You in there, dude? Ryan asked him on their pack link.
Yeah, just … this shit is amazing. Wait until you bond her, then you’ll understand, Oz told him.
Way to rub it in, dick, Ryan grumbled, but there was no true anger in his tone.
You need to get her to bond you soon, those fuckers are going to try to take her away.
What do you mean, take her where?
Ryan let out a little growl
Stay focussed, Nick said over the larger link. She’s going to need us through this.
Oz wondered what he was talking about, until the dread coming from Melody had his wolf howling. What the fuck were they making her do now?
“Take us to the weakest ones first, the ones you said are palliative,” the councillor demanded.
The healer frowned but led them over to another cot, where the shifter was hooked up to an IV of clear fluid. Oz didn’t know what it was, but it made his nose twitch and his wolf wince.
Melody bent down, ignoring the blood on her and rested two fingers on the skeletal woman’s head. “Yes,” she said, quietly.
Nick surged forward, pulling her back into his chest and turning her away. There was a surge of magic, Melody cried out, and then the woman shook and shuddered a few times before falling unnaturally still.
It took Oz a moment to realise what was going on. They were using Melody to identify the infected shifters, then killing them. Breaking the bonds on the weakest ones was the quickest and kindest way. It also stopped the witches from draining more strength from them.
The healer stared at them aghast and then refused to help any more.
Irritated, the councillor merely guided Melody to the next cot, regardless of who lay in it. She touched the shifter, nodded, and then turned into Nick’s chest again, her shoulders shaking in silent sobs.
“We didn’t have a name for that one,” the healer said. “He never woke up.”
“Isaac Pendleson,” Melody said tearfully. “He disappeared about a decade ago. He was an alpha wolf shifter.”
Now it was Oz’s turn to want to throw up. They did that to an alpha wolf?
Over and over again, Melody gave a death sentence to the shifters. On occasion, the councillor would simply move on, but there was no rhyme nor reason to it that Oz could see, other than that they seemed to be some of the stronger shifters there. Was that because they were more recently infected? He didn’t really want to know.
Eventually, he stood back, letting her do what she had to do, and sending his love to her every time her heart broke a bit more. Seriously, how much could one person be forced to endure?
The new students, sent like stud males to a mare in heat, watched her avidly, analysing every move she made. Weighing, judging. It was like they were putting her through her paces, and it made Oz’s blood boil. Couldn’t they see how fucking amazing she was?
His growing anger began to eat through the buzz he got from their new bond. That and her constant despair. Each fresh wound on her heart tearing a bit of his own.
The shifter, a bear he was reasonably sure, was a different game altogether. He had to have transferred in from another academy somewhere, but given his accent, Oz was starting to suspect that he’d actually come from one of the European ones, rather than one of the other beast magic academies in the US.
Ryan, can you get her some food? Oz, Asher, can you get some for the rest of us? Nick asked them.
What about the bear? Oz asked, irritated.
He doesn’t know where the dining hall is, Nick replied, matching the irritation with his own.
Oz rolled his eyes and turned away from Melody, picking his way through the cots to the doorway. One of the healers stopped him, handing him a set of scrubs. Fuck, he was still naked. He pulled them on while responding to Nick.
I meant, can we trust him. He’s after her, you know.
You think he’s going to challenge her in this state? If he does, do you think I wouldn’t shift and fucking eat him on the spot? Fuck the bear, she’s running on empty. Get her some fucking food.
He felt foolish. Of course she would be fine. Nick was his brother and a fucking dragon to boot. He’d look after their witch.
Tone it down, you two, Dean chided. The new bond hits you hard the first few days. Everything is a threat, you want to run interference for every encounter she has. It settles, but be prepared for your beast to be antsy as fuck for a bit.
As reluctant as he was to leave her, he also knew that she’d be safe, no matter what the provost did or said in there. As long as the councillor was present, he’d make sure that things were fair. He seemed to have a pretty decent head on his shoulders, given that he was high in witch politics.
It was hard focussing on his task, when his emotions were focussed on her and every pang of pain that she felt as she basically assigned the shifters a death sentence. He nearly lost his shit, however, when surprise surged down the bond. He’d spun on the spot to race back, when Nick spoke to them.
It was one of the missing students. She didn’t know him, but I did, and he’s not tainted. It was a good feeling to rescue him.
Oz lost count of the pulses of pain he’d felt. They far outweighed the far more pleasant surprises. He didn’t think she’d be able to stomach much after all this, so although the rest of them got cold cut meats and small amounts of salad, he got her a large sealed travel mug of soup. He nearly got her tomato soup, but when he saw it, it reminded him too much of the blood that stained her from head to foot.
He was already getting
