Chapter Eleven

What a daunting day! Finding the dining hall on my own had turned into a fiasco despite the crowd flowing in that direction.

So when I looked down at my schedule and saw that the next class was shifting and moreover, would be held outside, I nearly sprinted to be the first there.

Except, I had trouble finding out how to take the elevator to the roof. It still scared me, to start with, that moving enclosed box. What if it stopped? I didn't dare ask for help. Not that I believed everyone had bad intentions, but I felt stupid for inquiring in the first place.

"Cleo?" I turned to see Miles walking at top speed to catch up with me. "You're going the wrong way."

"How do you know?" I croaked out. Did I look lost? I looked down at my chest, thinking he could see right through me, or maybe I had Lost stamped right across my shirt.

"Because we have our next class together, and you're walking in the opposite direction."

I snorted and let out a hysterical laugh. Way to make him think I was ridiculous. "That will do it. Point me in the right direction?" My cheeks filled with heat. I really wished they would stop doing that. It gave so much away. Like the fact that Miles was adorable and sexy in a boy-next-door kind of way. If Miles had been the boy next door, if there had been any neighbors at all near our compound, I would've run away next door to meet him.

"How about I walk with you? Jude and Pax are already there, I bet."

"Oh, okay."

As we moved along, several females said hello to him. He waved or slightly smiled, always being polite but rubbed at the back of his neck. He was uncomfortable with the attention, I thought. I wasn't good at reading males except to determine if they were an enemy or not, but I was sure that was the vibe coming from Miles.

Except he had gone out of his way to talk to me. Walk me to class. Pax had as well.

Pax had been a safe house in my earlier mental tornado.

He showed me how to operate the elevator, and once the door slid open, there was nothing but green as far as I could see. My supernatural side picked up a bit of a glimmer in parts of the sky. I knew that glimmer. There was an enchantment on this place. Of course there was. This Werewolf Academy right in the center of an urban sprawl. And we were about to shift right here, high above where humans got coffee or went to work, whatever humans did.

We gathered in front of a teacher and listened while she laid out the rules. No fighting. No challenges. Nothing dangerous.

While the teacher was talking, Jude came to stand beside me. His hand brushed mine causing a full-body shiver.

All of these males had such dramatic effects on me, but for all I knew, they could be players. Males who had many females they had sex with or dated without commitment. I never understood that part of the human movies. Why mate with all kinds of males and females when none of that would compare to the connection we could have with our fated mate. Despite my father's complete resistance to the idea of fated mates, my heart still believed in them.

"Now, let's shift everyone."

I started to take off my shoes, observing the transformations around me. They were all becoming wolves. Some bigger than others. Some small. There was one particularly small, and I thought perhaps they were part fox from their size and amber coloring.

But all wolves for the most part. Wolf, I could do. And anything else would make me stand out in a way I had no interest in.

I purposefully kept my gaze from wandering to Pax, Jude, and Miles, well aware of the swish of their pants as they brought them down their legs, the sound of their zippers, the whoosh of the clothes as they hit the ground. Why did they seem so loud? Had to be my attempt to not focus that made it the only thing I was aware of.

The entire class was undressing, but none of the others mattered. Just the three guys who had been so kind to me. And that was what it had to be, right? Kindness?

Were their eyes on me? Did I want their eyes on my naked form? Nakedness was nothing to shifters, or so I was told. The guards at the compound would often strip and turn to their wolves and run as a small pack. I'd seen them through my bedroom window, and not a single sexual thought ran through my mind.

My core throbbed at the thought of Pax, Jude, and Miles looking at me with interest, but I was also so shy I wanted to hide. Nobody had seen me shift except Angie. I always did it in my room and then went outside already in animal form. I shifted into my wolf quickly and took off at a run.

The moment my paws hit the ground, nothing on earth could've stopped me. My other side had been caged for too long. With very little else to do except late at night when I watched the videos, I had run every day back at the compound.

I flashed by trees as the green grass tickled my claws. The sun beat down on my white fur, and I ran until I heard a sharp bark from behind me.

Jude. My immediate reaction to the bark was that it belonged to Jude, as his wolf, of course.

I bore down on my back legs and came to a halt and turned. My upper lip drew upward, snarling at the male. I didn't know his intentions or why he barked at me.

My other side liked him but was upset that our run was halted.

Another wolf, one with light-red fur approached slowly. His head was down and a small whimper came from him. He didn't mean me harm.

It is Miles, I told my other half so she wouldn't bite his head off. She was more than capable.

He walked past me and put his paw near the ground. As he touched a leaf, I saw the flicker of the glimmer I'd noticed earlier.

I whirled, now noticing it all around us, like we were under a dome of the shimmering spell.

I had almost gone beyond the borders and right over the edge of the roof.

Jude, Miles, and even Pax, who stood a way back, had saved me.