The Monday morning hallway was the usual chaos \u2014 lockers slamming, sneakers squeaking, voices overlapping in a dozen conversations. Gabriel and I were making our way toward first period, sunglasses on, shoulders squared. The Humvee drop-off still had people talking, and I could feel the ripple of stares trailing behind us like a wake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We were halfway down the hall when a voice cut through the noise.
\u201cHey, tough guy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We both stopped. The guy striding toward us was tall, broad-shouldered, and had the kind of smirk that usually came stapled to a football jersey. I didn\u2019t recognize him \u2014 which meant he was new enough to not know the rules. A couple of the established jocks leaned out from their lockers to watch, and I caught the subtle shake of one\u2019s head. Another muttered, \u201cDon\u2019t,\u201d just loud enough for him to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He ignored them. \u201cYou\u2019ve been strutting around like you own the place,\u201d he said to Gabriel, stepping into his space. \u201cLet\u2019s see if you can back it up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t move. Didn\u2019t speak. This was his moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gabriel just tilted his head, reached up, and slid his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Golden light flared in his eyes. Not just yellow \u2014 molten amber, alive with that predator\u2019s heat I\u2019d taught him to call on. He didn\u2019t snarl or posture. He just\u2026 looked at the guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The jock\u2019s smirk faltered. His next word came out a half-octave higher than the last. \u201cWhat are you\u2014\u201d He stopped. Blinked. Swallowed hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hallway seemed to close in around him. The noise dropped to a low hum, just enough to hear the creak of someone shifting their backpack. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gabriel didn\u2019t move, didn\u2019t even blink. He just let the silence stretch, the way a wolf lets a stare do the talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time the guy muttered something about being late for class, his voice was shaky, and he was already backing up. The other jocks parted to let him pass \u2014 not a single one meeting his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We waited until he was gone before Gabriel slid his sunglasses back up and started walking again. His stride had changed \u2014 just a touch looser, shoulders just a little higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we were clear of the crowd, he broke into a grin that could\u2019ve lit the hallway. \u201cThat was awesome!<\/em> Did you see his face? He looked like he forgot how to speak English.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I smirked, giving him a sideways glance. \u201cNot bad for your first time. Keep practicing, and you might even make someone faint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He laughed, still riding the high, and for the rest of the morning, there was a subtle shift in the way people looked at him. Respect. Wariness. Recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel had learned the first rule of a proper wolf stare \u2014 you don\u2019t have to bare your teeth to make someone feel the bite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Monday morning hallway was the usual chaos \u2014 lockers slamming, sneakers squeaking, voices overlapping in a dozen conversations. Gabriel and I were making our way toward first period, sunglasses on, shoulders squared. The Humvee drop-off still had people talking, and I could feel the ripple of stares trailing behind us like a wake. We […]<\/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-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","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=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}