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\u2019s when I caught it \u2014 the scent of Mark. Fresh fear tangled with something sharper, something that spiked my instincts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bully laughed, looming over him. \u201cWatch your step, nerd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t think. I moved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world went red around me. I wanted to end him. Break him. Leave his carcass as a warning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThane!\u201d Gabriel\u2019s voice cut through the haze like a blade. His hand was on my shoulder, grounding me, pulling me back from the edge. \u201cLet him go. He\u2019s not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I snarled, breath hot, but the fire in me cooled under Gabriel\u2019s grip. I forced the change back \u2014 claws shrinking \u2014 and tossed the kid to the ground like trash. He scrambled back, coughing, too terrified to even look up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I leaned over him, voice low and deadly. \u201cIf you ever touch Mark again, you won\u2019t see another sunrise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark was still on the ground, wide-eyed, clutching his arm where he\u2019d landed hard. His gaze wasn\u2019t on the bully. It was on me \u2014 on the claws he\u2019d just seen vanish, on the truth I couldn\u2019t hide fast enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCome on,\u201d I muttered, offering him a hand. \u201cYou\u2019re not riding that damn bus again. From now on, you ride with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark swallowed hard, staring between me and Gabriel, then slowly nodded. \u201cO-okay\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gabriel clapped him on the back once he was standing. \u201cTrust me, it\u2019s safer that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark glanced at the Humvee, then back at us. He didn\u2019t say anything else, but his eyes were full of questions he didn\u2019t know how to ask yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I could tell \u2014 his world had just cracked open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s when I caught it \u2014 the scent of Mark. Fresh fear tangled with something sharper, something that spiked my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}