped mine. I was far too keenly aware I was sweating from our hike through the woods, despite the breeze that swept across my damp brow, but we couldn’t let go of each other.

  Truth be told, I didn’t want to let go of him.

  “It’ll take my sister’s mates hours to get here, but they should be able to follow our trail even with your spell.” Guilt jolted through me all over again as I imagined my sister’s worry—while she was in the middle of giving birth. “Jesus. I’m the worst sister.”

  Jensen glanced at me like he was going to say something, then cut himself off. “We should take care of our friends following us, then.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But as soon as we separate, they’ll be able to track us.”

  An idea occurred to me, and I stopped dead in my tracks. Jensen took a step past me, then turned, bringing us intimately close together.

  I went on. “Wait. They’ll be able to track me. Your spell will still be working.”

  His eyebrows lifted as if he could tell what I was thinking. “I already hate your plan.”

  “Big surprise. Listen, if they can track me but not you, you can get behind them.”

  Jensen’s fingers tightened around mine reflexively, as if he was afraid I’d pull away. Slowly, he said, “So your idea is I just leave you on your own and let the three bad men try to trap you—”

  “But I won’t actually be alone,” I cut him off. “You’ll be behind them.”

  He gazed at me. “I’m brain-damaged right now, remember?”

  “You always are. You still manage to be pretty badass.”

  His eyes widened at the admission, but despite his many, many faults, it was true.

  “I hate everything about this,” he said flatly.

  “Why?” A few days ago, I would’ve expected Jensen to hate any idea just because it was mine. But he’d been willing to listen to everything I suggested.

  If I didn’t know better, I’d think Jensen genuinely cared about what I said.

  His lips pursed impatiently. “Would you stop?”

  “Stop what?” I pressed.

  He crossed his arms impatiently over his chest. “Stop asking me all those stupid questions.”

  “They’re not stupid questions. You don’t think I belong at the academy. You don’t think I’m worthy. So why do you care?”

  His golden eyes glinted dangerously in the sun. “I never said you were unworthy. Just because I don’t want you at the academy doesn’t mean I want you dead. Just because I don’t want to spend every fight worried you’ll get hurt…”

  “You worry I’ll get hurt?” I demanded skeptically. “You are the reason I got hurt at the academy. You’re the reason people tripped me, bullied me—”

  His face clouded. “I shouldn’t have let that happen.”

  “Wow, that was almost an apology.” My heart raced. Holding hands with Jensen while we fought was truly bizarre, our bodies connected even though I was furious at him all over again.

  His jaw clenched as he stared me down, then he seemed to relax as he made a decision. Swiftly, he said, “I’m sorry we bullied you. I’m sorry I hurt you. I was an asshole.”

  His words made me pause, but before I could react, he added, “I’m not going to apologize I didn’t want you there, though. You deserve better than the academy.”

  Oh, here we go, another circle of Jensen’s insanity. “What the hell else would I do with my life besides the academy?”

  “Literally anything,” he shot back. “Go to a normal college. Have a real life. Take a mate or two or seven—”

  The word mate caused my cheeks to flush. “I don’t want to talk to you about mates.”

  He paused, his lips parting as he stared at me. He seemed as cool as ever, on the surface, but we were so close I could feel his heartbeat thundering. The pulse in his wrist as we held hands was quicker than ever, even faster than it had been when we were running.

  Then he smirked. “You’re mad I didn’t want you as my fighting partner. What about being my mate?”

  The image rose, unbidden, of straddling Jensen, my hands on his powerful shoulders, my lips caressing his…

  His eyebrows arched. He glanced behind us, at the still empty and rustling woods. I was sure they hadn’t given up and were still hunting for us. I caught whiffs of their scents every now and then, but they were distant.

  “We don’t seem to have much choice in being fighting partners if we’re going to get out of here alive,” I reminded him.

  “You didn’t answer my question.” He sounded so goddamn smug, as if he already knew what I wanted.

  I shot him a dark look. “Jen.”

  “Madeline.” When he murmured my name, it sounded teasing—and strangely sweet.

  “No one calls me Madeline.”

  “Maybe I do. Believe me, it’d be better than most of the things I’ve called you.” He tilted his head to one side, studying me, a curious expression written across his handsome face.

  “I’d be offended, but it’s mutual,” I shot back.

  “I know.”

  I stared up into those glittering eyes, wondering what game he was playing now, and he leaned forward.

  I meant to tell him to fuck off. My lips parted as my chin rose, and before I could say anything, his lips met mine.

  Jensen’s fingers tightened around my hand as his lips pressed mine, firm and commanding. I ran my hand up his chest to rest on his shoulder, then kissed him back hard. He teased the tip of his tongue across my lower lip, and my lips parted, welcoming him into my mouth.

  He pulled away reluctantly, our hands still joined. Then he smirked at me, as if he was in control here, as if he’d done that to play with me. But his eyes gave him away.

  Adrenaline flooded my body at his touch, and I took a step away, trying to regain my sanity, but still tethered to him by our hands. “Let’s go kill some people.”

  Thank god for a distraction from Jensen McCauley’s beautiful smirking mouth.

  “Hell of a time for a first kiss, Northsea,” he muttered. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  “Shut up and let them come for me,” I said, pulling my hand out of his. “I’d rather die than listen to you gloat.”

  “And that’s why I’d do anything to protect you,” he said, his eyes glinting with the truth of it, befor
e he added, “to ensure your on-going misery.”

  Then he melted into the woods. I drew my sword, knowing they were coming, and continued moving through the forest, drawing them past him. Hopefully, they were spreading out, edging around me now they knew for sure where I was.

  We played cat-and-mouse for the next few hours as they tracked me.

  Then I hesitated as I breathed the strangely sweet scent of death on the air. Jensen had taken one of them out.

  There was the crunch of a footfall as one of the shifter stepped behind me.

  He came at me fast, without hesitation, trying to slam into me and knock me down with his greater bulk before I had the chance to respond.

  I waited until the last second, then spun away, under his arms, before he had time to adjust. He tackled air and stumbled past me.

  I kicked him hard in the back of the leg. The blow didn’t land quite right, and I stumbled, but he was already going down, back to me. I stabbed my sword through his kidney.

  He doubled over, gasping, then lurched to his feet even as I tried to pull my sword loose. I lost my grip on the hilt with the sword still buried in his back. Blood darkened his shirt and flowed down his jeans as he stumbled into me.

  I tried to duck out of his grip, but he caught me with one clawed hand around my throat. My back slammed into the rough tree behind me as he pinned me there. I kicked out at him, but he lifted me off the ground.

  He squeezed painfully tight as I tried to pry his fingers off. His claws sank deep into my neck as his muscles twitched. He was trying to transform, to heal.

  “What are you looking for?” he demanded, his voice gravelly. His lips pulled back over bloody teeth as his gums rippled, his mouth changing and elongating. If my vision hadn’t been fading black at the edges, it would’ve been fascinating. “Why now?”

  Why now?

  I was here, my vision fading black at the edges, fighting for my life, because of the boy with the golden eyes and the bad attitude.

  I twisted, raising my knee and scrambling for the knife I carried in my boot. I hadn’t even checked the sheath after our swim earlier. I hoped like hell I still had the blade.

  My fingers found the hard edge of the hilt through the damp material of my jeans. I gritted my teeth as he shoved me harder and harder against the tree, his claws cutting into my skin as he whined against the agony of the change. I yanked up the hem of my jeans, and my fingers finally closed around the hilt.

  He didn’t see the knife in my hand before I drove it into his gut. As I fell to the ground, he slumped over me.

  I pushed him away, frowning, just as Jensen strode into the field.

  He took in the body of the guy who’d fallen against me before I managed to heave him off, and shook his head. “You’re always trying to make me jealous, aren’t you?”

  “You’re always assuring me it doesn’t work,” I shot back. I cleaned the blood off my blade, testing it to make sure it was still in good condition, then slipped it into my boot again.

  Jensen stooped to pick up my sword, holding it lightly by the blade so I could grab the hilt.

  “Did you get the other two?” I asked as I slid my sword home.

  “Yep.”

  “Took you long enough.”

  “I’m winning,” he reminded me. “Yet again. Two-to-one.”

  “I have the feeling we’ll have plenty of chances to even the score.”

  His eyes widened as if something had just occurred to him.

  “Don’t take it that hard. I think the two of us together are up to the challenge.” I clapped him on the shoulder in what was supposed to be a gesture of comradery, but then my hand rested against his thick bicep. I snatched my hand back before folding my arms across my chest.

  “I just realized. Where are all the files?” he asked. “Everything I stole from my father?”

  “We lost them when the car rolled into the river.” I’d been so focused on saving his life I hadn’t even thought about them.

  He groaned, suddenly burying his head in his hands. “I don’t remember that.”

  I glanced back through the woods. There was a long way to go, and dusk was falling. “First priority is staying alive. If we double back, there might be more of them coming for us. Their cavalry is probably also on the way.”

  “We could push.” His nostrils flared. “If we keep going away from the river, we should reach the highway.”

  I wanted him to rest. The worst thing for a concussion was to keep moving, and we’d been moving—and fighting—all day. It was going to be far harder for him to heal if he kept racking up more damage.

  But Jensen would never admit how much he was hurting, even though his eyes looked even more far-away and dazed now. For the first time, I realized how reckless it had been. I’d trusted him to watch my back while I acted as bait.

  I didn’t trust him with my poetry, but I trusted him with my life. When did that happen?

  We had to take care of each other.

  “I’m exhausted,” I lied. “Carrying your ass on that swim did me in. You got a ride, you wouldn’t know. Can we rest for a little while?”

  “Told you that you’d slow me down,” he shot back.

  “Are we really doing that again?” I demanded.

  He looked at me with a frown dimpling his forehead between those gorgeous eyes, then gestured back and forth between us. “I thought this was our thing. We banter.”

  “There’s banter, and then there’s just you being an asshole.”

  “Well, that’s my thing.”

  “You need to find a new thing.” I jabbed my finger into his chest.

  And Jensen McCauley took that as an excuse to kiss me all over again.

  His hands gripped my hips possessively as he lowered his head to mine. Even though I’d just been telling him off, when his lips brushed mine, I kissed him back hard. His gold eyes sparked with warmth.

  He kissed me as if maybe this would be his new thing.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Maddie

  When we finally disentangled, Jensen shivered in his leather jacket. Making him rest was the right answer, but he looked miserable now that he wasn’t moving anymore. I bit my lip. If I could use my magic to heal him, I would. But magic was notoriously unreliable when it came to head injuries.

  The human brain is a finicky thing, and Jensen’s was already particularly twisted.

  “I’m building a fire,” I said, finally settling my internal debate. I worried it would draw our enemies to us, but unless we slept holding each other—ha, no—they could track my scent anyway. “You need to get warm.”

  He gave me a skeptical look. “This maternal thing you’re doing now is really weirding me out.”

  “Jensen, shut up.”

  A smile played over his lips. “You started calling me Jensen instead of Jen.”

  “You stopped calling me Northsea.” As I crouched to pick up kindling and sticks for the fire, I grumbled, “I don’t know why you said that like it’s an accomplishment. You told me only your friends can call you Jen.”

  “That was a lie. I hate it,” he admitted. “But I don’t want to be your friend anyway, Madeline.”

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what worries me.”

  Hurt flashed across his face. “What do you mean?”

  I knelt to sweep a spot of earth clear of debris for a spot to build my fire. Ducking my head, I avoided that look on his face.

  I didn’t want to hurt him, but we’d called a truce once before, and I’d ended up feeling like a bigger fool than ever. “You’re a smart man. You can figure it out.”

  “No, don’t wimp out on me now.” Jensen’s voice was full of challenge. “You said something. Stand by it.”

  I crouched in front of the pile of sticks I’d assembled, carefully setting up the kindling and the little lean-to of branches. I didn’t have matches, so I’d strike some rocks together for show, then use magic to start the fire. Banging rocks together only worked in the movi
es.

  I ignored Jensen, bending over the kindling to shield it from the wind, coaxing the flicker of flame until it caught.

  “I didn’t know you were so useful,” he said.

  Oh, a change of subject, thank you. “My sister’s mates taught me.”

  “What was that like?” he sounded genuinely curious.

  “Spending my weekends camping and hunting with eight sweaty men and my bossy big sister instead of going to the mall with my friends? It was swell. There’s nothing teenage girls love as much as being turned out into the woods to find their way home.”

  I shook my head as I replayed the day I came out of my tent to find the rest of them had packed up silently in the night and left me. I’d known it was coming—pack tradition—but I’d still cursed my sister out. I’d threatened to call Child Protective Services even though no one could hear me but the birds and squirrels.

  “You liked it,” he observed.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Have you talked to one of those friends since you’ve been at the academy?” His voice was knowing.

  Jensen paid attention to every little thing, and he put it all together. I admired that skill, and I hated it too.

  “I haven’t had a phone while I’ve been at the academy.”

  He was right, though.

  There were two versions of Maddie Northsea, and one was the normal girl Piper had wanted me to try to be. I’d tried to leave her behind when I graduated human high school. But there hadn’t been any magical transformation. I’d been bad at being a normal human in high school, and I was bad at being a normal shifter at the academy.

  “Makes me sound like a bitch,” I muttered. I’d abandoned my old friends when I stepped into my new life. I hadn’t thought about it until now, but Jensen always saw right through to the worst parts of me.

  “Because you’d rather save lives than go to English Lit classes and get drunk with your friends? Yeah, what a bitch.” His lips tilted, but there was affection in that smirk.