Kalen didn't move from the doorway, arms crossed. "So. You staying long?"
"Why?" I kept my back to him, the mug burning my palms.
"Trying to figure out how long I have to suffer."
I turned. The air felt thin. "You don't have to talk to me, Kalen. In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't."
A beat of silence. Something in his face shifted. Not a smile, but a flicker. Like a crack in stone.
"You've changed," he said, his voice lower.
My eyes narrowed. "You haven't."
Another silence, heavier this time.
Then, so quiet I almost missed it, "You smell different."
My whole body went rigid. "Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Say it like that."
"Like what?"
"Like I'm broken." The word hung in the air between us, ugly and true.
He blinked, slow. "Didn't say you were."
But he didn't say I wasn't, either.
I turned back to the counter. Deep in the hollow place inside me, my wolf shifted. A dull, rusty ache. She didn't trust him. But she wasn't disgusted. That was the most terrifying part.
"Don't pretend you care now," I muttered to the sink.
"I don't," he shot back, automatic.
But I heard it—the half-second delay. And that look from last night, the one that hadn't been pure contempt… I didn't know what to do with that.
I escaped to the woods that afternoon. I needed air that wasn't poisoned with his smirk and my own memories.
These trees were different. Older. Their trunks were thick as cars, and the air smelled of wet rot and stone, something primal that didn't give a damn about wolves or packs. Something that watched.
I stopped by a creek, my boots sinking in the mud. My reflection wobbled in the dark water. Glasses crooked. Hair a wild mess. A body that was all strength and softness, built for survival in a world that wanted me delicate.
Not a wolf.
Not just a girl.
Something else. Something unmade something unholy something different yet confused.
And somewhere in the trees behind me, a branch snapped. I went still, listening.
The school hallway was a river I was drowning in. I kept my head down, my shoulders hunched, trying to make my wide frame small. It usually worked. The chatter and slamming lockers were just a dull roar I could tune out.
Until I passed the huddle of cheerleaders by the lockers.
One of them, a blonde with a razor-sharp smile, didn't bother to lower her voice. "God, she's huge. It's like she's trying to eat the whole school."
The words were physical, a punch to the gut. I froze, my face heating. I couldn't look. Couldn't move.
And then I heard it. A deep, familiar laugh. Kalen's laugh.
The ground didn't just shift; it fell out from under me.
I didn't have to turn to know he was with them. The air got thick, charged with his presence. The whispers weren't just background noise anymore—they were a current, and I was caught in it. They were all talking. About me.
A guy's voice, loud and performative, cut through the hum. "Yeah, I heard she eats like a whole pack. No wonder she's built like that. No one's gonna claim that."
The air left my lungs. Just gone.
I walked faster, my heart hammering against my ribs. The walls felt like they were closing in. So this was it. Exiled from my old life, a target in my new one. There was no safe place.