reviews_and_ramblings | Excerpt: Wolf 101 by Julia Talbot

Mystic U: Wolf 101 by Julia Talbot
Release Date: 10/2009
Publisher: Changeling Press
ISBN: 978-1-60521-323-1
Buy Link: http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1248

Blurb: Werewolf Danny thinks that going to a special college for magical creatures is the stupidest thing he's ever heard of, especially since it's in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming. Then he meets local pack member and fellow student Heather, which changes his tune. The only problem is that Heather already has a guy, a werewolf named Lee, who really doesn't approve of college boys, and is not sure he wants to share. Can Danny get an 'A' in Wolf 101, or will he flunk out of Heather and Lee's lives?

Excerpt:

Danny figured going to college was a damned waste of time.

Going to college out in the middle of frickin' nowhere was even worse. Wyoming, for Christ's sake. Skiing, his mother had said. Reconnecting to nature. Like a werewolf needed to connect with nature to be real, or something.

His mother had never set foot in the woods in her life. Or the mountains, save to go to Switzerland to catch a gondola up to get hot buttered rum.

Still, the scenery wasn't so bad, was it? Oh, the craggy mountains were okay. Majestic, even. The trees and shit were pretty. The little blonde in the front row with the rack to die for? That was even better. She was the perfect thing to distract him from the lack of Thai food and the proliferation of flannel and cowboy boots.

Her name was Heather, which made him smile every time he thought of it. Like her parents were stuck in the eighties or something. Who named their kid Heather these days? There were a lot of throwbacks at Mystic U, though. A lot.

The official name of the college was the Wyoming Institute for Metaphysics. Danny thought it was kind of an innocuous name for a university full of werewolves, fairies and witches and shit. In a way, he guessed it was good to know that everyone around you was like you. A freak. That way you didn't have to worry about who to tell.

In a way, it was bad. Take Heather, for instance. She was part of the local wolfpack there in Wyoming, and that meant she had a lot of big, burly protectors who looked like cowboys and loggers. It was nearly impossible to get close to her.

That wasn't going to keep him from trying again.

When the professor dismissed them, Danny glanced down at his blank notebook page and grimaced. He was going to have to beg the notes off his roommate, who had old man Seagram in his nine o'clock class. Good thing Simon was an egghead.

Heather disappeared out the door just about the time he got packed up, and Danny stumbled over his own feet to get out there and find her. He had a plan. It involved the hot roast beef sandwich at the little diner right off the campus grounds. There was a chill in the air, and he'd bet that and a hot chocolate would net him a date if he could get between Heather's many relations to talk to her.

Her blonde ponytail bobbed along, and he followed it through the sea of bodies, the scents enough to make his nose twitch. This one smelled like saltwater, that one like kitty musk. It was distracting, but Danny was pretty determined.

Heather turned on him at the end of the hall, clutching her books to her chest and smiling. "Hi."

Danny came to a screeching halt, all but slamming into her. "Uh. Hi."

"You're following me. Danny, right? You're new."

Up close, her eyes were the prettiest bright blue, and her skin really was that clear. She had to be the cream of the crop in her pack. No wonder she had all sorts of alpha males all over her. He wanted to be all over her in the same way. Just look at her boobs. "Danny, right. I was wondering..." Dude, he was suave. He was a city boy. He'd mastered the pickup line at least five years ago, at the ripe old age of fifteen. So why was his voice all squeaky?

"Uh-huh?"

"Lunch? I hear the place across from campus has good roast beast." There. That was more like him. Cool. Casual. Not drooling.

"They do. They have good pie, too." She tilted her head, her smile widening. "Do you have a car?"

"Nope." Her face fell, and Danny bit back a grin. "I have a motorcycle."

"No shit?" When she bounced her tits went up and down. Jesus, they were a sweet pair. "Then I suggest a diner a little farther from all of my nosy neighbors. There's one in Graybull, about thirty minutes from here. They have even better pie."

Wow. She was... aggressive. Sure of herself. Danny liked it. "Then let's go. I'm in visitor parking."

"Oooh. You live dangerously." She took his arm instead of waiting for him to take hers, leading him down the stairs and out to the quad, then down the walkway to the visitor lot in front of the admin building. Heather squeezed his hand when they got there. "Tell me the Harley is yours."

"The Harley is mine." It was vintage, a 1980s white and chrome masterpiece. Danny fucking loved it. It had a pillion seat, so she'd be comfortable.

"That is so hot." Heather hopped on, bouncing some more.

Danny tore his eyes away from her front and gave her his back. She slid her arms around his waist, and man, the whole school thing was getting better by the minute.

"So where are all your nosy neighbors? Usually you have a big old escort by now."

"Lee has jury duty. Can you believe it? The rest of the bachelor males never do anything without his say-so." He could feel her shrug against his back. "He must have forgotten to call in the reinforcements."

"Do werewolves get jury duty?" Man, that had to suck. What if you got sequestered?

"They do in Wolf Creek, Wyoming." She squeezed his waist. "Let's go, huh?"

"Hang on."

Danny opened the Harley up, following Heather's directions to the highway. Then he let it rip, putting on a burst of speed that made her squeal.