Liora
My bed felt more like coffin, it’s usual silky sheets encirling me like hands.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that hallway, Bianca’s smirk, the way they all laughed when nothing happened.
When I opened them, I was still here.
Still wolfless.
I tried a hundred and thirty times that night. And failed, a hundred and thirty times. My wolf was gone, or hiding so deep I couldn’t reach her. Maybe it was just because I hadn’t shifted in so long. Maybe I’d built my own wall without realizing. That had to be it.
By morning, the numbness had settled in so deep it almost felt like calm. Almost.
After class, while everyone else filed out for lunch, I found Mia leaning against the lockers, her inky hair piled into a messy clipped look, flipping through her notebook for old notes.
Always the book worm.
I plopped down next to her, handing her a juice from the vending machine, chewing on the straw of my own. “Question.”
“Answer.”
“How do you do it?”
She looked up, shoving the straw in her drink. “Do what?”
“The training I know you go to,” I said. “The whole… wolfless wolf thing. There’s a way for you—us, to try and wake it up, right?”
Her brows rose slowly. “This from the girl who said she’d never waste her time with it? I thought you were a proud wolfless? You’re already plenty strong.”
“Yeah, well, I’m asking now,” I said, sucking down some juice, voice cool even though part of me hated how desperate it sounded.
Mia shut her notebook, studying me for a long beat before shrugging. “Well, I can’t teach you, considering I can’t, but as you know, there’s an after-school program I go to for Wolfless. We do journaling, therapy stuff, sparring… all of it’s supposed to trigger something. Sometimes it works. Most of the time, it doesn’t.”
“And you go how often?”
“Every week,” she said. “Doesn’t mean I’ve changed.”
I nodded once. Not exactly promising…but it was my only lead. “Show me.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Rejected True Heiress (Liora)