Unstoppable (Their Shifter Academy #6) - May Dawson Page 0,31
barb. There might be more, but there were at least three of them, and my sister here too.
“So it shouldn’t be any trouble then if I challenge you for alpha.” Penn’s voice was as relaxed as ever, even with his gun still gripped in his hand. “Should be an easy fight, huh?”
“Penn.” I shook my head frantically. The alpha had taken my dad’s eye long ago. I didn’t want to see Penn hurt.
“I’ve got a plan,” Penn mouthed at me.
“That doesn’t mean it’s a good one,” I mouthed back.
“Oh really?” There was a laugh in the alpha’s voice. “Okay, fine. But I win, I’m staking Lex out in the yard again and making sure I don’t waste any time finishing him off. That was my mistake last time—giving the little brat time to weasel his way out of chains.”
My body was taut with anger, but I just nodded. I knew what would happen to me if they got their hands on me and thought that no one from the Northsea pack or Penn’s pack or the academy could interfere. Right now, no one else could shift except for packs like the Kierneys that had aligned with the witches. They thought they had all the power.
I didn’t see how Penn could beat a wolf that could shift either, for that matter, when Penn was trapped as…Penn…all the time. My friend with the ruffled dirty-blond hair and slender but athletic build. He was definitely not a shrimp, but the alpha of my pack was bigger.
And a whole lot meaner.
“You can come on down the stairs, all three of you,” the alpha said. “You’ve got my word that nothing will happen to any of you. Yet.”
Chapter Fifteen
Silas
* * *
As I headed through the woods, I skirted along the train tracks, keeping sight of the dark metal through the pines. Maddie and the others would want to come with me, but I had to face those who were tracking us alone.
The thought of killing my best friend was bad enough. The thought of killing him while Maddie looked on was impossible, because Maddie knew who he was to me. She’d seen him in my memories, lifting me out of the mud at the orphanage when I was beaten bloody.
I rubbed my hand across my face. Keen’s words were in my ear: Take nothing with you, and leave no trace. You’re a ghost. Didn’t that apply to our memories just as much?
I murmured a word, and the snow behind me was crisp and fresh as if my boots had never crunched through it. Until I met Maddie, it had always felt better to be a ghost than to be myself.
I was getting worse and worse at leaving no trace, it seemed. I liked being the incredible Silas Zip, rebel magician; I’d wrapped that persona around me like a warm blanket that protected the cold, lonely kid I used to be, until I was nothing but swagger and one-liners and completed missions. I’d made the incredible Silas Zip, and then I’d grown into him.
And then I’d wrapped Silas Adelphus, dreamy, geeky werewolf around me like a second blanket. I could let that Silas fall in love with Maddie and become part of the team and jostle with the guys, and know that deep down I was someone else, someone who could walk away. It was just an act.
Maybe I wasn’t actually any of those people anymore. The lonely kid, the cocky rebel magician. I sure as hell wasn’t a werewolf.
Nothing would ever turn me into a shifter, and as much as I loved Maddie, nothing would ever turn me into her fated mate, either. I was just…human.
And now it was time to leave it all in the past, because I’d seen Frederick wearing an Establishment magician uniform, and no one knew me better. He knew how I operated because he’d been trained the just same as I was.
And he’d be tracking me unless I tracked him down first.
Part of me hoped he wasn’t following me at all. Maybe our friendship meant something to him, and maybe he hadn’t been recruited to track down other Rebel Magicians. Maybe he was some kind of double agent, not a traitor.
All those possibilities were unlikely.
And if I were true to our training, I’d eliminate the threat before I could lose control of my mission.
I retraced my way toward where we’d leapt from the train. The others should go to our location in the city; they might lose some time looking