Dinner had been uneventful \u2014 good food, polite conversation, and the kind of warm family atmosphere I\u2019d never had much of growing up. Afterward, Gabriel and I ended up back in the bedroom, him stretched out on the top bunk, me leaning back in the desk chair flipping through an old music magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nathan came in not long after, bouncing a small rubber ball off the wall with a sharp thwack<\/em>. Over and over. The sound echoed in the small room, just enough to be annoying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCan you not?\u201d Gabriel said, looking down over the bunk rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nathan grinned. \u201cWhat? Am I bothering you?\u201d The ball smacked against the wall again, louder this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNathan,\u201d Gabriel warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, come on,\u201d Nathan said, eyes flicking to me like he was daring me to get involved. \u201cYour new buddy doesn\u2019t mind. Do you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thwack.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The ball sailed just a little too close to Gabriel\u2019s guitar stand this time. I stood without thinking, the chair rolling back into the desk. \u201cEnough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nathan smirked and, instead of stopping, wound up for an even harder throw \u2014 straight toward the guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wolf moved before my brain did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My hand shot out and caught the ball in midair with a sharp slap<\/em>, but that wasn\u2019t the part that froze both of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the barest moment, my fingers weren\u2019t fingers. Dark, curved claws tipped them, glinting under the overhead light. The tendons in my wrist stood out, the skin along my knuckles rippling like something under it was ready to tear through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nathan\u2019s face went white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I closed my hand fully around the ball, the claws retracting as quickly as they\u2019d come. When I opened it again, my fingers looked perfectly normal. I tossed the ball lightly back to him. \u201cCatch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He flinched so hard it bounced off his chest and rolled under the bed. Without a word, he backed toward the door, eyes wide and locked on me the whole time. Then he was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The silence in the room was thick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou gonna tell me I imagined that?\u201d Gabriel asked finally, his voice low and even.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I met his gaze for a long moment. \u201cIf I did, would you believe me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo,\u201d he said without hesitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sat back down in the chair. \u201cThen I guess we\u2019re past pretending.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He didn\u2019t press further \u2014 not yet \u2014 but the look in his eyes told me he was done wondering. Now, he wanted answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dinner had been uneventful \u2014 good food, polite conversation, and the kind of warm family atmosphere I\u2019d never had much of growing up. Afterward, Gabriel and I ended up back in the bedroom, him stretched out on the top bunk, me leaning back in the desk chair flipping through an old music magazine. Nathan came […]<\/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-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","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=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}