Fall Semester (Omega Wolf Academy Book 2) Page 15

  I frowned. “You saw her go pale but didn’t think to go check on her, to see if she was safe?” Lucian squeezed my hand again.

  I wrenched it free and pointed a finger in the pretentious professor’s face, forcing him to step back. “You saw her in distress and didn’t try to help or even call campus security?” My voice pitched lower with each word until it was a growl.

  His eyes went wide, and he backed up, fumbling with the spray bottle. “I didn’t think…”

  “She’s more important than fucking plants!” I growled again, just as Chase and Dimitri stepped into the room. Their eyes went wide at the sight of me in full feral mode. “Now where did they go?” I bared my teeth.

  “T...that way,” he stammered, pointing towards the fall wall.

  I turned my back on the simpering idiot and strode towards the doors without looking back. My guys fell into step behind me.

  Outside the doors, the space opened into a small paved courtyard with benches and picnic tables for those who wanted to eat surrounded by flowers. I moved through the space, noting the three possible exits, and took in a deep breath, searching for Alyssa’s scent. The only scents I smelled, though, were floral.

  “Where did you go?” I muttered, trailing a hand over one of the benches. “Anything?” I called out, looking up to see my guys all shake their heads.

  My chest tightened. I pulled out my cell again and pressed dial on her number, hoping to the Old Ones that she’d pick up and this would have all been a misguided adventure. I walked absently through one of the arches leading away from the gardens as it rang and listened to her voicemail one more time. I was about to leave another message when I smelled it.

  Blood.

  Chapter 19

  "It's definitely hers," I murmured, lifting the drop of blood that smeared red on the end of my finger to my nose.

  Dimitri nodded. "Agreed. We have our starting point, but I can't find a trail to follow." He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, focusing on tasting the air. After a moment he opened his eyes and shook his head. "This would be easier if I shifted."

  I pulled my purse over my head and tossed it to the ground, followed by my scarf and gloves.

  "You're shifting, too?" Lucian asked.

  "Yeah," I said. "I have a good nose, and I know her scent better than any of you. If the two of us shift, we should be able to find her trail and track them."

  Lucian and Chase nodded in agreement. I unzipped my jacket and tossed it to the ground as, beside us, Dimitri called to his wolf and shifted.

  I shimmied out of my jeans and panties, and shivered in the cold autumn night air. Dimitri brushed up against my bare leg, whining slightly, then stepped back and waited for me to join him.

  My wolf came quickly, surging through me with that ancient magic that tore muscles and bone apart, reforming them so fast that the pain was all-consuming, yet over in a flash. I shook my head when it was over, shaking out my newly formed muscles, and lifted my nose into the air.

  Dimitri had started searching while I was shifting, and was moving between trees, his head bent to the forest floor to pick up any trace scents of Alyssa. I moved in the opposite direction, knowing he'd be thorough, and began searching my area.

  I caught her scent a moment later, and raced forward, looking back to catch my mates' attention with a quiet yip.

  It was another drop of blood, this one smaller than the other. I bent my nose to it and inhaled, then pawed the leaves away from around it while Chase knelt to examine the evidence.

  "It looks fresh," he said. "No more than an hour, maybe less." He ran a hand over the line of my back and stood up. "I don't see any tracks, though. Unless…" He trailed off. "There!" Chase pointed towards the branch of a tree that had been snapped.

  I approached it slowly, trying to find Alyssa's scent on the branch. Disappointed, I looked up at Chase and shook my head.

  Dimitri barked, drawing our gazes up from the branch. He pawed the ground beneath his feet and motioned us over.

  I smelled her as I drew near and breathed in the scent of copper. Like the last drop, this was small, almost impossible to find. I looked up at Lucian, as I realized what this was.

  "She's leaving us a trail," he murmured, grinning down at me. Lucian squatted and gathered me in his arms, squeezing tightly. "She's alive, and smart," he said, quietly. "It'll be okay, I promise."

  But I knew a promise wouldn't keep her alive.

  Dimitri and I spread out, keeping our noses low to the ground, searching for more drops of blood. Alyssa's trail led us along the outskirts of campus, taking us straight to her and her captor.

  I ignored the terror that threatened to seize my muscles and dull my mind. I needed to be at my best to save her, to keep her from experiencing the horror I'd gone through when Randall had kidnapped me over the summer. I needed to think, to reason, and figure out if Sean had the same end goal Randall had. Randall hadn't wanted to kill me, at least, not at first. He'd wanted to use me, to blackmail Sylvie, and Katherine, and Liam.

  Blackmail and greed I understood. They were simple motives. What if Sean's motive wasn't the same? I exhaled and stopped dead in my tracks when Chase's hand closed over the back of my neck.

  I looked up, tilting my head to the side in question at Dimitri, whose entire body had gone stiff, like a point setter, intent on its prey.

  In the distance, illuminated by a single lamp, was a grey building that kind of disappeared into the shadows. Keeping to the pads of my feet, I moved forward, slowly, and hid with Chase, Lucian, and Dimitri behind a large bush.

  She was in there, I could feel it.

  I nipped at Chase's leg and threw myself back into my shift. As silently as possible, I pulled on the clothes Chase had carried for me and lifted my chin towards the building.

  Dimitri stayed a wolf, an instinct I agreed with. As a man, he was formidable, but as a wolf…

  I shut down the image of him biting into Randall's neck and ripping out his throat. It was one thing to know your mate was deadly, and quite another to relive it in your memory.

  Still hidden by the bush, we looked at one another, too worried about being heard to speak. I reached out my hands to touch my mates, then lifted my finger to my mouth and indicated that we stay silent. There was no need, though, we were all on the exact same page.

  Save Alyssa. Stop her captor at whatever cost.

  Lucian touched my arm gently and nodded his head towards the building. He touched his chest and then pointed to Chase and curved his hand to the left, then pointed to Dimitri and I and curved his hand to the right. I nodded. We had our teams and directions.

  I closed my eyes and prayed for strength.

  We split up, going around the bush on opposite sides, moving through the trees and over falling leaves that we tried desperately not to crunch beneath our feet.

  The building loomed, dark and foreboding, and the scent of metal filled my nose. I scanned the area, seeing several trucks and cars, and caught the scent of students, lots of them. That overwhelmed my senses and made it impossible to single out Alyssa's scent. Still, we knew she was inside from the trail of blood she'd left for us to find.

  Unless she hadn't left the trail, I thought.

  My spine went stiff and my breath caught painfully in my chest. Surely, Alyssa's captor, her own fucking boyfriend, would have caught the scent of her blood dripping into the leaves. I chewed my lip.

  The drops had been minuscule, and we'd only found them because we were in our wolf forms. Sean wouldn't have been able to smell them if he remained human, which he had been when they'd left the botanical gardens.

  The impossibly tight ball of fear and anxiety in my stomach lessened just the tiniest bit. Not much, though, seeing as we had to infiltrate a dark building and save Alyssa without knowing anything about the interior layout.

  The clash of metal on metal made me freeze in place and I crouched down to wrap my arm around Demetri's body. Together, hunched on the floor of the forest just
outside the building, we listened.

  "This is getting tedious," the voice said. "My patience is wearing thin. Either you shut up or I'll make you shut up." That sickening sound of metal on metal rang out again. "Don't worry, I won't kill you. Unless I need to. You're useful, but not indispensable."

  I listened for the sound of any other voice, worrying that we would be caught unaware if there were others, but heard nothing beyond Sean's threats and Alyssa's whimpering.

  I ran my fingers through Dimitri’s fur and wished I could speak with him. Some of this didn't make sense. Like, what was Sean planning to do with Alyssa if he wasn't planning on killing her? How did he plan to get her off campus? Did he have a weapon other than whatever metal thing he kept threatening Alyssa with? There were too many unanswered questions, which made this more dangerous than it looked on the surface.

  Maybe we should wait, slow it down and do more reconnaissance. But my mates had another plan.

  I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and watched as Lucian and Chase reached the other side of the building and disappeared to find another way in.

  Regardless of what I wished, it was time to move, now.

  Dimitri nodded towards the front door and stepped back, lowering his head and shoulders and baring his teeth. I nodded and closed my fingers around the handle, knowing he’d pounce and attack the moment I pulled it open. The sound of his attack would signal Lucian and Chase to move in. We’d have Sean surrounded.

  I tested the handle first and found it locked. That was nothing, though, I thought. I had enough rage inside me to demolish the lock. Taking a deep breath, I steeled my spine, counted backwards from three, and wrenched the door open.

  Dimitri sprang through the opening, teeth bared, ears flattened, and bounded straight towards a stunned Sean.

  But the distance was too great to get the drop on him. Sean pivoted, swinging what I now saw was a crowbar around as he spun, picking up momentum. Dimitri saw the blow coming and flattened his entire body on the floor to escape what would have crushed bones. At the same moment, a door at the back of the room crashed open and Lucian and Chase spilled in, fists raised and teeth bared.

  I screamed, an ear shattering sound that, I hoped, would serve as a distraction long enough to give my other mates enough time to surround the asshole.

  It worked. Sean glanced up, renewed shock written across his face, quickly replaced by something I couldn't quite identify. But that split-second of distraction gave Dimitri the opening he needed to move. He rolled his body to the side, and came up, teeth snapping.

  Sean screamed as Dimitri's teeth clamped around his calf muscle and held on. Blood spurted onto the floor, over my mate's fur, and down his throat. The scent of it filled the room, calling to my wolf. I kept her at bay, promising to let her out if necessary. But, right now, I needed my voice to save my sister.

  Sean lifted the crowbar once more and swung it towards Dimitri, this time making contact. I winced at the sound of breaking bone, but knew my mate would be all right when he limped away, out of reach of the metal bar.

  "We've got you surrounded," I said, lifting my chin to give off an air of arrogance. I needed him to believe, without a doubt, that he had no other choice but to give up.

  Alyssa sat, tied to a chair, mere feet away from where he stood, breathing rapidly as his calf muscle leaked blood. She seemed unharmed, except for a few minor cuts and bruises that would heal quickly enough.

  I let my gaze dart to her for a moment, then leveled them back on Sean.

  "What do you plan to achieve here?" I asked, tilting my head to the side patronizingly. "You've got no backup, no way off campus, and no real weapon." I scoffed, hoping it would enrage him enough to make a mistake.

  He laughed, the last reaction I would have expected given the circumstances. A skitter of fear chased up my spine. Either he was absolutely insane, or there was more to this situation than we were seeing.

  Sean stepped back, closing the distance between him and Alyssa, and pulled a knife out from some hidden pocket so fast that I would have missed it if I'd have blinked.

  He growled and pressed the blade which glinted in the overhead lights, against Alyssa's throat, making my heart seize.

  "Back off!" he shouted. The sharp edge of the knife sliced through the outer layers of skin, releasing a trickle of blood that flowed down her neck and over her chest, staining the pretty white eyelet dress she'd worn for their special date.

  I raised my hands into the air, showing that I held no weapons. "What do you want, Sean?" I asked. "If you kill her, he'll tear you to shreds." I didn't have to say Dimitri's name or even look at him. We both knew exactly who I was referring to and what he was capable of.

  Sean's face twisted in a horrible mockery of a smile. "Kill me, go ahead." He shrugged and lifted his free hand into the air to gesture freely. “It is fitting that the one should die for the many.”

  I slow blinked. “Did you just quote scripture at me?” I asked, stunned. As far as I knew, Raphael hadn’t had a religious bone in his body and, if he had, it certainly wasn’t a Christian bone. We were wolves, we had our own beliefs.

  Sean laughed and pressed the knife closer to Alyssa’s carotid, making my pulse jump. I had to keep him talking. Had to distract him again somehow so he dropped the knife, but we were out of surprises.

  I remembered what Randall had told me, the plans he’d had to ransom me off to secure a better life, a life he deserved as one of Raphael’s sycophants. It had made me sick, but was definitely something I could use right now.

  “Take me,” I blurted, then blanched. I hadn’t meant to say that and knew from the low growls, both human and wolf, that my mates were not on board with the offer. It was too late, though, I needed to move forward or risk Alyssa’s life. “Randall said it himself. I’m the one with the connections, not her. Rose and Liam barely know her.” I jutted my chin in Alyssa’s direction. “Do you honestly think they’ll move the sun and stars for someone they barely know and don’t really care about?” I gritted my teeth, committing to the role. “How much more do you think they’d do to get me back?”

  I saw Lucian and Chase move forward, their entire bodies poised for battle, and shook my head at them. They needed to let me handle this. I was Alyssa’s sister. It was my job to keep her safe, to keep her alive.

  Sean nodded his head slowly as if he were considering my offer. My stomach roiled painfully at the thought of leaving my mates, giving myself up to torture and incarceration, again. To save her, though, to save any of them, it was worth it.

  “It’s a good offer,” Sean said, tapping his free finger against his mouth. “But, nahhh,” he said in a singsong voice.

  My stomach and mouth dropped.

  His laughter echoed off the walls. “You didn’t think you were special, did you?” he asked, with mock sincerity. His eyes went dark and flat. “Well, you’re not. You’re just one pawn in a game of chess you’re not smart enough to play. Randall was obsessed with you and too unstable to be trusted. We should have put him down long ago. Our mistake, one that won’t be repeated.” He tapped the blade’s edge against Alyssa’s throat, drawing more blood. “I know you’re trying to be all heroic and brave, trying to save your sister, but why bother? You’re all dispensable. Little plastic clones grown in a laboratory. It’s not like you’re real wolves,” he spat with vitriol.

  Acid burned my throat. My mates’ growls grew louder.

  “Besides,” Sean added, grinning from ear to ear. “You’re too late to help your sisters. They’re already ours.”

  Movement at the back end of the room caught my attention and my blood went cold as shadows turned to men, armed with blades and bared teeth.

  Chapter 20

  For a moment, no one moved, then one of the new wolves leaped forward, catching Lucian’s shoulder with his blade. I screamed in terror and opened to my wolf.

  It was time.

  She surged through me, tearing me apart and putting me back togeth
er in seconds, while a battle erupted around me. I smelled blood, Alyssa’s, Dimitri’s, Lucian’s and others I recognized as the newcomers.

  Feral energy pumped through me, narrowing my world down to each passing moment. My senses worked differently as a wolf than they did when I was human. I saw the jump of Sean’s pulse as I circled him, I felt the tension in the room ratchet up as lives went on the line, and I heard my mate’s voices echo in my mind.

  I stopped, paw held in the air, too shocked to move, and lifted my gaze to the back of the room where Lucian and Chase were also frozen in time. I watched in horror as one of Sean’s co-conspirators charged towards Chase, knife raised, eyes blazing with triumph.

  Chase, behind you! I screamed, out loud and in my mind at the same moment Dimitri shouted Chase, duck!

  Chase fell to his knees, narrowly avoiding the swipe of the blade that would have cut straight through his neck.

  I yowled at the close call and looked desperately from one of my mates to the other. I felt Dimitri move up to flank me, and heard his voice say clearly inside my mind. There are two more coming through the front doors.

  I whirled and saw that he was right. Sean wasn’t alone. Four guys moved in, silently stalking us. My heart pounded as I realized we were outnumbered.

  Lexi. Lucian’s voice pushed against my racing thoughts. Calm your mind. He skirted around a car that had its hood propped open, staying out of reach of any weapons while searching for something to use.

  We can hear each other, I stated the now obvious conclusion to our situation.

  Cool, Chase said with obvious enthusiasm. Now how the hell are we going to get out of this? Lucian, how’s your shoulder?

  It’s alright. I can fight, Lucian replied. You hanging in there, Dimitri?

  I’m fine, Dimitri said in as dark a tone as I’d ever heard come from his lips. But Alyssa won’t be if we don’t take these fuckers out soon. Shut down the panic and keep an eye out. Watch each other’s backs and we’ll walk out of here alive. Lucian, there’s a pipe two feet to your right.