No sooner had she finished her sentence than a pack of wolves came tearing down the hallway.

Since they were in the cafeteria, out of the line of sight, the wolves ran past them, toward the exposed students who were at their lockers.

Ah, crap.

The wolves attacked without pause. The humans screamed and ran for cover as best they could. Some even tried to climb straight up the lockers.

Wincing, Nick knew he couldn’t stand by and do nothing. Before he could move, Kody grabbed an unattended lacrosse stick and ran after them to protect the humans.

By the time Nick caught up to her, she was barely holding the wolves off. Stone—he could tell by the size, color, and ferocity of the beast who’d attacked him on previous occasions—had the scoop in his massive jowls and was trying to wrench it free to bite Kody. It was so tempting to send a jolt through him and watch him change into a naked human in the middle of the hallway. Only the screaming, fleeing baretos kept Nick from it. While Nick might want to traumatize Stone to get back at him for all the times he’d embarrassed Nick in public, no need in sending the innocent into therapy.

Or blinding himself with the unwanted sight of Stone’s hideous naked body.

Instead, he whistled for the wolves and then ran so that they’d chase him back toward the gym. They wasted no time in coming for him like he was the only bowl of Alpo to be had. It was a pants-wetting kind of intensity.

And as Nick slid through the gym door and Mason sank fangs into his arm, he regretted that decision in the worst sort of way, especially since the room was filled with witnesses who prevented him from using his demonic powers to get Mason off him.

Dang you, nonsensical rules of sanity! Dang you all!

Mason dragged him down hard. Nick tried to pry his arm free as the rest of the pack descended on him with vicious bites.

Yeah, this had definitely been a better idea in the abstract. The reality was much more painful than he’d imagined and it made him really miss Caleb. At least with Caleb around, his enemies had another moving target to chase and chew on.

“Get off him!” Kody tossed a net over Mason she must have manifested out of the sight of the others. She dragged him away from Nick.

Stone went for her throat. Reacting on pure instinct and forgetting the rules about using magic in plain sight, Nick threw his hand out and zapped him. The bolt sent Stone skidding into the bleachers, where he flashed from human to wolf and back again.

Nick started to panic about his slip until Kody distracted them with a scream. As the teachers and adult Weres took over herding the wolves, he saw that the zeitjägers were back and watching everything closely.

Too closely for Nick’s sanity.

Without a word, Kody pulled him into the hallway, out of the line of fire.