Knowing full well that her father, Tarun, and her friends would hate her for this, Ava bowed her head, preparing to shift. She then raised her gaze, watching and waiting for the perfect moment.

  As the poachers stepped off the patio, she let out a blood-curdling screech. Bones cracking, her purple mane fanned out, spiraling in the wind that gathered and bellowed around her, and she completed the shift from her tabby cat into her unicorn in an explosion of light.

  The men dropped Matthew unceremoniously on the ground and surged toward her—oh wow, there were way more than four of them! Two of them ran back to Matthew, the rest—at least a dozen—chased after the new kill: her.

  This was a much bigger poaching operation than Ava realized. Who were these men, and what was their agenda?

  “Another one!” one yelled.

  “You said there was only one!”

  “That’s what they told me,” one replied, a breath away from Ava. As he reached for a weapon, Ava dashed into the woods.

  “Get her! Don’t let her escape. You understand? Go! Go! Go!”

  Ava galloped through the woods, zipping through trees—all she wanted was to separate them from her father, and it was working. However, her glowing unicorn light inadvertently illuminated the rough path for the poachers.

  The first dart whizzed dangerously close to her ear. She ducked. The stampede behind her, pressing closer.

  24

  James led the brigade. Every hummingbird has his day! At least twenty shifters followed him—Tarun, JiSoo, and Headmistress Levine at the front of the pack. Two dragons flanked the air above Levine: Professor Bills and Sir Waters. Turned out Sir Waters was indeed a dyad after all.

  The rest were third- and fourth-year students who volunteered to help when Levine hastily rallied for any trained fighters over eighteen to join her—mostly wolves and bears, but Nick and Obis had come along as well.

  Tarun was in his tiger form, and JiSoo in her wild boar. Levine remained human. Flashes of her griffin shone through in intervals. She was clearly utilizing her magic somehow as she ran at a speed that rivaled all the shifters around her.

  As James flew ahead, he saw a brilliant purple light in the distance.

  Ava.

  He knew exactly what she was doing. She'd transformed into her unicorn to use herself as bait and lead the poachers away from her father. And from the rustle of trees behind her, it looked like it had worked.

  He sang out to let the others know he was veering in a new direction, and he took off toward the unicorn in all her glory.

  Ava stopped running when she heard screams in the distance. Those weren’t just ordinary human screams. It was a cacophony of terrifying shifter noises. She recognized that roar, specifically. Tarun.

  Looking in the direction of the sound, she saw several plumes of fire. Dragons. They were saved! Well, that was assuming the two poachers she left behind hadn't already murdered her father. She shook the thought away.

  The poachers caught up with her because she'd stopped, and when they realized she was just standing there, looking back at them, they circled her, grinning.

  These morons seriously think they’ve won? I'm a unicorn! What, they think I just got tired and stopped running? There was no combination like avarice, greed, and stupidity. And these guys had it all. She neighed loudly, shaking her mane. Warning them, in her own way, to stay back. But, as expected, none listened.

  Filthy men from head to toe. Chipped teeth, worn-out shoes, dingy jackets, all holding guns. They obviously weren't shifters, or they wouldn't have come after her as humans. So they were just a bunch of angry humans with a chip on their shoulder?

  She finally spoke. "Nurse Hartley gave you my father's address." It wasn't a question. She needed to confirm this. If they lied, she would know.

  "Nurse Hartley...good woman, I'd say," one of them snarled.

  "Good woman, sure. She just led you to your death," Ava said dramatically. The fear in their eyes satisfied her enough. She had no intention of being covered in their blood.

  "Get her!" one of the men screamed, and they all ran toward her, abandoning their guns for darts they pulled from their satchels. Apparently they hadn't considered that they would need their dart guns when they left the house.

  As Ava reared back on her hind legs, waving her hooves, ready to kick some poacher ass, she noticed a hummingbird fly into her view.

  Seconds later, the cavalry arrived.

  Everything seemed to happen at once as the shifters met the poachers head on.

  Tarun leaped onto the one closest to Ava and bit his right arm clean off. JiSoo charged another one of them head first and knocked him up and over her, directly into Professor Bills’ dragon claws.

  Wolves, bears, gorillas, and assorted birds of prey all jumped into attack mode.

  It took a few seconds for the poachers to come to terms with what was happening. Some of them reached frantically for their discarded guns, and others shakily aimed their darts at their attackers, shoving a dart wherever there was a body. Ava kicked the men away from her like rag dolls as they tried to attack her.

  Nick shot through the cluster of bodies as an anaconda, snapping legs in his teeth like useless twigs. While Nick went for the legs, Obis took to ripping off their arms—strong and confident now that he’d trained so much.

  A few of the poachers tried to run away screaming, but the wolves pacing the outskirts took them down.

  Headmistress Levine stood gracefully in the midst of it all, still human. One after another, as the men tried to attack, she flipped them away as if they were annoying insects.

  In less than ten minutes, every single poacher lay unconscious and bleeding in the snow.

  Ava looked around in pride and horror. Several of the men made gurgling and gasping noises.

  Levine must have given them all a "no kill" order because they were all missing limbs, but still alive. Sure, some of them would probably die from their injuries, but well, there was only so much one could do.

  Ava couldn't breathe easy just yet. She made eye contact with Levine. "There are still two of them back at the house. They have my father. They said they’re planning to kill him in the moonlight. The moon forces his unicorn transformation!”

  Levine's eyes grew wide, and she turned to Sir Waters and Professor Bills. "Go! Now!"

  Both dragons let out a simultaneous roar and took off toward the house.

  Ava didn't wait for the green light from the headmistress. She took off in the same direction.

  By the time Ava galloped to the front porch of the house, her sense of impending doom dissipated.

  Her senses told her that the danger inside the house had passed.

  "Ava…"

  It was Professor McNamara, of all people. She appeared on the front porch, wrapped in a sheet.

  Ava knew that meant she had recently shifted, and she silently regretted that she hadn't been around to witness it. Professor Bills appeared from behind her, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Oh, the naked-shifter struggle was real.

  "What—what happened?" Ava asked. "Is my dad okay?"

  "That's a relative question, but yes, he's alive, and physically, he's fine," Miss McNamara assured her. "Sir Waters is bringing him out now. We don't want you to witness the massacre inside with your innocent eyes."

  "Oh. My." Ava grimaced at that thought. Apparently the no-kill order didn't apply in this case. That’ll teach them never to mess with shifters ever again.

  “Hi, Ava…” a gruff voice greeted her.

  There he was.

  Sir Waters—now wearing a silk bathrobe Ava assumed belonged to her father—escorted Matthew Carrington out onto his porch. This time, he looked more like the rakishly handsome man she’d seen in the yearbook—no wonder her mother fell for him. He braced himself on Waters’s shoulder, still a little weak.

  “Dad!” she screamed and stomped her hooves.

  “Wow,” Matthew gasped. “You are a glorious creature, Daughter.”

  “Thank you,” she laughed, but it came out as a loud neigh. “Now can I have something to wear so I can shift back and give you a real hug?”

  25

  Not long after, Matthew Carrington laughed all the way to the ground as his daughter threw her full weight into their first-ever hug. They rolled on the rug together, and he held her tight.

  The other shifters had arrived shortly after Ava, and Levine used her griffin magic to dispose of the gory remains of the two poachers, and also clean up the living room where Professor McNamara had slaughtered them.

  As soon as Ava was given a shirt and pajama pants to put on, she made her way to Winta to wake her up and heal her wounds.

  James rushed to Winta’s side as well, never mind the fact he was still in his hummingbird form because he didn't have clothes yet.

  Things settled down from there. The professors led the other students back to the resort, leaving behind Ava, Tarun, JiSoo, Winta, James, and Levine.

  Professor McNamara had shifted before she left with everyone, and Ava was overjoyed to finally see her teacher in her minotaur form. What a sight!

  Matthew found clothes for everyone, and James returned to Winta as soon as he was dressed. He threw himself at her, cupping her cheeks in his hands and pressing his forehead to hers. "I was so scared I lost you," he said so quietly that Ava could barely hear him. She decided to step out of the room to give them some privacy.

  Matthew made tea for everyone else and served them as they all gathered in the dining room. At the table with Ava and Matthew were Tarun, JiSoo, and Levine. It reminded Ava of a real family gathering. Never mind the fact it was taking place after major bloodshed.

  Ava told them about Nurse Hartley, and Levine assured her they would take care of the rest. The headmistress excused herself right after that, no doubt to go and alert the school staff to apprehend Nurse Hartley.

  "What about the poachers in the woods?" JiSoo asked before Levine stepped out. “They will definitely bleed to death out there.”

  "Don't worry, my griffin magic has them in a sort of stasis right now." Levine pulled a hat over her hair and slid her spindly fingers into a pair of long gloves. "I will alert the authorities after every one of my students is safely back at Animage."

  Ava cringed at the thought of all those poachers in a bloodied heap, dismembered limbs everywhere. She reminded herself they got what they deserved. She didn't know what other tricks Levine had up her sleeve, but Ava could just imagine the looks on those poor cops’ faces as they tried to make sense of what really happened.

  After Levine left them, Matthew went on to explain what had happened to him. Everything from the first sighting to his final capture. Hearing him talk about it so casually made Ava's blood boil.

  He explained that this mansion they all sat in currently was indeed his house. Over the years, he had amassed quite a fortune selling his alicorn dust. And even though his nature was still wild, and he liked to travel, this remained his home base.

  After he was captured, the poachers still allowed him to send a few letters. He'd tried to warn Ava in his own way, hoping she would understand his code in the letter.

  "It worked to an extent," Ava explained. "When you sent me that short one, I just knew in my gut that something was wrong. Then, after that, your handwriting changed. It got messier. And that map you drew for me to direct me here looked like it had been done by a child or something. I was envisioning someone holding your hand as they forced you to do it."

  "But you came anyway," Matthew whispered with equal parts disapproval and reverence in his voice.

  "I know." Ava hung her head. "I see now how reckless it was. But I just couldn't help myself."

  “Thank you, Ava, for not giving up on me.” Her father placed his hand on hers. “You’re a strong lady, just like your mother.”

  Ava blushed. “That’s why you chose her, right? I mean, she’s not your—our kind.”

  “I never cared that she was a tabby cat. Your mom is a helluva woman.”

  Ava smiled at that, and then, after a moment, asked timidly, “Can I see you?”

  Her father must have known what she meant because he rose to his feet and said, “Follow me.”

  He led the three teenagers through the living room, where they walked in on James and Winta, locked in a passionate kiss on the couch. The two lovebirds didn't even notice their presence until Ava cleared her throat and said, "You guys want to see an alicorn?"

  "Oh, yes!" Winta jumped to her feet, not looking at all sorry for what she'd just been caught doing with James.

  James, however, blushed and looked at the floor as Winta yanked him up by his hand.

  Once outside, everyone watched as Matthew Carrington shifted into a beautiful black alicorn. Dark as night. Every inch of him was black, even his eyes.

  "You're the most amazing thing I've ever seen." Ava clapped her hands. “Even though I saw your shifted form in an old yearbook last year, I still didn't expect you to be so majestic." She walked toward him and patted his back.

  He flapped his wings and neighed happily. Ava decided to join him and shifted as well. Together, they jumped and trotted through the snow. “Hey, guys, I’ll be back, okay?” she called to her friends.

  They all nodded or gave her a thumbs up.

  “Just remember, we have to face Levine after this!” Winta called back. “So don’t wear yourself out too much!”

  Ha. That’s right. Levine would punish them for breaking so many rules, for sure. Momentarily, Ava thought about dropping out of school, forgetting her friends to stay with her dad—to run wild under the icy full moon.

  But she knew, realistically, that there would be plenty of opportunities for that. Right now, she’d enjoy her father in this moment.

  Away from the reunited father and daughter, Tarun sulked as he watched them gallop together. He saw their love for each other so clearly.

  The others went inside as he stood there feeling dirtier than ever—worse than a monster, lower than piles of dirt. What would Ava do if she discovered his secret?

  He would never get the luxury of running through the snow with his dad in their shifted forms again...

  Because Tarun had murdered his own father.

  END OF YEAR TWO

  Also by Qatarina & Ora Wanders

  Will Ava finally master her unicorn healing power?

  Did Tarun really murder his father?

  Get Animage Academy Year 3 NOW!

  PLEASE HELP!

  If you enjoyed this book, please, help us out by leaving us a helpful review on Amazon (as well as Goodreads and BookBub if you are on those platforms).

  We publish these books independently, so reviews are really the only way our books will be found by other potential readers.

  Thanks so much!

  ~Qat and Ora

  About the Author

  Qatarina & Ora Wanders are a fantasy-book-loving mother-daughter duo.

  Ora published her first book, Children of the Elements: A Steampunk Adventure, at 10 years old, and has no intention of stopping there!

  Qatarina already has a number of books in her arsenal—both fiction and non-fiction.

  When these two aren’t wandering around the world together (pun intended!) in search of exotic experiences, they are probably sitting at home having adventures by reading books next to each other on the couch…or maybe playing with their two guinea pigs: Mochi and Edgar Allan Pig

  If you are interested in hanging out with them on social media, you can join their Facebook reader group at: Qat’s Wandering Word Nerds and find them at…

  Other books by Ora Wanders

  Children of the Elements Book One

  Other books by Qatarina Wanders

  The Owl Shifter Chronicles (Books 1-4)

  Prequel: The Curse of the Owl

  (Complete Series)

  Rise from Slumber: The Exousia Chronicles Book One

  Acknowledgments

  Special thanks to TJ Marquis, Dandy Anwuacha, and Dorcia Beland for your storyline and editing brilliance, Christina Bagni for coming up with the ‘time’ riddle in the games, and Loraine Van Tonder for this GAWDJUSS cover! <3

 

 

  Qatarina Wanders, Animage Academy: Year Two ~ The Shifter School Down Under

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
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