Werewolf Academy Book 1: Strays (17 page)

Alex was surprised to see the Alpha still awake. “Same to you, apparently.”

Jericho smiled. “Boris asked us
to come up with some training regimens for tomorrow night. I thought I’d work here because Lyra caught me diagraming on the back of my notebook during Biology.”

“That’s what the commotion was about,” Alex said with a laugh. He limped to the chair across from the Alpha and sat down. “I thought she was giving you a hard time for an answer in your homework.”

“That, too,” Jericho admitted. “The question asked me to describe an atom. I said I don’t trust them because they make up everything.”

Alex chuckled. “And she didn’t like that answer?”

He shook his head. “She said I needed to assert myself more.”

“She has a point,” Alex
replied. At Jericho’s look, he laughed. “Lighten up. You’re the one planning battle strategies past midnight. It’d help to have a sense of humor.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Jericho said. He passed the paper to Alex. “What do you think?”

Alex took the paper, surprised that the Alpha wanted his opinion. He looked it over. “It’s good,” he said.

“Don’t try to protect my feelings,” Jericho replied dryly.

Alex grinned. “It’s great. I think Boris was right to ask you.” He studied the paper closer. “What do you think of sending the Seconds left instead of right?”

“It’ll create a n
et with the enemy in the middle,” Jericho said musingly. He accepted the paper back. “Good idea.” He erased a few lines and drew new paths for the Seconds to follow. He nodded. “I think that’s what was missing. I knew it was something, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.”

“I’m heading to bed,” Alex said, rising. “Battle planning is too deep for this kind of night.”

“I agree.” Jericho stood as well. “Night, Alex.”

“Goodnight,” Alex replied, limping sleepily to his room.

It was obvious everyone could feel the full moon coming. Nobody could sit still in their seats.

“By the end of June, the French surrendered to the Germans, but Britain won the Battle of Britain, fending off air attacks and eliminating German’s chance of gaining foothold. In Operation Barbarossa. . . .” Professor Thorson looked around the room. “Is anyone listening?”

“Something about Twinkies?” Torin guessed. His pack broke into laughter.

Professor Thorson gave a self-suffering sigh and leaned against his desk. “If I didn’t know the full moon was tonight, I would have guessed it by the pack of wild animals in my classroom.”

Alex grinned. “You can’t blame us, Professor. We don’t have a choice.”

Professor Thorson nodded. “Yes,
but I do have a choice. My choice is to let you guys go before I either recite myself blue in the face despite the fact that no one is listening, or I go crazy enough with your wiggling to join your packs under the moon.”

“Uh, you’re not a werewolf,” Pip commented,
sitting on his history book as though he was hatching an egg.

Professor Thorson gave the Second Year a flat look. “Yes; thank you, Pip, for pointing out the obvious.
Be gone, the lot of you. Come back tomorrow with your instincts eased and a reestablished ability to sit still for an hour.”

“We never had that ability,” Trent muttered.

Everyone put their books back on the shelf and hurried from the room. Alex was about to leave when he noticed Cassie holding back. He leaned against the cold door frame to see what she was up to.

Professor Thorson was busy erasing the whiteboard and humming to himself. He glanced over his shoulder and appeared surprised that there was still a student left.

“May I help you, Cassie?”

She nodded, her brown curls bouncing on her shoulders. “Yes, Professor. I have a question.”

“Ask away,” the professor replied. “I don’t have another class until three ten, and I’ll probably just have to send them away as well. There’s plenty of time for your question.”

Cassie
perched on the front of a desk and balanced her history book on her knees. “Now that the world knows about werewolves, will they rewrite the books?” she asked.

Professor Thorson’s eyebrows rose. “Why would they do that?”

She set a hand on her book. “If history is a true accounting of what actually happened, won’t they need to include the history of the new race they just found out exists?”

The professor gave her a kind smile. He folded his bony arms over his book, trapping it against his chest. “That is the question, isn’t it?”

Cassie nodded.

“They’re afraid,” Professor Thorson said, his tone gentle. “So afraid that they tried to wipe you out.
The same thing has been done to wild wolves in most parts of the world. If they are eliminated, they don’t need to be thought of again. The farmers and ranchers go on without thinking of the animals that were destroyed, because their life is easier that way.”

He studied the book he held in silence for a few minutes before he said,
“I don’t think they’ll ever enter your race in their history books. I’m sorry, Cassie.”

Alex was surprised
to hear that the professor really meant it. Alex cleared his throat. “That’s okay. We don’t want to be in some stupid book anyway,” he said, trying to chase the pain from Cassie’s face.

“But
we should matter,” she said, looking at him over her shoulder.

Alex nodded. “We do matter, and someday maybe it’ll be different, right Professor Thorson?”

The professor nodded. “Right, Alex. Maybe we’ll rewrite the books ourselves.”

Cassie’s face brightened. “That’s what I’ll do when I grow up!”

Professor Thorson patted her shoulder. “I’m sure you will. Now you’d better catch up to the rest of your pack before they get into too much trouble.”

Alex walked beside Cassie up the hall. He could tell the conversation still bothered her. “It’s alright, Cass. We don’t need some book to tell us we exist.”

Cassie nodded. “Yes, but someday they’ll be proud that we exist. They’ll want us in the books.”

“Yes, they will,” Alex promised. “Don’t worry. Someday, werewolves will be
seen as good guys instead of monsters.”

Cassie’s grin warmed him as they made their way to P.E.
It was a few minutes before Pack Boris joined them.

“We all know class isn’t going to happen today,” Vance said
as soon as Pack Jericho and Pack Boris had somewhat settled down. “Don’t bother getting dressed. I know better than to try to teach on a full moon.”

“He teaches?” Trent asked his sister
in an undertone.

Terith elbowed him in the ribs.

“Jaze, well, Dean Jaze to you,” Vance said, “Is going to address the students in the courtyard just before sunset. You might as well head there.”

One class cut short and the other one
being cancelled entirely put all the students in a great mood, especially when they got to skip wearing the ugly gym shorts. The students crowded together through the door.

“Head outside to go around,” Vance
yelled after them. “I don’t need to be scolded for my students destroying the halls.”

Jericho pushed open a side door and herded his pack outside. Boris ignored Vance and thundered with his pack through the school.

“Is it that hard to listen?” Pip asked, looking after them.

“
It’s his pack, his responsibility,” Jericho reminded the Second Year. “Let’s go.”

Pack Jericho ran around the side of the school and reached the courtyard in time to see Nikki scolding Pack Boris as they walked outside.

Pip started laughing. Boris glared over Nikki’s head at Pack Jericho. Jericho slapped Pip on the back hard enough to steal his breath. Pip began to cough instead of laugh.

“Live and learn,” Jericho told him quietly.

The students milled in the courtyard. As more packs began to join them, a few students started games, stalling until night. It felt like the minutes dragged by until sunset.

Finally, Dean Jaze stepped out onto the stairs.
“Students, welcome to the first full moon at the Academy!” Jaze called.

Cheers went up from the mass of waiting packs. Everyone milled anxiously, prey to the moon even though the sun hadn’t yet set.
Alex clenched and unclenched his fists, eager to phase.

“
The full moon games are a way for us to keep you busy when everyone is in wolf form and liable to cause mischief.” Laughter rose at his words. He continued, “For those of you who have never participated in the full moon games before, stick with your packs. In fact, that’s the rule of the night. You cannot reach a checkpoint without your pack, or it doesn’t count,” Jaze explained.

Nikki leaned closer to him. “You should probably explain what a checkpoint is.”

Jaze grinned. “Oh, yes. It’s been a full year since I’ve had to explain this. Pardon me if I’m rusty.” A few staff members laughed. Jaze gestured to the back of the Academy. “The full moon games test the limit of your abilities as a wolf. We always have a game the first full moon of each term. You have to reach one checkpoint before going to the next, and as I said before, you have to achieve them as a pack. The games for the first full moon of the school year vary. Tonight’s will be about using your five senses. I’ll only give you one hint, and that is to follow your nose to the first checkpoint. The next clue will be given to you by the human waiting there.”

He smiled at the professors behind him. “I’d like to thank our human st
aff members who volunteer for every first full moon game for the sake of running the games while the rest of us are, well, unable to speak.”

Chuckles rose.

“Your goal is to collect as many of the senses medals as you can. The pack with the most medals wins a steak dinner,” Jaze concluded.

Laughter came from the watching students.

“Why is that so funny?” Jericho whispered to Alex.

Alex grinned. “Because
we just had a steak dinner.”

“But we want all the medals, right?”

Alex nodded. “Definitely. The most one team has gotten during the full moon is three. Usually they offer five, but nobody’s ever gotten all five.”

Jericho smiled. “Then we’ll get five.”

The rest of the pack nodded with answering grins on their faces.

“Five?” Pip squeaked. “Are you sure?”

“Five senses,” Jericho said. He pointed at the Second Year’s big ears. “We’re going to need those for sonar.”

Everyone laughed, and pride showed on Pip’s face. “I can track anything by sound. Just you wait.”

“Oh, I’m counting on it,” Jericho answered.

A rustle ran through the crowd. Everyone’s eyes turned to the horizon. The first rays of moonlight
showed above the wall. Alex felt the urge to phase as it pulsed across his skin.

“We’ll see you out there,” Jaze told the werewolves.

A flood of students ran up the steps. Jaze, Nikki, Mouse, and Lyra held open the doors. Mouse stood behind them so he wouldn’t be flattened by the mad rush of students. One hundred and fifty-two feet pounding up the stairs made the halls echo as everyone raced to their rooms.

“Happy hunting,” Jericho called over his shoulder, disappearing into his room.

“Same to you,” Alex replied. He pushed his door shut, but was careful not to close it all the way. Every full moon, someone made that mistake and got trapped inside, unable to participate in the games.

Alex pulled of his shirt and pants. His heart raced. He closed his eyes and willed his heartbeat to slow. He thought of the moonlight, of the way it tingled on his skin. An answering shudder ran across his arms and down his legs. He smiled and gave into it.

Phasing didn’t hurt. It felt like stretching sore muscles at first, as though the bones and sinews had been in one place for too long and needed to be reminded where to go. Alex relished the feeling of his joints shifting, of his nose and mouth elongating into a muzzle that drew in each breath filled with scents his brain quickly categorized.

Colors faded and were taken over by grays and blacks so sharp the contrast was beautiful. The shadows in his room thrown by the curtains waving gently over the open windows danced as if they were alive. The carpet felt too soft beneath Alex’s paws; he longed to run across fo
rest loam and down game trails.

Howls arose within the Academy. Alex could hear his pack mates rushing to
Pack Jericho’s meeting room. The sound of paws across the carpet and the eager huffing of the wolves made him grin. It was going to be a night to remember.

Alex nosed his door
open. Several of his pack members were already waiting by the door to the hall. Happiness filled Alex at the sight of Cassie standing there next to Terith. She was small compared to the other girl; both female wolves were cream-colored, but Cassie had her same dark blue eyes. She met Alex’s gaze and wagged her tail. He opened his mouth in a wolfish grin and let his tongue hang out the side. His sister rolled her eyes, reminding him that letting someone know how stupid they looked crossed to wolf form.