Big Bad Academy

There have to be.

I’m just about to reach the painting that holds the hidden passageway when I feel his presence. I can’t smell Flynn – I’m not a wolf, after all – but his anger is so palpable that I can sense it. I turn around and there he is.

“Stop,” he whispers.

“Never.”

“We need your help,” he says.

Neither one of us moves. There’s probably only twenty feet between us, and I know he could clear that distance instantly if he wanted to.

“No.”

He looks shocked and a little hurt, but not surprised.

“I’m sorry for the way things started between us,” he tells me.

“You should have fucking thought about that before you kidnapped me!” I slam the little tiny button next to the painting. It’s so small that it just looks like a ridge in the wall. Instantly, the painting slides to the side and I jump into the hidden passageway behind it. I push the button on the inside that slides the painting back in place, and then I take off running in the darkness.

It’s a stupid thing to do, but then again, I never said I was smart.

Chapter Eight

Flynn

I’m not sure whether I’m more shocked that Heather had the balls to sneak out my dad’s office or that she knows about the secret passageway behind my mother’s painting. To my knowledge, I’m the only person at the academy who knows about that. Not even my dad knows about the passageway. My mother had it built into the first floor of the academy years ago so she could have a private place to spend her time. She showed it to me when I was just a kid, back before she passed away, and I never told anyone.

But in my dreams – my own mating visions – I take my mate there.

Only, I never thought my mate could be a human.

And I never thought my mate could be someone like Heather.

Could she be?

I don’t have time to spare. My father completely freaked out when we realized Heather was gone. He’s beyond worried that she’s going to go to the authorities and report that she was kidnapped. He can’t have that. He doesn’t care that I did it, but now that he knows she’s got insider knowledge about the vanishing pack members, he wants in. He wants to know what she knows, only something tells me that my dad might use a bit more force than me to get it.

Well, fuck that.

Heather is mine.

I move to the painting quickly and push the button to open it. Instantly, the painting slides over and I step behind it. I push the button inside the little hallway and the painting once more slides into place. Now I’m alone in the passageway, but Heather is here somewhere.

There are no lights here.

I don’t need them.

After all, I’m a damn wolf. I can see just as well in the darkness as I can in the light, and Heather would do well to remember that. Only, something tells me the little human isn’t thinking clearly. She was aroused by me earlier, and I was aroused by her, too. I hate being attracted to a human. Yeah, she might be luscious and cute and my inner-wolf might be begging me to mark her, but I need answers from her before anything else can happen.

The hidden passageway is dark, and empty, but I can smell her. She ran down it, which was brave of her. Running in the darkness? Most humans wouldn’t have the courage.

I don’t dare call out her name. Although my father and the other shifters in the Greystone Pack don’t know about this place, they can still hear.

And if they notice me hollering to Heather?

They’ll tear the walls down.

Instead of yelling, I run silently, padding quietly down the hallway. Then I turn once and keep running. Then I turn again. It doesn’t take me long to catch up with her, but I’m surprised at how far down the passageway I find her.