Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson #3)(28)
Author: Patricia Briggs

"Yep," I agreed.

She looked at me, started to laugh, and then her face crumpled again. "Tuesday, I have to go to school with them," she said.

"They were Finley kids?" I asked.

She nodded and went back to cleaning her face. "They said that they didn’t want a freak in their school. I’ve known – "

I cleared my throat rather loudly, interrupting her – and she gave me a little smile. Her father could hear us, so it was better not to give him too many hints about her attackers. If they’d done more to her, I wouldn’t be so concerned for them. But the incident wasn’t worth people dying over it. What was needed was an education, not a murder. However, those boys needed to understand just how dumb attacking the Alpha’s daughter was.

"I didn’t expect it at all. Not from them," she said. "I don’t know what they’d have done if Gabriel hadn’t seen what was happening." She gave me a smile then, a real smile that didn’t stop when she pressed the cold cloth against her lip, which was beginning to swell up pretty well. "You should have seen him. We were in that little parking lot behind the art gallery, you know, the one with the giant paintbrushes out front?"

I nodded.

"I guess Gabriel was walking on the little road below us and heard me cry out. He was up the hill and over the fence as fast as my father could have done it."

I doubted that – werewolves are fast. What I didn’t doubt was that the effect of being rescued by someone like Gabriel, who, with his velvety brown skin, his black eyes, and his fair share of muscle, was not exactly hard on the eyes at any time.

"You know," I told her with a conspiratorial smile, "it’s probably a good thing that he didn’t know who they were, either."

"I’ll find out," said Gabriel behind my right shoulder.

I’d heard him coming. Maybe I should have warned her, but he deserved to hear the hero worship in her voice. He wasn’t the only one in the hall, but the wolves, who’d all followed him up, were keeping out of Jesse’s sight.

Gabriel gave me an ice pack and watched Jesse duck behind the washcloth to hide her blush. His face was set. "I could have caught up to them, but I wasn’t sure how badly hurt Jesse was. Cowards – " He started to spit, then realized where he was and restrained himself. "Takes a pair of real macho men to pick on a girl half their size."

He looked at me. "On the way home, Jesse said that she thought she’d been set up. Those girls she was with, one of them, the girl with the car, has a thing for one of the boys. And the boys knew where to wait for her. There aren’t many places you could beat someone up without people seeing them. They’d pulled her behind one of those big dumpsters. Someone put a lot of planning into this."

Finley High is a small school.

"Do you want to transfer to Kennewick High?" I asked her, knowing that her father was listening from the bedroom. I couldn’t hear him, but I could feel his intent and see it in the stiff postures of the wolves. If we weren’t very careful, the whole pack would be after those stupid boys.

"Gabriel goes to Kennewick, and I know he has a lot of friends who will watch out for you. Or you could go to Richland, where Aurielle teaches." Aurielle was another of Adam’s three female wolves, Darryl’s mate, and a high school chemistry teacher.

Jesse whipped the washcloth off her face and gave me a look that reminded me that she was her father’s daughter. "I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction," she said coldly. "But they won’t take me by surprise again. I fought like a girl because I couldn’t believe they were really going to hit me. I won’t make that mistake again either."

"You’ll have to start practicing aikido again, then," said Adam, his voice as quiet and calm as if he hadn’t just thrown a hissy fit a few minutes ago. "You’re three years out of practice, and if you are only half their weight, you’ll have to do better than that."

He walked out of his bedroom, a dark blue washcloth in his hand. If his eyes had been darker, I’d have bought the calm facade. He’d managed somehow to stuff all that anger and Alpha energy down and out of sight. But I’d believe the cold yellow eyes before I believed the quiet voice. He handed me the washcloth, but his gaze was on Jesse.

"Yes," she said with grim determination.

"She hurt them," Gabriel said. "One of them had a bloody nose and the other was holding on to his side while he ran off." He gave her an assessing look, which I was glad Adam didn’t see. "I bet they’re more hurt than she is."

Darryl cleared his throat, and when Adam looked at him, he said, "Send her with an escort to and from school." Jesse was a general favorite. If Adam hadn’t been so enraged, there would have been a lot more growls from the wolves. Darryl’s eyes were lighter than they usually were, too. The gold was eerie in his dark face.

"Send her with a werewolf," I suggested, "in wolf form. For the first few days he can wait for her in front of the school, somewhere very visible."

"No," said Jesse. "I won’t be a freak show."

Adam raised an eyebrow. "You’ll do as you’re told."

"It’s a territorial thing," I told Jesse. "Even mundane people play those stupid games. They tried a power play and your father cannot just let it go. If he does, the harassment will get worse – until someone dies." That’s what all the werewolf politics and posturing that I complained about so much really did, kept people alive.

"You should call the police and the school and warn them," said Honey. "So no one gets hurt."

"Do a show and tell," suggested Gabriel. "Call Jesse’s biology teacher – or aren’t you taking a course in Current Affairs? That would be better. You can take your class out and give them an up-close and personal with a werewolf. Same effect but less embarrassing for Jesse."

Adam smiled, showing lots of teeth. "I like that."

Jesse brightened a little. "Maybe I can get extra credit."

"The school will never go for it," Darryl said. "The liability is too great if something happened."

"I’ll check into it," Adam said.

Jesse was a little pale, but she wasn’t seriously injured. A hot shower would help with the soreness – and she needed to shower before her father calmed down enough to realize that she didn’t need to tell him who had attacked her. If I could get their scent, so could he.

I made a dismissive gesture at the whole lot of them, Gabriel, Adam, and werewolves. "Go downstairs and work it out," I told them. "I want to get a better look at some of Jesse’s bruises so I can make sure that she doesn’t need Samuel to come check her out."