Page 19 of The First Year

“Foxy as in the animal rather than the antique expression meaning he’s cute?”

“Yeah. He was awful and bragging like he had some kind of power over the other students.”

Desi was getting near the bottom of her bowl of stew, and she wiped it clean with the bread. “Yeah, I know the one you mean. Reinard. He doesn’t admit it, but rumor has it he has some fox in his lineage. Mostly wolf, though. And he is not powerful, but he is a powerful kiss-ass. Avoid him.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

“And speaking of twice, did you get lost a second time?”

“I did, and that was when Evander found me and walked me home.” I forked up some salad. Lunch was only a half hour and I hadn’t eaten very much. “Right to my door.”

“Wow. That could have gotten him in trouble if he’d been caught. Wonder what he was doing outside after curfew.”

Me too. I also wondered.

“Tell me about Sol. He seems a little bit stuffy to me.”

Desi nodded. “I don’t know any of those three well, but Sol is the one with the most tragic story, I think. He was going to be pack alpha, and now that he’s been bitten, his daddy dearest has said he’s out. Won’t even let him challenge for the position. And they say he was raised like a little prince.”

“No wonder he’s reserved. That must be a phenomenal letdown. What will he do when he gets out of here?”

Desi was silent.

“Desi, we do get out of here, right? Eventually?”

She set her fork down and started piling her dishes on the tray.

“Desi?”

“I don’t know. Nobody that I’m aware of has left since I’ve been here.”

Chapter Sixteen

Evander

“I was assisting at PE and she didn’t look good.” Today, PE had consisted of shifting in the auditorium, and the little female had barely managed it. To be fair, most of our wolves hated shifting indoors, but it was more than that. “I don’t think the venom has cleared out of her system yet.”

“We don’t know that it’s out of ours,” Odin pointed out. “But I understand what you mean. Where is she, anyway?

“I don’t see her.” Sol stood up and looked over to where Desi sat alone. “She’s late. I’m going to go ask her friend if she knows anything.” Without waiting for us to object, he was on his feet and moving toward the other table.

“He’s talking to her,” Odin put in unnecessarily. “I wish we could hear what they’re saying.”

“Me too, but he’s coming back.”

Sol sat down again and picked up his fork. “They call this steak? I can barely cut it with the dull knives they give us.”

“Shut up about the food. What did Desi say?” I asked. “Is Roxy all right?”

“She told Desi she was going to call in sick for dinner, running a low-grade fever again. She tried to explain why she should show up anyway, but she didn’t listen. I told Desi we’d try to talk to her.”

“Not good. She’s not processing the venom well at all, is she?” Odin’s brows drew down. “We need to go see her. Find out if she needs anything.”

“After dinner.” Sol glanced toward where the faculty member assigned to watch us at this meal stood. “If we get up and leave now, we’ll be getting more demerits. Just finish your food and then we can casually head toward the library.”

“But we aren’t going to the library,” Odin pointed out.

“Duh. It’s just to throw off anyone who might be nosy. Eat!”

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