Werewolf Academy Book 4: Taken (12 page)

Colleen wrapped bandages around the wound to hold it shut while it healed.

“Let’s get you into the moonlight,” Dray said when Colleen was done. He helped Alex stand and the trio walked beside him to a patch of grass that hadn’t been tainted by the night’s fight. Jaze walked up as Alex eased back to the ground.

“That was amazing,” the dean said.

Alex forced a wry smile. “Just keeping our forest safe.”

“And doing a good job,” Jaze replied. He tipped his head toward the other professors. “They’re going to carry the hounds to the canyon. We have a place we can bury them there.”

“Bury them?” Kaynan repeated, reaching the group. “They tried to kill Colleen and Rafe, not to mention the kids here,” he said, gesturing at Alex and Siale.

“They were werewolves before the General got to them,” Jaze said. Sadness touched his voice. “We’ll give them the burials they deserve.”

Kaynan nodded without pressing further. “I’m just glad you’re okay,” he said to Colleen, giving her a hug.

“Colleen is Kaynan’s sister,” Alex whispered to Siale.

“It was a close thing,” Collen said, hugging him back. “Thank goodness we have our own secret weapons.” She smiled at Alex.

“Yeah, thank goodness,” Kaynan seconded. He squeezed Alex’s good shoulder. “Get some rest, champ.”

Jaze and Dray followed the crimson-eyed werewolf back to the others.

“Did you know what they were?” Colleen asked, her violet gaze on Alex.

He nodded. “I fought them the last time I went up against the General. He had dozens of them at the mall when we rescued Kalia.”

Colleen nodded. She set a hand on his knee. “You saved Rafe and me and also most of the wolf pack. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to repay you.”

Alex smiled. “How about teaching football?”

Colleen laughed. “And put Vance in charge of gymnastics? Those poor girls would be doing pushups for the rest of the term.”

All three of them watched the huge werewolf sling two hounds over each shoulder and trudge across the valley behind Jaze and Chet.

Alex grinned. “I had to try, but I think I’d rather take our chances.”

“The girls appreciate your sacrifice,” Siale told him.

Colleen rose. “I guess I should help with the cleanup. It should give you some time to heal before we need to start back.”

Alex settled onto his side. He could feel the moonlight already taking affect. It seeped into his bare skin, blanketing his shoulder and his other minor wounds in a healing heat. His eyes closed of their own accord.

“You okay?” Siale asked quietly.

Alex nodded. He opened his eyes to see her lay beside him. She smiled when he put his arm around her.

“Sleep, Alex. I’ll watch over you.”

He smiled drowsily from the effects of the healing. “I think I’m supposed to be the one saying that.”

Siale gave him a fond look. “You’ve already taken care of all of us. Sleep. You deserve it.”

He closed his eyes and fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Chapter Fourteen

“Get up, Second,” Torin barked. “You have toilet duty.”

Cold water poured on Alex’s head. He sat up, then winced at the sudden movement.

Torin’s eyes widened. “What happened to you?”

Alex looked down at the healing cuts and scrapes along his chest and sides. A glance at the window showed the bare gray of predawn light. He had only slept for perhaps an hour after they returned to the Academy.

“It was a rough night,” Alex said. He slipped his feet into his shoes, then bent gingerly to tie them.

“Go back to sleep, Alex.”

Alex glanced over to see Torin staring at his back. His shoulder must have looked as painful as it felt.

“I have toilet duty.”

“Forget it,” the Alpha said gruffly. He left the room and closed the door behind him. Alex heard Torin muttering as he walked back up the hallway to his own room.

Alex’s eyes drifted shut the second his head hit the wet pillow.

***

School was well under way by the time Alex opened his eyes again. He basked for a moment in the silence that filled Pack Torin’s quarters before forcing himself to rise. Sleep and the moonlight had done wonders for his body. His shoulder barely ached. He carried a change of clothes to the shower room and checked his back in the mirror. Besides a few dark bruises around the edges of the thick scar that would lessen with time, there was no other sign of the battle with the hounds.

Alex showered quickly and pulled open the panel in the common room. He jogged through the tunnels into the depths of the Academy. One last door slid open to reveal the Wolf Den.

“Sounds like you had an adventurous night,” Brock said dryly, spinning in his chair at the command center to look down at Alex.

“It was unexpected,” Alex replied.

Brock chuckled. “I’ll bet. Sounds like I have you to thank for saving my friends.”

Alex smiled. “You forget that the professors are my friends, too.”

“I didn’t forget,” Brock said. He took a big bite of the hotdog he was holding and said around the mouthful, “I just wanted to remind you that they were my friends first.”

Alex climbed the steps to the huge monitoring station and took a seat beside Brock. A glance at the screens showed maps, camera views, and heat sensor images. “Watching anything in particular?”

Brock sat back to study the monitors as well. “We’ve tracked the hounds back to a house at the edge of Haroldsburg. Chet and Dray are searching for clues as to how they got there.”

“If we can track them back to the General...” Alex began.

“We can send him a thank you for such a wonderful gift,” Brock concluded dryly. He took the last bite of his hotdog and licked his ketchup-covered fingers.

“And they say we’re the animals,” Alex said, rolling his eyes.

“What?” Brock replied. “Who wants to waste perfectly good ketchup?”

“Not you, apparently,” Alex muttered good-naturedly as he studied the screens. Something caught his attention. “Hey, what’s that?”

Brock followed his gaze and sat up straight. He hit a few buttons on the keyboard and zoomed in on the image. An icy surge of fear rushed through Alex.

“Chet, get to the roof.”

They watched the Alpha climb up the side of the house as if it was nothing. The professor’s footsteps slowed when he reached the area Alex had indicated.

“What is this?” Chet asked tightly.

He picked up the objects strung on a rope. Alex’s stomach rolled. Chet was without a doubt holding up a string of fingers.

“Did those hounds you fought the other day by any chance happen to be missing fingers?” Brock asked hopefully.

Alex shook his head. “Not that I noticed.”

They both knew that meant there were other werewolves under the General’s control.

Alex gripped the edge of the desk so hard the wood began to splinter.

“Uh, do you mind?” Brock asked.

Alex sat back. “He knew we’d follow the hounds. Why else would he bait the roof?”

“Any sign of explosives?” Brock asked.

“Nothing,” Dray told them from inside the house. “The place is empty, though the werewolves have left it filthy.” A second later, he said, “Ew. I stepped in something I don’t want to identify.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Chet said. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

“Scan the fingers for tracking devices,” Brock said.

“Seriously?” Chet replied, though it was obvious his frustration was more at the fact of having to scan other peoples’ removed appendages for microchips than at anything Brock recommended. “Clear, and just plain wrong,” the Alpha replied when he was done.

“Bring them back. I can cross-reference their DNA with the werewolves we have on file. It might give us a lead,” Brock told them.

“Aye-aye, Captain,” Chet said dryly.

Brock sat back in his seat. “I’m underappreciated.”

“I heard that,” Chet said.

“I know,” Brock told the werewolf. He then clicked off the microphone. “I didn’t mean for him to hear that.”

“Why fingers?” Alex mused, trying to keep away the nausea that attempted to rise up his throat at the thought.

“Because the General is a messed up psychopath with a twisted sense of humor,” Brock replied.

Alex shook his head. “As much as I’ve tried to tell myself the same thing, every time I’m up against him, I realize it’s the exact opposite. He’s shrewd, calculating, and vindictive. Everything he does has a purpose.”

Brock studied the monitors in a fresh light. “If he wants to give us a clue, why fingers. Couldn’t he just be goading us? And if he’s trying to find Drogan, why send the hounds to the cabin instead of the Academy. He would have had a bigger impact.”

“Maybe he thought Drogan was at the cabin.” Alex didn’t believe the words as soon as he said them. The General knew the GPA had Drogan. His whole plan in kidnapping Kalia had been to flush out Drogan’s position. The fact that Alex had given him the soccer field as a false location had no doubt stung, especially with the amount of Extremists they were able to take down.

“Was the Academy safe while the cabin was under attack?” Alex asked.

Brock rolled his eyes. “Of course it was. I was here the whole time keeping a close watch on things. What are you implying?”

“Nothing,” Alex replied quickly. “I just can’t understand why he would try to take out Colleen and Rafe.”

“Or the wolves.” Brock sat up straight. “What if he needed the wolves out of the picture?”

“You have the forest under surveillance. You don’t need the wolves.”

Brock ran a hand through his spikey brown hair. “Alright then, what if he’s checking our response time?”

“We have flying colors there.” Alex rubbed his eyes in an attempt to clear his mind. “What if he had a bunch of hounds he didn’t know what to do with, so he sent them to the forest to wreak havoc?”

“What if he wanted to see you morph into your crazy beast form?”

“I don’t think he knows about that,” Alex said even as ice ran through his veins.

“I saw the remains of that Alpha hound that attacked you and Kalia at the mall.” Brock’s eyes met his. “Trust me. He knows. No one could do that, not even a werewolf.”

“So you think he was watching?”

Brock lifted one skinny shoulder in a half shrug. “It makes sense to me. You want to figure out which werewolf can take down an Alpha hound, you send a pack of them after people he cares about and verify it with your own eyes.”

Alex looked at the monitors without seeing them. “Why would he want to know?”

“I’m not sure,” Brock replied. “I’ll talk to Jaze about it. Maybe he’ll have some ideas.”

Alex went back up to Pack Torin’s quarters feeling more worried than he had before talking to Brock. If the General was after him because he could morph into the beast, the entire Academy might be in danger. He didn’t put it past the General to send even more hounds through the front gates if it would get him what he was after. In fact, the General might do it anyway just for the sheer enjoyment of watching werewolves die.

“You okay?”

Alex looked up from the couch in surprise. He had been so deep in thought he hadn’t even heard Torin enter. He stood. “I’m fine.”

Torin’s gaze narrowed. “I don’t believe you.”

Alex gave a humorless smile. “Does it really matter?”

Torin rolled his eyes. “Look, Alex. I may hate you for standing in my way of dating Kalia, but I’m also an Alpha. It’s my job to know when a member of my pack is in danger.”

Surprised at his genuine concern, Alex leaned against the couch. “I’ve been in danger since the Academy opened. It’s nothing new.”

“If you mean from me...”

Alex held up his hand with a chuckle. “No, not from you.” The Alpha glared as though Alex was making fun of him. Alex decided to go with honesty. “Drogan killed my parents, and ever since we reached the Academy, he’s been after me and Cassie. Now that Drogan’s with the GPA, his dad, the General, is hot on my trail because he thinks I know where to find his son.”

Torin looked as though he was trying to believe everything Alex told him, but was finding it hard to swallow. “Do you?”

“Know where to find his son?” Alex shook his head. “Which is probably a good thing, because when he took Kalia last year, he asked me for the location and I would have given it to him if I’d known.”

“You were gone saving her life.” Torin spoke the words slowly, his gaze searching inward as though things clicked together for him. The Alpha leaned heavily against the mantle, his jaw clenching and unclenching. “You saved Kalia’s life.” He met Alex’s gaze. “No wonder she won’t stop pining for you.”

“It’s not like that,” Alex protested. “She’s a friend...”

“To you, maybe. But I’ve seen the way she looks at you.” Torin’s words were tight as though the statement was hard to admit. “How do I compete against someone who saved her life?”

“That wasn’t the first time,” Alex said quietly.

Torin glared at him. “You’re not helping yourself not get pounded into the floor.”

It took Alex a minute to understand what the Alpha had said. He shook his head. “I think I’d better get some more sleep. This conversation is too confusing right now.”

He walked past Torin toward the hallway.

“Is that what happened last night?”

Alex paused at the corner. “The General sent a pack of his hounds, uh, brainwashed werewolves, after Colleen and Rafe. I went to help out.”

Torin shook his head. “Here I thought you were just another extremely annoying student.”

Alex gave a tired smile. “I’m not sure if proving you wrong was a good idea. Apparently I talk too much when I’m exhausted.”

Torin just waved him away. “Go to sleep, Alex. I won’t tell anyone what you told me.”

Alex reached his door and stepped into the room before the Alpha’s voice stopped him.

“You’ve got toilet duty tomorrow.”

“Looking forward to it,” Alex replied dryly. He climbed onto his bed and fell asleep without bothering to change out of his clothes.