The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5

by Stacy Claflin

  I showered and put on some dark clothes and minimal makeup. I was sure that I looked hideous, but then again, who was I trying to impress? Certainly not a werewolf teacher.

  I made my way through the day, managing to avoid talking with anyone until I got Mr. Foley's classroom. I couldn't avoid speaking with him, being that no one else was likely to be in the room with us. His pack meetings were rare, only when they had something important to discuss. Usually, they met out in the woods, far from people.

  When I walked in, he looked up at me. He looked frazzled himself.

  "Is everything all right?" I asked.

  "You were right about Wes. He skipped town. His family says that he went to stay with some relatives, but we all know what that means."

  "I'm sure it'll all work out. At least he won't be spying on you for Francine anymore."

  He sighed. "That's true. It's just hard to see the changes affecting my own pack."

  "Believe me. I can relate," I said, grabbing papers from the bin.

  Nodding, he said, "I'm certain you can. I can't imagine half of what you've been through. Speaking of which, are you okay? You look especially tired today."

  "I've just had some things on my mind," I said, sitting down in the front row. There was no way I was telling him that he was one of those things.

  He nodded and gathered some papers on his desk. I continued to watch him, instead of starting on the papers in front of me. Even though he was obviously tired himself, he was still really attractive. I studied his features and could easily understand why all the girls in school gushed over him. He looked up at me and our eyes met.

  I panicked, horrified that he had caught me staring, and looked down immediately, pretending to grade the papers. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't even focus on the papers. He probably thought that I was a total idiot. And I probably was. Only fools let themselves get infatuated with teachers. And no vampire would ever let herself even consider thinking about a werewolf in that way. But I wasn't just any vampire. When the others were around, I was always getting in trouble for not doing things by the book. It was practically my calling card.

  It was no wonder that I was swooning over my werewolf teacher. What else would anyone expect of me, having been dropped off in Delphic Cove with recent memories wiped, and no other vampires around? Falling for one of the werewolf leaders would stick it to all of them, not that any of them would care since no one had even tried to contact me anyway.

  They obviously weren't concerned with what I did or they wouldn't have left me alone with humans. Before they abandoned me, I wasn't allowed out of a vampire's sight. Then for whatever reason, they all just left me to my own devices, knowing that I wouldn't make any decisions that they would approve of.

  Feeling bolder, I looked up at Mr. Foley's desk one more time. We made eye contact again, and I looked back down at the papers on my desk. Had he been watching me? Or had he sensed I was about to look up? Supernaturals had strong senses, so that was probably it.

  I thought I heard a near-silent chuckle. I didn't dare look up again.

  "You seem to be having a difficult time focusing on those homework assignments," he said, as I continued to look down. "I'm tired myself and I'm going to grab a coffee. Want one?"

  "Sure. That would probably help." And by help, I meant him leaving the room. There was no way that I was going to get anything done with him sitting there, just feet away from me.

  I heard him get up from his desk and listened as he as walked out of the room. I breathed a sigh of relief and then looked at the papers, finally able to focus on them. When he came back, I had already finished half of the stack.

  He set a cup next to the papers on the desk.

  "Thanks," I said, not looking up. I could smell the small amount of blood that he'd slipped into the drink.

  "No problem. I'm glad to see that you finally made it past that first paper."

  I looked up at him, and he was smiling. Did he know that I was obsessed over him? He couldn't. He wouldn't. He certainly wouldn't be smiling about it—he'd be laughing at me. Hysterically. Yet I didn't see any ridicule in his face.

  "Yeah, well, I, uh…I didn't sleep well. I had a lot on my mind."

  "Everything okay?"

  "Sure. I was just thinking about…your pack. You know, how it would affect the castle—my friends and family. Everything is crazy right now."

  "It sure is," he said, sounding as though there was more to what he was saying than what he said. Did he know what I had been thinking? He couldn't have. It just wasn't possible. He would think that I was a complete loser. He certainly wouldn't be giving me laced drinks. "Well, drink the coffee. I'm sure it'll help give you the energy that you need."

  "I'm sure it will." I closed my eyes and took a slow sip, feeling the small amount of blood make its way through me.

  "Do you want anything else? I got some donuts this morning."

  Eyes still closed, I said, "This coffee hits the spot, but thanks." I heard him walk back to his desk, and I drank the rest of the drink, allowing myself to relax. I put the cup aside and started grading the papers in front of me. I could hardly concentrate, knowing that Mr. Foley was only a few feet away.

  I lifted my eyes from the papers, not moving my head, and saw him looking at something on his desk. I stared at his soft hair and moved down to his perfect nose. I moved my gaze a little further down to his lips, they were rosy, but not too much, and they appeared to be silky smooth. I wanted to reach out and—no! I didn't. I didn't want anything to do with his luscious lips or satiny hair.

  Sighing, I looked back down at my desk and pretended to grade the papers. I was so embarrassed for letting my mind go there. I didn't know which was worse, the fact that I was daydreaming about him as a teacher or a werewolf.

  The bell finally rang and I jumped up from my chair, nearly spilling the papers all over the floor. With my quick reflexes, I grabbed the pile before it flew off the desk. I put it on his desk without a word, avoiding him, and not saying anything about the fact that I'd barely touched the papers. He started to say something, but I ran out of the room before he could finish the first word.

  When I got to my locker, I leaned against it, my face in my hands.

  "Everything okay?"

  I looked up to see Amanda. "I've been better."

  "What's up?" she asked, looking curious.

  "Nothing. I think my coffee was too strong. Yeah, that's it."

  She gave me a look that said she didn't believe me. "Wait. You just came from Mr. Hottie's classroom, right?"

  I looked away.

  Amanda gasped. "You did! Ohmigosh! What happened? You've got to tell me! Spill it!"

  "It's nothing."

  "Ohhhh, it's something. Tell me. Tell me everything. I need all the details."

  I shook my head. "There's nothing to tell."

  She stared me down. "Then I'm going to guess. Did he wink at you again?"

  "Nope."

  "Did he…? Oh, look at your face. You like him!"

  It was my turn to gasp. "No, I most certainly do not."

  A smile spread all the way across her face. "You do! You like him! You like M—"

  "Shut up! Shut up," I exclaimed, covering her mouth with both of my hands.

  She pushed my hands out of the way. "Look who's coming."

  I whipped around, and sure enough Mr. Foley was walking down the hall in our direction.

  Amanda stood tall. "Hi, Mr. Foley," she said, practically singing.

  Hiding my face in my hands, I wanted nothing more than to dig a hole and crawl in, never to emerge.

  "Hi, Amanda," he said. I peeked through a couple of fingers to see him raising an eyebrow at her.

  "How are you, Mr. Foley?" Amanda sang.

  He shook his head, and then turned to me. "Are you all right, Alexis? You ran out of my class as if there was a fire."

  Amanda dropped her mouth, and her eyes widened. I pulled my face away from my hands and glared at her, warn
ing her not to say anything.

  Mr. Foley looked back and forth between the two of us, looking both confused and amused. "As long as everything's okay."

  "It is," I said. "Thanks for your concern."

  "She said that she had some coffee that was too strong," Amanda said, obviously trying to be helpful.

  I looked at him and shook my head. "No, that's not it. I swear. The coffee was fine."

  "That's not what you told me," Amanda said.

  "Mr. Foley, the coffee you gave me was perfect."

  "Ohhh," Amanda said, sound as though she understood what was going on.

  "I'm sorry to keep you," I said. "Don't worry about me. Thanks for asking, though."

  He nodded. "You two should get some lunch before the bell rings. There isn't much time left."

  "You too," Amanda said, waving. She grabbed my arm and dragged me away. "Ohmigosh. No wonder you have a crush on him. He's buying you coffee? Why didn't you tell me?"

  "It's not a big deal. He thought I looked tired," I said, a little too defensively. "I can't believe you were acting like that in front of him."

  "You shoulda told me what was going on, and I would've known. You just kept denying the truth. Speaking of that, I wanna hear you say it."

  "What?"

  "That you like him."

  "Like I said by the lockers—shut up."

  "Well," she said, her voice sounding like a song again, "if you don't tell me, then I won't know how act around him the next time we see him."

  I groaned, stopping before we entered the cafeteria. I whispered into her ear, "Fine. I have a crush on a teacher. I'm the biggest loser ever."

  She pulled back and looked at me in surprise. "Loser? No way. Half the school—"

  I shook my head. "There's a difference between 'oh, he's so hot' and what I'm feeling."

  Raising her eyebrows, she pulled me away from the doors. "What exactly are you feeling?"

  Why had I said anything? I looked at her and said, "Like you said, I have feelings."

  "Obviously. What are they?"

  "No way. I'm not going to have this conversation. I've already admitted way more than I'm comfortable with—I have to figure this out first before I talk about it."

  "Come on. I'm your best friend. How long have you known me? Like, forever. Seriously. You know how we work: we figure stuff out by talking about it. Wanna go somewhere else to talk?"

  "Not really, no."

  "You're so not fun."

  "Isn't that what everyone has always said about me?"

  "Before you were popular, sure. But no one says that now."

  "I'm sure they do. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not the center of attention these days. People just stare or whisper. It's kind of like old times."

  "It's not the same as then. People don't hate you; they're just worried. I should know—I'm the one that everyone asks if you're okay. Even Emma asked me last week."

  I looked at her, shocked. "Emma? I know she hates us. Do I really look that bad?"

  "Well, uh, you're not exactly looking your best these days. You do look a little better this week though."

  "That's good," I said, more relieved about the change of subject than I was about looking better. "Let's grab something to eat. Aren't you hungry?"

  She shrugged her shoulders. "I could stand to miss a few meals."

  "Are you kidding me? You look great."

  "Thanks," she said, not looking convinced. "Trust me, after the way I ate last weekend, I need to lose some weight."

  "You could have fooled me."

  "Good. I'm wearing the right clothes to hide it."

  "Don't skip meals to lose weight. Let's start jogging or something."

  "In this weather?" she asked, looking toward a window. Wind was blowing rain and leaves into it with a decent force.

  "My family has a gym membership and Natalie never goes because she's so into school sports. She keeps saying I should run track. I'm so not interested. Anyway, she'd let you use her card."

  Amanda shrugged her shoulders. "I guess."

  "You should. Don't skip meals. I know someone who used to go days without eating, or only eating crackers, and now she's got issues with her heart. It's not worth it. At least have a salad."

  She looked at the clock on the wall. "We'd better get in there and grab those salads."

  I nodded. "Let's go."

  "I still want to hear about your feelings, though. You're not off the hook."

  Ten

  The next day, I was sitting in Mr. Foley's class, grading the papers that I hadn't touched the day before. He hadn't said anything about how little I had touched. Not that he'd had much time to say anything. He'd been called down to the office just after the bell had rang.

  I went through the stack of papers as fast as I could, feeling bad about having gotten so little done the day before. He'd allowed me to be his TA because he needed help with grading, not because he wanted me drooling over him. After the whole scene with Amanda, I was really embarrassed to be around him, so it was a huge relief that I had the classroom to myself.

  I must have been working harder than I thought on the homework assignments, because I hadn't noticed him come back in until suddenly a cup was sitting on the desk. I looked up at him in surprise.

  "That shouldn't be too strong," he said, smiling.

  "Don't worry about what Amanda said. She talks too much," I said, wanting to hide from embarrassment.

  "No worries. This has much less caffeine."

  "Thanks," I said, taking a sip. I was shocked at how sweet it tasted.

  "I should have warned you. It's hot cocoa."

  Nodding, I said, "That explains it. Well, thanks." I took another sip, noticing that I didn't taste the blood, either, much to my disappointment. "But coffee is fine too. Like I said, Amanda talks too much."

  He nodded and then sat down at his desk. I watched him for a minute, thinking about how I'd like to sink my teeth into him for my blood needs. Just as I started to imagine doing so, he looked up at me and we made eye contact for a moment. I looked down and started grading the papers again.

  What was with me? Why was I so obsessed with him? It wasn't as though I would even like the taste of his blood, though the thought of it made my stomach dance. More than just sinking my teeth into his skin, I wanted to kiss him and run my fingers through that hair and see if was as soft as I thought.

  I looked up at him, and at the same moment, he looked up and our eyes met again. I stood up, careful not to knock over the hot chocolate. "I need to use the bathroom," I said, and ran out of the room before he could say anything. When I got to the bathroom, I closed the stall door, and leaned against it, breathing heavily.

  Again, I asked myself what was wrong with me. It had to be the blood he was giving me. What kind of blood was it? I had thought it was human. But how was getting it? What was in it? Or was it just the fact that he was giving it to me that was causing me to feel this way? Gratitude gone wrong or something.

  I still wanted to sink my teeth into his skin and drink up his blood. Maybe it was his blood that he was slipping in my drinks. Could that explain my feelings? Or was it that I'd decided that I didn't care about the vampires who obviously didn't give me a second thought?

  The desire to drink Mr. Foley's blood and kiss him all over was overwhelming me, even there in the bathroom stall. What I really needed was to go the gym locker room and take a cold shower. I took several deep breaths, counted backwards from a hundred, and thought about whatever gross images I could pull from my mind.

  Once I finally felt able to face him, I left the stall and washed my hands with ice cold water since I couldn't take a shower. As I stepped out of the bathroom, a teacher that I didn't know stopped and stared at me. "Do you have a hall pass, young lady?"

  Obviously, she didn't know who I was. I was well-known for being responsible, and no one ever questioned what I was doing. "No. I was just going to the bathroom."

  "You're suppose
d to have a hall pass. Let's take a trip to the principal's office."

  "No. Wait. I'm Mr. Foley's TA this period. Can't you just talk to him? His class is just down there," I said, pointing.

  Her face softened at the mention of Mr. Foley. Did every female in the school have the hots for him? "Well, I suppose I could ask him if you're telling the truth. Come on."

  When we got to his classroom, she asked him if he knew me.

  "That's Alexis, my TA. I forgot to give her a hall pass—it's my fault. Thank you for bringing her here instead of to the office."

  She smiled. "Anything for you, Mr. Foley. If you ever need anything, my class is down the hall."

  "Thanks, Ms. Keifer."

  When she left, Mr. Foley shook his head. "You're lucky she didn't take you the office. I swear that woman thinks that she gets brownie points every time she gets a kid in trouble."

  "I believe it," I said, sitting back down and got back to the papers again, doing my best to forget that he was in the room. In between papers, I picked up the cup of hot chocolate and took a big sip, not noticing that it felt full. My mouth nearly broke out into a dance with the sudden and unexpected taste of blood. It wasn't a small amount of blood, either. I swirled the cup around, noticing that it felt heavy. It had to have been half full of blood, given how much hot chocolate I'd already drank. He wasn't even trying to hide it. He was making it known.

  I looked up at him to see that he was already watching me. He blinked his gorgeous eyes and asked, "How do you like it now?"

  "It, uh, I mean…it's my kind of hot chocolate."

  He smiled with his silky-smooth lips. "Glad to hear it." He turned his attention to something on his desk and began writing.

  How could he do that? Let me know that he knew exactly what he was doing, and then look away to his own papers? I felt like I was going to explode. I turned to the papers on my desk, but couldn't focus. I grabbed the drink and guzzled the rest down, enjoying the fireworks that exploded throughout me as the blood ran through me. After having only had sips of blood all week, this was like being a new vampire all over again.