Big Bad Academy

“You okay?”

“I’m fine. Let Erin out first.”

Gaston moves to her cage and lets her out. Erin instantly leaps out of the tiny cage and all at once, all of her emotions seem to catch up with her, and the little wolf starts to cry.

“This is so not fair,” she wails. “What the fuck was happening?”

I should chastise her for cussing on school grounds, but there’s no way I can bring myself to do that. Not Erin. Not after everything we’ve been through.

“I’m sorry,” Gaston says. “We got here as soon as we could.”

“Hey!” Heather’s head pops up through the trapdoor and she climbs into the tower. She’s followed by both my dad and Maxwell, who quickly assess the situation and start letting the other shifters out. Heather takes one look at Erin.

“You’re okay,” she grins, hugging her. Then she adds, “You must be cold.”

Since we were all taken as wolves, we’re all fully nude, which doesn’t really bother us being wolf shifters, but she’s right: it’s still cold.

“Here,” Heather pulls off her long coat and hands it to Erin.

“Thanks,” Erin takes it and wraps it around herself.

Then Heather comes to me and drops down in front of my cage. She reaches through the bars and strokes my cheek gently.

“You gave me quite a scare,” she murmurs.

“How did you know to use a stake to kill him?” I ask.

“That book was the only story I ever wrote that used a male vampire,” she shrugs. “I figured if he was going for authentic, well, then he was probably one himself.”

“You definitely did an amazing job saving everyone.”

“Hey,” Gaston calls out. “I did all the dirty work.”

“He’s right,” Heather smiles. “Your pack saved the day, Flynn. I was just along for the ride.”

“Well, why don’t you let me out of this cage now?” I whisper. “And then I’ll take you for a better ride, okay?”

She grins and reaches for a key.

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Chapter Seventeen

Heather

As soon as we’re back in Flynn’s room, our clothes come flying off and I throw myself at him. I can’t believe that he actually almost died. It shouldn’t be possible to be as scared as I was without physically fainting, but I managed to keep it together even when I was fake-flirting with Blake.

I’m just glad that somehow, we all made it out of there alive.

Well, except for the vampire, but, uh, fuck that guy.

Nope.

I’m done holding back with Flynn.