All Chapters of Twice Rejected, Twice Fated: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Wren's POVI made it to breakfast without crying, which I counted as a victory.I'd showered in record time, scrubbed my face until it stung, and pulled my damp hair into a braid so tight it made my eyes water. By the time I walked into the south dining hall, my cheeks had almost returned to a normal colour and my heart rate had slowed."You look like you've been in a fight," said Sera, appearing behind me with a cup of coffee."I ran.""Same thing." She slumped against me. "I came in four hundred and sixth. I want you to know that. Four hundred and sixth. I walked the last lap and a boy passed me carrying a cello.""You were never going to win.""I wasn't trying to win, I was trying to survive." She groaned. "You're a monster. You were eleventh. Isolde told me. She said the whole Student Council noticed."That means Cyrus noticed too. I swallowed. So much for trying not to get noticed. "..great.” I muttered quietly, not sure what to say exactly. The south dining hall was a long,

Wren's POVI read the caption three times.And the longer I stared at them, the more my stomach twisted unpleasantly. "I'm sorry," Sera whispered again. "I'm so, so sorry.""It's fine.""It's not.""Miss Sera," said the professor, without turning from the board. "Miss Ashbourne. Is there something more fascinating than the lower mandible of the first-form shift?""No, sir," I said."Then perhaps you would like to join us."I slid the phone back across the desk.All around the lecture hall, I heard the tiny sounds of other phones; a soft buzz, a muffled giggle…They've all seen the post. Somebody in the row behind me whispered, "Oh my goddess, it's her," A girl two seats down turned around, looked me up and down with a mocking gaze and turned back again.I stared at the board.Don't look, I told myself. Don't look at them.I wrote down the date and the title of the lecture while trying hard to ignore the looks I was now getting from everyone else. In the marg

Wren's POVI walked out of the dining hall with my back straight and my chin up, past the rows of silent tables and the curious, hungry eyes. I walked down the corridor, up the stairs. And only when I'd reached the empty landing at the top of the east stairwell, and heard the door close behind me, did I put my forehead against the cool stone wall and press my fist to my mouth, hard.I didn't cry. I'd never cried in front of bullies. It would only make them feel more powerful. I heard about what happened after I left from three different sources and each one more exaggerated than the last. .According to Isolde, who gave the most accurate account, Sera had set down her tray on the nearest table and deliberated on using a chair or not to talk. She had walked across the dining hall without hurrying, until she was standing directly in front of the girl in the white headband.She had picked up the girl's tray. She had said, very clearly, for everyone to hear.."Pic

Wren's POVI should have known something was wrong when Nessa Ward offered to carry my books."You don't have to do that," I said, startled, as she appeared at my elbow in the corridor outside Pack Governance with her thin arms outstretched and a hopeful smile on her face.Hell, I have only ever met her a handful of times and she’d seem like a sweet person. "I don't mind!"I glanced down at my book and back at her, dazed. "They're heavy.""I'm stronger than I look." She slipped the stack from my arms before I could argue. "Honestly. It's fine. I just wanted to say hi. We live on the same floor, don't we? I'm two doors down. 216.""Yeah. We've met.” "I've been shy." She gave a breathless little laugh. "I didn't want to bother you.""You're not bothering me.""I'm so glad." She beamed.I looked at her.She was small and thin, with brown hair tucked behind her ears and a cardigan so large that the cuffs hung past her fingers. She had a nervous, darting way of looking at people, as

Wren's POVI stayed in that cubicle for a long time.I sat on the closed lid of the toilet with my elbows on my knees and my forehead pressed into my palms, and I waited for my body to stop shaking. Somewhere down the corridor, a tap dripped and a girl laughed, her footsteps clicked away across the tiles.The ache in my skin had gone.It had vanished as suddenly as it came, drained out of me and left me shivering and strangely light. My hands looked ordinary.I turned them over, and back, and over again, as if I might catch some trace of what had happened.What was that?"Astra?" I whispered.Nothing."Astra. Please.""I'm here," she said at last, in a voice so small that it frightened me more than the rage had."What was that?"She said nothing and the cubicle was very quiet.I closed my eyes.Of all the things she could have said, that was the one I hadn't expected. Pleading for a separation from the moon goddess. Astra wasn't a wolf who was frightened of t