The day was dragging, the kind of heavy, gray Tuesday where everyone seemed just a little more irritable. Lunch had just ended, and the hallway was a wall-to-wall mess of bodies moving between periods. Gabriel was a few paces ahead of me, weaving through the crowd. I could tell by his posture \u2014 shoulders just a little too stiff, jaw clenched \u2014 that something was eating at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I saw why. One of the regular bullies, a wiry kid with a permanent sneer, cut across the flow of traffic to shoulder into him. Hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Normally, Gabriel would have kept moving, let it slide. But this time, he froze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I caught the shift immediately \u2014 the way his head tilted slightly, like a predator tracking prey. His spine straightened, and I saw the tension flood his frame. And then\u2026 his hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tips of his fingers had gone rigid, nails pushing longer and sharper in the space of a breath. Not enough for a clueless human to clock it right away \u2014 but enough for me to know exactly where this was going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bully smirked. \u201cWatch where you\u2019re\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was there before he could finish. One hand on Gabriel\u2019s shoulder, a firm squeeze, my voice cutting in low and easy. \u201cHey. Come help me carry something to class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He didn\u2019t move at first, still locked on the bully. For a moment, his lip twitched like he was about to snarl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I tightened my grip, pushing just a little of my own calming weight into him. \u201cNow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, his eyes flicked to mine \u2014 and I could see the wolf right there behind them. Hungry. Ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We moved down the hall together, my hand still clamped to his shoulder like I was just guiding him along. The chatter behind us faded, and no one seemed to think twice about our exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once we rounded a corner into an empty side hall, I let go. He immediately braced against the lockers, breathing sharp and heavy. The claws receded almost instantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat the hell was that?\u201d he asked, half a whisper, half a growl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat,\u201d I said, keeping my voice low, \u201cwas you losing the leash in the middle of a hallway full of humans. You can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He looked at me, confusion mixing with leftover adrenaline. \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, you were,\u201d I cut in. \u201cAnd I\u2019m telling you right now, if someone saw what I just saw, your life would be over. You think they\u2019d let you walk out of here? They\u2019d drag you somewhere you couldn\u2019t walk out of at all. I know, Gabriel. I\u2019ve been there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That shut him up. The defiance in his eyes softened into something else \u2014 something like understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying don\u2019t fight back,\u201d I added, softer now. \u201cI\u2019m saying don\u2019t get caught.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He nodded slowly, running a hand over his face. \u201cGuess I owe you for that one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll owe me for a lot more before this is over,\u201d I said with a faint smirk, but inside I was still wound tight. If I hadn\u2019t been there, that could have been the end of his freedom \u2014 before it even started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The day was dragging, the kind of heavy, gray Tuesday where everyone seemed just a little more irritable. Lunch had just ended, and the hallway was a wall-to-wall mess of bodies moving between periods. Gabriel was a few paces ahead of me, weaving through the crowd. I could tell by his posture \u2014 shoulders just […]<\/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-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","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=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}