Chapter 3

The morning sun cut through the curtains, falling on my already stiffening corpse.

From the kitchen came the sizzle of frying meat.

The aroma of prime steak drifted through the central air, filling the entire house.

It was my favorite smell. Mom only ever made it for important guests.

"Good," Elara said, a cruel smile on her lips, as she sipped her coffee in the living room. "Let's see if that smell can lure the little rat out of her hole."

She was doing it on purpose.

She was trying to lure me out with my favorite food so I would apologize.

I floated at the ceiling, looking down at my body.

My skin was now tinged with green, my eye sockets were deep pits, and dried black blood crusted the corners of my mouth.

If I were alive, that smell would have definitely made me knock on the door and beg for forgiveness.

But I was dead.

The dead aren't tempted by food.

"Mom!" my sister Cassia's voice suddenly rang out, her voice dripping with fake drama. "What is that disgusting smell? It's coming from Selena's room!"

She pinched her nose, her face wrinkled in a frown.

"Did she shift in there again? Make a huge mess?"

Mom put down her coffee cup, her face instantly darkening.

"What smell?"

"It's awful! Like... like something's rotting!" Cassia gagged dramatically. "I almost threw up just walking past her door!"

Yes. Something was rotting.

Me.

Overnight, my corpse had started to release a noticeable stench.

A werewolf’s body temperature is naturally high, so decomposition is fast.

My mother's face turned to stone.

She strode toward my room and stopped outside the door.

"Selena!" she roared, banging on the door. "You dare throw a tantrum by fouling your own room? You think this filth will make me give in? How childish!"

Her voice trembled, not with anger, but with revulsion.

I floated by the door, watching her twisted face.

It's no use, Mom. You can scream all you want.

I can't hear you anymore.

"Let her sit in her own stink!" Elara spun around, ready to walk away. "We'll see how long she can keep it up!"

Just then, my father came down the stairs.

He wrinkled his nose as he got closer.

"What is that smell?" Marcus covered his nose. "It smells... like something died in there."

Hope flared in me again.

Dad! You can smell it!

"Maybe an animal got in there and died," he said, his voice laced with worry. "I'm going to open the door and check."

No!

My mother spun back around, a flash of panic in her eyes.

"Don't you dare!" she yelled. "It's a trick! She's trying to get sympathy!"

My father paused, hesitating.

"But that smell..."

"Marcus, you can't give in to her!" my mother's voice was hysterical. "The second you compromise, she'll push for more! This is a crucial moment in her discipline!"

My father's hand rested on the doorknob.

I held my breath.

No, I didn't have breath to hold.

But all of my being was focused on that hand.

Open it, Dad.

Open the door and you'll find me.

Open the door and end this nightmare.

Just then, his phone rang.

"Hello? What? An accident at the mines?" His voice turned sharp. "What are the casualties? Okay, I'm on my way now!"

No!

Don't answer the phone!

Don't go!

My father hung up and turned hastily to my mother. "There's been a collapse at the pack mine. We have wolves trapped. I have to go—now. I might be gone for a few days."

"What about Selena—" Before my mother could finish, my father had slammed the front door and was gone.

I was stunned.

So close.

If that call had come just a minute later, I would have been found.

Maybe then, my body wouldn't have to keep rotting.

After my father left, my mother shot my room a look of pure disgust, then pulled my sister away.

The rest of the day, the house was silent. Deathly silent.

In the afternoon, the rustle of luxury shopping bags and the clack of high heels broke the quiet.

"Mom, the clothes we bought today are so beautiful!" Cassia's excited voice announced.

They were back.

"Of course, darling. You are my most perfect daughter," my mother's doting voice was like a knife in my heart.

But as they entered the living room, the stench of decay was much stronger than in the morning.

My mother's face changed instantly. She clapped a hand over her mouth and nose.

"That smell... why is it so strong?"

She gagged, and a fire of rage ignited in her eyes.

"She's doing this on purpose! She's testing my limits!"

My mother stormed to the storage closet and grabbed a package of odor-blocking sealant.

It was a powerful chemical compound she used in her lab.

She tore the packaging open like a madwoman, slapping sealant strips over every crack and seam around my door.

The strips solidified on contact with the air, creating an airtight seal.

"Let's see you reflect in there now!" she snarled as she worked. "Let's see how long you can keep up this act!"

The last crack was sealed.

The room was now a sealed coffin.

Satisfied with her work, she pulled my sister upstairs.

"Don't go near this area again," she told Cassia. "Let her suffer the consequences of her actions."

"If you want to wallow in your own filth, fine! You can rot in there alone and leave us in peace!"

She then turned and poured herself an expensive glass of red wine from the cabinet.

I looked at the sealed door, and the last shred of hope inside me suffocated along with the air.

So, in my mother's heart, my life was worth less than a glass of wine.

She would rather seal me in a tomb than take one look to see if I was dead inside.

Now, I was well and truly trapped.

The stench of my own decay grew stronger and stronger.

Don't worry, Mom. I'll never bother you again.