Professor Wolf - J.L. Wilder Page 0,1

on and helped. A few moments later, they were seated, facing inward. Victoria smiled.

“I’m glad you’ve all got your folders,” she said. “That means registration went all right for everyone. You should have a dormitory key in the little envelope stapled to the top of your folder—yes, that’s the one. Don’t lose that, or you’ll be in for a hassle from the administration.

“Now, does anyone have a problem with their schedule?”

A young man raised his hand. “I want to study combat, but it’s not included on my schedule,” he said.

Victoria nodded. “Combat isn’t available to incoming freshmen,” she said. “You’ll be able to choose Theory of Combat second semester. You’ll also have the option to sign up for excursions that include physical sparring in both human and animal form.”

“I want to learn battle tactics, though,” he said.

“I’m afraid battle tactics is a class that’s only offered to alphas,” Victoria said. “Everyone in this group is a beta, and our experience here at Shifter U is designed to be different from that of the alphas because our lives and our roles within the packs are different. An alpha’s job, his responsibility, is to lead his pack into battle. Tactics aren’t something you’d ever need to know unless you were planning to challenge your alpha, and that’s not something we encourage betas to consider. It’s against our nature.”

The young man sat back, looking frustrated.

Cait could sympathize.

Someone ought to tell him that he can learn whatever he wants, she thought. Someone ought to tell him to take matters into his own hands instead of waiting for permission.

But that wasn’t the shifter way, and Cait knew it. Shifter life was centered on waiting for permission before doing anything. And everyone at Shifter University was there to learn how to better integrate themselves into shifter life.

Everyone except me. I’m just here because I have no better choices.

She wondered how many of her fellow students had come here from packs, the way she had. Was it possible that anyone here had been living on their own, an independent life, and had simply chosen to come to learn more about the shifter world?

Cait couldn’t imagine doing that.

Then again, maybe if I really were a beta, like the rest of them, things would be different for me.

Victoria was passing around handbooks now. “One for each of you,” she said. “It contains the code of conduct here at Shifter U. We’re going to go over it now as well because it’s something the administration really takes seriously. Everyone at Shifter U comes from a different background, and you’ve all lived under different rules. But the Shifter Council set up this institution to bring us all back into shifter culture because the standard of living was beginning to drift. So the rules here are stringent, and if you’re found in violation of any of them, the punishments can be severe.”

“How severe?” a blonde girl asked.

“Expulsion,” said Victoria. “Shifter U takes pride in graduating every student who makes it to their senior year. But we also lose several along the way. Only the best and the most dedicated will make it to graduation day, and if you do graduate from Shifter U, it’s a seal of approval from the Council that you’re a great example of shifter culture.”

Cait glanced around the room. The betas around her had a lot of different reactions to what Victoria was saying. Some of them sat forward in their seats, clearly eager to begin proving that they were good examples of shifter culture. Others looked wary or even mutinous, and Cait guessed that they, like her, weren’t there strictly by their own choice.

“So let’s talk about the rules,” Victoria said. “If you want to follow along, you can turn to page thirty-six.”

A few people did. Cait flipped her guide open, dog eared the corner of page thirty-six for reference, and closed it. She was more interested in watching Victoria’s face as the rules were laid out.

“The most important rules we have here have to do with the dynamics between ranks,” Victoria said. “All of us are betas, of course, and that gives us a lot of freedom. But there are still restrictions on what we can do.”

“Like when it comes to what classes we can take,” said the young man who had wanted to study combat.

“That’s right,” Victoria said. “The alpha-only classes are taught in Alpha Hall, and unless you have a special permission form, you’re not to go there. It’s a place for alphas to