Big Bad Academy

“That’s enough,” the teacher says.

“Miss Barker?” A student raises her hand.

The teacher sighs, but gestures for her to ask her question.

“Shouldn’t someone show her around to her classes and stuff? I mean, I could do that.”

I’m a little sur

prised that the student feels like helping me, but I’m also honored. Hell yes, I want a personal tour guide while I’m at Big Bad Academy. There are enough wolves here to make a girl feel intimidated and the last thing I want to do is get lost and have to ask someone for help.

Not that there’s anything wrong with asking someone for help, but...

Some of the wolves look like humans are not their friends.

“That sounds like a nice idea,” Miss Barker says. Then she looks at me. “After class, show your schedule to Erin, okay? She’ll help you find where you’re going.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The class looks at me again, but Miss Barker snaps her finger and keeps talking.

“All right, no more questions until the end of class,” she says. “We’ve got a lot to get through today. As I was saying, the history of shifters is...complex. No one knows exactly where the first shifters came from. Have shifters always existed on Earth? I’d like to think so.”

She walks back and forth as she talks, and Miss Barker fills everyone in on different theories as to the origins of shifters. I’m so fascinated and stuck on what she’s saying that I don’t even notice it’s time for my next class until the room starts emptying out and Erin appears in front of me.

“Ready?” She grins.

“Ready.”

I yank out the piece of paper from Flynn.

“I just have one other class,” I tell her. “But it’s after a study hall.”

“So you’re here for three periods a day. Got it. Well, study hall is over here, so I’ll take you.”

She hands me back my paper and we head out of the room and turn left. We start walking, pushing our way through the crowd of students, and Erin starts talking.

“I’ve met humans before, you know,” she says.

“Is that right?”

“Yep. I mean, a lot of the shifters here just stay around the pack or go to other shifter towns, you know: Honeypot, Fablestone, Dragon Isle.”

“Got it.”

I’ve never heard of any of those places, but I don’t want to tell Erin that just yet. I like the fact that she’s talking openly with me and she’s not treating me like an outsider.

“My parents used to travel with me a lot when I was a kid, though, so I’ve met lots of people. You’ll have to be patient with the other students, though. Some of them can be pretty secluded.”

“I understand.”

We move down the hallway and Erin points out different people and paintings as we pass.

“That was painted by the alpha’s wife before she passed away,” she tells me.

“She was an artist?”

“One of the best.”