Read Strange Academy (Hot Paranormal Romance) for Free Online Page A

your class ?
    “There are some empty seats at the back, alumnus .” She crossed her arms over her chest. I’d kick you out physically if these children weren’t watching, asshole .
    “Here’s one.” Look at me, I’m sitting at your desk . “Is something wrong with your eye, Miss Strange?”
    “No.” She felt the nerves spasm. Fine. Nothing he did bothered her. She didn’t even notice him. Watching. His gaze all over her. “Now, where were we, class?”
    “Similes,” a voice shouted from the back of the room.
    “Nice try, Nikkos,” she said. “Open the backpack.”
    The rustling got louder as she approached the blond boy’s desk. A drop of sweat from his forehead plopped onto the tile floor. “It’s my puppy. I’m allowed. I have a note.”
    Her B.S. detector went off. She took the folded-up wad of paper, which was still warm from his pocket.
    Dear Sadie:
    Nikkos is allowed to keep his puppy with him at all times.
    Christian
    Hmmm. “Fine,” she said. “Open the bag.”
    “Wha—What?” Nikkos stammered.
    “I’d like to see your puppy. I want to know everyone in my classroom.” She reached for the zipper.
    Gray’s hand clamped on her wrist. How had he crossed the room so fast? “Leave the dog alone.” His steel eyes flashed.
    “This is my classroom. The note doesn’t say I can’t see the puppy. And I’m sure he—”
    “She,” Nikkos broke in.
    “I’m sure she could use some air.” Sadie wrenched her hand out of Gray’s grip.
    Nikkos sweated like a dog himself, his eyes pleading with Gray. “Fine.” Gray clapped Nikkos’s shoulder and winked at him. “If Miss Strange wants to see a puppy, we’ll show her a puppy.”
    Why did everyone go on autopilot when Gray was around? It was just weird, as if he really were a lord or something.
    Gray reached inside his sports jacket with one hand and reached into the backpack with the other. Her ears plugged with pressure. Again.
    Nikkos held his breath as Gray lifted out a wiggling, sad-eyed, black Labrador puppy with odd red eyes. Cuteness aside, Sadie got that Twilight Zone feeling again. Keeping a puppy in a backpack? No one saw a problem here?
    “What’s her name, Nikkos?” she asked, trying to get him to breathe again. The puppy was cute. The situation was weird.
    “Iphigenia.”
    “That means ‘mythological creature’ in Greek,” she told him. The puppy sniffed her hand. Gray grinned, as if anticipating something.
    “Ouch!” Tiny needles crunched her flesh. Gray looked smug. She decided she wanted him dead, despite the lowering of the general ambient hotness quotient this would cause.
    “Iffie!” Nikkos started sweating again. “Geez, Miss Strange, I’m sorry. She only bites people she likes.”
    She compressed the wound and tried not to sound annoyed. “Ha ha. Sharp little teeth she’s got. Her shots are up to date, right?”
    Nikkos nodded, looking nervous, and Gray put the puppy back in the bag. “Well, I’ll be off, Miss Strange. I just remembered something. English is boring and a waste of time,” Gray said, loudly enough so the whole class could hear.
    Her throat went dry. He’d hit her weak spot, the “teaching” part of this teaching job. The kids started whispering to each other. All she could do was clench her fists into her thighs and watch the discipline in her classroom slip away.
    Gray headed toward the door. “By the way, Miss Strange, your eye is twitching.”
    *
    ***
    ******
    ****
    *
    “What are we going to do?” The desperate voice echoed to the ceiling of the Strange Hall foyer. Sadie couldn’t miss it, even over the sound of the heavy oak doors falling shut behind her.
    Students in gray and blue—the boys with loosened ties, the girls with shirts untucked from their kilts—ringed a taller figure, looking to him for answers. The prefect. What was his name again? Right. William Springwater.
    Exhaustion kept her calm. She barely had the strength to shake the wet hat of snow from her hair. Only