The next few days were different. Not in any way anyone else could point to, but I could feel it \u2014 and so could Gabriel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We didn\u2019t talk about the claws or the word werewolf<\/em> where anyone could hear, but it was there in the way he\u2019d glance at me and the corner of his mouth would twitch like we were sharing a joke no one else was in on. It was in the way I caught him studying people \u2014 sizing them up \u2014 like he was starting to think about things in terms of instinct instead of just habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it was definitely in the way he walked through the halls. Gabriel wasn\u2019t the kind to puff himself up, but the slouch was gone from his shoulders. His eyes met people\u2019s now, steady and unflinching, like he knew something they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bullies noticed, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In homeroom, one of them \u2014 the same letterman-jacket clown from the first week \u2014 muttered something about \u201cguitar boy\u201d under his breath as we passed. Gabriel didn\u2019t even blink. He stopped, turned his head, and just stared at the guy for a few seconds. Not saying a word. Just looking<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The guy\u2019s smirk twitched. Then he glanced past Gabriel\u2026 and saw me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t growl, didn\u2019t even change my expression. But my gaze locked on him like I was picking the exact spot I\u2019d sink my teeth into if I decided to make it interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was all it took. He broke eye contact and found somewhere else to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we sat down, Gabriel leaned over and said quietly, \u201cIt\u2019s weird. I don\u2019t even have to say anything now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s because they know I will,\u201d I replied, just as quietly. \u201cFor now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His eyes narrowed slightly, like he was turning that over in his mind. \u201cAnd later?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLater,\u201d I said with a faint smile, \u201cyou won\u2019t need me to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rest of the day, we carried that energy with us \u2014 the silent, unshakable fact that whatever came at us, it was going to have to go through both<\/em> of us. And when you know you\u2019ve got someone like that in your corner, the world just\u2026 changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The next few days were different. Not in any way anyone else could point to, but I could feel it \u2014 and so could Gabriel. We didn\u2019t talk about the claws or the word werewolf where anyone could hear, but it was there in the way he\u2019d glance at me and the corner of his […]<\/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-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","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=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}