第1章

My fated mate, Elias, handed me a tissue, his tone light.

"Wipe your face. You're so fragile. You don't act like a werewolf at all. You can't even take a joke."

My sister, Giulietta, walked over with her phone raised, aimed the camera at my face, and grinned.

"Mom, Dad, look at this. Liliana's face is a mess. Dirt and tears everywhere. She's filthy."

My parents' disgusted voices came through the phone.

"Liliana, were you rolling around on the ground? How did you get that dirty?"

"A werewolf who cries this much. You should be ashamed of yourself."

I silently wiped the dirt from my face with the tissue and did not argue.

The bus was crowded. All I could do was curl up in a broken seat, unable to sleep a wink all night because of the noise.

After I got off, I ran the whole way with my suitcase to make it to registration in time, falling more times than I could count, covered in dust and bruises.

I heal poorly. Injuries like these are nothing to other werewolves, but they leave me in pain for a long time.

No one cared how wretched I looked. They only enjoyed my panic and my despair.

It was like this every time.

During the SAT, Giulietta hid my pen.

She didn't hand it back, giggling, until I was crying my heart out.

When we traveled together, my parents and Giulietta swapped my ID.

My mother didn't produce the real one until the last minute before boarding, filming the whole time.

The one thing that had once been different was the way my fated mate, Elias, treated me.

He had once cried until his eyes were red after hearing what I'd been through, and promised me no one would ever bully me again.

He had even lost his temper, rare for him, when Giulietta tried to stick a picture of a pig's head on me, ordering her to stop treating me like entertainment.

But the Elias who used to stand behind me and protect me was standing with them this time.

Elias opened an umbrella and shielded Giulietta from the harsh sun.

"All right, let's go. Didn't you say there was a dessert place around here you wanted to try? It'll close if we don't hurry."

The umbrella in his hand was one I had given him.

We hadn't been together long then. We were still in college, and Elias picked me up from class every day.

So I gave him a beautiful umbrella and told him it was meant just for me, that from then on he could use it only to shade me.

He agreed, and said with a smile that he would only ever share an umbrella with me.

But now that umbrella was over Giulietta's head, without the slightest tilt toward me.

Elias turned to leave, and I caught his sleeve and held on.

"You can't just leave. I can't register. What am I supposed to do?"

Impatience flickered in Elias's eyes, but when he saw how swollen mine were, he softened his voice.

"Don't be scared, Liliana. We checked ahead. Take your documents and go see a prospective advisor. They're in the inner compartment of your suitcase.

"It was only a joke, so stop being angry. Giulietta and I are going to the dessert place. I'll bring you back a strawberry cake."

He brushed my hand off lightly and left with Giulietta.

I dragged my suitcase toward the office building without a word and knocked on the door with my documents in hand.

The admissions coordinator took one look at the state I was in and hurried me inside to sit down.

"A few students are late every year. Don't worry, it won't affect your enrollment."

I nodded, my eyes red, unable to speak.

Three things consumed me: my parents' disgust, Elias and Giulietta walking away hand in hand, and all three of them joining forces to humiliate me.

Together, they felt like a knife cutting a deep wound across my throat.

The pain silenced me, and even the warmth in my body seemed to drain slowly through the wound.

I opened my phone without thinking and saw that Giulietta had posted twice.

The first was from yesterday, a photo of her and Elias posing with their fingers in a heart on the plane.

At that moment I had been curled up in a corner clutching my suitcase, wary of the hostile looks around me.

The second was from a few minutes ago, Elias feeding her cake.

For a moment my mind went blank, and all I could hear was my wolf crying.

The admissions coordinator's voice pulled me back.

"Advisor selection happens two weeks after the term starts. A lot of faculty in your program take students on fieldwork, so you may want to research your options early."