I didn't realize until that moment how badly I did want to learn, how I wanted to prove myself to him, to Lisa, and to everyone else. The fox incident had made me feel powerless, and I didn't like that. I wanted to do something,anything.

Dimitri watched my outburst calmly, with no change in his expression. When I finished, he simply beckoned me forward like I hadn't said anything. "Come on. You're late for practice.»

CHAPTER 8

Burning with anger, I fought harder and better that day than I ever had in any of my classes with the novices.So much so that I finally won my first hand-to-hand pairing, annihilating Shane Reyes. We'd always gotten along, and he took it good-naturedly, applauding my performance, as did a few others.

"The comeback's starting, " observed Mason after class.

"So it would seem."

He gently touched my arm. "How's Lisa?"

It didn't surprise me that he knew. Gossip spread so fast around here sometimes, it felt like everyone had a psychic bond.

"Okay.Coping. " I didn't elaborate on how I knew that. Our bond was a secret from the student body.

"Mase, you claim to know about Mia. You think she might have done that?"

"Whoa, hey, I'm not an expert on her or anything.But honestly? No. Mia won't even do dissections in biology. I can't picture her actually catching a fox, let alone, um, killing it."

"Any friends who might do it for her?"

He shook his head. "Not really. They're not really the types to get their hands dirty either. But who knows?"

Lisa was still shaken when I met her for lunch later, her mood made worse when Natalie and her crew wouldn't shut up about the fox. Apparently Natalie had overcome her disgust enough to enjoy the attention the spectacle had brought her. Maybe she wasn't as content with her fringe status as I'd always believed.

"And it was justthere, " she explained, waving her hands for emphasis. "Right in the middle of the bed. There was bloodeverywhere."

Lisa looked as green as the sweater she wore, and I pulled her away before I even finished my food and immediately launched into a string of obscenities about Natalie's social skills.

"She's nice, " Lisa said automatically. "You were just telling me the other day how much you liked her."

"I do like her, but she's just incompetent about certain things."

We stood outside our animal behavior class, and I noticed people giving us curious looks and whispering as they passed. I sighed.

"How are you doing with all this?"

A half-smile crossed her face. "Can't you already feel it?"

"Yeah, but I want to hear it from you."

"I don't know. I'll be okay. I wish everyone wouldn't keep staring at me like I'm some kind of freak."

My anger exploded again. The fox was bad. People upsetting her made it worse, but at least I could do something about them. "Who's bothering you?"

"Rose, you can't beat up everyone we have a problem with."

«Mia?» I guessed.

"And others, " she said evasively. "Look, it doesn't matter. What I want to know is how this could have…that is, I can't stop thinking about that time-"

"Don't, " I warned.

"Why do you keep pretending that didn't happen?You of all people. You made fun of Natalie for going on and on, but it's not like you've got a good grip on your control switch. You'll normally talk about anything."

"But notthat.We need to forget about it. It was a long time ago. We don't even really know what happened." She stared at me with those big green eyes, calculating her next argument.

"Hey, Rose."

Our conversation dropped as Jesse strolled up to us. I turned on my best smile.

"Hey."

He nodded cordially to Lisa. "So hey, I'm going to be in your dorm tonight for a study group. You think…maybe…"

Momentarily forgetting Lisa, I focused my full attention on Jesse. Suddenly, I so needed to do something wild and bad. Too much had happened today. "Sure."

He told me when he'd be there, and I told him I'd meet him in one of the common areas with "further instructions."

Lisa stared at me when he left. "You're under house arrest. They won't let you hang out and talk to him."

"I don't really want to 'talk' to him. We'll slip away.»

She groaned. "I just don't know about you sometimes.»

"That's because you're the cautious one, and I'm the reckless one.»

Once animal behavior started, I pondered the likelihood of Mia being responsible. From the smug look on her psycho-angel face, she certainly seemed to be enjoying the sensation caused by the bloody fox.

But that didn't mean she was the culprit, and after observing her over the last couple of weeks, I knew she'd enjoy anything that upset Lisa and me. She didn't need to be the one who had done it.

"Wolves, like many other species, differentiate their packs into alpha males and alpha females whom the others defer to. Alphas are almost always the strongest physically, though many times, confrontations turn out to be more a matter of willpower and personality. When an alpha is challenged and replaced, that wolf may findhimself ostracized from the group or even attacked."

I looked up from my daydreams and focused on Ms. Meissner.

"Most challenges are likely to occur during mating season, " she continued.This, naturally, brought snickers from the class. "In most packs, the alpha pairare theonly ones who mate. If the alpha male is an older, seasoned wolf, a younger competitor may think he has a shot. Whether that is true works on a case-by-case basis. The young often don't realize how seriously outclassed they are by the more experienced."

The old-and-young-wolf thing notwithstanding, I thought the rest was pretty relevant. Certainly in the Academy's social structure, I decided bitterly, there seemed to be a lot of alphas and challenges.

Mia raised her hand. "What about foxes? Dothey have alphas too?"

There was a collective intake of breath from the class, followed by a few nervous giggles. No one could believe Mia had gone there.

Ms. Meissner flushed with what I suspected was anger. "We're discussing wolves today, Miss Rinaldi."

Mia didn't seem to mind the subtle chastising, and when the class paired off to work on an assignment, she spent more time looking over at us and giggling. Through the bond, I could feel Lisa growing more and more upset as images of the fox kept flashing through her mind.

"Don't worry, " I told her. "I've got a way-"

"Hey, Lisa, " someone interrupted.

We both looked up as Ralf Sarcozy stopped by our desks. He wore his trademark stupid grin, and I had a feeling he'd come over here on a dare from his friends.

"So, admit it, " he said. "You killed the fox. You're trying to convince Kirova you're crazy so that you can get out of here again."

"Screw you, " I told him in a low voice.

"Are you offering?"

"From what I've heard, there isn't much to screw, " I shot back.

«Wow,» he said mockingly. "Youhave changed. Last I remembered, you weren't too picky about who you got naked with."

"And the last I remember, the only people you ever saw naked were on the Internet."

He cocked his head in an overly dramatic fashion. "Hey, I just got it: it was you, wasn't it? " He looked at Lisa, the back at me. "She gotyou to kill the fox, didn't she?Some weird kind of lesbian voo-ahhh!"

Ralf burst into flames. I jumped up and pushed Lisa out of the way-not easy to do, since we were sitting at our desks. We both ended up on the floor as screams-Ralf's in particular-filled the classroom and Ms. Meissner sprinted for the fire extinguisher.

And then, just like that, the flames disappeared. Ralf was still screaming and patting himself down, but he didn't have a single singe mark on him. The only indication of what had happened was the lingering smell of smoke in the air.