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EIGHT

BURNING WITH ANGER, I FOUGHT harder and better that day than I ever had in any of my classes with the novices So , annihilating Shane Reyes We’d always gotten along, and he took it good-naturedly, applauding my performance, as did a few others

"The co," observed Mason after class

"So it would seeently touched my arm "How’s Lissa?"

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 claiht have done that?"

"Whoa, hey, I’ But honestly? No Mia won’t even do dissections in biology I can’t picture her actually catching a fox, let alone, uht 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?"

Lissa was still shaken when I met her for lunch later, her mood made worse when Natalie and her creouldn’t shut up about the fox Apparently Natalie had overcoh 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 just there," she explained, waving her hands for eht in the middle of the bed There was blood everywhere"

Lissa looked as green as the sweater she wore, and I pulled her away before I even finishedof obscenities about Natalie’s social skills

"She’s nice," Lissa said auto me the other day how much you liked her"

"I do like her, but she’s just incos"

We stood outside our ani 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 er exploded again The fox was bad People upsetting herabout the you?"

"Rose, you can’t beat up everyone we have a probleuessed

"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 Youon and on, but it’s not like you’ve got a good grip on your control switch You’ll nor"

"But not that We need to forget about it It was a long tio We don’t even really knohat happened"

She stared at ument

"Hey, Rose"

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

"Hey"

He nodded cordially to Lissa "So hey, I’roup You think¡­ Lissa, I focused my full attention on Jesse Suddenly, I so needed to do so 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"

Lissa stared at me when he left "You’re under house arrest They won’t let you hang out and talk to hi;talk’ to hiroaned "I just don’t know about you sometimes"

"That’s because you’re the cautious one, and I’m the reckless one"

Once ani responsible Froel face, she certainly see the sensation caused by the bloody fox But that didn’ther over the last couple of weeks, I knew she’d enjoy anything that upset Lissa 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 whoest physically, though many times, confrontations turn out to be more a ed and replaced, that wolf roup or even attacked"

I looked up from my daydreaes are likely to occur during ht snickers from the class "In most packs, the alpha pair are the only ones who er 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 thenotwithstanding, I thought the rest was pretty relevant Certainly in the Academy’s social structure, I decided bitterly, there seees

Mia raised her hand "What about foxes? Do they have alphas too?"

There was a collective intake of breath froles No one could believe Mia had gone there

Ms Meissner flushed hat I suspected was anger "We’re discussing wolves today, Miss Rinaldi"

Mia didn’t see, and when the class paired off to work on an assign Through the bond, I could feel Lissa growing h her ot a way - "