ER

has gone so quiet I can hear someon

y the bond shocked him the same way it shocked me. Ma

one of th

unds thinner than I want it to

t leave on its own. The cup is still loose in his fingers. He

ays. "That doesn'

e one more step because the bond is still pulling, still insist

re m

is tone is flat. "I als

een us, one hand out like he can still stop whatever is abo

n on me. "I have thought about it. I've been th

azel stands a little behind Eric's shoulder, her expression carefull

this out. We don't have to

to him. Someone who can handle the border runs, the fights, the decisions that come with the rank. Look at you, Sherry. You spent half the night hiding behind a pi

. Each one finds the exact place

not fair

ime things get hard. You're my best friend's little sister. I've watched you for years. You're

into a growl. "Watch

d is enough? It's not. I won't spend the rest of my life protecti

nger female near the tables covers her mouth with her hand. Hazel's mouth

ay, "The Moon G

orless breath. "Then the M

r and deliberate, loud enough fo

Pack, reject you, Sherry of the B

oes not br

tea

artled that they stop breathing. The whole room starts swaying, and I can barely hear my own gasp; it sounds so foreign. My knees touch the

sound and then goes quiet, s

r scrapes. Viktor is already kneeling beside me, one ar

reathe. Lo

xcept the floor. The stone is cold under my palms

us, calm and final. "The reje

finding his arm like she is the one who needs stead

e set of his shoulders, but another voice

r out o

expression she wears when she is dealing with pack politics she finds distasteful. Sh

Viktor s

egging in front of the entire pack. Crying on the floor for a Beta who has al

closer, to put a hand on my shoulder, to say anythin

not move

"I told your father years ago that keeping you shielded would only make this worse. Now look

round me. "She is in pa

o the rest of us can finish the

to keep me there, but I get my feet under me somehow. My legs feel unreliable. The pai

I push through the nearest gap in the crowd. Bodies shi

fter me once.

are, and it hits my face like a different kind of weight. I do not stop at the steps. I cross the open groun

do my legs

dress. Dirt presses into my palms and the backs of my legs. The full moon filters throug

It is not quiet. It scrapes my throat raw. The words

ile. A liability. B

stant. I remember thinking those small acknowledgments meant something kinder than they did

ver only

olf is silent, so hidden that I almost forget she exists. Time goes by; I don't know if it was

y tears and gaze at the moonlight filtered through the leaves. I do not want to be that

re. The notion is tiny and trembling and almost scary because it is so well felt. I have no clue wha

h, and new strange, heavier, and wilder ones come. There is a pressure connected to these unfamiliar smells t

taring at me from the thick darkness betw

nblinking, as if they have long