Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den (14 page)

The boys continued to laugh as she disappeared into a hallway, and Simon's heart sank. He hadn't meant to do anything except prove he could be one of them. But wasn't that exactly what Colin had done, trying to impress Bryan Barker? Look how that had turned out.

“Enough,” called Malcolm. “Pit practice is over. Dining hall, all of you.”

Simon stepped aside just in time to avoid the stampede of students, many of whom elbowed and jostled one another
for
a better view of him as they passed. He could feel their stares on him, and his cheeks burned. Still a freak, just like at school.

Malcolm ambled up beside him, and one glare from him had the remaining students scattering. “Next time you disobey me, I'll put you up against Garrett. He won't be so easy to beat.”

Simon made a face at the thought of the mountain lion's claws. “I thought he was going to hurt her.”

“Still. And I'd be careful if I were you. Ariana doesn't take defeat lightly, and I can't be there to protect you all the time. Now come on. Dining hall's this way.”

Winter was waiting for them when they exited the pit, and she fell into step beside Simon as Malcolm led the way down a grassy hallway. Simon gave her a questioning look, but she shook her head minutely. If she'd had time to look for his mother, she hadn't found anything.

To Simon's surprise, the dining hall wasn't anything like the bland cafeteria back at Kennedy Middle School. Instead it looked like a restaurant, with an elaborate buffet lining the wall. Students filled their plates with not only chicken and pizza but also cheeseburgers, roast beef, potatoes and gravy, a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, and something on ice that looked suspiciously like sushi.

“Stay here until I come back for you,” said Malcolm. “If anyone gives you trouble, I'll take care of it.”

Simon wasn't sure that would help, but he nodded
anyway.
As soon as Malcolm was gone, he said quietly, “We should look for my mom now, while everyone's eating.”

“
That's
your big plan?” said Winter. “We got captured by a pack of hungry wolves so you could check a few empty classrooms?”

“I didn't expect this, okay?” said Simon. “I thought . . . I don't know what I thought. But I couldn't just sit there and wait for Orion to rescue my mother. And in two days, the Alpha's going to come back and take me and Nolan out of the city into mammal territory, and—”

“Two days?”said Winter.

Simon nodded. “I heard her and Malcolm talking about it. If I can't find my mother before then, I'm never going to see her again. I need to do
something
.”

Winter sighed and tucked her dark hair behind her ears. “It isn't safe for you to go searching on your own. Everyone in the Den is talking about you, and if you're not where you're supposed to be, they're all going to wonder why.”

Simon hesitated. She had a point, as much as he hated to admit it. “I sent Felix to look around,” he whispered. “Can you check the reptile section to see if there are any hidden rooms or ways out of here? They wouldn't have built this place with only one exit.”

“Of course not,” said Winter. “You're just figuring that out now?”

He
shrugged. “Why did Malcolm stick you there, anyway?”

Scowling, she crossed her arms. “My mother was from the reptile kingdom,” she muttered, as if she were admitting some horrible family secret. “I couldn't give them my real last name, so I thought I'd give them hers. She ran away from home and never told her family she married a member of the bird kingdom, so we should be safe.”

“Wait,” said Simon. “If your mother was a reptile, that makes you a—a Hybred, too.”

Winter stopped suddenly and whirled around to face him. “If you say anything, I'll tell Malcolm about your stupid pet mouse.”

Simon's eyes widened. “I won't. I don't care what you are. Besides, I think it would be kind of cool, getting to be part of two kingdoms—”

“Simon?”

A blond boy wearing glasses approached them, and Simon immediately caught sight of the dolphin on the boy's armband. “Jam?” he said uncertainly.

The boy lit up. “You remember me!”

“It's sort of hard to forget,” said Simon. “A dolphin's never spoken to me before.”

Jam beamed. “I just thought, with how important you are—everyone's talking about you, you know.” He nodded to the tables, and as if to prove his point, several conversations ceased as soon as Simon looked. Perfect.

He
cleared his throat. “Uh, Jam, this is my friend, Winter. Winter, this is—”

“Benjamin Fluke. Most people call me Jam.” He stuck his hand out for Winter to shake. “You're really pretty.”

“And you look like an owl,” said Winter, clearly not happy about being interrupted. “Jam is a terrible nickname for Benjamin. It doesn't even make sense.”

Simon opened his mouth to apologize for her, but Jam shrugged sheepishly and dropped his hand when it became obvious that Winter wouldn't take it. “My sisters like to get me in trouble all the time, so my mom used to joke that I was always in a jam. It just stuck.”

Winter looked unimpressed, but to Simon's relief, she didn't make any more comments. “I like it,” he said.

“Thanks. Me, too. Do you have someplace to sit? You can sit with me, if you want,” added Jam. “Unless you want to sit with the land mammals. But they don't like you very much.”

“I don't like them much, either, so that's okay,” said Simon. “If there's room, I'll sit with you.”

“There's always room.” Jam picked up a plate at the start of the buffet and headed straight for the fish. “What do you like? I've heard the fries are good, but nothing beats sushi. You should try it.”

Though Simon politely declined the sushi, the rest of the food looked even better than it smelled, and once they'd each filled plates and grabbed something to drink, the three of them headed to the table. Before they could reach it,
however,
Nolan stepped into their path, flanked by several large boys, including Garrett.

“Oh, look, the losers found each other,” said Nolan. “How sweet.”

Jam's smile faded, and he gripped his tray hard enough to make his water teeter. “Hi, Nolan. Congratulations on finding out you have a brother. That must be cool.”

Instantly Simon could tell Jam had said exactly the wrong thing, as Nolan's face clouded over and he balled his hands into fists the same way Simon did when he got angry. “I don't have a brother,” he spat.

Jam frowned and looked at Simon. “But—”

“I
said
I don't have a brother!” Without warning, Nolan shoved Jam's tray into his chest, spilling water all down Jam's front and mashing sushi against his shirt.

The entire dining hall fell silent. Jam stood there, dumbfounded and pale, and all Simon could think about were the times Bryan Barker had done the exact same kind of thing to him in front of everyone.

The knot in his chest felt like a hot coal burning him up from the inside out, and without thinking, he grabbed the glass of chocolate milk from his tray and marched up to Nolan, dumping the entire thing over his head.

“What—” sputtered Nolan as chocolate milk ran down his body, and his expression twisted into an enraged snarl. He lurched forward and tackled Simon to the floor, ripping at his shirt and tearing at his hair.

Every
instinct he had screamed at Simon to fight back, but no matter how much Nolan might've deserved a chocolate milk bath, he was still his brother, and Simon couldn't hit him. Distantly he heard Winter shouting at them to stop, but all he could do was shield his face from Nolan's punches and protect his chest with his knees the same way he had against Bryan earlier that afternoon.

“
No-lan, No-lan, No-lan!
” chanted the other mammals, and Simon opened his eyes enough to see that a tight circle had formed around them. Several of the students had shifted into their animal forms, and Simon spotted a mountain lion and a pair of coyotes lurking on the edge of his vision. No doubt they would jump in with their claws and fangs if Simon tried to retaliate, but as long as Simon kept his fists to himself, it was just Nolan. He wasn't even hitting that hard—nothing like the eighth-grade bullies who had had years of practice. Judging by the way Nolan grew winded after only fifteen seconds, Simon guessed this was his first time beating someone up by himself.

“
Enough!
” A vicious roar cut through the cheers, and the students scrambled back to make way for Malcolm and the three hulking wolves that flanked him. Nolan ignored them and raised his fist again, ready to strike.

“Did you not hear me?” said Malcolm, grabbing him by the back of his collar and lifting him into the air. One of the wolves padded up to Simon and sniffed him.

“Still alive, pup?” she said, shifting into a tall brunette.
Simon
nodded, pushing himself upright. His nose ached, and when he wiped his mouth, there was a smear of blood on his hand, but otherwise he felt all right.

“He dumped his milk over my head in front of everyone!” cried Nolan. His face was flushed and his eyes were watery, and he squirmed against Malcolm's unyielding grip.

“And does the sushi on Benjamin's shirt have anything to do with why he did it?” said Malcolm. Nolan opened and shut his mouth. “I thought so. The four of you, come with me. The rest of you, finish your dinner and get back to your dorms. And you lot—” He glared at the mammals who had shifted in anticipation of Simon retaliating. “Threaten to attack a member of the Alpha family one more time, and I will personally make sure that you never again see the inside of this or any other Animalgam academy for the rest of your miserable lives.”

The three boys shifted back sullenly, while Malcolm dragged Nolan out of the dining hall. The woman with the brown hair touched Simon's shoulder and led him after them, and when he glanced back, he saw that Winter was helping Jam wipe sushi off his shirt as they followed.

“Ow, ow,
ow
!” cried Nolan, but as far as Simon could tell, Malcolm didn't loosen his grip. Instead he dragged him to the atrium inside the Alpha section, where he shoved him onto a sofa against the wall.

“You will never lay a hand on your brother again,” he snarled, looming over him. “And if I ever catch you so much
as
thinking about it, so help me, you'll be more prisoner than prince for the rest of your education. Do you understand?”

Nolan shrank back into the couch cushions, rubbing his neck. “Yes, sir,” he muttered, and he shot Simon a look so venomous that Simon could practically feel his insides curdling.

“Here, hold this to your nose,” said the woman as she urged Simon down on the other end of the couch. She offered him a handkerchief, and Simon took it.

“Is his nose broken, Vanessa?” said Malcolm, and she shook her head.

“Just bloodied. No loose teeth, either, from what I can see.”

“I'm fine,” said Simon. “He didn't hit me hard.”

Nolan's expression darkened, and Simon realized that once again he had said the wrong thing. But he wasn't sure there was ever going to be a right thing to say, so instead he turned his attention to Jam, who was now trying to soak up soy sauce from the front of his shirt with a wad of napkins.

“Are you okay?” he said.

Jam nodded. “I'm fine, but the captain won't be pleased. Laundry day isn't until Sunday.”

Malcolm began to pace in front of the sofa, his jaw working and his biceps flexing. “You two”—he jerked his head toward Simon and Nolan—“can be each other's greatest allies, or you can be each other's greatest rivals. Maybe you
think
you've already decided, but, so help me, I will do everything in my power to make sure you get along.”

“But—” began Nolan.

“No buts. Tomorrow, while we're above ground, you will spend every moment together, is that understood? You will sit next to each other on the bus. You will stick together during the visit to the exhibit, and you won't leave each other's side.”

Nolan's mouth dropped open. “The whole day? But—”

“The whole day,” cut in Malcolm. “Argue, and I'll make it the week.”

“Wait—we're going to be leaving the Den tomorrow?” Simon said. He had only two days before the Alpha returned. He couldn't leave now, before he'd even had the chance to look.

“Don't you know anything?” said Nolan nastily. “It's Unity Day. The day the Beast King was overthrown. The whole school goes to his old Stronghold and celebrates.”

That name again. Simon swallowed. Asking would only invite more of Nolan's insults, but he had to know. “Who's the Beast King?”

“Who—” Nolan's eyes widened, and he gave Malcolm an indignant look. “And you want to chain me to him for the whole day?”

“It'll be good for you,” said Malcolm, and he shifted uneasily. “The Beast King and his history is a very long story best left to another time. All you need to know is that he was a
tyrannical
ruler, and hundreds of years ago the five kingdoms banded together to overthrow him. Tomorrow is the anniversary of that victory, and we cannot miss the celebration. It's the most important holiday in our world.”

“But—I thought the flock would attack us if we left,” said Simon.

“I would rather keep you both here, away from the skies, but you'll be safe in the Stronghold. I'll be with you the entire time, and the underwater kingdom has already agreed to augment our forces. If Orion dares to come after you, then he'll pay the price for his stupidity.”

Simon glanced at Winter. Their time was already dwindling. Unless they got enormously lucky, losing an entire day would only make finding his mother that much more difficult.