Big Bad Academy

“Got it,” I say.

When we get back to the room, I grab a notebook and look at Lily.

“Okay, what can you tell me about the first guy who went missing? Frank, right?”

“Yeah,” she nods. She sits down and Maple and Syrup both hop on her lap. It makes me happy that they like her so much: that they trust her. “Older guy. He had a scar on his right cheek from when he got in a fight with a bear one time.”

We both stare at each other, blinking.

“The Werewolf’s Mystery Child!” We both say at the same time.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. In that book, wolves go missing during the hunt for a lost child. The baby was lost in the forest and the wolf pack tries to find the child so they can save it. Four different wolves go missing. The first was an old werewolf who had a huge scar on his face.

“Angela was the second girl, I say. Was she snarky and fun and a bit of a partier?”

“Yes.”

“And Leah was older,” I say. “Kind of a motherly figure?”

“Yeah, she was constantly baking.”

“Chocolate chip cookies with frosting on top?”

“Exactly that.”

“Fuck.”

I’d identified the wolves as potential characters in my books already, but never like this. I’d never been able to connect them all to a single story the way that we’re doing now, and it gives me chills as I realize that something isn’t quite right with the way tonight has played out.

“There’s a problem with this theory, though,” Lily points out. “Erin shouldn’t have been victim number four.”

“No, she shouldn’t have,” I agree. In the book, the shifters who are kidnapped are taken because they’re secretly villains. The person taking them is someone who wants to save the missing kid, but who stumbles upon a secret plot in the wolf pack. He captures the wolves – four of them – and hides them in the forest in a tower that’s long been abandoned and forgotten.

The fourth victim wasn’t a high school female, though.

It was the pack leader’s son.

Flynn.

“He’s in danger,” I whisper.

“Erin wasn’t the one who was supposed to be targeted tonight,” Lily agrees. “And Flynn is out there right now looking for her.”

“If the guy behind this is trying to catch Flynn, then he’s not planning on keeping Erin.”

“He’s using her as bait.”

“Fuck.”

“We need to get to Maxwell and Gerald,” she says. “They stayed behind. They’ll know what to do.”

“Let’s go.”

We take off running toward the main castle. Gerald and Maxwell are sitting pensively in Gerald’s office, and they look up when we enter.

“Ladies, I believe you’re supposed to be in your chambers for the night,” Maxwell says, but I shake my head.

“Something’s wrong,” I tell them. “We figured out the pattern.”