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.
Chapter Nineteen
The second floor had a long hallway lined with wooden doors and tall, black lockers. Each locker had a name on it instead of the usual numbers, and none of them had actual locks on them. Meredith pointed me in the right direction before heading to hers.
The schedule said I had English first. I left one notebook and the English books in my backpack, and dumped everything else in the locker. Meredith waited by one of the open doors.
All talking stopped when I entered the classroom.
“Ignore them,” Meredith said.
I focused on keeping my chin up and followed her to our seats. The teacher strode in. Everyone in the class sat up straight in their chairs as she set her papers down on her desk. I shifted in my seat, not knowing what I should be doing. I grabbed my notebook and a pen, and waited for class to begin.
I checked my schedule again for her name. Mrs. Ramirez. Thick black hair flowed down her back. Her large almond-shaped brown eyes made her look fey. She scanned the desks and stopped when she saw me.
“Hi, Tessa. Welcome to English. We’re doing Macbeth. Have you studied it before?”
I nodded.
A smile spread across her face and she stepped toward my desk. “You’ll be ahead of this bunch.” She handed me some papers and turned, her paisley printed maxi-skirt swirling around her legs. “Let’s begin.”
She started asking questions, but the syllabus distracted me. My old school had always been more of a straight out of the textbook kind of thing. But this was different. I flipped through the pages and couldn’t find anything about when the standardized tests were. Instead there were descriptions after each piece of literature—two essay question exams, blue books provided.
What the hell was a blue book?
I tried not to stress, unsuccessfully. I flipped open my notebook, furiously writing down everything that Mrs. Ramirez said.
Meredith hadn’t been kidding about the classes being hard. At my old school, you could get by on the Cliff’s Notes version. Not here, apparently. By the time the bell rang, my hands were sweating. I should’ve worn a thinner pair of gloves.
I scribbled the last few points in my notebook and shoved it in my backpack. By the time I got up, everyone was gone except the teacher.
Mrs. Ramirez eyed me carefully with a small smile. “You’re going to do fine, Tessa,” Mrs. Ramirez said.
I forced a smile. “Sure.” Honestly, I wasn’t at all sure that she knew what she was talking about. I rushed to my locker and grabbed the books for my next class, where Meredith stood waiting by the door.
It wasn’t just werewolf stuff I was behind on—it was everything. The new workload made it easier to ignore the wave of silence that followed me into every classroom.
By the time the bell chimed for lunch, I wanted to run back to my room and suck my thumb, but Meredith wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Come on. It’s not that bad.”
“Totally not bad at all.” The whine in my voice was pretty thick.
She quirked an eyebrow. “You put claw marks in the lab table.”
“Oh. Um. Ooops?” That wasn’t good. “Should I tell someone? Do I need to pay for it to get fixed?”
Meredith shook her head. “No way. Stuff like that happens all the time here. It’s part of life. But maybe next time eat the sandwiches?”
I’d completely forgotten about them, but now that she said something, I realized that my stomach was trying to eat itself.