Of Beasts and Blood: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Arcane Arts Academy Book 3) Read online

  I’d find the person who did this to Draven’s kind. To Cal and Adrian’s. And I would prove that I was telling the truth.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I added, moving to go to where the gathered pack had begun to form a ring around Cal and Adrian at the middle of the meadow.

  “Oh? Doesn’t it?”

  “No,” I said, stopping only for the briefest moment to attempt to convey to him in a single look just how serious I was. My fists clenched and the familiar sting of my nails biting down into my palms steadied the off-kilter beating of my heart. “Because I’m going to find them first.”

  Draven grinned, eyeing me up and down. Appraising me. “Good. Then by order of my queen, you will have my help to do it.”

  2

  Armed with the knowledge I was far from alone—with not just my familiars, Elias, and Bianca to help me, but also Draven, I felt like there was nothing we couldn’t conquer.

  But right now, we had to start with this. The severing of the bond. The rest would have to wait.

  “You all know why you’re here,” Atlas roared over the group as Draven and I took our places at the edge of the crescent formation.

  Atlas met my gaze with a fiery one of his own before he turned his attention to the Endurans to his right. Cal and Adrian stood; hands clasped behind their backs. Sometime in the few minutes of conversation with Draven, Adrian had managed to dress himself again, and I sighed, more than a little disappointed.

  Sensing my mood, and the thoughts that led it there, Adrian winked at me and gave his hips a little thrust in my direction.

  I shook my head at him, staring pointedly at Atlas, the man who was still their alpha and would act as such if they didn’t stay in line.

  Cal elbowed Adrian and he coughed to cover up the sound of the air leaving his lungs. Always the tough guy. But his reddened face and Cal’s quirked brow elicited a string of laughter from the group.

  “Quiet!” Atlas commanded, and I felt the tantalizing force of the word. Like a great hand pressing down against my skull.

  It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t a feeling of my own—but of my familiars. I watched them bow to the will of their alpha, their legs buckling, and heads bent.

  I didn’t like it one bit. Seeing them that way.

  They should bow to no one.

  Atlas’ words from the morning I left Cal and Adrian in their cabin repeated in my head. His gruff voice grating in my ears. You don’t understand our ways.

  No, I didn’t. But looking at the wolves all forced to kneel before Atlas, whether they liked it or not, I didn’t really need to know everything to know that I didn’t like what I saw.

  Once everyone quieted, Atlas rolled his shoulders back and some of the glow left his eyes. He brushed his hair back and breathed deeply. That was when I saw the defeat in his expression. The pain.

  He wasn’t being a prick—or, at least, he wasn’t just being a prick—he was using anger and control to hide regret and shame.

  Leo did that sometimes. How I wished he were here now, though—him and Lara. It would be so much easier with them at my side.

  “I can’t have rogue wolves in my pack,” Atlas said quietly, his voice so low I almost didn’t hear him. “You all understand why.”

  Except me. I wanted to raise my hand, get his attention.

  Hey, hello! Yeah, over here. Me—I don’t get it. Mind explaining?

  But I stayed silent, heeding Stella’s warnings that at any moment Atlas could decide he didn’t want me here after all and throw me out.

  “Today, we say goodbye to two wolves from our pack. Cal and Adrian have been invaluable members of our family since they were born, but now…” Atlas faltered, and I wondered what he would say.

  I braced for the lashing. For him to say that I’d stolen them from him, and it was witches who were to blame for this severing.

  But he didn’t do that.

  “I don’t understand the magic that binds you together,” he said, and I realized with a start that he was speaking to me directly. I was having a hard time meeting his stare and clenched my hands together at my waist to stop the shaking.

  Draven stepped in a little tighter to my side, and the closeness brought me a measure of comfort. The small gesture said he was with me and gave me the strength to finally look up.

  “But I don’t have to understand it to accept it. Just like you don’t have to understand our customs to accept them.”

  Gritting my teeth, I nodded, and Atlas turned back to the others. “Cal and Adrian have accepted this decision. They will leave the pack peacefully.”

  The group sighed collectively, and I wondered for a moment, what would have happened if they didn’t leave willingly. How would they have been severed, then?

  I shuddered.

  “We’re ready,” Cal said in his deep voice. Sounding so strong and sure but looking so tense. He widened his stance and I watched the muscles in his body flex as one, adding contour and menace to his silhouette.

  Adrian nodded, moving into a similar position to Cal. Bracing himself, but for what? My pulse sped, and my lips fell open. I looked through the other face, trying to find Stella. She said they would be alright, didn’t she?

  Atlas nodded to the two of them. “As pack alpha, I release you,” the last three words were spoken in a growl, only part human, as Atlas shifted back into his wolf form.

  “Steady now,” Draven said, and snaked a hand out to grab me by the wrist. His expression cool and indifferent. His gaze steady and hard.

  Reflexively, I tried to pull away, but the sound of a snarl stole my attention and I jerked my head back in time to see Atlas’ wolf lunge at Cal.

  The lithe black form of Atlas was a blur of rippling canine fur and muscle, the dark only interrupted by the brilliant white of his teeth as he knocked into Cal, forcing him down with a savage bite into his abdomen.

  Cal cried out and my magic welled within. It rushed to the surface, eager to do my bidding. I didn’t realize I was shouting until I heard Draven trying to hush me.

  His hand around my wrist might have well been a manacle—I couldn’t budge him though I pulled against the bind with everything I had.

  Distantly, I heard Draven speaking, but his voice was dulled against the roar of unbridled magic in my veins, and the rushing of adrenaline as it rippled through muscle and sinew. “When they’re pups, they take the blood of the alpha and speak the binding words,” he said, and the calmness of his tone helped to soothe me. It helped me keep a tight rein on the fountain of power pulsing into me.

  Atlas left Cal, and turned to Adrian, his gruesome maw dripping in shimmering crimson.

  “Do it!” Adrian hissed at the wolf that was nearly his size standing, and my breath caught, trying to make sense of what was happening.

  The earth beneath my feet trembled, and the sky above darkened—clouds materializing to cover the moon in a thickening veil of gray.

  I breathed in hard through my nose and blew the air out my mouth, trying to maintain calm.

  “Do it!” Adrian screamed again, and Atlas took three running strides and leaped into the air, tearing into Adrian’s shoulder with a feral snarl.

  My stomach turned, and for a fraction of an instant, I thought I felt pain in my own shoulder. It throbbed as though I was bitten, too. Adrian barely held in his scream, lurching forward. His hand rose to staunch the blood welling up from the bite.

  Draven pulled me in closer to him, and I found myself too weak to fight it anymore and praying this was the end of it.

  It’s just a dog bite, I told myself. That’s all. My magic, listening to my soothing interior voice, calmed, and then all but dissipated, leaving me dizzy and a bit drained.

  “They’ve been pack since they could first speak,” Draven whispered, and I let him brush a lock of red hair behind my ear. “For that bond to be broken, the alpha must take back what was given.”

  “A payment made in blood, by the light of the moon.” It was Stella who fini
shed for him, and Draven’s grip on my wrist lessened as my familiars’ mother came to stand with me. “I told you they would be alright. It only causes them so much pain because the bite breaks more than just flesh. The worst is over now.”

  She was so calm. How could she be so calm?

  I hiccupped a bit, wondering when I’d started to cry. “You should have warned me,” I said, meaning to sound accusing and angry, but the words came out more of a whine than anything.

  “Perhaps.”

  “I’m sorry,” Draven said, and fully released me. I was unsurprised to see a red ring where his hand had been. Dick.

  I looked to where Cal was now hobbling to his feet, the wound in his stomach still bleeding more than I liked. And Adrian’s breaths sawed in and out through his teeth, but he remained standing—though I could tell it was taking a great deal of effort for him to keep his spine erect.

  “Go to them,” Stella said. “They need you now.”

  I needed no more prodding than that. Reinforcing my resolve, I moved further into the meadow to a barrage of whispers. I’d hardly paid any attention to the rest of the pack gathered to witness the severing, but now their voices followed me, and I still had the presence of mind to be more than a little embarrassed by my outburst.

  They had to understand, though. Where they may have been used to such blind savagery. This was far from normal to me.

  Atlas stalked through the grass toward me. I stiffened as he passed, slowing for an instant to meet his burning stare. I glared at him. I couldn’t help it. If it weren’t for the fact that it would probably hurt me more than it would hurt him, I’d deck the dog in the face.

  He passed, and I heard the quick popping and crunching noise, like a zipper made of bone, that meant he’s shifted back.

  “They’re your responsibility now,” he said from behind me, a profound sadness tainting the words.

  I didn’t dare turn around, afraid one of my clenched fists would fly of its own volition.

  “Take care of them.”

  My spine tingled as the ghostly weight of his request settled upon my shoulders.

  “I will,” I spat.

  And then I heard the pack leaving and turned to find near forty wolves vanishing back into the trees. Only Stella remained. And Draven. The two waiting patiently, in drawn silence, near the edge of the woods.

  I cleared the remaining yards of space between us, approaching hesitantly. I had to assume from the glow of their iris’ that they were resisting the call of their inner wolves. I didn’t want to be too close in case the animals within got out.

  It clicked in my mind that that must’ve been the reason they had to do this whole ridiculous thing in human form. Because their wolves wouldn’t be dominated. They wouldn’t have lied down and allowed Atlas to attack them. Much as I told myself otherwise, in their wolf forms, they could be taken over by their animal urges. They’d have fought Atlas.

  “Are you,” I breathed, gagging at the sight of all the blood on Cal. “Are you alright?”

  “Stings like a bitch!” Adrian grunted, now without the audience, he’d let his shoulder slump and had his bottom lip clenched between his teeth.

  “It’ll take longer to heal than a normal wound,” was all Cal said, even though blood still seeped out between his fingers. “It’s alright,” he added. “I won’t shift.”

  I ran into his outstretched arm, careful not to touch the wound. I tugged Adrian in, too, needing to feel them both—to know they were ok. That we were ok. And to lend them the strength they always kept reserved for me.

  Healing sigils blossomed over both of my palms and I pressed them into the flesh of my familiars. They sighed together, and I warmed knowing I could offer them at least this one bit of comfort. Before my eyes, Cal’s wound began to heal. The bleeding stopped within seconds.

  “What now?” Adrian asked, nuzzling into my hair.

  I bit the inside of my cheek. “Well, don’t get too excited,” I huffed, pulling away to collect myself. “But I have a surprise for you.”

  3

  After a promise from Draven that I’d be seeing him soon, and a warm hug from Stella—the three of us left the meadow in the woods.

  When I asked, Cal and Adrian said they’d return to see their mother and friends often. Just because they weren’t pack didn’t mean they couldn’t ever see them again, it only meant they would need alpha permission to cross onto his territory from now on.

  For his sake, I hoped Atlas would be amiable about it, or he’d be getting a visit from me.

  “So, what is this surprise?” Adrian asked, his arm brushing up against my shoulder as we walked.

  Elias, relieved when he saw us, hadn’t been able to help himself and pulled me into him, his racing heart slowing as he realized I was alright. And then he remained oddly silent for the rest of the walk, pensive, and I wondered what he was thinking about.

  “You’ll see,” I told Adrian, my tone teasing. We were nearly back on academy grounds. Elias thought it best to portal just outside the perimeter of the ward and walk from there, so we didn’t frighten anyone in the middle of the night.

  Cal blew out a breath, wincing a bit as the movement jostled his still-healing gash in his abdomen. “I’m beat.”

  “Me too,” Adrian admitted. “It’s going to suck finding new territory far enough away from Atlas’ pack.”

  I grinned. If they accepted my offer—they wouldn’t need to.

  The nerves set in, and I tucked my hands into my pockets, an icy finger of cold tracing a line up my back.

  Elias cleared his throat and I realized we were nearing the edge of the tree line. This is where he would leave us. He had classes to teach in the morning after all.

  “Give me a minute?” I said to Cal and Adrian, bowing my head as I passed them to go to where Elias waited several yards away.

  “Thank you,” I said. “For coming with me. I’m glad I could be there for them.”

  His smile didn’t reach his eyes when he said, “Of course. I’ll always be there when you need me, you know that.” His dark blue eyes wandered, and I realized what I was seeing there was discomfort.

  I brushed the back of his hand with my fingertips, itching to do more, but with an audience, and in the shadow of the academy, I couldn’t. I wondered how long we’d have to wait before this—before us didn’t have to be hidden away. I didn’t think I could stand it for another three years until I graduated.

  “Goodnight, Harper.”

  I nodded and Elias pulled his hand away. His jaw twitched just before he turned, a sadness deepening the lines of his face. “Goodnight,” I called after his retreating form, my chest aching. I felt lighter when I saw Fallon bounding out of the bushes, his silver-tipped tail bobbing as he darted in to welcome his bonded witch home. Jumping and rolling in the dew-dampened grass. Pawing at Elias’ legs. But Elias didn’t stoop to pat him, and the little fox took a hint, trotting along with him quietly, instead.

  “Hey,” Cal said, coming to wrap a thick arm around me. “You ok?”

  “Hmmm? Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”

  He didn’t seem convinced and gave my shoulder a comforting squeeze before he let go in favor of taking my hand. “Lead the way.”

  The contact soothed the aching and lent me the bit of added strength I needed to see this night through.

  Five minutes later, we were around the other side of the academy, entering the sparser forest on the other side there. I’d worn a short path walking back and forth from the academy to the abandoned tool shed in the couple weeks since my return.

  “It’s not much,” I explained as we approached the simple brick structure. “But I added some improvements to make it as comfortable as possible.”

  Cal and Adrian shared a look between them before they turned to me with furrowed brows.

  “What is this?” Adrian asked, and I couldn’t read his tone.

  I stepped up to the door and placed a hand on the new brass handle. “It’s your new tempo
rary home—if you’ll have it.”

  I opened the door and reached inside to flick the light switch on, holding my breath as they stepped over the threshold.

  I’d borrowed the money from Bianca to do it—she knew that with my new inheritance coming in just over a month I was good for it. And besides, since she turned eighteen herself last week, she’d gotten access to the whole of Sterling’s estate when she did.

  Neither of us would ever want for anything again very soon.

  “Do you,” I started, afraid to hear what they thought. “Do you like it?”

  The space wasn’t large by any means, but with the improvements I made, it was livable. With Granger’s permission after days of begging and my promise that I’d take full responsibility for them, the work began.

  Bianca helped me arrange everything. The work had to be done by witches since no humans were permitted to step foot anywhere near the academy. The trouble was in finding a couple handy ones who were willing to do the job and keep quiet about it. Turned out there wasn’t anything money couldn’t buy—including silence.

  What was once a dusty old room that smelled of mildew, metal, and rotting wood was now a sort of hunter’s retreat.

  Two loft beds on either side of the room protruded from the high ceilings. They’d been fitted with the coziest mattresses and bedding Bianca could find on short notice. Below, I’d had a small kitchenette installed, complete with mini fridge and a two-burner stove. The little pantry was stocked and practically overflowing. And the little room at the back that had been used to lock up some of the more expensive tools when this shed was still in use had been converted to a small bathroom—with a European-style rain-head shower, pedestal sink, and toilet.

  It had everything they needed. And it would keep them close.

  I bit the inside of my cheek, my skin bristling. “Well?” I blurted finally, unable to stand to look at their slack-jawed faces for another second. “Say something.”

  “You did all this?” Adrian asked.

  “I hired people to do it, but yes. It was a toolshed before,” I blathered, nervous, and suddenly unable to stop myself talking. “When I asked Granger she said no, but after I told her you were being kicked out of your pack because of me, and that other students’ familiars got to stay on the grounds, and, well, you know, practically begged her, she said yes. Temporarily, of course. I was—well, I was hoping after I turned eighteen that you would stay with me… at Rosewood Abbey.”