Chapter 3: You Are Less Than Nothing

Blair and Heather hit the grand double doors of the orientation hall like a two-woman wrecking ball.

Blair pushed with all her meager strength. The massive, iron-wrought doors, designed for beasts with triple her muscle mass, gave way with a booming groan that echoed like a cannon shot through the cavernous room.

SCREEEEEECH. SLAM.

Inside, the orientation hall was the size of a cathedral. Vaulted glass ceilings let in streams of afternoon light, illuminating rows upon rows of velvet-cushioned seats.

And every single seat was occupied.

Hundreds of elite beastmen: lions with golden manes, tigers with striped skin, avian beasts with feathers woven into their hair...all snapped their heads toward the back entrance. The collective glare of a thousand predatory eyes hit Blair with the force of a brick wall.

On the grand marble stage at the front of the room, the speaker stopped dead.

Professor Jack Feron stood at the podium. Even from a hundred feet away, his presence was suffocating. He was tall, lean, and dressed in a tailored black suit. Protruding from his broad back were two majestic wings of iridescent black feathers. They twitched, just once, in irritation.

His eyes, a piercing, unnerving shade of blood red, locked onto Blair.

"Well," Professor Feron’s voice echoed through the hall. "It seems the rodents have finally decided to join us."

Blair stopped breathing. Beside her, Heather immediately dropped her head, assuming a submissive posture, though Blair could hear her muttering, "Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god" under her breath.

"Come down to the front. Now," Jack commanded.

Blair’s legs moved on autopilot. The walk down the center aisle was the longest, most agonizing trek of her life. The beast nobility sneered and snickered as she passed. She pulled her sweater tighter around her torso, painfully aware of how pathetic she looked.

She stopped at the base of the stage, keeping her gaze glued to Jack’s polished black shoes.

"Look at me when I am speaking to you, lesser," he snapped.

Blair flinched, slowly lifting her chin. Up close, Jack was terrifyingly handsome, but his expression was twisted in pure disgust. He didn’t look at her like a student. He looked at her like a cockroach that had scurried across his clean floor.

"You are late," Jack said quietly. The entire hall leaned in to listen. "And you are out of uniform."

"I... I just picked it up, sir," Blair stammered, her voice shaking. "I didn’t have time to change. My sweater—"

"Is an eyesore," Jack interrupted. He stepped out from behind the podium, gliding to the edge of the stage. He loomed over her, his black wings casting a dark shadow over her face. "But then again, you humans are used to wallowing in filth. Tell me, are you the one they call Blair Willows?"

A murmur ripped through the crowd. The beastmen exchanged dark, irritated looks. They all knew who she was. The human who had stolen the number two spot.

"Yes, sir," Blair whispered.

Jack’s red eyes narrowed into slits. He crouched down slightly, bringing his face closer to hers.

"The supposed genius," Jack mocked, his voice echoing loudly for the crowd’s amusement. "The human who thinks her meager, fragile little brain makes her equal to the apex predators of this academy. Let us test that theory, shall we? Since you feel you are above our schedule and our dress code."

He stood up tall, his wings flaring out behind him in a show of pure dominance.

"Calculate the terminal velocity of a two-hundred-pound avian beastmen diving from an altitude of ten thousand feet," Jack demanded, his voice cracking like a whip. "Factoring in the atmospheric drag coefficient of the Eastern Mountain Range and a wind resistance of forty knots. You have five seconds."

The hall erupted into a chorus of cruel laughter. It was an impossible question. A master’s level physics equation meant to utterly humiliate her on her first day.

"Five," Jack began counting, a cruel smirk playing on his lips.

Blair’s mind went blank. The panic seized her throat.

"Four."

Atmospheric drag. Ten thousand feet. Forty knots.

"Three."

The numbers danced in front of her eyes.

"Two."

"One hundred and eighty-four point six miles per hour," Blair blurted out.

The cruel laughter in the hall died instantly. The silence that followed was so profound you could hear a pin drop.

Jack’s countdown stopped. His cruel smirk vanished, replaced by a look of actual shock. His red eyes widened slightly, staring down at the trembling human girl.

"Factoring in the drag coefficient, it’s 184.6," Blair repeated softly, her heart hammering against her ribs. "Assuming... assuming the wings are fully tucked for maximum aerodynamics, sir."

A low growl rumbled through the hall, but Jack raised a single, gloved hand, silencing the beastmen instantly.

He didn’t look humiliated. He looked enraged.

Jack stepped off the stage. He moved so fast Blair didn’t even see him blur. One second he was on the platform, and the next, he was standing mere inches from her. She had to crane her neck all the way back to look up at him.

He invaded her personal space entirely, radiating a suffocating heat.

"You think you are clever," Jack whispered, his voice so low that only she and Heather could hear it. The venom in his tone made the hairs on Blair’s arms stand up.

"I was just answering the—"

"You are an arrogant anomaly," Jack hissed, cutting her off. He leaned down, his face inches from hers, his red eyes burning with intense hatred. "You think that high test score protects you? You think your fragile little human brain means anything here? In this world, Willows, if your body cannot survive, your brain dies with it."

Blair swallowed hard, unable to look away from his terrifying gaze.

"I am giving you a demerit for your uniform violation," Jack said, his voice returning to a normal volume for the crowd to hear. "And you will serve a week of detention. You will be in the East Wing armory every evening. Scrubbing the floors on your hands and knees, and polishing the broadswords."

He stepped back, his wings snapping tight against his back.

"Take your seats," he barked. "And do not interrupt my orientation again."

Blair’s legs felt like jelly as she and Heather scrambled up the side aisle, slipping into two empty seats in the very back row. Blair slumped down in the chair, pulling her sweater up over her chin, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her whole.

"Oh my god," Heather whispered, leaning over. Her eyes were practically sparkling. "That was intense. Do you think he’s single? He’s a little scary, but the bad boy professor vibe is kinda hot."

"He just sentenced me to manual labor, Heather!" Blair hissed back.

"Yeah, but he looked deeply into your eyes while he did it," Heather pointed out.

The rest of orientation passed in a blur of terrifying rules and regulations. When they were finally dismissed, the afternoon shifted into a mandatory campus tour for the freshmen.

If Blair thought sitting in the hall was bad, walking the grounds was a nightmare.

The beast nobility made no secret of their disgust. As the large group of freshmen moved through the sprawling, beautiful campus, Blair felt hateful glares burning into her back from every direction. She was hyper-aware of the fact that she was one of the only humans in a sea of predators. Worse, every time she looked up at the towering black spires of the academic buildings, she swore she caught glimpses of black feathers or the flash of red eyes watching her from the rooftops.

Heather, on the other hand, was having the time of her life. She acted less like a student on a tour and more like a safari guide pointing out exotic wildlife.

"Okay, see that massive glass building over there?" Heather whispered, linking her arm through Blair’s and pointing toward a sprawling, freezing-looking structure. "That’s the Ice Rink. Total Wolf territory. Prince Daemus practically lives there. They say he skates so fast he cracks the ice. High priority target, definitely."

Blair sighed, rubbing her temples.

As they rounded a corner, Heather gasped and pointed toward a magnificent, tiered marble courtyard filled with large, crystal-clear fountains.

The water sparkled in the late afternoon sun. Sitting on the edge of the largest fountain, surrounded by a giggling crowd of stunning female beastwomen, was a young man. He had long, flowing hair the color of the deep ocean and was dripping in layered pearl necklaces and diamond chains that caught the light.

"And that," Heather whispered, fanning her face with her hand. "Is Jasper Silver. Fish noble. He’s so pretty it actually hurts my feelings."

Blair looked over at the fountain. Jasper threw his head back and laughed at something one of the beastwomen said. He looked radiant. Joyful. Completely harmless.

But as Blair watched, Jasper’s eyes casually flicked over the crowd. Through the sea of hundreds of students, his bright blue eyes locked instantly onto Blair.

The bright, beautiful smile on his face didn’t falter, but something in his eyes shifted. It was a look that made Blair’s stomach drop.

Day one wasn’t even over, and Blair was already starting to realize that the apex predators at this academy weren’t just going to eat her alive.

They were going to play with their food first.