جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 8

WillowThe ticking of the wall clock was the only sound I truly heard in the classroom.Tick-tock. Tick-tock.Every second pounded in my ears like a dull hammer. Five minutes remained until the final bell. Around me, everyone shifted in their seats, whispered, and made plans for weekend parties. I just stared at the scratches on the floor and tried to breathe evenly.Every breath hurt.My ribs on the left side throbbed from the kick I had taken last night. Without thinking, I pulled my oversized gray knitted sweater tighter around myself. It was two sizes too big and the fabric was rough against my skin, but it was my shield. It covered the purple bruises on my arms, the small cuts on my shoulder, and most importantly, it hid me.Being invisible was my only means of survival.The teacher’s voice was nothing more than a distant hum. My mind was somewhere else entirely.I was calculating. Planning.If I left through the back door as soon as the bell rang, I could avoid the crowds in the

WillowThe air inside the Neon Café and Bistro was always thick with the smell of burnt oil, coffee grounds, and the sour stench of dirty mop water. When I stepped through the back door, the warm air hitting my face stole my breath for a moment, and my ribs flared with sharp pain at the sudden movement.In the changing room, which was really nothing more than a cramped, windowless storage closet, I tied my black apron over my enormous gray sweater. My hands were still trembling. The swelling beneath my left eye throbbed under the fluorescent light. The concealer had softened the color, but it could not hide the swelling. I just hoped no one would look too closely at my face.The moment I stepped behind the counter, I heard the voice that turned every one of my shifts into a nightmare.“Well, look what the wind dragged in,” Amber’s sharp, mocking voice rang out.Amber was twenty-two and acted as if she owned the place simply because she was the boss’s niece. Her blond hair fell over he

JaceI stood in the freezing, damp darkness of the alley, but beneath my skin, my wolf was burning.When I saw that girl in the café, her trembling hands, the scent of suppressed pain radiating from beneath her oversized sweater, I had to get out of the building. If I had stayed inside, the beast would have taken control, and I would have torn that shrieking woman apart with my bare hands for making her clean up those broken plates.Through the thin brick wall, my heightened senses picked up every tiny sound. The splashing of water in the sink. Her ragged, panic-stricken breathing. The coppery scent of blood seeping from a fresh cut. Then her boss's screaming.The rage in my chest grew so thick it practically scraped against my ribs, demanding that I kick down the back door.The rusty metal door slammed, signaling that the girl had stepped outside into the night.There she was.She was dragging an enormous black garbage bag behind her. With every step she took, I could hear the chaoti

JaceThe air in the school cafeteria was suffocating. For me, being trapped in an enclosed space with so many people had always been pure torture. The overpowering perfumes, greasy food, hormones, and the smell accompanying all that shallow, loud chatter blended into one overwhelming mass that constantly irritated my heightened senses.I sat with my pack at our usual table, tucked away at the far end of the room.We were the group everyone stared at but no one dared approach.To them, we were the rich, arrogant elite.To us, they were blind, fragile mortals who had no idea that the monsters they'd feared as children were now eating in the same cafeteria as them.But right now, I couldn't have cared less about the commotion surrounding us.Only one thing occupied my mind.Willow.I stared at the untouched food on my plastic tray while my mind replayed our encounter in the hallway that morning over and over again.Her touch.That electric, scorching jolt that had raced up my arm when I'