by May Dawson
“Just a feeling,” he said, squeezing my hand gently in his big one. “The dean’s tried to keep me under his thumb before. But I don’t mind you knowing my secrets.”
He was trying to change the subject. I shook my head at his clumsy attempt to distract me, but standing in the empty school hallway was no place for me to pry. We didn’t know how much longer we’d have alone.
“You know I can’t tell on you. You know my secrets too.” Lord, did I have some secrets. But I trusted him with them.
Chase leaned down as if he were going to whisper into my ear, his big shoulders hunching slightly in a way that was sexy.
He looked as if he were going to whisper to me—or kiss me.
As I looked up into his face, my lips parted. I swayed toward him. My heart was beating so fast I could hear it pulsing through my eardrums. Chase had to hear it too, or maybe he couldn’t, because it felt like his heart was beating just as fast as mine.
“What are you two idiots doing in the hall when you should be in class?” Rafe demanded.
His harsh voice drenched a bucket of ice water over the two of us. Chase pulled away, his eyes widening.
Irritation flared in my chest, and I almost rounded on Rafe with a bad attitude, but I bit back the words that came to my lips.
Or maybe I didn’t manage to hide my attitude. Rafe’s arms knit over his chest, his jaw setting as he stared me down.
“How are you always here?” I demanded. Always killing the moment?
“I have a sixth sense for when you’re getting yourself into trouble.”
Sure. Or maybe he had a sixth sense for when I was about to kiss another guy.
“We were talking in class,” Chase admitted, breaking the tension between Rafe and me.
Rafe glanced at Chase as if he had forgotten he was even here. Of course. I was the one that Rafe lived to scold, it seemed.
Rafe checked his watch. “Last class before lunch. You two can come with me.”
Chase and I exchanged a look. Was this an excuse to get us out of here because we needed to talk about the unfolding situation with my mom? Or was he just dragging us off to peel potatoes or take a beating in the pit for our misdeeds?
Rafe was already walking back the way he’d come. His posture was straight and perfect, his leanly powerful frame enhanced by the fitted blazer and trousers of our school uniform. He was gorgeous and commanding, as he strode away. He was so confident that we would follow.
“I hate him sometimes,” I whispered to Chase, almost mouthing the words rather than saying them aloud. Chase nodded in agreement.
“I know,” Rafe said without looking back. “And I wonder if a hundred push-ups would improve your attitude.”
I loved to work out, but push-ups were on my top-ten list of hated exercises. “Probably not.”
“Maybe two hundred, then.”
“Stop talking,” Chase whispered to me urgently, but his eyes were amused.
Right now, nothing could dull Chase’s good mood.
And no matter how much my own worries weighed on me, that made my heart lift too.
Chapter Ten
Rafe
“Every house is responsible for cleaning and maintaining one of the guest quarters,” I told Chase and Maddie as we headed up the wooded trail toward the guest house. “Of course we already made sure the houses were ready for the Alphas, but I have to double check it’s ready before our guests arrive. You two can scrub the bathrooms one more time. Since you don’t have anything to do in class.”
I wanted to make sure we had the chance to talk to Piper in privacy. Lex called Piper to warn her that Clearborn took Joan, but Piper was still coming in to help. Piper made it clear she wanted to see her sister.
Maddie’s lips twitched in a faint smile. She obviously understood my plan.
Normally, I would’ve told her that I wanted her to explain to her alpha why she couldn’t follow simple freaking instructions. But after this morning’s conversation about how she wanted to make her sister proud, I couldn’t say it.
At least, unlike my parents, Maddie’s sister was capable of being proud of her.
The guest houses had belonged to doctors at the asylum before it was abandoned. These houses weren’t haunted like the academic building and dorms. It almost made them seem lonely.
I unlocked the front door and laid the keys on the table in the foyer. The house was old, and the faintest musty smell mixed with the scent of Lysol. From here, I could see down the hall to the eat-in kitchen in the back, and stairs led up to the second floor. On the right was a living room, and to the left was a dining room, both simply furnished.
“Upstairs. Cleaning products are in the closet.” I pointed up.
Maddie turned luminous blue eyes on me. “Oh, you weren’t joking.”
That gaze made butterflies rise in my chest, and I crossed my arms, as if I could crush them into oblivion from the outside. “Do I ever joke?”
“I’m pretty sure you’re capable,” she said. “Even though there isn’t a lot of evidence yet to back up my hunch.”
She headed up the stairs, with Chase at her heels. She tripped on one of the steps—they were the short, narrow stairs of another age, so they weren’t as deep as expected. I’d tripped on those stairs the first time too.
Chase caught her with an arm around her waist. She leaned into him familiarly, touching his arm as she looked up at him.
“Win seven million dollars in the morning,” Chase teased, “clean toilets in the afternoon. The academy keeps it real.”
They were so comfortable together. Anyone could see what was happening between them. Anyone except them, maybe.
In the distance, I heard the sound of wheels rolling over gravel.
“We’ve got company.” I jerked my head to the stairs. “Make yourself busy in case it’s Clearborn, and not more Northseas.”
More Northseas. There was a phrase to strike terror into my heart. One Northsea had turned out to be a whole lot of trouble.
But the enormous dark-haired, blue-eyed shifter who filled the doorway was definitely not Clearborn. His nostrils flared as he stared at me. “Who are you?”
“Rafael Hunt.”
Recognition glinted in his eyes; he knew my name, even if he didn’t remember me. I’d met some of Piper’s pack in passing, a long time ago.
“Logan Northsea.” He gave me a long look, his nostrils flaring again. He must scent Maddie in the house.
“Come on down,” I called up the stairs.
Logan turned his head over his shoulder and shouted to the car behind him that it was safe to come in. His head was still turned when Maddie clattered down the stairs and rushed down the hall, before she tackled him.
When Maddie flew into him, Logan’s shoulders slammed into the doorway with her force. He laughed as he wrapped his arms around Maddie. Affection glinted in his otherwise-icy eyes as he looked down at Maddie. “You doing okay?”
“Keeping my chin up,” she said lightly, as if that was something he’d told her before. She stepped back from him, glancing at me as if she was worried what I’d think.
I straightened my tie, ignoring the way she’d just looked at me even though it grated on my nerves. I wouldn’t judge her for having a pack that loved her, and that she loved.
Then she asked, “Did Clearborn invite you and Piper to the Alpha meeting they’re having?”
He frowned. “Clearborn? Since when does he invite Piper anywhere?”
“He’s trying to take over the academy,” I said. “He was the one who took Maddie’s mom off-campus.”
Logan’s mouth tightened in frustration. “Goddamn pack politics. Like we don’t have bigger concerns than who has the biggest dick.”
Piper Northsea stepped in behind him. She was flanked by two huge shifters, each of whom carried a baby wrapped in blankets. Piper was smaller than I remembered, a petite woman with soft blond hair curling around a heart-shaped, delicate face.
“Maddie.” P
iper crushed her sister against her chest in a hug, even though she winced when she did.
“You shouldn’t have come,” Maddie said, resting her hands on her sister’s shoulders. “You could’ve just sent some of the guys.”
“If I know Clearborn, it’ll take Arthur and Callum and myself to deal with this,” Piper said drily.
“And you brought the babies.” Maddie was already reaching out for one, making dramatic grabby hands, and the red-headed guy who carried the baby grinned.
When Maddie turned around, the baby’s head nestled just below her chin. She swayed back and forth, her slender hips rocking, as she gently patted the baby’s back; her knuckles were cut open from hand-to-hand training, and the juxtaposition of her wounded hands and her softness with the infant startled me.
I was used to seeing Maddie as a tough fighter—as well as headstrong and exasperating—but the smile that lit her face made my heart lurch. She could be cradling my baby like that one day, far in the future. She could be mine.
Mine. The word echoed through my soul, a deep and primal urge.
Oh, fucking Cain. I didn’t know what to do with that.
Chase stood on the stairs, glancing around at them, and Maddie suddenly came to life. More big shifters were squeezing into the hallway from the door, filling up the space.
“Chase, Rafe, this is my sister Piper, and her mates. Arthur and Callum, these are the twins Finn and Seb, this is Kai and Nick and Josh and Logan.” Maddie pointed to each of the guys in turn, but there was no way I was going to keep them all straight.
Callum, who looked like he was in his thirties with five o’clock shadow across his chiseled jaw, looked between Chase and me pointedly.
“This is Rafe, one of my cadre. Please don’t repeat anything I’ve said about him behind his back,” Maddie said, gesturing to me as I reached to shake Callum’s hand.
Callum grinned. At least someone thought Maddie was funny.
“And this is Chase, he’s on my team.” Maddie touched the small of his back, and from the way the other wolves glanced at him, no one missed the ‘casual’ way she touched him. “He’s a good friend.”
A friend. Sure.
“It’s nice to meet some of the people who’ve had your back at the academy.” Callum spoke to Maddie, but gave me a searching look.
My jaw set. If he was implying I could’ve done a better job looking after Maddie, well, it wasn’t my job to protect her from hurt feelings. My job was to help her be tough enough to fight in the patrols alongside more men that might not want her around.
I was pretty sure that, given enough time, Maddie would overcome anyone’s prejudice, though.
Or at least, put them in their fucking place.
“I don’t know what Jensen and I would’ve done without them,” Maddie said, as if she didn’t realize there was any subtext to Callum’s words, as if despite her teasing, she’d had good things to say about me to her pack.
The awkwardness was broken as the guy in the doorway—I thought his name was Kai—whistled. When everyone turned to look at him, he said, “We’ve got company inbound.”
“Probably Clearborn,” Piper said. “Finn, Seb, Logan, Nick, stay in here and protect the babies. Just in case.”
The four of them nodded. Piper jerked her head, and she and the rest of her guys moved out onto the front porch.
Piper looked over her shoulder and added, “You three stay in the house too. You don’t need Clearborn to notice you.”
“Yes ma’am,” I said.
Maddie rolled her eyes, and I elbowed her as her sister swept out onto the front porch. “She might be your sister, but she is an alpha too.”
“You don’t need to worry about how I treat Piper,” Maddie whispered back to me. “Trust me, her guys would let me know if there were any issue. They’re a wee bit protective.”
“It’s true,” Logan said. “It’s different in public. Maddie knows the difference.”
Different in public? Maybe Chase and I were being treated as friends of the pack, even though they barely knew us, because of Maddie.
She moved to one of the windows, positioning herself to one side of it, and Chase joined her. I stood on the opposite side. There were so many wolves in and out of this house that Clearborn shouldn’t pick up our scents.
Maddie kept swaying, still holding the baby, and Chase smiled over her shoulder at the baby blinking blueberry-blue eyes open. I pushed down the swell of jealousy at the picture they formed.
A truck rolled slowly up the driveway and stopped in front of the house. Clearborn stepped out.
“It’s good to see you here, Northsea,” Clearborn said as his feet crunched over the gravel. “Congratulations on the children.”
“Thank you.” Piper Northsea had perfect posture, standing in the center, flanked by Arthur and Callum, her two alpha males, then the others spread around them.
“I thought surely you’d sit these trials out.” His eyes flashed with humor. “I’d expect you to be busy.”
“Don’t worry about us.” The thread of command in Piper’s voice surprised me. She sounded so different from how warm she had been in the house. “I’m glad to have the chance to check in on the academy.”
“It’s changed quite a bit since you ran things.”
“Since I started this school? Yes, so I’ve heard.”
“It’s going to change a bit more.” Clearborn crossed his arms. “I called an emergency meeting of the Alphas for tonight to discuss replacing Dean McCauley.”
“Oh?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t reach out to you. I thought you’d be busy. I’d hate to take a new mother away from her most precious mission.”
“I’m never too busy for pack business.”
“The dean’s been concealing concerns about magic on campus.” Clearborn tilted his head to one side. “Have you heard anything about that?”
Piper ignored the question, with all its implications. “I’ll happily volunteer my men to assist in any way needed with the investigation. The packs have relied before on the hacker expertise we’ve developed—”
Clearborn cut her off, his voice dismissive. “Generous of you, but there are concerns your pack is compromised.”
Arthur and Callum took a step forward, and Clearborn leaned forward, flashing them a dangerous smile.
“If you intend to accuse me of something, I’d be clear…and careful,” Piper warned Clearborn. “I have my own concerns about who might be ‘compromised’.”
“You know the rumors about your pack’s use of magic.” He tilted his head to one side. “I don’t believe it, of course. But I can’t squash the rumors single-handedly.”
“I’m so glad you’re on my side.” Her voice was acerbic.
“You misstepped, Piper, when you tried to bring magic to the academy,” he said. “And so did McCauley when he invited the Hunters’ witch here.”
“And so you see your opening,” Piper said. “I don’t remember you hating magic yourself, Clearborn. But you’re happy enough to use their hatred, aren’t you?”
Clearborn didn’t deny it.
“Many of the Alphas want to see a return to old-school ways, to old Pack law,” he said.
“Funny how those Alphas want to return to old-school ways and yet whisper to each other as if they’re frightened to fight for what they want.” Piper’s voice was amused.
Clearborn shrugged. “Perhaps the effort began in the shadows. I don’t want you to be surprised when it comes into the light.”
“Good of you to warn me.”
“If I were you, I’d stay clear of the investigations,” he said. “It’s not my call, Piper. But I would expect your pack is being watched. I’d hate to see an excuse for other Alphas to unite against your pack.”
“I see.” Piper’s voice was cool. “I so appreciate the warning.”
“The trials are canceled,” he said, already standing in the door of his truck, his foot on the running board. “McCauley’s
witch was integral to their plans, and the trials are being re-worked without magic. But at least we’re all together for our meeting.”
Piper said, “Aren’t you going to tell me about the wolf from my pack that you have in your custody?”
“I know who you mean, but she’s a lone wolf, no wolf of yours.” He flashed her a thin smile. “She’ll testify tonight. Then she can choose where she goes. There’s no reason to hold her.”
“If she’s in a rough state, I’d like to help her,” Piper said.
“Oh?” Clearborn asked skeptically. “When’s the last time you spoke to her?”
“She’s still a member of the Atlantic pack,” Arthur interrupted. He was a mountain of a man, dark haired and dangerous. “She lived off pack lands these past few years, but she never renounced her place.”
Clearborn held his gaze. “You can meet her at the Alpha meeting and see what she says about that.”
Next to me, Maddie chewed her lower lip until it was on the verge of bleeding. Chase touched her lip tenderly with his thumb, and she released her lip from the death grip of her teeth.
Piper watched Clearborn go, then spoke briefly to Arthur and Callum before she returned to the house. Finn took the baby from Maddie, giving her a sympathetic smile.
Maddie looked miserable.
“This is my fault,” she whispered to Piper, and I had the feeling I was hearing a far more intimate conversation than I should.
Piper shook her head. “No, don’t do that. This isn’t your fault.”
There was still a hint of the steel in her voice that I’d heard throughout the conversation with Clearborn, and then she softened. “But it doesn’t matter who owns the fault anyway. What matters is what we have to do next. Should we speak privately?”
Maddie glanced over her shoulder at me. Then she shook her head. “Whatever we’re going to do next, I’ll need them.”
Well, this was going to be trouble.
So why did a warm glow light my chest, just for a second, when Maddie said she needed me?
“We need to get to the truth about what happened with Joan,” Piper told Maddie. “I know it’s hard.”
