Werewolf Academy Book 1: Strays (12 page)

He cleared the small fence that separated the flower beds and charged around the front of the school again. Alex climbed the steps just as the other werewolves were rounding the corner of the school. He stared down at them in triumph, his chest heaving as he fought for breath.

Kalia was nowhere in sight. The truth dawned in Boris’ eyes. Cassie was the last human. The tables had turned.

The Termer Alpha gave a bark and began to run in the other direction. The other werewolves realized what was going on and ran as well.

“Let’s get them!” Cassie yelled.

Alex leaped off the stairs and loped across the lawn with Cassie still on his back. She reached out and touched a gray wolf. The wolf slowed and turned back to find his clothes so he could phase and hunt the rest of the werewolves with them. Cassie touched another.

Soon, dozens of werewolves in human form were rushing around them. Alex herded the werewolves in wolf form toward them like wolves did in the wild, rushing their prey to those who waited refreshed and ready to catch it. The wolves scattered when those in human form jumped out from the Academy’s shadows and touched as many as they could reach. A dozen more joined their ranks. Soon, only Boris, Torin, Jericho, and Raynen remained in hiding. The Alphas were showing off their true strengths.

Alex phased near his clothes and hurriedly pulled them on.

He jogged to the steps to find the other werewolves waiting. “We can’t find them,” Pip said.

“They’ve got to be here somewhere,” Alex replied. “Have you searched the greenhouse?”

“Yes, as well as the storage sheds. They’re nowhere,” Terith protested.

“Did you check the tunnels?” Alex asked Cassie.

She nodded. “Every one of them.”

Alex looked around. He had personally checked pretty much the entire distance around the Academy. There were only two other options. “Either they’re in the Academy, or they’re in the forest.”

“We can’t go in the forest,” Trent said, his voice tight.

“The Academy is off limits,” Pip replied. “They’d have to be in the forest. We should look.”

“But it’s night,” Terith protested. “That’s a bad idea.”

“Rafe’s wolves keep the forest safe,” Alex point
ed out. “If the Alphas were inside the walls, we would have found them by now.”

“They wouldn’t give up without a fight,” Sid agreed. “They’re out there somewhere.”

“What do we do?” Parker, Boris’ Second asked.

Alex smiled. “We find them.”

Alex ran beneath the trees. He wanted to phase to wolf form and follow their trail, but that would have been cheating. The sound of the others following him died away as he ducked under boles and jumped over fallen trees. He loved the forest even more at night with the sounds of the crickets and other night insects creating a tapestry of sound that wove beneath the trees. An owl called above. Alex grinned and ran on.

Cassie was just as comfortable within the midnight forest as he was. He didn’t have to worry about her getting lost
or being afraid. She had even led him home a time or two when he was too stubborn to follow his own trail. He would be the first to find the others. The thought urged him on.

A scream tore through the air. Alex’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of fear in Cassie’s voice. He
turned in the direction of the sound and phased, leaving his clothes in tatters beneath the trees.

Alex ran faster than he ever had in his life. He leaped a lightning struck tree, darted around a grove of aspens, and jumped the stream without slowing. His heart thundered in his ears in time to the beat of his paws on the earth. Her scent grew stronger. The smell of strangers flooded his nose. They were everywhere.

Alex burst through the trees. A gunshot ran out. Fire tore through Alex’s hind leg as he skidded to a stop in front of Cassie. His sister cowered in human form against an evergreen’s trunk. A growl tore from his chest as he faced her attackers.

“
Drogan said you wouldn’t be far behind,” a man dressed in black said. He levered the gun so that it was aimed at Alex’s head. “Shall we see if I can kill two birds with one stone?”

A black form darted behind the man. Yells rang out along with growls as wolves appeared from all directions.

“There’re too many of them!” the first man shouted. “Regroup at the road!”

The men ran. Alex’s first instinct was to chase them and pull them down like wolves on the hunt, but Cassie cried behind him, and the pain in his leg was breathtaking.

The other werewolves fell back as the men retreated. They circled around Alex and Cassie, protecting them. Alex sniffed Cassie all over, making sure she hadn’t been hurt.

“Alex,” she said, her voice quivering. She threw her arms around his neck and held him as she cried. Alex wanted to
hold her tight and tell her everything was alright, but he was afraid of how much phasing would hurt with the bullet in his leg.

“What happened?” Torin demanded, appearing through the trees
in human form.

“We heard a scream and a gun shot,” Boris said
, following close behind.

Kalia appeared behind her brother.
Her eyes widened at the sight of Alex and Cassie in the middle of the wolves. Several of them slipped away to find their clothes and phase.

“They attacked me,” Cassie said. “They appeared out of nowhere. I didn’t even smell them.” Her voice shook. “They were going to shoot me when Alex appeared.”

“You were shot?” Jericho asked, appearing again through the trees in his human form. His shirt was still only halfway pulled down as he ran to them. He dropped to his knees beside the siblings.

Blood ran down Alex’s leg. Pain
stole in a numbing path from the wound. It was getting harder to breathe.

Dean Jaze appeared with many of the other professors close behind.
It was obvious by their state of apparel they had all dropped whatever they were doing, which was probably sleeping, and ran straight from the Academy. “Is everyone alright?” Jaze asked. His head turned at the smell of blood.

“Alex got shot,” Cassie said with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Jaze checked Alex quickly. Gasps sounded from the students who had phased back to human form when Jaze’s hand came away bloody. “Don’t phase,” Jaze told Alex. “It’ll only make the damage worse.”

Jaze met Kaynan’s gaze. “Bullet wound. We have to assume it’s silver.
Get the medical ward ready.”

“Silver?” Pip replied, his voice tight.

“I’ve got him,” Vance said as he knelt beside the dean.

Alex felt the humiliation of being picked up in the huge Alpha’s arms.

“Meet us at the school,” Jaze told Kaynan. “Tell Nikki and Lyra to be ready.”

Kaynan phased into his wolf form. His deep red fur and red eyes made him look like a creature out of a nightmare. He vanished before most of the students were even sure what they had seen.

“Vance, Chet, and Dray, get Alex and Cassie back to the Academy. Mouse, stay with me; we need to make sure everyone makes it back inside safely.”

Professor Mouse nodded, his eyes huge behind his big glasses.

Jaze met Rafe’s gaze. The wild werewolf’s eyes glinted gold in the moonlight. “We need to find out where they came from and how they got past the wolves. Rafe, you and Colleen check the perimeter and the scents going in and out. I want to make sure this forest is clear.”

“Got it,” Colleen answered.

Pain surged through Alex’s leg. A whine escaped his gritted teeth at the burning sensation.

Vance and Jaze exchanged a look. “Hurry,” Jaze said.

Vance took off running through the trees. Alex struggled to look back and saw Chet pick up Cassie as easily as if she was a rabbit. Dray shifted and loped past them, checking the groves for unfamiliar scents.

Alex’s thoughts numbed. The pounding of Vance’s legs as they ran through the forest pulsed
within him, sending his thoughts into a whirlwind as his blood system worked the silver from the bullet through his body.

“Stay with me, Alex,” Vance growled in a low voice without slowing. His shirt was loose, having been barely fastened when Cassie’s scream reached the
Academy. Alex realized dazedly that the black whip scars that covered the Alpha’s arms also tattered his chest in cruel black streaks. He wondered where they came from and if they hurt.

The gate creaked as it was thrown open. Vance ran across the yard and into the Academy.

“Lyra, Nikki,” he called; the sound of his deep voice echoed up the stairs and through the hallways.

A door opened on the opposite end of the hallway from the student classrooms. “We’re ready,” Nikki replied. “Bring him in.”

Vance entered the room and set Alex on a rolling bed with white sheets.

“Check the perimeter of the school.” Nikki’s voice was muffled to Alex’s ears. “Make sure we don’t have a security breech.”

“Got it,” Vance replied.

“And have Mouse check the cameras when he gets back,” Lyra called before the door closed.

“How you doing, Alex?” Nikki asked, her voice kind as she checked his leg.

Ale
x winced at the pressure. He clenched his teeth and shut his eyes.

“Is it silver?” Lyra asked.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Nikki replied. She leaned closer to Alex. He heard Lyra wheeling a cart of supplies over. They chinked together gently. “This is going to hurt just a bit,” Nikki said. “We need to get the bullet out.”

Alex nodded. He exhaled as something was injected into his leg.

“It’d be easier if he phased,” Lyra said. “You wouldn’t have to worry about fur.”

“Yes, but phasing with a wound pulls at the muscles and could make it worse,” Nikki replied. “I’d rather have him wait. We’ll work with what we have.”

Two more injections followed. The muscles around the wound began to ease, but Alex’s lungs felt tight.

“He’s having a hard time breathing,” Lyra said.

“Give him the oxygen. His body’s reacting too quickly to the silver,” Nikki replied. “Hold on, Alex.”

He felt pressure as she worked on his leg. Lyra slipped an oxygen mask over his nose.

“Take deep breaths,” she instructed, her voice gentle. “It’ll be over soon.”

Alex tried to ignore the sensation of Nikki digging for the bullet. He took a deep breath, then another.
He had to fight the pressure in his lungs. His heart stuttered. He willed it to calm. It stuttered again.

“His eyes are rolling back,” Lyra said. “His pulse is weakening.”

“Almost there,” Nikki replied. “Just one more push and. . . got it!”

There was a metallic
clink as the bullet was set on a tray.

“It’s silver,” Nikki noted.
“They’re designed to splinter. He might have some in his bloodstream. Alex?” she called.

He couldn’t get his eyes to open. His heart gave another stutter, and darkness swarmed his thoughts.

Alex awoke to the sound of steady beeping. His head felt like it had been wrapped in cotton. He forced his eyes open. He was in a room he didn’t recognize. The lighting was dim, and though there were other beds, his contained the only occupant. He squinted up at the monitor near his head. It showed a rhythm of jagged spikes. He focused inward; a slight smiled touched his mouth. The spikes were his heartbeat. It appeared to be stable.

He tried to remember what had happened.
Memories of running through the forest came to him. He had been searching for the Alphas, and had left the rest of the werewolves far behind. Cassie knew the woods. He didn’t have to worry about her.

The sound of her scream echoed through his mind. His heart gave a stutter and the monitor’s beeping was thrown off for a moment before it regained its steady rhythm. He had run as fast as he could. The images slowed.

He entered the clearing and saw Cassie backed against a large tree trunk. Moonlight reflected off of many guns. The man in front was pulling the trigger. Alex leaped in front of Cassie. The gun fired. His leg gave an answering throb. He turned, placing himself in front of Cassie. He could hear her sobbing behind him. Her terror tore through his heart.

Alex met the gaze of the man wearing black. He half-expected to see the man with the mismatched eyes that had killed his parents, but this man’s eyes were brown and cold. The only emotion in them was humor at the siblings cowering in front of him. He spoke, his words harsh and grating. His gun lifted, aiming at Alex’s head. If the bullet went through, it would hit Cassie as well. His finger tightened on the trigger. Alex didn’t know what to do to protect Cassie. There wasn’t time to react. If he leaped at the man, she could be shot by the other guns.

Howls reached him, the sounds of his pack as they charged through the underbrush to protect him and Cassie. They were a true pack, putting their life on the line for their members the same way he had seen Rafe’s pack do in the wild. The thought made his heart calm. He took a slow breath and let out the tension that filled him at the thought of Cassie in danger. They had protected her when he couldn’t. She was safe.