I imagined what she saw at the moment. A huge beast with yellow ghoulish eyes, and a face only a mother could love? None of it seemed to bother her. She reached forward carefully, touching the beast's face, and he stopped.

It was a rare occurrence for him to be still, but he did.

Her touch settled him, set him on fire, and seared his heart. She took a deep breath and tangled her fingers into his hair. "All bark and no bite, huh?" she whispered.

He seemed to like it, and I knew she could say whatever she needed to him because he was at her mercy. The mate bond was strong. Even as a beast, my wolf was putty in her hands.

The curls of ebony hair on top of his head fell onto his wide forehead, and his heavy brow was pulled inward, as if he was concentrating. His bright green eyes were vibrant, and raking me of my innocence. Everything about him screamed male. His broad shoulders, the way his brows slanted so harshly, and his full mouth were hard, yet lush.

I stepped back from him. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I shouldn’t be here. I will never come back.”

He took the step with me, his arm reached out toward me, but all I could think about was my stepmother and the punishment I would get for sneaking out.

His coiled forearm tightened, and his muscles flexed in his broad chest. Everything about him was driving me into a lust-filled frenzy. With all the courage I could muster, I turned and ran from him.

I didn’t look back to see if he followed.

Why would the Dragon Prince follow a human girl who wore out-of-date clothing and broke his family's law of not using the bridge?

Only to find she lived in her stepmother's attic and was bossed around like a little Cinder Girl.

But the better question was why he didn't turn me in, and why his green eyes looked so ... interested?

I can’t believe I’m doing this.

I glanced at myself in the pull-down mirror of my rundown Honda Civic. It wasn’t the car my father bought me when I turned sixteen. No, that one was in the driveway of my childhood home, where my stepmother and stepbrother lived.

I couldn’t bring it with me because I knew they would be able to track it.

They would do anything to find me now. I’d bought this Honda Civic with cash I’d saved from babysitting when I was in high school.

Not that we needed the money.

No, I’d grown up with tons of that. I needed an escape. Somewhere to hide in plain sight.

That’s why I sat in the parking lot of Beast Academy.

When my father died suddenly two months ago, I knew my days were numbered. My stepmother pulled the will out so fast it gave me whiplash.

There, she realized that everything had been left to me; unless I died, I was the heir to my father’s fortune, his father’s money, and every piece of property he owned.

That’s when I woke up to her standing in my doorway, an evil glint in her eye.

That night, I packed my bag and slept at my best friend Rachel’s house. I hadn’t been back.

It was August, the first day of school, and I was breaking all the rules.

All. Of. Them.

I’d used the rest of my cash left from buying my car to get myself a fake ID. I was no longer Vivian Kingston, I was Blaire Hope McConner, a scholarship student moving from Tennessee to the depths of Louisiana.

The kicker? I was human, and no one at Beast Academy was human.

They’d earned their rights back in the 1800s during the war that set the supernaturals free.

Now, everyone wanted to be one.

Humans fawned over them like celebrities. It was interesting to see the different powers and abilities.

Dad had worked at the school as a Vice Superintendent.

Dad had Fae blood but hadn’t been brought up to practice like most of them.

I was human, taking after my mother, who had no supernatural blood in her whatsoever.

That’s why I being here was dangerous.

Humans weren’t allowed.