Page 34 of Clawless

“Not bad,” Jasmine hurried to reassure me. “Just unusual. And how can a connection with one of these little terrors ever be bad?”

I chewed on my lip. “Do you think they can do the same? See into my mind, too?”

Nadia scooped up the nearest pup, who gave an indignant yip. His brother began to whine, which turned mournful when I handed him to Jasmine. “Just to be safe,” Nadia said. “And we should be getting them to sleep, anyway.”

“Of course.” I drew my knees up and began picking bits of gold puppy fur off my comforter. Anything other than looking at the pups as the girls carried them to the door. “Thanks, though. I really loved meeting them.”

The girls gave me wistful looks as they left, and I tried not to listen to the sad little yips as the pups realized their visit was over. But that empty feeling was back, almost worse now I knew what I was missing. Brushing the torn cards and bits of chewed wool onto the floor, I pulled my bedraggled comforter back over me and tried to will sleep to come. But the pups’ scent was all around me, and I couldn’t get those little flashes of excitement out of my head. Especially because the last one they’d shared had been a picture of me from the doorway. And it wasn’t me sitting in the tangled mess of my bed, but a black wolf, with bright green eyes.

Twenty-Four – Vail

I must have slept, because I woke to a scratching sound that was worse than fingernails down a chalkboard. It took me a moment to realize what it was, and then I was springing out of bed, and one of Jasper’s brothers was tumbling into the room. Only he was whining and shaking, and his wild baby smell was overpowered by a sour scent that made the hairs on the back of my neck vibrate. Falling to my knees, I barely caught him as he threw himself into my arms. I reached up and clicked on my lamp, but the bulb made a popping sound, and the pup buried his trembling snout in my armpit.

His little flashes hit me like a hammer fist. I saw myself again – both in human and wolf form – and lots of repeat images from the night before, but then a face looming over him, and the glass of a windowpane, lit up by a crescent moon. For a moment his mind jumped back and forth between Jasper and myself so quickly I felt dizzy, but then he looked at my bedroom window and howled.

I tucked him tight to my chest and ran to my window, just as a flash of lightning split the sky. It was still full night out, but between the moon and the gathering storm I could see right to the tree line. My heart gave a sudden painful thump at what I saw there, and I had to bite back a cry. Because Trey Barakat was watching me, the other pup held hard against his chest. With a jerk of his head, he told me what I already knew. I had to come out, or that pup wasn’t coming back in.

Fury burned in my chest, so sharp it stole my breath. Maybe the asshole could read it in my eyes, because he gave me a slow smile and melted back into the trees.

I buried my face in the pup’s trembling fur. Fuck knows how Trey had got in, or how he had taken a pup without alerting the girls. I ached for my friends, who right this moment could be waking up to find their precious charges missing. A part of me wanted to run to their room and reassure them, but I kept seeing Trey’s big hand over the pup’s face. I’d watched him twist the head off a rabbit before. What could he do to Jasper’s brother if I gave him enough motivation?

I tucked the other pup in the nest of my bed, and stripping off my sweatshirt, wrapped it around his trembling body. I replaced it with a fleece pullover, then pulled on my coat and boots and dropped a kiss on the pup’s head. He was thoroughly covered in my scent now, but pretending I hadn’t met them was kind of pointless. And if I didn’t return with his brother, I’d be facing a shitstorm way beyond a secret nighttime visit.

When he looked up at me and whined, I hesitated for a moment. Maybe I should be taking him straight to one of Jasper’s scary security guards. His mom would have been the obvious choice, but they were all staying in accommodation in Huntington, so the omegas could get the full experience of looking after the pups. Which was about to become the biggest mistake in academy history, if I didn’t get his brother back safe. And I knew I couldn’t risk involving the guards with their trigger fingers. Trey had a natural hatred for any kind of authority. And hundreds of ways of making small things suffer if I stepped out of line.

“I’ll be back with your brother in no time,” I whispered, stroking his soft ears and trying to send him some happy flashes of my own. When Jasper popped into my mind, it wasn’t exactly the sunshiny version, but the pup didn’t seem to mind Scary Alpha. “Hold that thought,” I told him, and pushing the window open, peered out into the frigid night.

I had no idea what security upgrades had been made to Omega House, but I had to assume there were cameras and regular patrols, at the very least. I couldn’t see signs of either, and then I was swinging my legs through the window and dropping to the snowy ground. It was hard-packed under the eaves and I slipped a little on the icy edges. But I was able to pull the window mostly closed before I turned and set off towards the trees.

I barely noticed my surroundings as I trudged through the thick snow. Lightning was still flashing overhead, and a cold wind tore at my coat, but I felt like I was in a tunnel. All I could hear was the squeak and suck of my boots, the patch of trees ahead my only focus. Trey had obviously seen me coming, because he stepped out right as I reached the cover, and grabbed my sleeve. I didn’t fight him as he pulled me back deeper under the snow-draped trees. I’d planned to keep my cool and try to reason with him, but the sight of the cowered pup set all my protective instincts on fire. “You’re fucking insane, Trey! This school is full of wolves who’ll rip your throat out for threatening one of their pups.”

He didn’t look fazed in the slightest. If anything, he looked blissed out, the wild gleam in his eyes replaced by something soft and heated. I’d seen Trey wear a lot of different masks, but this was a new one. And the happy smile he gave me sent a tremor down my spine. “Don’t worry, little V. They don’t see what’s right under their nose.”

I looked at the pup. He was unmoving under the pressure of Trey’s hand. But it was the pose of a body locked in terror and the sharp scent of his fear tore at my ragged nerves. The urge to snatch him up was so strong, I had to wrap my arms around myself. “So why am I here, Trey? Because I’m not leaving with you, if that’s what you think.”

“I wish you could,” he said with another of those dreamy smiles. “But it’s not safe.”

“No shit.” I couldn’t keep the sneer off my face. “Those friends of yours chased me through the woods like I was prey.”

“I didn’t want that,” he snapped back, with a glimmer of the old crazy in his amber eyes. “They had me by the throat, or I never would have let them touch you. But it’s different now. My old man’s dead. Puts me in charge of a few things.”

Trey’s dad, Clayton, was famous in the Horn for spawning four devil sons, then going feral and skipping out on the family home. According to local gossip, he had been living buck naked in the far north ever since. Darkness and I had always giggled at the thought, but that was before I knew that feral wolves were no laughing matter. I wondered if his dad’s passing explained Trey’s eerily happy state. “I’m sorry for your loss, Trey, but I can’t be out here with you. And I need to take the pup back inside.”

He just grunted and pulled me in tight, nuzzling deep into my hair. He’d always been a hands-on stalker, and he’d never tried to hide the threat beneath his touch. But this felt almost… affectionate, and I pulled back to stare at him. “What’s wrong with you? Are you drunk?”

“Just happy to see you, little V.” He ran his nose along my cheek and dropped a playful kiss on the edge of my mouth. “It won’t be long now, and you’ll have better options than this stuck-up school.”

I nodded, because as disturbing as it was to be near him in this mood, I was pretty sure he wasn’t here to hurt me. “I’m eighteen in about six weeks.”

“No more hiding then, V,” he told me in a firm voice, that strange black film sliding across his eyes. “I’ll stay close, in case you need me. But you’re going to have to do most of it on your own. Just remember how strong you are. Horn bred, and tough enough to take on a Barakat.”

I nodded again – not because I believed one word of his psycho ramblings - but because he was pushing the pup into my arms. His eyes were still black beneath his ragged cap, but he gave me another of those loopy smiles and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “They’ve been chasing their tails for days. Stupid fuckers. That’s what happens when you fool yourself into thinking you’re top of the tree.” He lay a quick hard kiss on my cheek. “See you soon, little V.”

He had melted back into the trees before I heard the first of the wolves. Racing paws thundered across the snow, and the pup almost climbed inside my coat to escape them. I could see the moonlight glinting off the approaching wolf’s brown fur, and I’d turned and was running back to Omega House before I could stop myself. A howl went up from somewhere behind me and then the black-clad security guards were tearing around the side of the building. I stumbled into a snowdrift, but the pup’s frightened whimpers spurred me on. Dragging myself free, I was almost at my window when one of the guards grabbed the back of my coat. My boot slipped on a patch of ice and I skidded sideways, then went down hard on my back.

“Stay down, Omega,” the guard snapped, just as his partner flicked back my hood. Their expressions would have been amusing, if the pup’s claws weren’t lodged in either side of my neck.

The guard touched his earpiece. “Relay to Clan Alpha, we have his brother. And his… omega.” He grimaced. “Shit, she’s bleeding. Take the pup and I’ll get her up.”

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