Werewolf Academy Book 4: Taken (3 page)

“Have dinner at my house.”

Everyone stared at Cherish. Alex couldn’t force down his shock when he realized she was talking to him.

“What?” he asked even though he had heard her clearly.

“Have dinner at my house,” Cherish repeated. She looked at her friends. “You saved our lives, Alex. If you hadn’t done, well, what you did back there, we’d be dead right now. I saw the way those men looked at us.”

Sarah cringed as though reliving the memory. “Cherish is right. We owe you.”

Alex shook his head without meeting her eyes. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“We do,” Tanner said.

Alex kicked at a clump of dirty snow. “Don’t feel like you owe me any favors. I’m a werewolf. You shouldn’t associate with me.” Saying the words aloud made him feel the distance even more. He shoved his hands in his pockets so he would stop balling them into fists.

Cherish touched his arm. Alex met her gaze unwillingly. “Come over on Sunday,” she said, her expression earnest. “My mom always cooks something amazing. I want you to be there.”

Alex couldn’t deny the sincerity of her tone. He glanced at the others and saw that they were watching him expectantly. Tanner nodded, encouraging him to accept. Alex let out a small breath. “Okay.”

“Done,” Cherish said with a beaming smile. She handed him a piece of paper with an address she had already written hastily on it. “We’ll see you there.”

Alex watched them go. When he turned, he met the dean’s gaze. Jaze’s expression was unreadable. He tipped his head toward the SUV, indicating that they needed to leave. Alex climbed inside and waited for Trent to take them home. The piece of paper sat in his pocket, a barely discernable weight he couldn’t ignore.

Chapter Two

“I can’t believe you know humans,” Cassie said late that night. Pack Jericho’s quarters felt empty with the Termers still on their holiday break. Alex could barely believe the term was halfway over.

He glanced at her from where he sat on the floor with his back against the couch. “It’s not like every human you meet is out to kill you. Take Nikki or Professor Thorson for example.”

Tennison skirted around his argument. “They didn’t know you were a werewolf, did they?”

Alex fought back a sigh at Cassie’s boyfriend’s accurate guess. “No, they didn’t.”

“At least now that they do, I don’t have to worry about you going back there,” Cassie said with a satisfied nod. “No one would be that crazy.”

“Yeah,” Alex replied noncommittally. He hadn’t mentioned Cherish’s invitation to his sister. Cassie would never understand what it meant to him. He hadn’t decided whether to actually accept, but just knowing they didn’t fear him had helped chase away the regret that he had phased in front of them.

Trent appeared at the door to Pack Jericho’s quarters with Terith close behind. Other pack mates lounged around the room and downstairs, enjoying their break after the long school day.

“I need testers for my new watches,” Trent said, holding out the objects. When nobody moved, he directed his most compelling smile at one of the Lifer members of their pack. “Jordan, would you like to help me?”

Jordan rolled her eyes. “Why do you need me?” Her short red hair stood up in spikes; Alex had wondered on more than one occasion whether she kept it like that to show off her fiery temper.

“I always need you,” Trent replied.

“What was that?” Jordan snapped.

Trent paled. He swallowed and said, “I, uh, said I need you to help me track their range. I haven’t had a chance to test how far they can go.”

Jordan let out a loud sigh as if he was asking her to scrub the toilets. She rose from her chair anyway. “Fine,” she said. “But you know watches are antiquated, right?”

Trent grinned as if he had won the lottery. “I think they make a good accessory. Look; I even made you a red one.”

Jordan shoved open the door with another sigh.

Alex fought back a smile. He would have offered to help Trent, but his friend was no doubt much happier with his crush at his side. Jordan didn’t put up much of a fight to join Trent on any of his experiments. She seemed to be all bark and no bite where the scrawny werewolf was concerned.

Terith, Trent’s sister, took the chair Jordan had vacated.

“What are you playing?” she asked.

Von looked up from the cards he had spread across the carpet in painfully straight lines. “It’s a game I made up. The colors are worth certain points and the shapes are worth others. Together, the goal is to get groups of seventeen without going above or below.”

“You mean the suits,” Terith said. At Von’s blank look, she explained, “The shapes on the cards are called suits.”

Von’s eyebrows pulled together as he thought about it. He finally nodded. “Suits sound better.”

“Will you teach me your game?” Terith asked.

Von’s face lit up and he nodded emphatically. Terith scooted down to sit next to him.

Alex’s good mood began to fade. He looked around at the werewolves in his pack. Cassie and Tennison sat at the table working on a math algorithm his mom had given them when they asked for a challenge. Trent was off with his crush, Terith and Von were apparently pairing up, and even little Caitlyn and Marky were coloring at the other end of the table, taking a break from their usual roughhousing and causing general chaos. Everyone had somebody.

Alex fought back the urge to sigh louder than Jordan had. It would have been melodramatic and pathetic, two things he tried to avoid at all costs. The werewolves at the Academy were changing. Everyone was pairing up, becoming couples, and having fun together. Alex felt like he was missing something important, and knew that no matter how hard he tried, he wouldn’t be able to change the way things were.

The door to their quarters pushed open. Kalia stormed through with a furious expression.

“Come on, Kalia. It’s just a walk. It’s not like I’m asking you to hold my hand or anything,” Torin said from the hallway.

“I said no, Torin,” Kalia called over her shoulder. “I have homework to do.”

“Homework can wait,” Torin said as she shut the door.

Kalia rolled her eyes and leaned against door frame.

“You okay?” Cassie asked.

Kalia nodded, giving her blonde hair an annoyed push back from her shoulder. “He’s just so persistent. It’s even worse now that I’ve phased.”

Cassie smiled. “He likes you, and the fact that you’re an Alpha definitely doesn’t hurt.”

Kalia’s gaze flicked to Alex. He ducked his head before she could meet his eyes, but felt her watching him anyway.

“He doesn’t get the fact that I like someone else instead,” Kalia said pointedly.

“Someone else doesn’t get it, either,” Terith replied without a shred of tactfulness.

“You mean Alex, right?” Von said, giving a nasal laugh. The sound of someone being hit followed. “Ow!”

The door opened and Alex looked up to see the dean standing there. “You needed to meet with me, Alex?” Jaze asked.

Alex rose, grateful for the interruption. “Yes.” He crossed quickly to the door and followed Jaze down the stairs. When they were out of earshot, he said, “You just rescued me from an extremely uncomfortable situation.”

Jaze looked back up at Pack Jericho’s quarters. “I thought it felt a bit tense. Anything I should be worried about?”

Alex shook his head. “Just pack stuff.” He glanced at Jaze as they walked into the dean’s office. The dean had been like a father to him ever since his parents were killed. Sometimes Jaze’s insight made all the difference in the world. “Have you ever felt like you’re being left behind? Like everyone’s changing and you can’t because of who you are?” He felt foolish as soon as the words left his mouth, but it was too late to take them back.

Jaze took a seat behind his desk in thoughtful silence. Alex sat on the other side and waited, wishing he’d kept his mouth shut. When Jaze spoke, his gaze was searching. “What do you mean, because of who you are?”

Alex studied the desk in front of him. The wood was dark and worn with the use of nine years at the Academy. There was a deep scratch near the edge; he ran a finger along it. “Sometimes I’m not sure if I’m really one of them.”

The dean was silent, waiting for him to continue. Alex appreciated the time to collect his thoughts. When he spoke again, he said what he had never told anyone. “After everything—my parents’ murder, the rescues, finding Siale, the body pit...” He swallowed and had to force his voice to remain strong. “Sometimes I feel like the part of me that fits in here has been washed away.” He studied the scratch on the desk intently. “I feel like the things here are a bit meaningless.”

He looked up at Jaze. He knew how the words sounded. He didn’t want the dean to take it as though he felt the Academy was worthless. That wasn’t what he meant at all. He tried again. “I mean not that the Academy is meaningless, just my place in it.”

The words hung in the room, thick and obscure like fog caught in early morning branches. He felt as though he floated with the fog, just waiting to be dissipated by the rising sun. Except the sun never came.

“Alex, you have a place here,” Jaze said quietly.

Alex opened his mouth to tell the dean he wasn’t trying to be obstinate, but Jaze raised his hand, asking for Alex’s patience. Alex closed his mouth again and nodded, sinking further into the leather chair that gave off the scents of the werewolves who had sat there before him. Boris and Torin had apparently been called to the dean’s office quite often.

“I remember feeling the same way.”

The experience in the dean’s tone caught Alex’s attention. Jaze spoke with the honesty Alex always appreciated. “We were in the middle of saving werewolves and trying to track down my uncle Mason and I told my mom the same thing. I told her that school and a normal life felt insignificant compared to the things I was trying to accomplish, and that I was just wasting my time that I could better spend saving people.”

For a second, Alex saw the boy in the dean’s eyes, the same boy who had looked up to his mother, confused and torn, trying to do his best but not sure when he would reach his limit.

“Do you know what she told me?” Jaze asked, the shadow of the boy lingering in his smile.

Alex shook his head.

Jaze let out a slow breath. “She said I needed to have a normal life in order to keep doing the things I was doing, that school, friends, and being just a teenager needed to be as important to me as it was to her that I had them.” The dean’s smile deepened and a hint of sadness showed in his brown eyes. “She told me that I needed to have a normal life to remind myself what I was trying to give others; that if I didn’t have dreams and goals for myself, I would never find the happiness I deserved.”

Alex’s voice was quiet when he asked, “What if you don’t feel like you deserve that happiness?”

Jaze set his elbow on the desk and looked at Alex with fatherly sternness. “Don’t ever give up on your happiness, Alex. You will find it; I promise. I’ve been to the very end of my sanity and back. I’ve seen things and had to do things that broke me inside to the point where I felt no one could ever or should ever care for me.” His eyes glittered brightly in the light and he blinked. “But I never forgot my promise to my mom that I would find my happiness.”

Alex knew the answer before he asked, “Did you?”

Jaze nodded with a warm smile, tears still in his eyes. “I did. I have Nikki and William, and I have you and Cassie and Meredith. I have hundreds of students to care for and werewolves to free. I have a loyal pack and friends that I have grown to love like brothers and sisters. My life is so full I can only hope that my mom sees it and knows it’s because I followed her advice.”

The fact that Alex sat under the roof of Vicki Carso’s Preparatory Academy, that it had been his home since he lost his parents, and it was where he knew he was safe and protected, wasn’t lost on him. He took in a deep, calming breath.

“Then I won’t give up on it, either,” he said.

Jaze nodded. “I know you won’t.”

The proud, fatherly light in his eyes warmed Alex.

The dean sat up and cleared his throat. “I don’t think that’s what you came here to talk about.”

Alex shook his head. He steeled himself. “I wanted to ask if I could go to Cherish’s house tomorrow for dinner.”

Humor touched Jaze’s gaze. “I think that’s a question for your mother.”

The thought of broaching the subject with Meredith was not a pleasant one. After everything his mom had been through, she didn’t trust easily. Asking if he could go to a human’s house for dinner wouldn’t bode well for either Alex’s health or the outcome to his question.

Jaze must have read the foreboding on Alex’s face because he smiled. “Want me to ask her?”

“Do you mind?” Alex asked with relief.

In answer, Jaze lifted his phone and requested her presence. A few minutes later, Alex heard his mother’s familiar footsteps down the hallway.

“You asked for me?” Meredith said, poking her head in the door. Her smile filled her light blue eyes when she saw Alex sitting at the dean’s desk. “I don’t suppose Alex is in detention.”

Jaze chuckled. “Not this time. He has a request and I thought it best that I run it by you, since you’re his mother.”

The statement made Meredith’s smile deepen. Alex had only found out that Meredith was his mom two years ago. She had confessed over the summer that the moments she was referred to as the twins’ mother made it truly feel real, and she said she would be happy hearing it for the rest of her life.

Meredith crossed the room to Alex’s side. He rose and gestured for her to take his seat.

“You’re so thoughtful,” she said, sitting on the edge of the chair.

Jaze spoke without preamble. “Alex rescued five young humans during our last battle with the Extremists and they invited him to dinner. He’s asking if he can join them.”

Meredith’s eyes widened. She jerked around to stare at him, her short dark hair brushing past her shoulders. “Absolutely not! That would be absurd!”

“Alex knows the humans from a previous trip he took to the city,” Jaze said calmly. “He assures me that they are friends.”

“You never told me about them,” Meredith said. She rushed on, “Humans are dangerous and unreliable. They would turn you over to the authorities.”

“I can handle authorities,” Alex pointed out. He realized as soon as he said it that it had been the wrong thing to say.

“I’ll not have you putting your life on the line just for a dinner,” Meredith argued. She grabbed his hand. “It wouldn’t be safe. You can’t mean to put yourself in danger like that.”

Alex didn’t know what to say. “Mom, I...” He shook his head and tried again. “They’re my friends. Nobody’s going to hurt me.”

Meredith shook her head. “It’s not worth the risk.”

Alex knew the stubborn set of her jaw. It was the exact same look her sister Mindi used to have when she had her mind set. The look gave Alex a pang of regret. Mindi and her husband Will had raised Alex and Cassie as their own children. They had been wonderful parents, kind and caring, filling the twins’ lives with love until the day they were killed.