Page 10 of Cleo

“I’ll walk you.” He didn’t ask permission and, while I had only been exposed to academies and schools on Angie’s laptop via Netflix, walking someone to class seemed to be a standard for boys to show they liked a girl. Heat bloomed in my cheeks and down my neck, ending somewhere on my chest.

“Are…are you sure?” I’d never been around males who weren’t my father’s employees and did not speak to me or even look at me directly. Especially males my age.

Maybe I’d been watching too many of Angie’s shows.

“I am. Let’s go before we are late.”

While we walked to the elevator, Pax stayed close behind me, a tall, powerful presence. His wolf lay close to the surface, a force to be reckoned with. My father taught me to sense the power in others, to determine if another person was a threat. Not that I was able to put his teachings into practice, but Pax was no threat to me, despite his power. He was a sheathed knife. Dangerous if the time called for it but so far, he had shown me nothing but kindness.

In the elevator, he threaded his fingers with mine. Too bad it was only one floor down. I hadn’t exactly held his hand back either. All of this was so new to me and before I had time to react or process one event, another one happened. I supposed this would be the way for a long time until I grew accustomed to this new life.

His touch thrilled me but also, a calmness overtook my body. Sure, my mind was a mess because a boy was touching me, but overall, I wasn’t half as worried as I had been only minutes before.

“We are here.” Pax pointed to the door.

“We?” I asked.

He nodded. “Me and you. Same class.” Truly a man of few words.

“Oh. Thank you for walking me.” I paused between every word, making me sound like a robot.

“You are welcome.”

We walked into the classroom, and I instantly felt the absence of his touch.

“Good morning. You must be Ms. Wulf. I have you all checked in. Pick a seat while we go over the announcements, please.”

I sat in the back, behind Pax. It was the only seat available, but I was in no way sad about his closeness. At least I knew one person in this room.

Chapter Ten

It was great to have Pax in homeroom with me. It was a short class with announcements and some other discussions, no actual material to study, but before I left the room, the teacher called me up to the front. “Cleo Wulf, I need to see you before you leave for your next class?”

I’d seen enough TV shows about school to know that being held back after class was not usually a good thing. I just couldn’t think what I might have done wrong. Pax stood but said, “I’ll wait for you outside and walk you to your next class, okay?”

I nodded, too nervous to reply, and waited while he and all the others filed out into the hallways, many casting me either pitying or interested looks. If I was interpreting them correctly. There really was no knowing for sure with my limited experience in being around people. It really sucked to be at such a loss. Once the door closed behind the last of them, I headed for the teacher’s desk.

She was flipping through some pages and didn’t seem to notice when I arrived, so I stood there for a moment then—as seen on TV—cleared my throat. The teacher whose name I had already forgotten looked up at me, brows drawn together, then shook her head. “Sorry, I was going over my notes for my next class. This is my first semester here, and after teaching in a human high school, I really want to do well here.”

“I…ah…I thought you did well with the announcements.”

“Really? I wasn’t sure.”

Oh my gods, she really was nervous. “I thought you did. It made me want to go to the yearbook meeting, although I am not on the committee and barely know what the committee would be doing.”

“Ah, it is true then. I was told my new student has been part of a pack who doesn’t mingle, but I thought that didn’t make sense. After all, in this day and age, with all the technology available…”

“We didn’t have technology where I grew up. At least almost none,” I informed her. “But I am anxious to catch up.”

“And that is a perfect segue into why I called you up here. I have a package for you.” She pushed a box sitting on the desk toward me. “Open it up. Hurry, or you’ll be late for your next class.”

And Pax would too if he was still waiting for me. “All right.” I used my fingernail to slit the paper tape holding the box closed. Since we had everything delivered back home, I’d seen the logos on this box before. No outsider approached the house, but Angie had told me there was a town not too far away where everything was delivered and the staff could pick it up and bring it into the compound.

So, I’d seen these boxes before, but… “I didn’t order anything.” It had to be some kind of mistake.

“Open it up and see what’s inside.” She seemed eager, as if she knew what I would find but didn’t want to say for some reason.

“I’m nervous.” If I was learning anything here, it was that I could speak my mind to a certain extent. Not all my secrets, of course, at least not yet. I lifted the lid to find a tablet, similar to what the other students had, and a number of other items. My initial joy was filtered through the distrust I’d always known. “Oh, must belong to someone else.” I made to close the box but the teacher stayed my hand.