RubyWhen I return to the castle, I lift the daze from the guard, who instantly falls asleep at his post by the back door; when he wakes, if he even remembers anything, he’ll just think that he had a vivid dream. It seems as though no one noticed my absence, so I’m able to quietly sneak back to my room and stash the protection charm and my money where I know Alice won’t find it.The next couple of days are solemn and quiet. I don’t see Atwood at all, and I don’t see Edith and the Queen for more than a few moments in passing. They seem too preoccupied to bother me, as though they’re planning something.Whatever they have planned, however, is none of my concern. I’ll be gone soon, leaving them to do as they please. If Edith wants Atwood so badly, she’s more than welcome to have him. I refuse to mate with Atwood if it’s only going to result in my death. I can’t leave Tamara alone like that.Maybe Atwood will listen to Edith, too. Maybe he won’t always assume that she’s up to no good, and

AtwoodRuby is nowhere to be found. When I go to her room, the place where the bed used to be is replaced with a black hole leading to nowhere. The library is a black void as well, and when I step inside, I feel weightless.All around me, claw-like hands reach out of the darkness. They grab my clothes, my limbs, my flesh, and pull me down, down, deep into the abyss. I’ve accepted it. No one is coming for me.When I wake up on the morning of Kayne’s funeral, my back is once again coated with sweat from the nightmares.It comes as a surprise to me that the day of Kayne’s funeral has arrived. It feels as though the night my beta was killed was an eternity ago, but it’s only been a week. Perhaps time has been moving in slow motion.The nightmares have only been getting worse, and so has my condition. With each sleepless night, my mind becomes more and more foggy. Soon, I feel as though I won’t be able to do my work at all.Ruby has to mark me soon. I know her wolf is beginning to emerge;

RubyI might be planning another escape, and I may have pushed Atwood away when he kissed me, but I still have feelings for him -- feelings that could not be replicated with Cayden despite our kiss in the forest. Seeing Atwood with Edith again only solidified those feelings.The feeling of anger that I’ve become all too familiar with bubbles up inside of me. It makes me want to tear the room apart again, but I manage to quell that urge and instead let my pain come out through the form of tears.I curl up on the bed, clutching a pillow to my chest and sobbing into it uncontrollably.I must drift off at some point, because when I wake up, it’s dark in the room. I sit up and groggily rub my eyes, reaching for my phone. It’s eleven o’clock at night. How did I sleep for six hours like that?Unsurprisingly, I’m starving. I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and stand, crossing to the window to look out at the waxing moon for a moment. The moon is nearly full, its bright light casting a

RubyIt’s been several days since I shifted in the forest and killed the Bear, and with each passing day I’m becoming more familiar with my wolf and my abilities. However, the longer I go without letting my wolf mark Atwood, the more temperamental she becomes.I start having dreams about marking Atwood. My mind becomes fuzzy, and my head is full of nothing but the thought of marking him. It feels as though I can barely focus on anything else.Will it be like this when I run away? I can only hope that distance will make my wolf less inclined to mark him. Maybe she’ll fancy Cayden instead and I can just forget about all of this.One morning, I wake up before my tutoring session with Robert. I’m groggy from a bad night of sleep due to the dreams about Atwood, but nonetheless push myself to climb out of bed and into the shower.I turn on the water as hot as it will go so that the bathroom becomes steamy, then climb in and let the hot water run over my body. I stand there for a few minutes

RubyThe image of Edith holding Atwood on the floor of his study gives me so much pain that I’m unable to sleep all night. I spend the night tossing and turning, and by morning my lips are all chewed up from nervously biting them.I wish I could just not care about Atwood so that these things don’t pain me as much. I want to be able to run away with Cayden and not think about Atwood anymore, but now I’m not so sure if it’s even possible.If only I had someone to talk to.The sun is still rising when I get out of bed and shower to make myself feel better. My body is sore from the sleepless night of tossing and turning, but the warm water helps.“What should I do?” I ask my wolf as the hot water runs over my body.“I say to hell with the curse,” she replies instantly. “Let me mark Atwood. He’ll never look at another woman again once I mark him.”I shake my head with a sigh.Clearly, my wolf is too preoccupied with the thought of marking Atwood to be a good voice of reason.Nancy would k