“I’m sorry,” I said. My voice felt raw from disuse. “I’m so sorry.” “Save it for Elva and Nick, yeah?” Julian’s easy smile was back. Truly, he seemed relieved. “Just a second, alright?” He stepped backwards from me and suddenly shifted into his wolf. Then, he threw his head back and howled. An
The next day, Elva and I spent some time with Veronica in the library. Veronica was nose deep in her books. Elva had begun their time together by flittering through the stacks pretending to be a dragon. Now, she was dozing on a big, comfortable, high-back chair. Watching her sleep so soundly helpe
An announcement went out for all the candidates to head to the foyer to receive the results of the most recent event, the ball where we were supposed to look happy. At that same ball, everything sort of fell apart. Joyce declared erroneously that he and I were having an affair. Jane tried to kill
Tiffany stepped in front of me, blocking Jessica from getting too closely. “Her name is clear, Jessica,” Tiffany said. “I don’t care if they didn’t fuck,” Jessica growled. “At the very least, she tricked him somehow. He’s a decent guy. He never would have behaved this way on his own.” “Back of
After the announcements were completed, I stayed behind to privately speak to Nicholas. When the other girls cleared the room, I said, “Thank you for the rescue.” “It seemed the other girls were ready to fight for you,” Nicholas said. “They were,” I agreed. “But so was my wolf.” His face sudde
I met with Nicholas in the same weight room we had our self-defense training. He’d had it cleared out again, this time so he and I could practice fighting. “Now that you have Miracle’s strength to aid you, you don’t need to rely on the same self-defense tactics as before. Those will still aid you
The next day at lunch time, Elva and I walked down to the dining room to have lunch with the rest of the candidates. As soon as I walked through the door, I felt the tension in the room. No one was smiling, not even Susie as she saw me. She waved as we came closer. Per the contest rules, none of u
“Yes,” a few girls said. The rest nodded. I just watched, a bit in shock. “Good,” Nathan said. “Do not be late.” Then he left us. The girls all looked at each other again. And then, at once, in a rush, they stood up and headed for the door. “What are you going to wear?” Tiffany asked Veronica