All Chapters of Winter: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

I stared at my brother. He was smiling up at me with his cheesy grin. His face didn’t show anything other than thinking it was funny to say something like that. Turning on my heel, I threw the door open and headed down the hall.“Cas! Wait!”Jogging down the steps, I turned and glared up at my brother who was still smiling at the top. “That’s not funny, Damian. It’s not a fucking joke.”“Who said I am joking?”I threw my hands out. “You are Alpha. You! I told you time and time again that I did not want to be Alpha. That I was not cut out to be Alpha. I left because I didn’t want to be Alpha.”Damian sighed. “No. You left because you didn’t want the pack to fight over who should be Alpha. Not that you didn’t want to be Alpha.”“It’s the same fucking thing!”“No, it’s not.”

Luna Ember didn’t say anything for a while. “We had a meeting about the future leadership for the pack. We didn’t decide on anything but we did pretty much invalidated your Dad’s picks.”“Picks? I thought he only had Rebecca as his replacement.”“I won’t go into it. He wasn’t happy when he left the meeting. I…we…never thought it would be bad enough to turn on you though. Damian and I hoped that we would adjust his anger away from you towards Caspian.”I cocked my head to the side and then it clicked. “The rumor that Mr. Penn was going to be Beta…that was you.”“Exactly. You really are too smart for your own good.” Luna Ember chuckled but it fell off fairly quickly. “Are you safe?”“I am. I’ve got multiple layers of security between me and outside.” I looked around the room at all my books. “I have to go home eventually though. I can’t stay here.”She sighed. “I know. Damian is trying to get him to calm down. I’m sorry, Winter.”

I knocked on the door to Mr. Penn’s class after school. I’d taken the opportunity after P.E. to take a shower so I was a little later than I probably should have been. However, it did nothing to help my hair situation. Now, I had it up in a wet, frizzy bun on top of my head. Opening the door, Mr. Penn was leaning back in his chair. It was obvious that he was sleeping, his breathing heavier this time.Really, I didn’t want to disturb him but if I left now, I was pretty sure I’d get in more trouble.“Mr. Penn?”His chair fell forward and his eyes flung open. “Winter. Sorry. Give me a moment.”Shaking my head, I stood at the door. “It’s fine. Take your time. I don’t need to be anywhere.”“You do, actually. I need to take you to the pack house. Alpha Damian wanted to speak with you.”He gathered up his bag and a few of the papers on his desk before swinging his b

Squeezing my eyes shut, I slowly pulled my limbs back to into a position I could try and get up. Everything hurt. Everything felt broken. I was still conscious though. That felt more of a win than anything. It also meant that I wasn’t done. Alpha didn’t realize it, but I’d have every intention of putting my life on the line. There was no giving up. Not when it was the one thing I had left to fight for.Rolling over, I managed to push up on all fours. Slowly, I pulled one foot up and planted it in the grass. I pushed up but let myself fall to the right as I felt a gust of wind blow by me. My eyes widened as I looked at Gamma Maddox’s arm a few inches from my face. It was sunk into the wall behind me.I wouldn’t call it scrambling, not at the pace I was going, but it didn’t look pretty as I forced myself to stand as quickly as I could. Swaying a little bit, I squared up again despite the protest of every single muscle, nerve, bone, and fiber of my being. At some point, i

Dee picked me up from the hospital at seven in the morning. He was right on time just as I had gathered my bag and was at the nurses counter signing out. Taking my bag from me, we walked out to the car which was an old beat-up silver Toyota SUV. I gave him a raised eyebrow.“It’s Dad’s. Mine is in the shop and Dad can’t get rid of this thing.” He shivered. “He says both Krista and I were conceived in the back seat of this car and he refuses to get rid of it.”I wrinkled my nose. “That’s gross.”“It really is. Come on. I’ll take you home.” He put his hand up as I opened my mouth. “Before you say anything, I have explicit instructions to take you home and not to school.”Snorting, I shook my head. “Your family is the worst sometimes.”He shrugged and opened the door for me. Once we took off, Dee rolled down the windows and turned up the music. I pulled my hair back so that it wasn’t flying around in the wind. However, the multiple days without my usu