Page 12 of Alpha’s One-Night Stand (Shifters of Clarion #3)

I ’m standing outside the academic building, off to the side and out of sight and having a fucking heart attack.

What the hell did I see back there?

I wish I’d kept my eyes closed. I couldn’t though. As soon as the growling started, I had to open them. I had to see . . .

Oh, God, what did I see?

One of the rumors that has been going around about Moonhelm for years was that it was a school for the paranormal. But then, people say stuff like that all the time about creepy places. I was thinking it was haunted or something. Not this! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think . . .

No one can ever be prepared to witness a dozen werewolves transforming in a classroom. It took everything in me not to scream out in horror the moment every human in my classroom started to morph into hairy animals.

And now another possibility has come to mind. I didn’t change like the rest of them. It’s only a matter of time before they figure out I’m not one of them. I’m on a ticking clock now to find out what happened to my mother and get the hell out of this place.

I take several big breaths, my hand on my chest. I need to calm down. Yeah, this is pretty fucked up, as far as fucked up things go, but I’ve gotta keep my head. There’s too much at stake for me to lose it now. Even though all I want to do is go the fuck home.

Cole. I need to talk to Cole.

I pull out my cell phone, and I’m just about to dial his number when the warning he told me on the day we met at the coffee shop rings back in my head. There are people in high places in this school that know everything that goes on. They probably monitor and listen in on phone calls. Now that I’ve seen what I’ve seen, I wonder if he meant technology or preternatural night-vision eyes and ears that hear sounds miles away.

What am I going to do? And how in the world was my mother connected to these . . . creatures?

I know one thing. Cole needs to know this new information. Maybe he has some kind of an idea of what’s going on here. I look at my phone once again, thinking it over for a long moment. Fuck it. I have to get a message to him. I frantically type a text message to Cole telling him to meet me by the highway, just by the turn that leads to Moonhelm.

After a few minutes, he replies with an okay , and I delete the entire conversation.

“Hey! Yarra, right?”

I look up sharply to see the girl I had met earlier this morning. Her blazing red hair is neatly combed out, and her uniform is nicely pressed. She’s smiling and studying me with eyes that I can now see are a shade of baby blue.

“Yes. Uh . . . ?”

She shakes her head. “The one-night-stand girl has forgotten me so soon.”

I roll my eyes and chuckle. A bit of my fear broke up in the sound. “No, Saffron. I can never forget a comrade.”

She nods. “Fair enough.”

I didn’t see her in my class, but that doesn’t mean anything as far as I’m concerned. For all I know, everybody here is a werewolf, including her. The waves of panic start to hit me again.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah.” My voice is a little too high. I clear my throat. “Yes, fine. I’m, uh, I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“Tell me about it. Hanging out all night had me wired when I got back to my room. I’ve been dragging all day.”

I laugh, but it doesn’t sound very convincing.

Saffron’s eyes study me carefully, and I picture myself being cornered by a wild hound, sniffing me, looking for the slightest hint of fear to pounce on me.

“So, I noticed you didn’t shift forms in class today,” she says.

I’m so thrown off by her directness all I can say is, “What?”

“It’s cool. I didn’t either. You know, it’s like Mrs. Robertson said. Everyone morphs in their own time.”

I blink at her. I hadn’t seen her. You would think I’d have spotted that red hair right off. “You were in my class?”

“Duh.”

“Oh.” My mind scrambles, the refrain to “act natural” loud and clear. “Um, yeah, I guess we all come to it eventually.”

“Yeah, yeah. So don’t beat yourself up about it.”

“Hmm?”

“You look a little stressed. The way you bolted out of the room and everything. You seemed upset.”

I could almost laugh. Of course somebody noticed how terrified I looked. I am blowing this without even realizing it now.

“I also noticed you were staring an awful lot at the hot guy in the corner,” she says with a little smile.

I’m shocked silent for a second. “I—uh . . . what guy? You mean, the teacher’s aide?”

Saffron shrugs. “You weren’t exactly being discreet about it. Neither of you. He was your one-night guy, wasn’t he?”

My face gets beet red with embarrassment. Yeah, I need this right now. “Listen, Saffron, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Wow. He was that bad, huh? Who would’ve thought the teacher’s son would be a lousy lay.”

She glances at her phone while I stand there, my mouth dropped to the floor. The teacher’s son?! Oh, that’s just fucking perfect!

Saffron is already walking away. “I’ve got Lunar next.”

I groan and tag along behind her.

“Hey Saffron, wait up!”

She turns around, but she doesn’t stop walking. I get up to speed with her until we’re both walking together at the same pace.

“Do you know anything about the history of this school?” I ask.

Saffron scowls a little. “What do you mean? Like when it was founded and all that?”

“Yeah. Or if there’s a list of students who attended?”

She chuckles, “You doing a paper or something?”

“Something like that.”

She shrugs. “I don’t really know much about it. It’s been around for as long as I can remember. My grandparents on my mom’s side went here, so I guess it’s been around for a while.”

“Interesting,” I say, thinking out loud.

“What’s interesting?”

“Um, nothing, just that my mother never mentioned anything about this school to me, and supposedly, she went here too.” I’m not really too keen anymore on my mother being a student here. Maybe she was like me. A human in the middle of a wolf-fest.

“Parents are weird like that,” Saffron says. “Or, in my case, guardians. My grandparents raised me, so what do I know, really? My grandparents, though, who knows what they got up to in this place?”

“Is it possible to graduate from this school without finding your . . .” I lost the word. What had Ms. Robertson called it?

“Lycan?”

“Yeah, that.”

Saffron chuckles brightly. “I mean, yeah. Of course. But what would be the point of graduating if you never found yourself? Can you imagine trying to navigate in the rest of the outer world without knowing anything about your lycan? You’d probably go nuts, assuming some hunter didn’t gun you down in the woods somewhere.”

I’m thinking about the papers I found. The diploma proving that she’d graduated from here. If she graduated, then maybe she . . . maybe . . .

I start to lose my breath again, and I slow down, then stop, bending over and bracing myself with my hands on my knees. Saffron stops and comes over to me. “Hey, it’s all right.” She rubs my back. “Don’t stress about it too much. You know, you’ll change just like all of us do eventually. That’s, like, the easiest part of school. This is just your, what, first day of classes, and you’re already worried about graduation? You’re a real high achiever.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I say as I catch my breath. I stand up straight and try to smile so Saffron knows I’m okay. But I’m not okay. If only she knew how scared I truly am. I wish I could tell her.

We walk in silence for a few more moments before Saffron speaks up again. “You know, I think you’re going to do great here.”

She hits me with a smile, so I smile back, feeling a little more confident than before. I wish I had her confidence. But then if I did, that would mean I’d know what was really going on around here. I just hope I can figure out what happened to my mom before I’m found out.

***

It’s a few minutes past midnight, and although the school is quieter than it was during the daytime, a few people are still up around the campus. All day, I’ve been thinking of the best way to sneak out of the school gates without being noticed. I don’t remember seeing any guards patrolling the school grounds, but it’s not like I was looking before now, either.

I asked Saffron earlier about it in passing. Right after English class, I asked her what the security was like around here. She just laughed. “It would be unwise to attack a school full of werewolves. I’m sure there are psychopathic Lycans already within these walls.”

Heh. Funny. Not really. Not to me. I fake-laughed along with her, though.

But that was good news, at least. I could walk right out of the gate without being stopped.

I pull the hood of my jacket up as I creep out of my dorm room, and my heart begins to pound with fear. It won’t look good for me if I’m caught. Maybe they’ll drag me back and figure out that I’m human.

I am human. My mom might not have been, but I know I am. Even if I’m not, I’m not really ready to face the facts. I make my way through the dark hallways, my senses on high alert for any signs of danger.

The moonlight filtering in through the windows gives me just enough light to see where I’m going. Outside the dorm, I don’t spot anyone, and I slip out, immediately feeling like I’m being watched. Jeez, I think I’ve always felt like I’m being watched. Ever since I got off the airplane.

It doesn’t take long for me to spot the gates. No one’s out here, but maybe they’re just hiding in the shadows. I pause to stare at it from a distance. It feels like a trap.

My own anxiety is getting the better of me. What if they find out I’m a human who’s seen too much? My heart is pounding like a damn drum.

I think of Mom. Missing for years. The owner of a small store in a small town who had never said an unkind word to anybody. I’ve gotta take this risk. This is where she graduated, and it’s probably connected to why she’s gone. Cole has more clues than I do at the moment. He’s the only person I can trust to help me unravel this mystery.

As I step forward, the cool night air hits me like a wave. I take a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves, and make my way to the edge of the academy grounds. I’m ready for anything, but I keep placing one foot in front of the other until I reach the wrought-iron gate. I slip through a tiny opening and have to stop myself from running away.

I walk down the boulevard, the tall palm trees whispering down to me, watching my every step with interest.

It takes me almost five minutes, but I eventually arrive at the bend. I see Cole under the moonlight, smoking a cigarette like he was just standing on a street corner. He spots me and nods his head my way.

“Hey, Yarra. You made it.”

“Yes. We have a problem. Why didn’t you tell me about this place?”

He frowns a little, then replies, “I believe I told you it was a strange place.”

“Werewolves?” I hissed it to keep from screaming. “There are literal werewolves there, Cole!”

He looks away, then takes another drag and flicks the cigarette into the road. “Come on, we shouldn’t stay here in the open for this long. My car is parked over there.” He points to the black sedan across the road, hidden perfectly in the shadows.

“How?” I say to him as we start walking. “How are there werewolves—”

“Not out here,” he says, cutting me off. “We can talk in the car.”

We get to the car, and he unlocks it. I walk around to the passenger’s side as he gets in the driver’s seat. The doors shut with a single thud that resonates in the quietness.

“Moonhelm is a school for werewolves,” he says. “Specifically. Sometimes other creatures attend. It’s not unheard of, entirely, but it’s made and designed for werewolves to integrate them into the real world.”

I blink. I can’t believe what he’s saying. If I hadn’t seen what I’d seen, I wouldn’t believe him.

“Mystical creatures are not merely fairy tales,” he goes on. “They tell you these things so you don’t suspect that they exist. Even if you see something supernatural, your mind won’t believe it because you’ve been conditioned to believe certain things and reject others.”

“Who’s conditioning us?”

“Them. These creatures are in every single part of the world, and they rule us without us ever knowing their true nature.” Goosebumps rise from my arms as he speaks. I hug myself.

“Tell me what you saw,” he says after I remain silent, thinking about what he just said.

I tell him everything, excluding the whole sleeping with Chad thing, of course. I tell him about the graveyard I found and about my nightmares. I even tell him about the missing painting I had seen on a wall, being sure to keep from mentioning that it had been on Chad’s wall.

He’s looking at me with a serious expression the whole time. I stop talking, and he’s silent for a long moment. “Doesn’t sound like you’ve found much. The graveyard thing I’ll have to think some more about, but you’ve only been there a couple of days. I didn’t expect much. Sorry about the whole werewolf thing. If I’d told you about it before, I doubt you would have believed me.”

I can’t exactly disagree with him there.

“Have you found anything new on my mother’s case?” I ask him. He shakes his head.

“Not yet. But I have a lead on a woman who might have some information about her disappearance. I will talk to her as soon as possible.”

“Really? Who is she?” I ask, leaning forward.

“She’s a former teacher at Moonhelm Academy,” Cole replies. He rolls down the window and pulls another cigarette out of his pocket. “Her name is Dr. Olivia Williams. I think she might have some knowledge about the academy’s inner workings.”

“Do you think she knows something about my mom?”

Cole hesitates for a moment before answering, lighting up his cigarette and taking a drag. “I can’t say for sure, but it’s worth a shot. We need to be careful, though. Moonhelm is a dangerous place, and we don’t want to attract any unwanted attention.”

I nod in agreement. “So, where is this Dr. Williams anyway? Maybe I can track her down and talk to her.”

“Leave that to me. I’ll do some digging into her and see where she is now. You just keep your head down for now.” He takes another puff from his cigarette, then says, “In the meantime, be careful and keep your eyes open. We don’t know who we can trust.”

I take a breath of relief and lean back in the seat, the weight of the situation lightening a little. With Cole by my side, I’m sure we’ll find the answers we’re looking for.