Their Shifter Academy 3: Undone
Undone
Their Shifter Academy 3
May Dawson
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Also by May Dawson
A Note from May
About the Author
Prologue
The Coven of the Day
Two witches stood outside the isolated, repurposed factory that housed the coven and its scientific labs. The wind ruffled Winter’s cloak and his long gray hair around a chiseled face, and he formed a dramatic picture with the rising sun at his back.
His coven would have appreciated how dangerous Winter appeared, had any of them looked from the coven’s windows that morning, but they were all busy preparing for a day of dark magic and mayhem.
Bennett thought Winter looked preposterous. It was one more entry on a long list of things he despised about American witches. Weren’t Americans supposed to be casual? There was nothing casual about the long black robes. It was rather try-hard, really.
He didn’t think much of Winter’s habit of summoning him for meetings in the cold when Winter had a perfectly lovely office in the building.
Winter, for his part, enjoyed making Bennett suffer. Bennett stuffed his chapped hands into his pockets, hunching his shoulders against the powerful winds that raced across the open field, and Winter might have felt a faint ripple of amusement. He could be petty for a powerful warlock.
“We haven’t attempted the Cure on any princess,” Winter said. “It might work differently on them.”
“I’m sure that can be corrected.”
Winter nodded slowly. “You know which one I want.”
Bennett snorted. “Yes, well. Of course you would want her. But witches that wander anywhere near the Northsea pack tend to end up decapitated. And lately, any witches who venture near the shifter academy tend to meet an ugly fate as well.”
“I understand there’s no easy way to reach Maddie Northsea,” Winter snapped. “But I don’t keep you around for the easy missions, Bennett.”
Bennett quirked an eyebrow. “Do you keep me around, Winter?”
“You know what I mean.” Winter wouldn’t accept that insolence from anyone in his coven, but Bennett was his own animal. “There’s something going on there. The shifters have never been that… aware… of what we do. Their ignorance of magic has always worked in our favor.”
“Fools,” Bennett said shortly.
The wolves had more magic than they realized, but they chose to make their power solely of the tooth-and-claw variety due to their own superstitions. Both witches were keenly aware that if she packs woke to their capacity for magic, the wolves might win the imminent war.
“Find out what’s happening at the academy,” Winter said. “Make use of our alliance with the nearest coven.”
Bennett nodded, his face troubled. Winter assumed he thought the mission was beneath him, and irritation flared. Bennett was immensely useful, and that was the only reason why Winter kept him around…until they completed their mission. There was something off about Bennett, and Winter trusted his instincts.
Once the Day was the strongest coven, once the Cure was either in hand or not needed anymore, he was going to kill Bennett before the man could turn on him.
“And bring me the girl,” Winter added.
Bennet knit his arms over his chest, cocking his head to one side, as if he were contemplating. Winter began to stride toward the coven, having issued his final order.
“Maybe there’s a way to lure her off academy grounds,” Bennett said, his voice catching Winter.
Winter turned, reluctantly. As the leader of the coven, he was prone to the flashy entrances and exits his witches expected. Though Bennett was incapable of being impressed, Winter still kept trying. “Go on.”
Bennett flashed Winter a cool smile. “You know how kids are.”
Winter certainly did. He’d converted many desperate young teenagers into witches for the Day. All they wanted was a mission to save the world and a mentor to look up to. He understood where Bennett was going. “Maybe she just needs another message from her father.”
“She might be suspicious about another message from Daddy,” Bennett said. “We need something new.”
“We could reach out to her mother,” Winter suggested.
“Yes, good thinking,” Bennett said. “It’s been a while.”
Bennett nodded goodbye to Winter, but Winter said, “If you’re going to the coven, you’ll need to look the part. Have Ackerman lend you a robe, at least.”
Bennett kept his sigh internal.
Oh, the things he suffered to make this world a better place.
Chapter One
Maddie
Something jolted me awake. I was still lying curled up in Jensen’s arms, my head resting on his shoulder, but suddenly my heart was pounding. When I shifted, his arm automatically closed around my waist, and he turned his face into my hair. He breathed out a sigh that might have been contentment.
Who would’ve pegged Jensen McCauley for a cuddler?
I lifted my wrist to stare drowsily at the glowing hands on my watch. Still more asleep than awake, I stared at the hands until I managed to figure out the time. 3:30 am. Two hours until PT. Sleep was precious, and I could sure use some more of it.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling I was awake for a reason. Maybe the wolf buried deep in my subconscious gave me my hunches, or maybe it was a human impulse.
When I sat up in bed, Penn murmured sleepily from my other side. “Where are you going?”
“Go back to sleep, Penn,” I said softly. I didn’t want either of my boys to see me worrying over nothing.
I slid to the end of the bed, climbing carefully over Jensen’s feet—which hung off the edge of the bed, since he was ridiculously tall—and reached for my sweatshirt. I was hot sleeping between them in even the thinnest t-shirt and shorts, but the air in the academy was cold at night once I left our cozy little nest.
I cocked my head to one side, listening. Nothing. My hear
t beat so fast I could hear it in my ears, and I pressed my palm over my chest. Calm down.
Then in the distance, a long, desperate howl split the night.
Goosebumps rose on my arms instantly. Had the guards who patrolled our woods found evidence of witchcraft? Was the academy under attack?
I ran to the window and pressed my face against the glass. The pines behind the academy swayed back and forth in the breeze under a bright half-moon. The night looked quiet.
Jensen was on his feet, moving quietly across the room despite his size. “What is it?” he asked softly as he joined me at the window.
“I don’t know. Something feels off.”
Penn sat at the edge of the bed, rubbing his eyes drowsily. “Let’s go see what it is.”
Now that they were both out of bed, I felt foolish. “It could be nothing.”
No matter how bleary-eyed he was, Penn shook his head. “Trust your instincts.”
The fact that he trusted my instincts warmed me. My lips parted, and then the howl went up again, followed by the baying of other wolves nearby. They were tracking something.
That first howl felt so familiar. I frowned, feeling as if I were trying to place a few bars from a song I’d heard before.
Suddenly, I could pick out a familiar voice in the howl.
My mother.
“It’s my mom,” I said.
From the sounds of the baying in the woods, she was here without permission. The patrol guard might kill her.
As I raced out into the hall and headed down the stairs, Jensen and Penn were hot on my heels.
The three of us burst out into the cold night air and clattered down the steps to the lawn. I stopped, my nostrils flaring as I tried to figure out where she was.
Out in the woods, she screamed. A human scream.
Everything in my body cried out to run to her, but it could be a trap. There were things I didn’t understand in this world, like why a demon had possessed a bear and stalked me—or protected me—out in those woods.
I stopped dead, even though my chest heaved with my wild, distraught breathing.
“Get the rest of the team,” I told Jensen quietly. “I think I need them.”
Jensen raced back into the house to sound the alarm. Penn rested his hand on my shoulder, and I leaned into him, taking comfort in his warm, muscular body.
“This is my fault,” I murmured. “I should’ve figured out what was happening to my family the second I knew something was wrong.”
My family. I hadn’t thought of my mother as my family in a very, very long time. My sister and her mates were my family. Not the father who had disappeared and the mother who had betrayed me.
“It’s not your fault,” Penn said firmly. “You have every reason not to trust them.”
The woods were quiet. I didn’t hear another scream.
Penn and I waited.
Lex flew down the stairs, with Rafe behind him. Rafe was still slinging his sword harness on over his broad shoulders.
“Stay here,” Lex barked. The two of them raced across the lawn and into the woods.
Penn turned to me, his lips pursed. It was written across his face how much he hated following orders, but he looked to me.
The human scream rose into the night again, then abruptly cut off. My mother might have been knocked unconscious. She might have been killed.
The front door of the dorm flew open. Chase, Tyson, Silas and Jensen came flying out—half-dressed but fully armed.
I stared around at them for a second, my heart beating wildly in my chest. If they were with me, I trusted them to watch my back, even if the scream in the night was some kind of trap.
I turned and took off running into the woods.
Rafe must have heard me behind him, because he came to a halt, then whirled to face me. “Northsea, stop!”
“That’s my mother!” I shouted back, running past him. “Would you stop?”
“Trust us,” he said, his voice exasperated. He caught up with me and shouldered me aside impatiently, before racing through the woods ahead of me with Lex on his heels.
When the two of them abruptly came to a stop, so did the rest of us. Lex turned and flashed me a warning look.
Together the eight of us picked our way carefully through the brush. My heart hammered in my chest. Fingers brushed mine, warm and comforting, and I wrapped my hand around his without even looking to see who it was.
Voices murmured up ahead. We stopped between the trees. Moonlight shone down on the fluttering leaves raised by a thin, cold breeze.
As I listened intently, I glanced at the men around me. Rafe stood with his head cocked to one side, Lex beside him; both of them had their hands on their swords, ready for anything.
It was Chase’s hand I held, and my tall, imposing friend squeezed my hand gently as he looked down at me, as if he wanted to give me strength. Silas stood by my left shoulder, his face thoughtful. Tyson, Penn, and Jensen stood in a half-circle around me, as if they automatically formed up to protect me.
The woods felt eerily silent, as if the wolves out here had frightened off every other animal.
“What are you talking about?” A man demanded, his voice cold and dangerous.
“There’s a witch at the academy.” That was my mother’s voice. Not dead. Relief flooded my chest.
But then that sense of relief curdled at her words. What was she talking about?
“Witches are preparing to attack the academy?” The man asked.
“There’s a witch already here,” she said abruptly. “Among you.”
Dani. Dani was here at the academy.
“Posing as a wolf,” she added.
Shit.
Silas tilted his head. There was the faintest tightening of his lips at that news. Wolves feared witches like nothing else.
Fear spiked in my chest. Why was my mother here?
Could she even be trusted?
“Who is this witch?” a man’s voice demanded.
All of us listened, but my mother didn’t answer.
“Go back,” Rafe mouthed to us. “Lex and I will deal with this.”
Then, Dean McCauley’s voice broke the night. “How do you know all this?”
The silence hung, and I barely breathed, waiting for her answer.
“This witch?” Dean McCauley pressed. “It wouldn’t happen to be your daughter, would it?”
“Go!” Rafe mouthed urgently, anger darkening his features as he pointed back through the woods toward the academy.
He and Lex turned as one and headed through the forest toward the dean.
“He’s right,” Silas whispered, the words almost inaudible. He caught my other hand, tugging me back toward the academy. “It’ll be all right, Maddie.”
There was a long pause as we began to move back silently through the woods.
Then my mother said, “I don’t know what she is.”
I stopped dead. My heart hammered in my chest. I couldn’t make sense of what she’d just said.
Then Tyson had his arm around me, and I was moving again. The guys closed around me, tighter than before, as if they could protect me.
Although of course, the one person they couldn’t protect me from was my mother. Not in any way that mattered, not tonight.
I don’t know what she is.
Chapter Two
Rafe
Lex and I headed through the woods at an angle to intercept the dean and his guards. The two of us traded a look as we neared them. They’d scent us coming. We’d have to justify our presence in the woods.
“Let me take the lead,” Lex said.
I snorted. “I don’t think so. Everyone knows you’re soft on the girl—“
“On Maddie?” Lex demanded, his tone exasperated. “You can use her name. You know it.”
“You know what I mean.” She was the only girl. It wasn’t as if we needed to name her.
“I know a shitty attempt to keep your distance when I see one,” he said.
“Firsthand experience. And the fact that I’m ‘soft on Maddie’ is exactly why I’m taking the lead. Trust me.”
Despite the way he drove me crazy, I did trust him. “Good luck.”
The two of us stepped out into the clearing at the edge of the academy grounds at the same time as the Dean. Two of his guards half-dragged, half-carried a wild-eyed woman who must be Maddie’s mom.
She looked desperate, unhinged, and my heart tightened in my chest. At least Maddie had listened—finally—and didn’t have to see her mother like this.
Lex moved swiftly ahead of me to the dean. “Where are you taking her?”
Dean McCauley stared at him for a long second, as if he might not answer. But he’d counted on Lex and me before when he needed us, and he’d count on us again.
“To the cells,” he said shortly. “Why are you here?”
“Northsea could tell it was her mom out here.”
“Well, tell her to keep it to herself,” the dean snapped. “The Alpha council is arriving tomorrow to visit the academy.”
“You’re just going to lock her mom away so no one notices her?” Lex demanded.
“She’s obviously...troubled. I’ll call her pack to come retrieve her. They can get her the help she needs.”