Who’s Mal? I asked Dastien.
One of the best wolves I’ve ever known.
Coming from Dastien, that was high praise.
“Good choice.”
“Aye. He’s been working on a problem for me in the area. Just going to have to expand his job a bit now. Pack is feeling better from my end. On yours?” He asked Mr. Dawson.
“Much better, but I wasn’t feeling much before.”
“And you?” Donovan asked me.
“Me?”
“Aye. What are you feeling?”
“It’s good. As soon as you closed the pack, it was like everything solidified. It felt calm again.”
“Good. We’ve had enough of that then. When this bit with Luciana is over with, I’ll meet up with Mal. See what’s what. Until then…” He turned back toward campus. A group of students and Cazadores were watching the flood of Weres leaving campus. “Show’s over. Everyone who’s not patrolling get to bed.”
Mr. Dawson and Donovan headed for the admin building, hauling a very unhappy looking Joseph between them.
I shook my head at the sight. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes. Not in a million years.
Finally, everyone dispersed, with Adrian giving orders on getting their road trip to Peru underway. Dastien and I started walking toward his cabin, but he was even more quiet than usual. “Are you okay?”
“Sure.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
He tucked a strand of curls behind his ear. “Some of the Cazadores that left—they were my friends. I trusted them. Fought with them. But they left? When we’re in the middle of a war with the witches?”
“I’m sorry.” I said the words even though I knew they probably wouldn’t help.
He was hurting now, but Donovan had a point. We were better off cutting loose the Weres who weren’t behind our cause. If we were going to beat Luciana, we had to be united.
If this was part of one of her schemes—to weaken the pack—it had definitely been a good one. Luckily, we’d caught it sooner rather than later.
I had a feeling it wasn’t the last we’d see of those wolves. Maybe they’d stay gone until Luciana was out of the way, but we hadn’t gotten rid of them for good. I just hoped this Mal guy—whoever he was—was as badass as Dastien thought.
For now, I was pushing away any thoughts of rogue Weres. That was one thing off my already full plate.
Now all I had to worry about were psychot
ic witches and night terrors that might be visions of the future.
Chapter Five
An echo boomed through the empty gym as my back slammed against the mat. Air wrenched from my lungs. “Fuck.” I moaned the word as soon as I could catch my breath. It was the third time in less than five minutes that I’d ended up on the floor. The pain receded almost as quickly as it came.
At least being a werewolf was good for some things.
“You okay?” Dastien’s voice had only a hint of concern.
Jerk. “No.” I squeezed my eyes shut. If I pretended really hard, I could nearly imagine I was snug in my bed. Then I caught the scent of the highly polished wood mixed with the plastic in the floor mats and even I couldn’t pretend I was anywhere but the gym.
After a few hours of fitful sleep, we’d seen Adrian, Shane, Beth, and Kaden off on their way to move Raphael, and Dastien had dragged me here.