Werewolf Academy Book 4: Taken (15 page)

Chapter Eighteen

“There’s joy in slamming another person to the ground.”

Alex looked up from his potato salad to see Torin leaning against the wall near where Kalia threw the remains of her food in the garbage.

“I can image,” she said dryly.

“It’s a feeling of complete power,” Torin continued. “I know I’m stronger than any werewolf here.”

“Any werewolf?” Kalia asked doubtfully.

Torin shifted his feet. “Well, the students at least. I’ll bet I could take on more than a few of the professors as well.” He glanced around.

“Right,” Kalia said. “I’ve got to get something from upstairs.”

“I’ll go with you,” Torin told her. He fell in beside her without giving her a chance to argue.

“I almost feel sorry for Kalia,” Trent said, pausing near Alex’s side.

“Me, too,” Alex replied honestly.

Trent gave him a sympathetic smile. “Women.”

“What about us?”

Trent stared over his shoulder at Jordan. He gave her a quick smile. “You’re beautiful.”

The fact that the reply came out as more of a question than a statement didn’t seem to matter to Jordan. She smiled as she walked past him. “Why thank you.”

Trent lifted his eyebrows at Alex before running to catch up to Jordan. “And by beautiful, I mean absolutely stunning,” the werewolf said quickly.

Alex ate his last few bites of food with a smile on his face. He set his tray on top of the stack and made his way through the students to the hallway.

“Finally.”

The smile on his face grew at the sound of Siale’s voice. He met her gaze. “I’ve missed you.”

“Me, too,” she replied, slipping her arm through his. “School, football, and training with Jaze take all of your time. When am I supposed to see you? I’m beginning to think my reasons for coming to the Academy have disappeared.” She looked at the walls that surrounded them. Alex knew he didn’t imagine the shudder that ran across her skin. “Sometimes I feel a little trapped.”

Alex led her outside. The brisk air bit his exposed skin, telling of the closing fingers of winter. He took a deep breath and could smell the icy promise of an approaching storm. The thought made him smile.

“You take a breath and smile? What’s that about?” Siale asked, watching him curiously.

Alex grinned. “I love winter. There’s something about snow covering everything, changing the landscape, altering the way the animals act and people, too. Sometimes change is nice.”

Siale nodded, following Alex around the side of the school. “It’s nice if you have a chance to get out and enjoy it.”

Alex pulled open the secondary entrance to Trent’s workshop. “Well, let’s get out and enjoy it.”

To his surprise, Trent was already there tinkering with something on a table littered with engine parts. He looked up when they came in.

“I thought you’d be itching to go out pretty soon, especially with football and all that,” his friend said, gesturing toward the motorcycle near one corner of the room. “It’s all fixed.”

“Thank you,” Alex said sincerely. He set a hand on the motorcycle, remembering the condition it had been in when he helped push it back after the accident with the deer. “You’ve worked a miracle.”

The answering smile on Trent’s face said enough.

“Do you happen to have another helmet?” Alex asked.

Trent’s gaze flicked to Siale. He nodded. “I thought you might be needing that, too.” He grabbed a red and black helmet from a hook on the wall and tossed it to Alex.

“We’re leaving?” Siale asked. Her eyes shifted to the motorcycle. “On that?”

“You’ll love it,” Alex told her as he fit the helmet over her long brown hair and fastened it under her chin. “Trust me.”

“Oh, I trust you,” she replied. “But you forget I was the one talking to you when you ran into that deer.”

Alex chuckled. “Then you don’t need to worry.”

“Why not?”

“Because now I won’t have your voice in my ear distracting me.”

She hit the top of his helmet. He laughed and climbed onto the motorcycle, then held it upright.

“Let’s go,” he said with an inviting smile.

Siale didn’t hesitate. She climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Alex started the engine. He pulled the motorcycle carefully toward the door. “Thanks again, Trent!”

“We’ll see you soon, I hope,” Siale called over the sound of the engine.

Trent waved as Alex revved the engine. They sped through the door and out onto the courtyard. The few students who mingled out there after dinner watched them depart through the gate Trent had thoughtfully opened.

“He’s a good friend,” Siale said, speaking loud enough to be heard above the wind.

“He really is,” Alex replied. He turned his head slightly and said, “He’s always got my back.”

Siale’s arms tightened around his waist. “Just like me.”

The smile that spread across Alex’s face stayed as he maneuvered the motorcycle down the long winding road from the Academy. The feeling of the wind pushing against his shirt and the hum of the road beneath his tires chased away all other thought. The fact that Siale was behind him filled him with a warmth the coldest night couldn’t chase away. He put his left hand over hers as he drove down the road.

Alex pulled over after darkness set in. “This is where I hit the deer,” he said. He turned off the motorcycle, careful to park it far enough off the road that nobody would mess with it.

Siale climbed off after him. “I heard a loud bang and some sort of engine sound. I thought you’d gotten shot,” she admitted.

Alex took her hand. “I don’t always get shot at,” he said, hoping to make her smile.

She did, but with a small shake of her head. “It seems like you do quite often.”

He hesitated, then nodded in agreement. “I guess more than the average werewolf. Comes with the whole pack search and rescue thing.”

“I suppose,” she said.

He glanced at her. “What does that mean?”

She lifted her shoulders in a small shrug. “I think you’re a little reckless.”

Alex laughed as he led her into the trees along the side of the road. “You’ve been talking to Cassie, haven’t you?”

Siale nodded. “She’s convinced you have a death wish.”

“It’s really the opposite of that,” Alex explained as he helped her over a fallen log. “It’s more like a wish for a life better than what we’ve been given. I think werewolves deserve more.”

“How will that happen?” Siale asked, ducking under a tree branch.

Alex ran his fingers along the smooth bark of an aspen, careful to keep his gaze from Siale’s when he said, “We need to come up with a way to reintroduce werewolves to society.”

After a moment of silence, Siale replied, “That would be nice.”

Alex stared at her. “I thought you were going to laugh.”

Siale shook her head. “You’re not the only one who wishes we could leave whenever we want and not feel like there’s a target on our backs.”

“Exactly,” Alex said, glad someone understood. “Werewolves used to live with humans and nobody knew the difference. It was only when the Extremists starting attacking that Jaze had to reveal our race to the world.” His voice lowered. “That didn’t exactly go over well.”

“No, it didn’t,” Siale said.

At her silence, Alex knew she was thinking about her mother. Thoughts of his parents surfaced, memories he had pushed away to keep the pain at a tolerable distance. Through their young lives, Mindi and Will had been the best parents any child could ask for. The truth that they had adopted the twins hadn’t surfaced until Alex’s fight with Drogan.

Meredith was a loving mother, but her sister Mindi’s face was the one that had smiled down at Alex above the crib. Will had held his fingers as he learned how to walk. He remembered roasting s’mores over the fire pit in the backyard, and learning how to tie his shoes with Mindi’s patient guidance.

His thoughts flashed forward to the day they died, to Drogan’s hate-filled mismatched eyes, and to the feeling of emptiness when Jet rescued the twins and left them at Two before he sacrificed himself to save hundreds of werewolves from the General.

“It doesn’t have to be that way again.”

Siale’s soft voice broke through Alex’s memories. The feeling of her hand was gentle on his cheek. He put his hand over it, willing her touch to chase away the ache in his chest. His heart gave an uneven beat. He took a calming breath and met her gaze. The gray depths of her eyes showed the same pain he felt.

“We’ll find a better way,” he promised her.

“I know we will.”

Alex forced a smile. “This is getting way too serious.”

“What do you have in mind?” she asked with a small answering smile.

“Let’s run. Really run.”

Siale nodded quickly. “Yes, please. It’s been way too long.”

Alex stepped behind a tree and pulled off his clothes. A chill ran down his skin, replaced by the warmth of thick gray fur as it covered his body. He relished the way the chaos of his thoughts receded, leaving instinct in the forefront. Wolves had no need for worries that cluttered the mind, especially things that had no impact on the daily need for survival.

Siale’s lavender and sage fragrance filled his nose. He took a deep breath, reading the scents of a deer that had passed not long ago, along with the sharp, brittle smell of the sap within the pines as it froze from the drop in temperature. Alex shook, settling his limbs and enjoying the feeling of his wolf body. He stepped into the moonlight.

Siale pranced in front of him, her light gray form like a pale shadow beneath the trees. The white marks on her shoulders and chest stood out in the darkness. She yipped and bent down with her haunches in the air, calling him to play like a puppy.

Alex gave a snort of laughter and took a step forward. Siale darted off into the night. Alex ran after her, his wolf stride eating up the ground with ease. He caught up to her, then loped at her side. The smells of the forest filled his nose. His brain categorized and filed them as quickly as they came to him, the scent of a snowshoe hair, its fur no doubt taking on the pale colors of winter, the droppings of an owl fresh from overhead, the padded footprints of a lynx stalking beneath the trees, and the footprints of two other wolves wandering across the frosty loam.

Alex pulled up short. Siale stopped when she realized he was no longer beside her. Alex sniffed the tracks again, though he didn’t need to. His sister’s scent and Tennison’s cedar trail were unmistakable.

The thought of Cassie and Tennison out beyond the walls filled Alex with worry. He gave a bark and jerked his head toward the tracks, pulling his ears flat against his skull. Siale nodded. Alex took off along the trail and she followed close behind.

Alex’s paws drummed along the forest floor in a cadence he usually enjoyed, but this time he was too filled with worry for his sister to think about it. He leaped over a fallen pine, ducked branches, and followed the tracks around a huge boulder. Siale ran beside him with the stealth of a ghost, her footsteps nearly inaudible.

Convinced that he was about to find his sister at the mercy of Extremists or worse, Alex galloped headlong into the next meadow. He nearly ran straight into Cassie and Tennison both in wolf form sitting next to a pond.

Cassie jumped at her brother’s sudden appearance. Tennison rose and gave Alex a searching look. Alex checked quickly around the meadow, sure he was missing something. His heart thundered in his chest and he fought to catch his breath and sniff for danger at the same time.

Siale bumped his shoulder with her own. Alex glanced at her, wondering if she had seen any danger. Siale pulled her ears back and she snorted, opening her mouth in a wide, toothy grin. Alex realized how foolish he was being. He sat down with an answering snort of laughter.

Cassie ran up to him and, instead of stopping, bowled him over with her shoulder. Alex grinned up at her apologetically. Instead of appearing upset that their evening had been interrupted, Cassie tipped her head toward the forest. Alex nodded. Siale and Cassie took off side by side into the dark trees. Tennison gave Alex a look as if to say girls will be girls and followed them out of the meadow.

Alex was the last to leave. The moonlit grasses swayed in the gentle midnight breeze. The slight ripple of the water in the pond was musical and light. Crickets chirruped within the grass, their songs quiet as though they knew their green world would soon be blanketed in snow. A squirrel, restless in the night, awoke and scolded its creaking tree before it settled back to sleep.

To Alex, it felt as though the scene was frozen in time, the moonlight dancing along the surface of the water, the stars bathing his shoulders in warmth felt more by his soul than his body. He wanted to hold it in his mind forever, because at that moment, the meadow was filled with such peace. It felt as though everything within it had a place and hope.

Alex smiled inside. Jet had once said that the scent of grass reminded him of hope. Alex thought he finally understood.