Tessy rushed over the second she realized I was struggling. She grabbed my arm and started pulling it too, trying to help me get free from my mum’s grip, but it wasn’t working.We both pulled as hard as we could, but my mum’s fingers were like iron. Her thin, bony hands didn’t look strong, yet they held me in place and prevented me from moving.Her body kept shaking over and over again in an unnatural way. Her head twitched to the side as she mumbled words under her breath, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. It sounded like another language, or maybe just nonsense.“This is why I told you not to come here!” Tessy cried out, her voice shaking with panic. She was pulling even harder now, but then she stopped when she saw something.I followed her eyes to what she was looking at and saw it too. There was blood on my hands. My mum’s nails had dug so deep into my skin that blood was running down my wrist.“Oh my god, you’re bleeding,” Tessy gasped. “What are we going to do? This
Hello!” I called out as I pushed the door open a little wider.“Oh no… you’re not supposed to say hello!” Tessy hissed at me trying so hard not to shout. She put her hand over her face like she couldn’t believe me. “You’re not supposed to announce you’re here. You’re not even supposed to be here. And now you’ve just made it worse by telling whoever might be here that we’re here too!”“You have a point,” I said with a shrug. I wasn’t really in the mood to argue with her, but I still talked, “At the same time, if there’s anyone inside, isn’t it better for them to know we’re not here to hurt them? What if we tiptoed in and they attacked us because they thought we were dangerous? This way, they know we mean no harm. Besides…” I paused to listen, “…no one answered, so that means no one’s here.”Tessy gave me a glare. “In movies, do you ever see people get an answer back when they yell hello in a creepy place?”I gave her a half-smile. “Well, we’re not in a movie… or are we?”“Seraya…” she
“How long do we have to walk again before we get to the end of the border?” I groaned, bending down to drop the heavy bag of salt on the ground. Sweat ran down my cheek, and I quickly wiped it away with my sleeve. My back ached from carrying the weight for so long.“I told you this place was huge, but you didn’t want to listen to me,” Tessy snapped at me, her voice filled with annoyance.“Well, I didn’t know you didn’t even know the directions,” I shot back, frowning at her.We had been walking for what felt like forever, round and round the pack’s land, trying to find the border but no matter which way we turned, it was like we were going in circles. I had asked Tessy several times if she was sure about where we were going, and every time she told me yes, to trust her because she had lived in the pack long enough to know the way. Now it was clear she had no idea, and we were lost.“Should we just go back?” she asked, sounding tired.I shook my head. “No, we’re not going back. I feel
I looked at the cover of the first book for a long time, trying to understand what was written on it. The letters were strange and twisted in ways I had never seen before. The more I stared, the less sense they made and my eyes felt heavy from just looking at them. I tried tilting my head to the side, as if that would somehow help me read them, but it didn’t.With a sigh, I decided to stop wasting time and just open the book. Maybe the inside would make more sense.The old pages made a dry cracking sound as I turned them and dust filled the air, making my nose itch again. Tessy was still eating, but I could feel her eyes on me. She watched as my eyebrows furrowed and my lips moved silently, trying to figure out the strange shapes on the page. I must have looked confused, because that was exactly how I felt.“Any luck?” Tessy asked between bites.I shook my head. “Not even a little,” I muttered.I turned the page again and saw a picture of something I recognized. It was a demon and it
I quickly jumped into the shower, the water running over me as I remembered that I was rushing in the first place because of Tessy. At first, I had planned to look at the books Kaden told me about before going to see her but I knew myself. If I tried to study those books now, I wouldn’t be able to focus. My mind would just keep going to her, wondering how she was, what Caleb might be doing to her, and if she was safe so Tessy came first.Thirty minutes later, I was out of the shower, dressed, and standing in the room with my towel still draped over my shoulders. I thought about leaving right away without eating but then my stomach growled so loudly it almost hurt so I decided to eat first.I went into the kitchen and made two sandwiches as fast as I could. I didn’t even sit down to eat before I shoved them into my mouth one after the other, barely tasting them before swallowing.Once I was done, I headed out.I walked for several minutes, scanning houses and trying to guess which o
Pack members were staring right at me. A small group of them stood a few meters away from me and their heads were close together as they whispered among themselves. The way their eyes moved over me was strange, like they couldn’t decide if they were confused, scared, or guilty. I knew those faces and I don’t think that I would ever forget them.They were the same people who used to insult me. The same ones who turned their backs when I needed help, the same ones who called me names, who laughed at me in front of others and made me feel like I was lower than dirt. I used to beg for a place in this pack. I used to dream that one day they would accept me as a member and not just an omega but they looked like they were the ones afraid of me.My eyes narrowed as I stared at them and I didn’t look away or drop my gaze like I used to when they looked at me.Instead, I glared at each one of them, slowly and one after the other and I noticed that their expressions started to change. They d