The final bell rang, and the hallways erupted in a flood of voices and slamming lockers. Gabriel and I were heading out toward the parking lot, the Humvee gleaming like a beast waiting for us. That’s when I caught it — the scent of Mark. Fresh fear tangled with something sharper, something that spiked my instincts.
We rounded the corner just in time to see it happen. Mark, walking toward the buses with his backpack slung over one shoulder, got his feet swept out from under him by one of the same meathead bullies. He hit the pavement hard, his books scattering. His trumpet case clattered and nearly popped open.
The bully laughed, looming over him. “Watch your step, nerd.”
I didn’t think. I moved.
One second, I was ten paces away. The next, I had him pinned against the brick wall, my hand clamped around his throat. A low, guttural growl tore from my chest — a sound no human throat should make. My claws slid free, ripping through skin as they pressed into the sides of his neck. His eyes bulged, his legs gave out. The sharp scent of urine hit the air.
The world went red around me. I wanted to end him. Break him. Leave his carcass as a warning.
“Thane!” Gabriel’s voice cut through the haze like a blade. His hand was on my shoulder, grounding me, pulling me back from the edge. “Let him go. He’s not worth it.”
I snarled, breath hot, but the fire in me cooled under Gabriel’s grip. I forced the change back — claws shrinking — and tossed the kid to the ground like trash. He scrambled back, coughing, too terrified to even look up.
I leaned over him, voice low and deadly. “If you ever touch Mark again, you won’t see another sunrise.”
Silence fell around us, the kind of silence that means every set of eyes nearby had seen enough to know better than to cross us.
Mark was still on the ground, wide-eyed, clutching his arm where he’d landed hard. His gaze wasn’t on the bully. It was on me — on the claws he’d just seen vanish, on the truth I couldn’t hide fast enough.
“Come on,” I muttered, offering him a hand. “You’re not riding that damn bus again. From now on, you ride with us.”
Mark swallowed hard, staring between me and Gabriel, then slowly nodded. “O-okay…”
Gabriel clapped him on the back once he was standing. “Trust me, it’s safer that way.”
Mark glanced at the Humvee, then back at us. He didn’t say anything else, but his eyes were full of questions he didn’t know how to ask yet.
And I could tell — his world had just cracked open.