THE MATE THE ROGUE ALPHA WAS MEANT TO KILL

ra'

ays. I was staring at my food and not eating it when

ise dr

p begins today. Buses leave at

d, the other half pretending not to be

a said, watching me f

t say an

" She leaned forward

t have

still haven't shifted. We know that. You know that. But sitting here looking lik

s the least helpful thing a

rom a plac

on the trip," she said. "Staying behind alone while everyone else

nd I hated that

have been humiliating enough. For a Moonfall it was something else entirely. My parents carried one of the rarest

in the spaces between classes where people thought I could not hear the

keep showing up, because the alternative was giving them

n. Wolfless. What a waste of a bloodline. Her parents must be devastated. I had learned to keep wal

said. "I

d. "Obvious

*

o Leo, Freya and Nyx the way I always did, near enough to the main group but far en

hedules. I had sat by the window and watched the trees get denser as we left the city behind and tried to talk myself into somethi

ur classmates faded into the background. Leo built a fire while Freya and Nyx laid out the sleep

eya loo

the mo

ilver, washing everything around it in a colour that felt wrong in a way I could not explain. I

nfidently. "Rare lunar ev

Earth Scienc

rred my

till not

ould pack up and go home. Leo muttered something about how Draven Wolf Academy somehow always managed to produce the most dramatic students in all of Ve

lat against my knees

's voice dropp

t know,

spine

the pain that followed knocked the air out

wrong?" Leo's v

voice came out thin. "S

like?" Freya was

d my knees were on the ground before I made any decision to kneel.

ice was quiet and certain.

id. "Get som

e behind me, her voice cutting through the camp noise, and th

said. "Just breat

fingers were changing, nails darkening and lengthening, and I watched it happen to my own hands like I was watching someone else

on one thing at a time. Breathe. Stay on

ady and low, telling me to hold on, that help was coming, that I was going to be okay. I held onto his voice the same way I held onto the ground,

mall enough to ask what shifting felt like. She had smoothed my hair back and said, "It o

hrough the pain, because after two months of w