EZRAAs Tarius and I stepped back inside, he moved with the efficiency of someone born to war. His hand clamped around Beatrice’s neck in one swift motion, and without ceremony, he yanked her to her feet like she weighed nothing.Her lips curled into that same smug smile that always made me want to rip her throat out. But she didn’t fight him. No. She let herself be dragged up, that collar still glowing faintly around her neck.“Oh, look. The lapdog’s got hands.” Her lips twisted. “Did your master teach you that trick, or did you figure it out all by yourself?”Tarius didn’t flinch. But his grip tightened.“I should snap your spine,” he muttered.She snorted and then turned those eyes on me. “You think cages work on creatures like me? You’re getting slow, Ezra. You forget things. Like who your enemies are.”Tarius didn’t blink. He kept his grip tight, eyes forward. Beatrice, however, kept talking.“It’s always the ones you protect who drive the knife in deepest,” she murmured. “The on
EZRA“I didn’t think you’d actually open the door,” Tarius muttered.I didn’t answer. Instead, I strode across the lawn, fully aware that if Beatrice wanted to listen in on our conversation, she would. But I had needed to step away from her and that devious little tongue. She was trying to get a rise out of me, to provoke me to wrath. But my proof of self-control would be her undoing. The air smelled of pine and the fading light of dusk, and beneath that, something more bitter. Beatrice’s scent lingered in the wind like rot. I needed it gone.Tarius stood stiffly in the driveway, hands in his coat pockets. He eyed the windows like he could sense the wrongness inside.“Who is she?” he asked. “She smells like death.”“Demonic wolf,” I growled.His eyes widened. He understood the weight of that. Rare, vile, and impossible to reason with. She had no ties to the moon, no reverence for the ancient laws. Only hunger.“She stays collared,” I said flatly. “She’s not safe to be left alone.”H
JACQUELINEThe smell of pepperoni filled the living room, mixing with the faint scent of hand soap from the cardboard box I’d just opened. I sat cross-legged on the couch, biting into a steaming slice. The crust was thin, crunchy at the edges, and cheesy at the center.“This is so good,” I mumbled around a bite. “But nothing like the one I had at Blair’s.”Mom raised an eyebrow and sipped from her glass of Coke. “Better or worse?”“Different,” I said, licking grease from my fingers. “It was homemade. Kind of rustic, you know? Thick crust, a little uneven. They used whatever they had—onions, fresh tomatoes, canned mushrooms. Nothing fancy, but it was perfect. They don’t have much, but somehow, they make it work.”Mom chewed slowly, her eyes distant and thoughtful.“There’s something kind of special about that,” I added. “I don’t know. Being able to make something warm out of what little you have.”She gave a small nod. “Sometimes it’s not about how much you have, but what you do with i
EZRA I slammed the door shut behind me and locked it with the thick iron bolt. The chains on Beatrice clinked as she jerked her arms, testing for give. There was none. I’d used enough silver to suppress a full pack. She wasn’t going anywhere. She grinned anyway, baring those bloodstained teeth. Her lips were cracked, her voice smooth and venomous. "Didn’t think you still had it in you, old wolf. Or are you just protecting your little toy now?" I didn’t respond. I walked past her, set my coat on the hook by the door, and poured water into a chipped ceramic bowl on the table. The quiet clatter of the pitcher echoed in the silence that followed. Beatrice never did like silence. She filled it with poison. "What’s the plan, Philips?" she asked. “Keep me tied in your sad little house until I rot? The humans have rules now. Customs. Laws. You can't keep a chained woman in your basement, no matter how evil you think she is. Someone’s bound to hear me screaming. Want to test that the
JACQUELINE The sun had already begun its slow descent when I got home. I stepped out of Chirpy and gave her a soft part before making my way to the door. Inside, I stepped out of my shoes and set my bag by the door, grateful to be inside and alone. For a few seconds, I just stood there, staring at the golden light that reflected off of the curtains and thinking about Mr. Phillip's interaction. Had he really called me to school to tell me he was going to email the day's note to me? Had that been an excuse for him to see me? I shut my eyes and leaned my head against the wall as I recalled the way his fingers had skirted through my hair and the gentle way he had caressed my jaw. I hadn't wanted him to stop. And more than anything, I'd wanted to know what happened on the night that my ex-boyfriend engaged my ex-best friend. I had wanted to know what had gone down in that hotel room.He had casually mentioned that he'd seen me naked. What did I really do? Had I tried to seduce him? Wa
EZRAThe scent led me deeper into the forest.Rotting bark, animal blood, and something worse. Her. That acrid, sulfur-laced stench that clung to the back of my throat like bile. It was thickest here, where moonlight barely touched the damp earth, and branches twisted like claws overhead.I stepped over a broken twig, paused, listened.Silence.Then, movement. Quick, to my left. A whisper of wind that wasn’t wind. I turned, fist clenched.“You look like shit, old man.”Her voice echoed like laughter across the trees. Mocking. Breathless.“You’re not hiding well,” I muttered. “You reek.”A chuckle behind me. I turned too slow. Pain ripped across my back. Claws. I staggered forward, caught myself on a tree trunk, and twisted to face her.She stood in the open now.Her red eyes glowed like twin coals in a face that barely looked human anymore. Her body shimmered where bone pushed skin, muscle flexing unnaturally. She hadn’t fully shifted, not into a wolf, not into anything recognizable.