Werewolf Academy 07 Chosen (16 page)

Don was a quiet Termer who had turned into something of a trick-shot during weapons practice in Chet’s class. The fact that Jericho had asked him to be his Second when Siale went with Pack Alex meant that Jericho knew exactly what the big werewolf’s strengths were.

“
Way to inspire the pack,” Cassie said.

Alex grinned at his sister. “I said we could be in trouble. I didn’t say we were going to lose.” He winked. “I work best when the odds are against me, and we’re going to do the same.” He turned to Trent. “Take Siale, Jordan, Terith, and Von down the river so they won’t smell you and circle back. As soon as you hear the commotion, attack.”

“
Got it,” Trent said. He motioned to the others and they disappeared silently through the trees.

“
Now there’s only three of us,” Cassie pointed out.

“
Are you afraid?” Alex teased his sister.

She met his challenging gaze with a smile. “You wish.”

“
What does that mean?” Alex replied.

Cassie hesitated, then shrugged with a small laugh. “I have no idea, but it sounded good.”

Tennison smiled at his fiancé. “If only we could terrify them with catch phrases.”

Cassie’s eyes lit up. “I would say things like, ‘Better run away or I’ll shoot you today!’ or ‘Yellow paint to the head, you’re better off dead! Or ‘Pack Alex rules and Pack Jericho drools!’”

Alex and Tennison exchanged a look.

“
Should I tell her?” Alex asked.

Tennison motioned for him to go ahead.

“
Cass, I don’t want to break your heart, but those are the worst catch phrases I’ve ever heard,” he told his sister. “In fact, I don’t think you can honestly call them catch phrases.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Just you wait. They’ll be terrified, right Tennison?”

Tennison had been shaking his head, but as soon as she looked at him, he nodded quickly. “Uh, right. They’ll be super scared.”

She nodded. “That’s right. Let’s go hide.”

“
You’re ridiculous,” Alex called after her.

Her laugh came back to him through the trees. “I know!”

Alex crouched behind a bush and chuckled to himself. The little girl who had preferred the forest to crowds and followed her brother like a shadow was long gone. Instead, the young woman who joked and flirted with her fiancé reminded him of Meredith and the mother who had raised them. He saw quiet confidence, enthusiasm, and happiness in her eyes, and she looked complete with Tennison at her side as though she had truly found her other half.

A twig snapped to Alex’s left. He almost shot, but after Professor Colleen’s careful training, such a sound could only have been made on purpose to draw him out. He wouldn’t give up his hiding place so easily. His fingers closed around the paintball gun that rested on his knee. The yellow balls in the canister rolled against each other with a hushed patter.

Alex’s ears picked up the sounds of three individuals. He turned his head, tracking their progress through the trees. Whoever had snapped the twig had fallen silent; Alex kept his or her position locked in the back of his mind.

“
They must be this way,” a girl said quietly.

“
Shh,” another girl rebuked. “They’ll hear us.”

Alex smiled. Pack Jericho’s attempt to send out targets for his team would fail. Thanks to hunting through warehouses and forests after Drogan’s men, they knew better than to assume a target was as simple as it looked.

A paintball hummed through the air and a member of Pack Jericho yelled, “I’ve been shot! They’re in the trees!”

Alex grinned at the thought of Cassie and Tennison shooting down from their hideouts. Footsteps ran through the trees as Pack Jericho locked in on their targets. The slight shushing of water against feet followed as his own pack closed in. The sound of shots being fired reached his ears. Students laughed and others crashed through the trees in an effort to escape.

“
They’re everywhere!” Don yelled. “Retreat!”

“
They got me,” another boy called out. “Run!”

The sounds of laughter and the splats of paintballs reaching home faded. Alex wondered what the headcount was, but he kept still.

“
I know you’re here, Alex” Jericho said quietly after a few minutes. “I can smell you.”

“
Your pack needs some work,” Alex answered, following the Alpha’s progress by the sound.

“
They haven’t had the same experience as yours,” Jericho replied with the sound of a smile in his voice. “I can’t say I’m sad about that.”

“
Me, either,” Alex agreed. He heard Jericho pause near the tree closest to the lake. “It’s good to get out of the school for a bit.” Alex hesitated, then admitted, “I’m not as good at this Alpha stuff as you are.”

He backed up at the sound of Jericho making his way around.

“
You’re good at being an Alpha,” Jericho replied, drawing closer. “You’re just not good at the school stuff.”

“
True,” Alex acknowledged. “I’ve never been a great student.”

“
Too busy off saving the world,” Jericho said. “Somebody’s got to do it.”

Alex grinned, knowing the Alpha was trying to distract him so he could get a good shot. Alex crouched lower, keeping the bush and several trees between them. “Why would you give up half your pack to me?”

“
Who says I gave them up?” Jericho asked. “Maybe I was just hanging onto them for you.”

Alex caught himself staring in the Alpha’s direction. “Are you saying you knew during the Choosing Ceremony that they weren’t going to stay with you?”

“
Perhaps,” Jericho replied evasively. “Maybe I knew you should have been up there with me choosing them yourself.”

“
Why didn’t you say anything?”

The sound of Jericho’s voice swept to the right. “I didn’t have to. You knew.”

Alex let out a breath. He rummaged for a pinecone beneath the leaves and grass at his feet. “I was in denial,” he admitted.

Jericho fell completely silent. Alex’s senses prickled as he strained to pick up the Alpha’s sound again. A breeze tickled Alex’s nose, carrying Jericho’s scent with it. Alex spun silently on his heels and pressed closer to the base of the cliff. The silence that flowed between them became complete.

The softest crackle of a leaf beneath the ball of a foot reached Alex’s ears. He chucked his pinecone against the tree a few feet away. A brush of grass sounded when Jericho turned toward it. Alex took a chance and dove out from his hiding place. He fired three shots before hitting the ground. The first caught Jericho high on the forehead while the second and third splatted against his chest.

When Alex hit the ground, Don and Marky stepped out of their hiding places and shot him in the back and side.

“
Dead!” Don exclaimed. “We killed you!”

Yellow paintballs sailed through the air and hit Don and Marky.

“
And gone,” Siale answered, jogging through the trees with Tennison and Cassie behind her. “Pack Jericho is finished.”

Jericho looked down at Alex. “You did it again.”

“
Did what again?” Alex asked, feigning innocence.

Jericho held out a hand and pulled Alex to his feet. “You sacrificed yourself. You knew there were three of my pack left. If you took out their Alpha, you would draw Don and Marky out.”

“
Then the rest of my pack could finish them off,” Alex concluded. “Guilty.”

Jericho shook his head. It was the first time Alex could remember seeing the Alpha truly disconcerted. “Let’s take a walk.”

Alex glanced at Siale. She tipped her head toward the school. “We’ll meet you guys there. I think some of Pack Jericho’s fallen members might be taking out revenge on Trent and Jordan.”

“
Let’s rescue them!” Cassie shouted. She took off running and the others fell in behind her.

Chapter Sixteen

Jericho didn’t speak until they were at the top of the small cliff that overlooked the lake. It was one of Alex’s favorite places in the entire forest. A gentle breeze swept through the pines, causing them to stir like ocean waves. A surge of longing tightened Alex’s chest at the thought of the ocean.

“
I’m not sure if I’m missing something or if you are,” Jericho said finally.

Alex glanced at the Alpha, but Jericho’s brown eyes were on the darkening horizon.

“
What do you mean?” Alex asked.

Jericho gave a slight shake of his head, his gaze still distant. Yellow colored the Alpha’s brown hair where Alex’s paintball had gotten him. “One of us has this leadership thing wrong, and I really have no idea which one of us it is.”

Alex sat on the rocky ground and let his legs dangle over the edge of the cliff. After a few minutes, he looked up at the Alpha. “Honestly? If one of us has it figured out, I put my dibs on you.”

Jericho gave a small smile and took a seat beside his friend. “I’m starting to doubt that.”

Troubled, Alex gave him a serious look. “What’s bothering you? Is it the fact that I’m not afraid of bullets? I’ve felt enough of them that…” At the Alpha’s look, his words died away.

“
Alex, I don’t get it.” Jericho ran his fingers through his messed hair and looked at the yellow paint that streaked his hand. “I tried to do what you do. I knew you were in the bushes and if I made a sound, you would shoot me. I knew that your pack was ahead, and the only way to even get a little payback was to bring down their Alpha.”

“
Which you did,” Alex pointed out.

Jericho nodded. “I did, but it went against everything.”

Alex knew then what the Alpha was getting at. He ran his fingers across the rough edge of the rock he sat on and said, “Self-preservation doesn’t seem to be one of my strong points.”

“
That’s not it,” Jericho replied. “You gave your pack a winning battle plan and you hid, knowing I would come after you; you wanted to survive, or else you would have waited in the open.”

“
Jer, it’s paintball,” Alex began, but the Alpha cut him off.

“
You know as well as I do that wasn’t a game. Paint might make up for blood, but when it comes down to it, stepping on that leaf was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I knew it would bring you into the open for my pack to kill, but I also knew I would die doing it.”

“
Yet, you did it,” Alex replied softly. He didn’t look at the Alpha when he continued, “What makes us so different?”

Jericho picked up a stone and threw it. They both watched the rock plummet into the lake. Rings in the disturbed water grew from where the rock disappeared. They moved in larger and larger circles out to the shore.

“
Did you hesitate?” Jericho asked when the rings subsided.

Alex wanted to give a flippant answer, but he could tell how much his response meant to the Alpha. He shook his head and said honestly, “No. I never hesitate.”

“
That’s what makes us different.” Jericho gave Alex a straight look. “When I hesitated, the hundreds and thousands of things I have to live for went through my mind. Even though it was a game, I pretended it was real, just for that moment, just to experience how it would really feel if that was going to be the end. And so I hesitated.”

Alex threw another rock without a word.

“
That’s the key,” Jericho said, breaking the silence that followed. “I think that’s your key to defeating Drogan.”

Alex stared at him, surprised by the Alpha’s train of thought. “What do you mean?”

“
You might not feel like an Alpha at the school, but throw you into battle or in a mission and you’re all in. You don’t show fear, you don’t second-guess yourself, and every thought you have is on protecting those who look to you for safety. I think that’s how it’s going to happen.”

Alex wasn’t sure what Jericho was getting at. “So you’re saying my willingness to get shot is how I’m going to end him?”

Jericho smiled. “I guess you could look at it like that. What I’m saying is that when you have the chance to end it, do what you do. Don’t hesitate, don’t second-guess yourself. He may be your half-brother, but he’s destroyed so many things in this world he doesn’t deserve to be a part of it any longer. Think you can do that?”

“
If my Alpha commands it,” Alex replied evasively.

Jericho chuckled and shook his head. “You’ve gone way past needing anyone to tell you what to do. You’ll figure it out.”

“
Someone’s got to save the world, right?” Alex said with only a hint of sarcasm.

“
That’s right,” Jericho told him. “And somewhere along the line, you volunteered for the job.”

A howl reverberated through the air and Alex’s response died away. The pain and heartache in Jaze’s voice tightened Alex’s throat as the dean said goodbye to his one, his true love. The werewolves of Pack Jericho and Pack Alex appeared in twos and threes around the shore of the lake in wolf form. Different shades of gray stood out in the rapidly fading light.

Jericho gave Alex a sad look. “Our turn,” he said quietly.

Both Alphas climbed low enough to phase in the privacy of the bushes. Alex reached the top of the cliff again first. Howls from the Academy combined with howls from the forest. The cries of heartache reverberated in Alex’s chest until he couldn’t contain it any longer.

Alex lifted his black muzzle to the dark sky. His song of sorrow rose to mix with the others in notes of loss, pain, longing, and anguish. Letting his cry spread through the forest eased some of the burden that tightened his shoulders and gripped his heart. He changed the notes, telling of the woman who had adopted them when he and Cassie were alone and gave them love when they felt like they had lost every bit of it in the world.

Alex closed his eyes and sang of a woman who led with kindness and showed true courage in the face of a world who tried to destroy them. He used the notes of the wild wolf to tell of the example Nikki and Jaze had been to him, and of his inability to ever repay them for their kindness. He ended his howl with the high notes of heartache and let it linger in the lower tones of gratitude for Nikki’s selfless ways and the love she had always been so willing to give.