We walked outside in silence. A light breeze ruffled the leaves. Birds called to each other. They sounded different than before. Usually I couldn’t tell the difference between birdcalls, but now I could hear distinct pitches and tones. It was more musical. More melodic.
“You better?” Meredith’s voice brought me back to reality.
“Maybe?”
“Rumor is that you’ll be changing with the next full moon, but you should talk to Mr. Dawson or Dr. Gonzales about it. You seem like you’ve already changed, and—if I’m right—you’re going to need to get some control. You’ll need help.”
I was pretty sure somewhere in the week I’d lost, I probably went full-furry, but I wasn’t trying to repeat that. The whole idea of turning into a wolf freaked me out. It was the last thing I wanted to talk about right then.
We reached the cafeteria before I could come up with something to say. As soon as she opened the door, the smells of breakfast reached me. My stomach rumbled so loud that a few people at the closest table chuckled.
My face heated. “Apparently I’m hungry,” I said, trying to laugh it off.
Meredith’s smile was back. “Me too. Let’s get some grub.”
The amount of food was intense—eggs, bacon, pancakes, French toast, bagels, croissants, anything and everything. The man at the grill station had to be a Were. He moved so fast I could barely track him as he took orders for omelets and crepes and noodles.
I piled my plate up quickly. As we walked to a table, people were quieter than they had been at dinner, focused more on eating than chatting. Thank God not everyone was as peppy in the morning as Meredith. She took forever to get up, but once Meredith finally got out of bed, she was all sunshine and rainbows.
On my way to the table, an elbow jabbed my side. I turned to see what the deal was just in time to get shoulder checked by La Bitch. I barely registered the brush of her skin against mine before I got sucked in.
Look at this short slut. There’s no way he’s going to dump me for her. Not a chance in hell.
Was that a vision?
I shoved away the stabbing pain in my heart at the thought that Dastien would choose this girl over me. Instead, I’d focus on the fact that my visions might be coming back. The relief was tangible. Now, if only I could get this girl to back off. “Excuse me?” I didn’t care how rude I sounded. Having a little bit of my own normalcy back was enough to make me confident.
“Move out of the way.” La Bitch moved to shove me, but I sidestepped in time, and managed to keep my plate from slipping off the tray. Go me.
The girl’s face reddened. She leaned into my space. “Listen, whore,” she whispered. “I don’t know what you did to my Dastien, but you better stay far away from us.”
I met her stare. “I really don’t give a shit about you or your cheating boyfriend. You need to back off before you start something you’re going to regret.” We stood there frozen. Somehow it turned into a third grade staring contest, and I wouldn’t look away first.
Time stopped as I waited for her to look away. As soon as she did, I smiled, and it wasn’t in the least bit nice. “Leave,” I said. “Now.”
She spun, stomping her feet like a child.
Who knew telling her to go would work? I couldn’t stop the grin. I was badass.
It didn’t take long for the grin to disappear. Everyone in the room had been watching. Fan-freaking-tastic. I hoped that was the end of showdowns, but knew I could never be that lucky.
I found my way to the table where Meredith and Chris were sitting, and slid into the chair.
“Well, that was intense,” I said.
“Intense?” Meredith said. “No. That was ah-may-zing. Do you know what this means?”
“That she’ll leave me alone?”
Chris laughed. “No. You’ve just made an enemy for life. No chance in hell she’ll ever leave you alone now.”
“Aaaaand,” Meredith said, cutting off Chris before he could say anything else. “More importantly, you might be an alpha.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I looked at La Bitch, who was now talking furiously with three other girls. “What is her problem?”
“She’s Imogene Hoel. She thinks she’s the shit,” Chris said. “And she likes to think that she’s Dastien’s girlfriend.”
My heart double-timed it. “But is she Dastien’s girlfriend?”
“No,” Meredith said. “They kind of grew up together, and a bunch of people, including her, thought that they’d end up together, but they’ve never really dated. I mean…there was that rumor—”
“The rumor had some truth to it, but she threw herself at him and wouldn’t leave him alone until he gave her a chance,” Chris said.
I stopped breathing as Dastien walked into the room. Imogene ran to him and put her arms around his waist. He put his arm on her shoulder as she talked to him. He jerked back at something that she said, and then his gaze found mine.
Shit. I sank down in my chair. Being in the middle of a soap opera wasn’t my idea of a good time.
“She’s really pissed. I love being right. I knew I was going to like you,” Chris said. He blew me a kiss.
I pretended to catch the kiss and press it to my cheek, and then I looked behind me again. Dastien stood still, ignoring Imogene. His eyes were glowing, but I wasn’t sure if he was staring at Chris or me. My heart sped up. Was he going to come over here?
Dastien spun on his heel and left the cafeteria, slamming the door behind him. Imogene stood there for a second, staring at the door, before going after him.
I ground my teeth. She was out there alone with Dastien, and I despised her for it.
I was so dumb.
I thought back to the vision I’d gotten from Imogene. It seemed like I heard her current thoughts, which was odd. It’d happened before—when someone was drunk or when it was Mom—but it was rare enough to throw me a little off. If my visions were coming back, I needed to put on my gloves. I leaned in my chair enough to grab the cobalt ones from my back pocket. I slipped them on, trying to make it look casual, and felt instantly more like my old self.
A glance around the room confirmed that everyone was still staring at me, probably waiting for my reaction. I smiled at Chris. “Hopefully Dastien won’t come back to bite me this time.”
Chris laughed. “So I heard you had a little early morning adventure.”
Meredith dropped her fork with a loud thunk. “She didn’t?”
“Yup.” He grinned as he leaned back in his chair. “Brant Thompson won the pool.”
“Damn it. I was listening for the door.”
Good thing I went out the window.
“Window,” Chris said.
How did he know? Oh God. If he knew, then who else knew?
“Again?”
The jerk was enjoying making me squirm in my seat. “Yup,” Chris said.
“If you were going to try to run, why not tell me so that I could win?” There was a hint of whine in Meredith’s voice.
“Uh. Sorry?” I cleared my throat. “Was everyone in the entire school in on this?”
“Yes,” they all answered as one.
“Wow. That’s really embarrassing. Can we talk about something else?”
Meredith crossed her arms. “No.”
“Okay…”
“If you’re going to run away again, you have to make sure it’s next Tuesday during fourth period.” She punctuated her words by banging the table. “It’s the only way you can make it up to me.”
Holy hell. How dumb did they think I was? “I’m not going to run away again.”
“Yeah, you are. Every once in a while there will be a Were who marries a norm and doesn’t tell their partner about the whole going wolf thing. It’s a hot mess when their kids come here. They always run away. And you were an actual norm. So, you’re due a couple more runs at least.” She paused. “Tuesday. Fourth period.”
Meredith had somehow managed to turn something uber-humiliating into something kind of okay. I could’ve kissed her for that. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Fair enough.”
I tried to bring the conversation back to something normal. “So, what are the teachers like here? Tough? Easy?” I said as I tugged at my gloves.
“Classes are pretty tough, but the teachers are helpful,” Meredith said. She eyed my gloves, but accepted the topic change. “I mean most people leave here and go Ivy League or study in London or wherever they’re from.” She paused. “What’s up with the gloves? You can’t be cold. Werewolves don’t get cold.”
“I’m not cold.” I shoved a giant bite in my mouth as everyone stared. I swallowed. “So I take it not everyone is from here?”
“Yeah. This is the place to go if you’re a Were. People come from all over. I’m sure you already know all about that because of being with Dastien.”
I knew exactly nothing about that. “Um, I think he mentioned that he’s from France.”
“Oh?” She paused, waiting for me to keep going but I wasn’t going to tell her what happened. There were too many ears around. Plus, she was right. I didn’t trust her yet.
A soft tone dinged throughout the cafeteria, and everyone got up and moved toward the doors.
“Well ladies, it’s been lovely. See you at lunch.” Chris blew us another kiss before leaving.
“What did you think it was?” she said.
“I had no idea, but it doesn’t sound like any bell I’ve ever heard. Usually they’re more fire drill-like.”
“No fire drills here. Talk about insta-headache. Werewolves have really good hearing. Plus, once you know what the bell sound is, you can’t miss it.”
“But your alarm clock—”
“Just because I have good hearing, doesn’t mean I want to get up in the morning. The more obnoxious and harder to turn off, the better. And I have a tendency to smash them. I go through a couple a month.” Meredith frowned at my tray. “You didn’t eat nearly enough.”
The girl had lost her mind. “I ate a humungo-sized omelet, hash browns, a bagel with cream cheese, and a bowl of fruit. That’s more than I’ve ever eaten in one sitting.” There physically wasn’t any more room in my stomach.
Meredith rolled her eyes. “Hang on one second.” She walked back to the guy making the omelets, talking to him while pointing at me. He shook his head in disapproval.
Jeez. Why didn’t she call the National Guard while she was at it?
Meredith came back with some sandwiches in plastic bags and an apple. “Take these. You might not think you need them, but when your stomach growls in ten minutes, do yourself a favor and eat them. Okay?”
I saluted. “Yes, ma’am.” I shoved them in my bag.
We walked outside with a group of other students.
“The classes are all in there.” She pointed to a two-story red brick building next to the infirmary. “The physical stuff is on the first floor. Don’t want anyone going out a window, right?”
I laughed. “They’re not so bad.”
“I kind of was bummed about getting a suite-mate, but that moment changed my mind. The whole breaking the window with the IV stand and then jumping thing was kind of badass.”
“Thanks,” I said, grinning. “In retrospect, maybe not my smartest move, but you gotta go with what you’re feeling at the time, right?”
“Totally.” She laughed. “Anyway, the academic stuff is on the second floor. All of the lockers are there too, so we can stash your stuff.”
Off to the side of the building was some training equipment. It looked way more Navy SEAL than high school. “What’s that?”
“Anyone who wants to be a Cazador has to pass a physical test and a sparring test. Most people try it after they graduate. Although some will come back and practice after graduation if they can’t pass it the first go-round.”
“Cazador? As in Spanish for hunter?”
“Yup. They keep the norms safe from all the things not so normal.”
My mind kept bouncing back and forth between two things: either these people were seriously demented or the world was a lot scarier than I thought. Werewolves weren’t bad enough? There had to be more?
Someone darted out of the woods between the buildings. Someone with strong arms, a broad chest, and long legs roped with muscle. I knew who it was, even from this distance. I stood frozen in place as I watched Dastien run toward the course with equal parts raw power and grace. He was wearing a pair of running shorts and nothing else.
“Wow.” It came out half moan as I watched the play of muscle across his body.
“Yeah. He’s kind of amazing to watch. One of the best Cazadores we’ve seen in a long time.”
Dastien ran at the hurdles, jumping over them without slowing down.
“But I thought he stayed here?”
“He goes out on assignment, but likes to keep his home base here. He teaches martial arts sometimes and gets the seniors ready for the Cazador test when he’s around.”
He took a running leap at the rope wall, gaining half of it by that alone. Hand over hand, he lifted his body up like it was easy. He leaped off the top of the wall, shifting midair, and landed as a beautiful white and gray wolf.
Well that was not what I was expecting to see. Undeniable proof that Dastien was a werewolf. I shoved any feelings I had about that way down. I had more than my fair share of junk to deal with for today.
Steeling my shoulders, I forced myself to turn away from him and keep walking.