CHAPTER TWO

I just have to get to class, I think. If I can make it through the hallways to my first class, I should be okay.

I shove my beanie into my pocket and try to push my way through the crowd. Most people just ignore me, but as I round the corner, I see Miranda and her friends, a gaggle of tall, gorgeous, well dressed shifter girls.

“Well, well, well,” Miranda says, walking over to me as her friends look on. “If it isn’t little Baldy.”

I’m not bald, I just have...a temporary lack of hair. And it isn’t even my fault - some girls (who, to be honest, looked and talked and acted just like Miranda and her friends) ruined it for me.

Of course, I don’t say any of that. I just give a shy little wave. “Hi, Miranda.”

“Oooh, she knows your name!” One of Miranda’s friends shrieks.

“Did you make a new friend, Miranda?”

“Shut up, guys!”

I’ve clearly made a mistake. Miranda’s yellow eyes are nearly glowing with rage.

“This stupid Omega is not my friend.”

“I have to get to class,” I mumble, trying to just walk past the group of girls.

This sends them into another round of jeers.

“Oh no, is our new pack member a good widdle teacher’s pet?”

“She might even get in trouble!”

“Can’t let the Omega be late on her first day!”

My face turns red, and I move to leave, but Miranda reaches out and grabs my arm. She snatches my schedule from me, crumpling it up and tossing it on the floor.

Panic spikes through me. I can’t lose that - it has my locker combination, and my class schedule, and everything else I need to make it through the day.

Miranda follows me eyes as I watch the wrinkled paper ball bounce across the hallway and be crushed under someone else’s feet.

“Aww, did you want to keep that?” Miranda’s voice is falsely concerned as she tilts her head to look down at me. “Is your slow Omega mind too stupid to remember where you’re supposed to go next?”

“Come on,” I plead, trying to keep track of where my schedule has gone.

“Well, if you need it so bad, go get it.” Miranda crosses her arms and steps back, smirking. I scramble over to the now very damaged piece of paper, but when I bend down to get it off the floor, one of her friends pretends to stumble into me, knocking me flat on my stomach.

The heel of another girl’s shoe comes down on my hand, making me squeal in pain.

“Oops,” she says sarcastically. “Sorry.”

Miranda laughs.

I finally snatch up my schedule and shove it in my pocket, right next to the stupid beanie that seems to have started all of this.

Great, I think. It can just be my Pocket of Shame.

“You know, girls,” Miranda says, “I noticed something just now. Did you see that?”

“Yep,” her friends say. “We all saw it.” They’re all nodding and grinning.

This can’t be good.

“What?” I ask, my voice trembling.

“You sure didn’t move very fast,” Miranda says, shaking her head. The other girls click their tongues in disapproval. “Just crawled around on the floor like some kind of...human.”

Oh. Oh no. My gut twists in fear. They know. They know that I haven’t shifted yet - that the wolf inside me is dormant, absent, useless.

“And even when someone accidentally stepped on you, nothing happened.”

“Nothing but a weird little noise,” one of her friends helpfully added.

“I…” I start to say something, but I can’t think of any way to defend myself. It’s true that I haven’t shifted yet.

“Come here,” Miranda snaps, and she takes me by the wrist, pulling me down the hallway. Her friends follow close behind.

She yanks me into the girl’s bathroom, where we’re alone. I’m pressed up against the white tile wall, Miranda standing over me as the other girls gather around closely, staring menacingly.

“Don’t worry,” Miranda says, smiling down at me with pointed white teeth. “We’re here to help you.”

“Yeah,” the other girls say in chorus.

“Let us show you how it’s done.” With that, Miranda takes a step back, no longer leering directly into my face, but still grinning wolfishly. She squares her shoulders, and I see dark fur begin to bristle across her brows and down her arms. Gleaming, razor sharp fangs emerge from her gums as she curls her lip back in a threatening snarl.

“Can you do this?” Miranda taunts, reaching a hand out toward my chest and poking me with a long claw. I can feel the latent strength in her body as she easily pins me against the cold bathroom wall.

“Or this?” Miranda slashes her claw down, ripping a hole in my shirt and only barely avoiding slicing into my skin.

I say nothing, only putting my hands up in a gesture of surrender. Tears swim behind my eyes, but I don’t want her to see me cry. That was my favorite shirt, one I wore on my first day of school in the hopes that it would bring me some kind of luck, or at the very least, comfort.

Now it’s ruined. Just like my hair. And my hopes of being able to attend Ponderosa High without having my life destroyed once again.

“No,” Miranda says, sounding quite satisfied with herself. “You can’t.”

The other girls laugh. Then the bell rings, and they scatter, leaving me alone with Miranda.

“One more thing,” she hisses, still keeping me trapped in the corner. “I saw you talking to Malcolm. And I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but he’s my mate. Mine. So you better stay away from him.”

I nod quickly and frantically, eager to agree to her command.

“And if I ever catch you near him again,” she threatens, pressing her needle sharp claw against the exposed skin on my chest hard enough to draw out a pinprick of blood, “I’ll rip you apart.”

It’s clear that she means it, and it’s clear that she’s more than capable of doing it. “Okay,” I promise.

The second bell rings. Miranda finally shifts back and heads off to class, leaving me alone in the bathroom. My shirt is ripped, I’m bleeding, and my heart is pounding like I just finished a marathon.

Plus, I’m late to class.