Their Shifter Academy 2: Unclaimed

by May Dawson

And this one was even more dangerous than the first.

  “Bring me home,” I muttered, and the sparks at each corner of the rectangle glowed bright, then streaked inward to correct at the center. Magic glowed across the door, and then it turned into a solid wooden door with an old-fashioned crystal handle.

  Home was a bit of a misnomer. I hadn’t ever really had one of those.

  I knelt and pulled the little slip of white paper out of my jeans pocket, then left my clothes there on the dew-soaked grass between the trees. I would take this one small thing back and forth. Hopefully, it would only be in my world for a few minutes.

  As soon as I stood, I turned the knob and walked in.

  It was night here too. The room in front of me, full of wooden desks and maps hanging on the walls, was usually bustling during the day. Now, only Frederick and Isabelle were in here.

  Frederick looked up from his writing at the whoosh of magic as the door dissipated behind me. “Avert your eyes, Belly.”

  Isabelle, who was also working steadily at one of the desks across from him, looked up and rolled her eyes. “Don’t be such a prude. Welcome home, Silas.”

  I grabbed the robe that hung on the back of the nearest chair—always so thoughtful—and slung it around my body, quickly knotting it in the front. The fire cracked in the corner of the room, and the air smelled of black coffee and old books and the burnt sugary scent of magic.

  I breathed deep. “It’s nice to be here, if only for a little while.”

  “I’ll let Mistress Keen know you’re back,” Frederick said.

  “Don’t rush,” Isabelle scolded him.

  I grinned and went to the fire, stretching out my hands to feel the pleasant warmth beating against my body. “I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee before I spoke with her.”

  Frederick went to the hutch in the corner. “Whiskey?”

  “You’re on duty,” I reminded him.

  “Right. Giving you mine as well.” He added another glub-glub of whiskey from his flask, then tucked it back into his vest. He came over to me, holding the cup out. “Well, how goes it in the world of wolves?”

  “They’re more human than wolf,” I said.

  “That’s worse, isn’t it?” Isabelle asked lightly. She joined Frederick, standing so close to him that her arm brushed his. A familiar ache jolted in my chest. It wasn’t that I wanted Isabelle—we had grown up in the orphanage together, and she was like my own sister—but for years at the academy, the three of us had been inseparable.

  Now the two of them were in love, and no matter how close we all were as friends, I was on my own.

  I turned to study the map on the wall. “Any more rips since last time?”

  “Two,” Frederick said. He smiled at me tightly. “It’s no problem. You and the girl, you’ll figure it all out.”

  “I appreciate your faith in us,” I said drily. “Given she doesn’t even know we’re on a mission.”

  I hated keeping the truth from Maddie. Worse than anything, I hated the moments of recognition in her eyes when she caught me doing magic—and the way she lost the memory within a few minutes afterward.

  “Silas.” Mistress Keen’s voice was acerbic in the doorway. “So good to know you arrived safely.”

  I turned to find the tall, rail-thin woman with the scarred face. As usual, she knitted absently as she spoke without bothering to look, the metal needles clinking together over and over.

  It looked as if the fearless leader of the magicians’ rebellion was once again making afghan squares—green ones, this time.

  “I was just coming to get you,” Frederick said.

  “Mm. I’m sure.” She inclined her head down the hall, then started back down the hallway without looking to see if I would follow. Her voice drifted back. “Well, Silas?”

  Isabelle mouthed, “Good luck.”

  “I doubt the incredible Silas Zip needs good luck,” Keen’s voice floated back.

  I rolled my eyes as I followed her. I’d had the bad luck to the twenty-sixth arrival at the orphanage the year I came. Mr. Rollins had worked alphabetically through our last names. Whatever my last name had been, I was now Zip.

  I hated my last name and the reminder it carried that I’d been unwanted.

  Now, the incredible part, that I didn’t mind.

  Keen’s office glowed with light from the lamps on her desk. She took her seat behind the desk and leaned back, resting her feet on the ottoman beneath the desk, her attention seemingly fixed on her knitting.

  After taking my chair across the desk from her, I told her about everything that had happened in the first month at the academy.

  “That’s why you’re late?” she asked. I was supposed to return once a month to update her, and so they knew I hadn’t died over on the other side. “You had to help those children of earth?”

  I nodded. “Until we complete our mission.”

  “Mm. And what’s that in your hand?”

  I lay the ticket on the polished dark wood between us. “A lottery ticket. Chase—he’s essential to the prophecy—currently has divided loyalties. He can’t be completely on Maddie’s side as long as he’s beholden to other forces to protect his family.”

  She glanced up from her knitting. Icy gray eyes skewered me as she raised an eyebrow slowly. “You just wish to secure his loyalty. Nothing to do with your own friendship with the boy.”

  “Did you really expect me to spend every day with them and not develop a friendship?” I asked. There was no point in lying to her. “I can be invested in their well-being and still dedicated to our mission. It’s my job to keep them alive and help them grow together, after all.”

  “Mm,” she said. “It’s your loyalty I worry about most these days, not his. But all right.”

  “I assure you, I am completely loyal to the mission.”

  “I know.” She picked up the ticket and fanned herself with it absently. “You are not, however, completely loyal to me. To anyone. Are you, Silas?”

  “I’ll do the right thing,” I said stubbornly.

  “Yes. You will try. Not really the answer I care for, however.” She flashed me a tight smile. “I’ve got no one else who can manipulate the world like you can, though. So we’ll make it work, won’t we?”

  Her fingertips glowed on the ticket, and then she handed it back to me. “There. Freedom for your little friend.”

  “Thank you.” I eased forward in my seat. I’d briefed her on the events of the last month, and I’d gotten what I came here for. I thought we were done.

  “I do wonder,” she said, her voice catching me. “Friends are one thing. But is your own loyalty growing misplaced?”

  Anxiety squeezed my heart. She could end our mission in a second; she could keep me here, and I’d never even get to say goodbye to Maddie and the others.

  “I’ve only been there a month,” I reminded her. “I’ve lived in this world a lot longer.”

  “I’m not talking about choosing what world you stay in,” she said tightly. “The girl. Are you falling in love, Silas?”

  “No,” I said. I shook my head. “Of course not.”

  “Then why did she call you?” She leaned forward, her gaze intent.

  “I’ve been a friend to her,” I said. “But I’ve not crossed any lines. I’ve no interest in beginning a relationship with her based on lies—”

  “Pity,” she said. “It’s the only kind of relationship you’ll be able to have.”

  Pain jolted my chest, but she was right. “I know.”

  Her lips twisted. “Always the hero, Silas. That’s why we do all love you.”

  I couldn’t hide my smile. Ms. Keen didn’t seem to love anyone, but then, she’d seen a lot of rebel magicians come and go and die.

  “You might as well kiss the girl, Silas,” she said, “if you get the chance. You won’t be in their world long. Best make the most of it.”

  “Thanks for the advice,” I said.

  I was almost to the door when she sa
id, “One more piece of advice. About making the most of your time.”

  I turned back. She was knitting again. “Yes, ma’am?”

  “Learn as much about their world as you can. Not solely for the sake of the mission. Learn what it’s like to live without magic, to pay for every thing you buy, to live in their harsh, partisan little universe. You might find yourself with a choice to make one day, and you don’t want to choose wrong—even for love.”

  “I’m not going to fall in love,” I said.

  Her lips curved in a faint smile. “I’d end you if you lied to me, Silas. But I understand when you have to lie to yourself.”

  She always thought she knew us better than we knew ourselves.

  “Goodnight, Mistress Keen.”

  “Safe travels, Silas.”

  I drained my cup of coffee as I headed back down the hallway. It was time to say goodbye to my friends on this side, once again.

  Epilogue

  Something jolted me awake. I shifted my head on Jensen’s warm chest, and his arm automatically closed around my waist, his face turning into my hair.

  Who would’ve pegged Jensen McCauley for a cuddler?

  I lifted my hand to stare drowsily at the glowing hands on my watch. It took me a second to figure out the time. Two hours until PT. Sleep was precious.

  But I couldn’t shake the feeling I was awake for a reason. It could be one of those deep, buried senses of the wolf, maybe, that didn’t make conscious sense when we were in human form.

  I sat up in bed, and Penn murmured sleepily from my other side. “Where are you going?”

  “Go back to sleep, Penn,” I said softly. I didn’t want either of my boys to see me worrying over nothing. I slid to the end of the bed, climbing carefully over Jensen’s feet—which stuck out off the edge of the bed, poor man—and pulled my sweatshirt on. I was hot sleeping between them in even the thinnest tee-shirt and shorts, but the air in the academy was cold at night once I left our cozy little nest.

  I cocked my head to one side, listening.

  In the distance, a long, desperate howl went up. Goosebumps rose on my arms instantly, and I rubbed my hands across my sweatshirt sleeves as I crossed to the window. Had the guards who patrolled our woods found evidence of witchcraft? Was the academy under attack?

  Jensen was on his feet, moving quietly across the room despite his size. “What is it?” he asked softly as he joined me at the window.

  “I don’t know. Something feels off.”

  Penn sat at the edge of the bed, rubbing his eyes drowsily. “Let’s go see what it is.”

  “It could be nothing.”

  “Trust your instincts,” Penn said.

  It was touching that he did. My lips parted, and then the howl went up again, followed by the baying of other wolves nearby. They were tracking the wolf that had cried.

  The howl felt so familiar. I frowned, feeling as if I were trying to place a few bars from a song I’d heard before.

  My mother.

  Suddenly, I could hear her voice in the howl.

  “It’s my mom,” I said. “She’s on academy grounds.”

  And apparently, she was here without permission. The guard might kill her.

  I raced out into the hall and headed down the stairs. Jensen and Penn were hot on my heels.

  The three of us burst out into the cold night air and clattered down the steps to the lawn. I stopped, my nostrils flaring as I tried to figure out where she was.

  Out in the woods, she screamed. It was a human scream.

  Everything in my body cried out to run to her, but it could be a trap. I stopped, even though my chest heaved with my wild, distraught breathing.

  “Get the rest of the team,” I told Jensen. “I think I need them.”

  Jensen raced back into the house to sound the alarm. Penn rested his hand on my shoulder, and I leaned on him, taking comfort in his warm, muscular body.

  “This is my fault,” I murmured. “I should’ve figured out what was happening to my family the second I knew something was wrong.”

  My family. I hadn’t thought of my mother as my family in a very, very long time. My sister, her mates, those were my family. Not the father who had disappeared and the mother who had betrayed me.

  “It’s not your fault,” Penn said firmly. “You have every reason not to trust them.”

  The woods were quiet. I didn’t hear another scream.

  Penn and I waited.

  Rafe and Lex clattered down the steps behind us.

  “What is it?” Rafe barked, still slinging his sword in its sheath over his powerful shoulders.

  But before I could answer, Lex ordered, “Listen.”

  The human scream rose into the night again, then abruptly cut off, as if she’d been killed.

  The front door of the dorm flew open. Chase, Tyson, Silas and Jensen came flying out—half-dressed but fully armed.

  I stared around at them for a second, my heart beating wildly in my chest. My mother. If they were there, I trusted them to watch my back, even if it was some kind of trap.

  I turned and took off running into the woods.

  “Northsea, wait!” Rafe shouted.

  “I think that’s my mother!” I called back.

  He caught up with me and shouldered me aside impatiently, before racing through the woods ahead of me with Lex on his heels.

  When the two of them abruptly came to a stop, so did the rest of us. Lex turned and flashed me a warning look.

  Together the seven of us picked our way carefully through the brush. My heart hammered in my chest. Fingers brushed mine, warm and comforting, and I wrapped my hand around his without even looking to see who it was.

  I could hear voices up ahead. We stopped between the trees. Moonlight shone down on the fluttering leaves raised by a thin, cold breeze. As I listened intently, I glanced at the men around me. Rafe stood with his head cocked to one side, Lex beside him; both of them had their hands on their swords, ready for anything.

  It was Chase’s hand I held, and my tall, imposing friend squeezed my hand gently as he looked down at me, as if he wanted to give me strength. Silas stood by my left shoulder, his face thoughtful. Tyson, Penn and Jensen had formed a half-circle behind me, as if they were automatically forming up for a fight.

  The woods felt eerily silent, as if the wolves out here had frightened off every other animal.

  “What are you talking about?” It was a man’s low voice, cold and demanding.

  “There’s a witch at the academy.” That was my mother’s voice for sure. Not dead. Relief flooded my chest.

  But then that sense of relief curdled at her words. What was she talking about?

  “Witches have attacked the academy before—” the man began.

  “They’re already here,” she said abruptly. “Among you. Posing as wolves.”

  Silas tilted his head. There was the faintest tightening of his lips at that news. Wolves feared witches like nothing else.

  Fear spiked in my chest. Why was my mother here? Why did she carry a message like this? Could she even be trusted?

  “Who is this witch?” the man demanded.

  All of us listened, but my mother didn’t answer.

  “Go back,” Rafe mouthed to us. “Lex and I will deal with this.”

  Then, Dean McCauley’s voice. “This witch? It wouldn’t happen to be your daughter, would it?”

  “Go!” Rafe mouthed urgently, anger darkening his features as he pointed back through the woods toward the academy.

  He and Lex turned as one and headed through the forest toward the dean.

  “He’s right,” Silas whispered, the words almost inaudible. He caught my other hand, tugging me back toward the academy. “It’ll be all right, Maddie.”

  There was a long pause as we began to move back silently through the woods.

  Then my mother said, “I don’t know what she is.”

  To read Their Shifter Academy 3: Undone…

  Hi! May Da
wson here.

  If you enjoyed Unclaimed, please leave me a review if you can! It makes a huge difference in connecting readers with the indie books they’ll love.

  You can review Unclaimed here.

  And here is book 3 in Maddie’s story, Undone. Will Maddie and Silas survive the revelation there are witches at the academy?

  Lastly, if you’d like to join my newsletter—and receive a free book, Ugly Magic—you can do that here.

  Are you curious about Dani and the Hunters’ academy? You briefly met Deidra and Tristan in the bar at the academy; for more about them (plus gorgeous Cade and sexy, damaged Dane) try Academy of the Supernatural: Her Kind of Magic. Or read on for the blurb and an excerpt to see if it’s a story you might enjoy.

  Thanks for reading!

  Best,

  May

  Part I

  An Excerpt from Her Kind of Magic

  After my parents were killed by vamps, my uncle took an early retirement from his life as a Hunter to raise me. I grew up training for battles he hoped I’d never fight.

  Until the night I get into a fight at my school dance, and he takes me out for ice cream after. When the screaming starts, my chocolate-chip-cookie-dough cone splatters on the street. My uncle and I race to help.

  An hour later, I’m covered in his blood, shell-shocked, being loaded in a police car for a crime I could never commit.

  The Hunters’ Academy rescues me.

  Or maybe imprisons me.

  The details are a little dicey, and the men training me—handsome Cade and cruel, cold, perfect Nix—try to avoid the subject.

  But nothing matters to me now except getting revenge.

  I know I’ll make those responsible for my uncle’s death pay. But after my revenge, how will I go on with life, now that the last person who loved me is dead?

  Will I be able to come back to the academy and create a new family, find a new home? Or will I have destroyed my chance here?

  I’ll think about that tomorrow. Today, I’m out for blood.

  Turn the page to read the first three chapters or download from Amazon now.