Werewolf Academy Book 1: Strays (14 page)

Alex rolled his eyes. “That was a setup and you didn’t answer my question.”

“I, uh, well. . . I couldn’t sleep.” Kalia’s icy blue eyes studied the ground.

“Are you generally an insomniac?” Alex asked curiously.

She shook her head. She swallowed, then admitted, “
I have a fear of guns.”

A chill ran through Alex’s body. He nodded, his voice quiet when he said, “That’s understandable.” Silence filled the space between them for a few minutes. Alex broke it by asking, “So why the training room?”

Kalia gave the dummy Alex was sitting on a pointed look. “I guess it’s not the safest place. I just supposed that if I could, you know, defend myself, I might not be so afraid.” Her last few words trailed off until they were barely audible.

For the first time, Alex saw past her stony countenance, icy blue gaze, and the tension he felt when she was around. Instead,
he saw a girl his age who had been uprooted against her will and thrown into an Academy filled with a race of people she feared.

“You don’t have the strength of a werewolf,” he said quietly.

She shook her head and her white-blonde hair swished above her shoulders.

“You don’t have to fear us,” Alex said, willing her to believe it.

“I know,” she replied with hesitancy in her voice. “It’s just. . . I don’t. . . .” She sighed and began again, “I don’t fit in at home and I don’t fit in here. What happens when they send me away?”

“They don’t have to send you away,” Alex told her.

“With you and Cassie being attacked, they’re going to tighten down on security and my parents used to be Extremists.” She covered her mouth and stared at him, amazed at what she had admitted.

“It’s okay,” Alex reassured her. “You don’t have to worry so much.
Lots of people used to be Extremists. I can’t blame them for being afraid, and neither does Jaze. We just have to find a way to exist side by side in peace.”

Kalia searched his eyes as if looking for something. “How can you say that when you and your sister almost got shot?” She motioned to his leg. “When you did get shot? How can you be so cavalier?”

Alex’s mouth pulled up in a smile. “Cavalier?”

She rolled her eyes. “My mom’s big into vocabulary. She says, ‘You must talk like a lady to attract a true gentleman.’”

Alex snorted. “Seriously? What if you don’t find a
gentleman
that can understand your vocabulary.”

She laughed. “That’s exactly what I told her!”

“And what’d she say?”

“To stop being so cavalier,” Kalia replied.

Alex laughed. His leg began to ache. He moved off the dummy and eased his leg out straight.

“You really should be in the medical ward, shouldn’t you?” Kalia asked with concern in her voice.

Alex shook his head. “Jaze cleared me. I’ll heal good enough once my body gets rid of the silver.”

“Jaze?” Kalia repeated.

Alex glanced at her. What she was asking suddenly occurred to him. “Oh, uh, Dean Jaze. Hard habit to break. We’re kind-of like family.”

Interest showed in Kalia’s gaze. “How’d you become family with the dean?”

Alex wasn’t sure how much he wanted to tell her. He settled onto his back on the mat and studied the white panel ceiling. “My parents were killed by Extremists when I was eight. We were brought to the Academy as orphans. Jaze and Nikki took care of us and the rest of the Strays,” he said the word with a hint of bitterness that he tried to hide. “But they cared about Cassie and me because Jaze and my brother were really close.”

Kalia’s voice was quiet when she asked, “What happened to your brother?”

Alex was silent for a few minutes. His voice was almost steady when he said, “My brother was Jet.”

Surprise filled Kalia’s words. “You mean
the statue of the werewolf who fought hundreds to save the werewolf race? I’m not a werewolf, and even I’ve heard of him.”

Alex nodded without looking at her. The image of the black statue in front of the school filled his mind. Sadness brushed his thoughts. “Yes, that Jet.” He had become a legend through the werewolves he had saved, a martyr to their cause, one of those who had sacrificed everything to save others. Yet to Alex, he was the big brother the young werewolf had never had enough time with. Sometimes Alex wished Jet wasn’t a legend, because then Jet would still be alive.

“Your brother was brave,” Kalia said softly.

Alex nodded, but didn’t say the words that burned in his heart. He didn’t tell her that stories couldn’t hold someone when they hurt, and legends never soothed
a broken heart. They couldn’t teach you how to ride a bike or track in the woods; they couldn’t take you to your first ballgame, or show you how to throw a football. Legends felt insubstantial when the brother left behind no longer had the one he used to look up to.

Alex
pushed up from the floor. Kalia reached out a hand to help, but Alex let out a slow breath and willed his legs to hold. He felt a whisper of pride when they obeyed.

“I’d better go to bed. See you in the morning,” Alex said.

“Goodnight, Alex,” Kalia told him. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Alex wasn’t sure if he would go that far, but he nodded and left the room. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he regretted the rashness of his decision to go down them in the first place. He clenched his hands into fists and worked his way slowly up them. By the time he collapsed on his bed, he had wondered for the thirtieth time if fighting the dummy had been worth it. He definitely felt like more of a dummy than the one he had slammed to the ground in the training room.

“As you know, we’ve already questioned Cassie about what she saw. We just need to go over the details in case we missed anything,” Jaze said, his tone kind.

Cassie sat next to Alex with her gaze on the table. He hated the terror that had filled her gaze when she recounted what had happened
two nights ago. Alex looked at the professors and staff members who watched him. Nikki and Lyra gave him warm smiles. Mouse was busy fiddling with a small electronic device. Jaze gave him an encouraging nod, while there was true interest in Vance’s expression. Alex couldn’t forget the way the huge werewolf had carried him to the Academy as if the fate of the world rested on his life. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“I think I told you everything,” he said.

“The tiniest detail could help us,” Chet pressed. “You sure you don’t remember anything else?”

Alex
let the memories flood over him, hoping for something that would help them. He finally shook his head, frustrated. “I was too worried about protecting Cassie to pay more attention to the men. I would know their scent if I saw them again, but that’s about it.”

The dean nodded. “
Thank you, Alex. If you think of anything else, please let us know.”

“I will,” Alex promised.

He and Cassie rose. Together, they watched the professors walk out of the room. Several heads were bowed as they walked in twos and threes in deep discussion.

“Where do you think they’re going?” Alex whispered to Cassie.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “Probably their offices.”

“I’m going to follow them,” Alex told her.

“Why would you— Alex!” Cassie said in a loud whisper.

Alex motioned for her to keep quiet as he limped around the table and paused at the door. The staff members were heading to the other end of the hallway away from the classrooms. The students never had a reason to go that way. It was made up of teachers’ offices and a storage closet at the very end.

“See, I told you,” Cassie whispered.

“Wait a sec.” Alex’s eyes widened when Professor Dray pulled open the door to the storage closet, glanced behind the other professors to make sure nobody was watching, and stepped inside. Chet followed, then the other professors. Soon, even Jaze was inside the closet. The door shut with an audible click.

“Did you see that?” Alex asked excitedly.

“All the professors are crammed in the storage closet, so?” Cassie replied.

Alex limped down the hall as quickly as he could manage. He threw open the storage room door. Disappointment flooded him when he saw that it was empty. He turned to show Cassie, but his bad leg faltered at the sudden movement and he fell against the back of the closet. Something popped, and then he was rolling down a flight of stairs. He covered his head as he rolled and hit the bottom with a loud thud.

Dazed, Alex blinked at the surprisingly well-lit room. Monitors, screens,
diagrams, and digital readouts lined the walls from floor to ceiling. Red and yellow markers moved across city maps. Several people on rolling chairs watched the screens. They wore headsets and spoke into them. A few glanced down at the intruder before turning back to their work.

Alex’s gaze shifted to the professors who glared down at him with disapproving looks.

“Alex, do you have anything to say for yourself?” Jaze asked.

“Uh, ouch,” Alex replied, too stunned to question what he was seeing.

“Alex,” Cassie called, running down the stairs. “Are you o—”

Cassie’s mouth fell open when she reached the bottom step and turned the corner. “What is this?” she asked.

“It
was
a secret,” Vance replied.

Lyra slapped his shoulder. “It’s
the headquarters of Jaze’s werewolf security and protection database. We monitor werewolf activity all over the world.”

Cassie’s gaze flitted over the screens. Jaze stepped forward to help Alex to his feet. Alex was about to ask a question when Cassie let out a scream and buried her head against him.

“It’s him, Alex. It’s him. Don’t let him find us. Don’t let him know where we are,” she said, her voice shaking.

Alex held her tight and quickly searched the monitors. A knot tightened in his stomach at a face shown on one.

“Are you alright, Cassie?” Nikki asked, hurrying quickly to her side.

“Can you take her out?” Alex asked.

Surprised, Nikki nodded. Alex moved his sister’s tight grip to the dean’s wife and watched them make their way slowly up the stairs. When the door shut, he turned to find everyone’s gaze on him. He motioned toward the monitor.

“That’s the man who killed our parents.”

The professors looked at the screen. Jaze’s brow was furrowed when he asked, “Are you sure?”

Alex nodded, feeling sick. “I would never forget.”

“Who is that?” Lyra asked.

A skinny man with spikey brown hair
turned in his chair. He held a bag of potato chips and had paused mid-crunch. Recognition flooded Alex. He was taken back to a small house filled with werewolves and humans who were Jet’s friends. They were there for Alex and Cassie’s seventh birthday. It was the night they phased into wolves for the first time.

The man
answered, “Drogan Carso; General Jared Carso’s son. He’s topped the werewolf’s most wanted list just below his father for continuing with the genocide on the General’s orders.”

Jaze nodded. “Thank you, Brock.”

“Anytime,” Brock replied. He grinned and spun back around in his chair as he crunched on another chip.

“Wait,” Alex said, his heart hammering in his ears. “Your uncle’s son is the one who killed my parents
, and now he’s coming after us?”

Jaze nodded. “It appears that way.”

“But why?” Alex asked. He felt lost, adrift. He had figured that his parents were killed by Extremists exacting revenge on all werewolves. The fact that the General’s son was the one who had performed the murder made it personal.

“We’ve got to find out,” Jaze replied. He gave Alex a serious look. “And we have to believe that he is seeking out you and Cassie to finish the job.”

“Did he try to kill you after he murdered your parents?” Mouse asked. The professor’s tone was gentle as he probed for information.

Alex nodded. His chest was tight
when he answered, “He would have, but he was distracted.”

“By what?” Vance demanded, his tone a bit harsh as his patience for the conversation ran thin.

“By Jet,” Alex replied softly.

The professors looked at Jaze. The dean nodded, and swallowed with some difficulty. “Jet brought Alex and Cassie to Two. He didn’t mention
Drogan, but we didn’t know Drogan and Jared were connected at the time. Now that we know Drogan is Jared’s son, we’ve been trying to track him down.”

“But he disappeared off the grid,”
Brock concluded, spinning back around with a popcorn ball in his hand. “Until now, that is.”

Alex
looked at the man. He realized by the scent that Brock was human. “Until now?”

Brock ran a hand through his spikey hair
. “Our sources spotted Drogan in Haroldsburg just before you and Cassie were attacked. With the information you’ve given us about the attack, we assume he’s the one who sent the men.”

“What? The whole ‘
Drogan said you wouldn’t be far behind’ tipped you off, did it?” Vance stated in irritation at the obvious.