Page 21 of Alpha’s One-Night Stand (Shifters of Clarion #3)
W e’re sitting on the steps of my dormitory, the full moon casting a silver glow on Chad’s face. He’s got a bruise at his hairline from when Cole attacked him. I look at it sorely, the guilt heavy in my chest.
Around us, the administrators and professors are all out trying to find out what happened. After Cole left the cabin, we found the missing runners, all bound to chairs, too weak to move. We carried them out of the forest just as a group of professors met us at the tree line leading back to campus. I guess somebody ratted us out.
Now come the reprimands. Dean Fowler and several of the professors are out here questioning all of us. The students have all been taken to the infirmary, and now they want to know what the hell we thought we were doing. Chad’s mother is here, too, though I’m not sure why. She wasn’t even at the game.
I can’t stop thinking about seeing Cole . . . with Nana. I’m so worried about her. Why would he do this? What kind of sick game has he been playing with me all this time? I’m mentally questioning everything that he’s said to me so far. I wonder if he ever really intended on helping me find my mother in the first place.
“You could have been killed,” the dean says to all of us. He’s been pacing back and forth since he got here, his long white hair flowing loose around his shoulders as he moves. He’s wearing a robe and pajamas. No doubt, somebody had to wake him up when we came back.
“I don’t know what possessed you to disobey a direct order to stay in your dorms, but I promise you there will be repercussions for this.”
“Why?” Saffron speaks up. She’s standing next to the stairs, arms crossed and a scowl on her face. “We saved those students’ lives. You should be thanking us.”
“Thanking you? For putting yourself and five other wolves in danger? Anything could have happened to you out there.”
Saffron clenches her jaw as she glares at him, a mix of anger and worry on her face. “What about the witch in the woods? What are you going to do about that?”
“Are you sure it was a witch?” Chad’s mother asks. The dean throws her a look of annoyance. She says to him, “We should get as much information as we can about it, Dean Fowler. If there is a witch, here, we could all be in great danger.”
He doesn’t say anything in response to her, but both of them turn to Saffron.
“It was a witch . . . I think,” Saffron says.
“You think?” Dean Fowler leans toward her in a hostile posture. She straightens her back, her feet rooted to the ground.
“Yeah, I think . I mean, he picked us up and tossed us around the room with magic, but—” She stops, her eyes flitting between the both of them.
“But what?”
She swallowed, then continues, “But it could have been a Shaman or a . . . a mage, for all we knew. It all happened so fast.”
“Mages are healers who work strictly in service to the king, and the Shamans are at peace with the packs of Clarion,” Dean Fowler says. “Neither would dare destroy their political standing with the Alpha King and his subjects by attacking Moonhelm.”
“Well, you never know—”
“And even if they did, we would not be dealing with only one of them. If you studied your history better, you might know that, Scarlet .”
He throws the word at her like a rock. Saffron flinches, her eyes widening. She balls her fists, and I can almost feel the air around us heating up.
“Dean Fowler,” Chad says, standing up and getting between them, “I think that things are getting a little heated. Maybe we should retire for the evening and sort out the details once heads have cooled. It might be conducive to find out more information about whatever that is in the woods, don’t you think?”
Dean Fowler is still clearly hot with anger, but as he looks at Chad, it seems like he’s cooling off.
“He’s right,” Chad’s mother says. “Arguing right now isn’t productive. We should let these students rest and revisit this in the morning.”
The dean looks at both of them, then throws up his arms. “Fine. But this isn’t over. You will all answer for your insubordination tonight. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, sir,” Saffron says through clenched teeth.
He throws her a final glare, then walks away, the other professors following him. Chad’s mother turns to him and says, “Escort them back to the dorm, then come see me in my office.”
“Can’t this wait until morning?”
“No, it can’t.” She says it in a hushed, stern tone that reminds me somehow of when Nana wants to talk to me about something serious. I have no doubt that Chad will be talking to her tonight.
She turns and joins the other professors. I stand up and put my hand on Saffron’s shoulder. “We did the right thing tonight,” I tell her. “You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” she says, her eyes following Dean Fowler. “I know it.”
The other Alphas start to meander toward the dorm. One of them says to us, “We should get back inside.”
“I’ll walk them to their rooms,” Chad speaks up. The others walk away, and Chad charges right up to Saffron, getting in her face.
“What do you know?”
She blinks in surprise. “What the hell are you talking abo—”
“What were you holding back from the dean, Saffron?”
“Hey,” I say, “What are you doing, Chad?”
“I asked your friend a question. You said you thought it was a witch, but you weren’t sure. Why aren’t you sure?”
She scowls at him, her nose wrinkling in anger. “You got a hearing problem or something? I already answered this question.”
“And Dean Fowler didn’t believe you.”
“Because I’m a fucking Scarlet, genius! Everybody always thinks I’m lying!”
“Hey!” I wedge myself between them. “Enough! She told him everything that she knew. Why are you pressing the issue?”
“Because she knows more than she’s saying, Yarra. This was in her vision, remember? She’s keeping something close to her chest, which is bullshit. Students have been hurt, and she’s not telling us what we need to know.”
“Stop it!” I shout at him. “For Christ’s sake, this has got to stop! Saffron can’t help it that she’s different! Why do you keep treating her like shit?”
His face goes blank, the anger gone in a flash. “Yarra—”
“Calling her Scarlet like it’s a bad word, telling me she comes from assassins and thieves. She’s been nothing but helpful to me and to the rest of us, and people like you keep treating her like . . . like she’s dirt! Well, it stops now. You hear me, Chad? It stops now! ”
He just stares at me blankly, his mouth slightly agape. He looks over my shoulder at Saffron, then back to me. He takes a breath.
“She’s holding something back from us, Yarra,” he says.
“Well, if she is, then it’s your own damn fault. You and the rest of you racists .”
“Racists? We’re the same species—”
“Then act like it! Come on, Saffron.”
I take her by the hand and lead her up the stairs to the dormitory doors.