"Enemies in Sunlight"

We were mortal enemies.

"I'm Judas," he muttered, rubbing his chest, and winced.

There was a leaf stuck to his cheek, covering half his eye. A leaf over those brown eyes. My fingers trembled, desperation raged, my breath sawing through my chest. God, he looked gorgeous.

"I don't care!" I threw my hands into the air and lifted my gaze to the steep descent.

"You came out of nowhere."

He shoved against the ground and pushed to stand. "I didn't even know you were there."

"Yeah well, the whole fucking campus knew where you were, thundering through the damn trees like a rhino in heat."

"In heat?" He snatched the leaf from his eye. There was a twitch of his lips. "Now...that's one thing l've never been called."

"Yeah, well..." Words escaped me. Heat raced, filling me with the need to take a step closer, to draw in his scent, to touch his skin. I swallowed that urge and instead took a step away.

"Get used to it."

"We have our winners!" The faint voice of Ms. Lucas reached me. "Come on in class."

I ground my jaw, took one last look at my rhino, and made for the steep way out of here.

Thy must not kill Ms. Lucas. " She gripped her hips and stood tall near the entrance to the classroom, eyeing each of us. She wasn't impressed with our hunting skills; that was easy to see.

But from her clothes to the delicate way she stood and even her soft voice, it surprised me she taught Primal Studies and hunting.

I'd expected something fluffier from her, like weaving... Hell, there better not be weaving in my schedule. Last time I tried to sew a button on my shirt, I almost attached the damn thing to my thumb.

The mass of students filed back into a classroom drenched in sunlight, and I dragged my feet behind the group who laughed and bumped into each other on purpose. The dull throb in the back of my head poked poisoned fingers into my temples.

I fidgeted with the ring on my middle finger. I needed to get out of this sun, get in doors where the dark would save me.

The coppery smell of blood teased my nostrils. Fresh, so sweet, and ripe. And even without seeing the body, I knew it belonged to a rabbit.

Ms. Lucas clapped loudly.

"Quick. By the little show out there, we have a lot of work to do." She eyed me suspiciously as I passed her.

Did she expect me to be a top vampire hunter? My father was renowned for his stealth as much as his brutality; obviously, none of those skills flowed onto me.

Everyone slid into their seats while I headed for the only remaining chair, right in the glare of the pouring sunlight.

Great.

All eyes were on me, hatred jabbed into my back. Three felines watched my every step, their mouths twisted into silent snarls at their enemy.

Me.

The new student in class.

Hating me for hell-knows what reason.

Fuck them and their claw diggers gang.

I turned my gaze to the Werewolf. I bet the catty gang's hatred had nothing to do with the fact I was a Vampire and everything to do with him.

On cue, the hacked up furball turned his head. Silver glinted in the shine of the sunlight, and all of a sudden, I didn't notice the throbbing in my temples.

I didn't notice anything at all.

His lips curled. The smile made that dead thing in my chest shudder with promise.

No, my lips moved with the word. His brow rose as he searched my face. Stay away from me.

I swore the silver in his eyes glinted harder with the challenge.

I tore my gaze to the front of the class, where Ms. Lucas was speaking.

But my gaze slipped to him once more...just like it was gravity. No, not a Wolf... I tried to clench my fist, desperately searching for that hate I needed.

Dad would be enraged.

He'd be furious.

He'd raze this school to the ground if he knew a Wolf was making eyes at his daughter.

The idea made that fossil in my chest give a slow...hard throb.

A healed gash blushed along the side of his jawline and neck. Had I done that when I slammed into him, taking us both down a hill?

"This is why Vamps shouldn't be allowed in our school." The black-haired girl glared my way, her eyes flashing yellow.

"No one wants you near us, zombie," she spat with poison in her words.

I slouched in my seat, holding her stare because right now, I was so close to exploding, and if she wanted a fight, l'd be game. But it wouldn't be fair for me, and l'd come out on the bottom of the pile.

"Enough, Ms. Lecho!" the teacher warned, and the class fell silent. "Now, who can tell me the number one rule of hunting?"

Hands shot up, but I couldn't focus on the lesson, not when I fumed, and a silent trigger inside me screamed to get up and run. Get Chuck to arrange a lift home and leave this place. I didn't want to play these games, hating how l'd somehow ended on the wrong end of everything.

But when I got home, then what?

Marry that demon knob? Hell waited for me at every turn, and knowing Thorin, he'd probably take me to meet Satan himself for our honeymoon, thinking it was romantic. Nothing that involved sweating like a beast was romantic.

I scanned the room and found Ava two seats away in the back row, hunched over her table, head low. Trying to curl herself into oblivion.

An ache flared through me as I remembered the hunt. She'd pleaded with me to leave, but I didn't listen. Yep, no wonder I never made friends.

The lights in the room switched off, plunging the room into darkness as the blinds started to descend. I glanced over to find Ms. Lucas with a remote control in hand and a white screen dropping down from the ceiling behind her desk.

I sank into the bliss as Ms. Lucas started to talk once more.

"We're going to watch how apex predators hunt in the wild, and your homework tonight is to write a five-page essay on how another predator, and not your own, stalks and attacks their prey. I want you to focus on those skills they've honed and what it means to us as we live with the pact."

Most groaned in the room, and the cat girls whined and snarled. I leaned backwards, stretching my hand toward the bookshelf against the back wall behind me. I snatched the first book I touched. In haste, I set the text in my lap and ripped the corner of a page in slow motion before returning the book titled The Sex of Plants.

Why the hell would we ever need to know that? I ought to rip out more pages, but didn't, and quickly turned around to find no one saw me.

Scrunching the paper in my hand, I waited for the teacher to turn around. And the moment she did, I flung the ball in my hand toward Ava to grab her attention.

But in that exact moment, she leaned down to scratch her leg or something, and the projectile flew over her and whacked Judas in the back of the head.

Oh, crap, I curled forward.

He snapped around with a snarl on his lips, followed by the panther girl who'd been ogling him. She had a crease down the center of her brow.

Hatred spewed from her eyes and fixed on me and the torn pages of the open book in my hand.

Judas' two wolf friends just watched our staring match, a deep snarl rolling in their throats. When one broke into a soft howl, Judas just smirked.

Panther girl mouthed something my way.

Pretty sure it was. You're dead.

I jerked my gaze to the front of the class once more, yet my knees bounced in fear.

I was fucking this up on a monumental level.

The teacher cleared her throat, trying her best to draw everyone's attention. Still, they stared at me. I felt them all... including Ava.

I gave her a tiny wave, offering her a smile. But she gave me the death stare and wrenched her head around so fast, she'd have whiplash.

Yep, she was pissed at me for my stunt in the woods. Bitch face loathed me. And fur ball must have thought I was interested.

I exhaled loudly and sunk deeper into my chair, hugging myself, trying to hide in the shadows of the room. I focused on the screen where a lion chased down a gazelle.

When he pounced on the poor animal, the whole class cheered, clapping and hooting.