I am not a morning person, even less after yesterday.
Walking through the halls, people stared at me like I had seven heads. Even now, in class, all the stupid princess posse did was obsess. And Jen was the worst, popping her gum and talking trash about me. I was seconds from jumping over the desk and strangling her.
“Maybe she’s a candlestick,” Jen grinned. “That’d explain why she has no shape.”
The tips of my nails dug into my palms. Then the bell rang, and I let out the breath I’d been holding for the last ten minutes. I had plenty of shape. My hips were my favorite feature.
I swung my bag over my shoulder and walked out the door and into the courtyard. Sneakers skidded across the floor, people ran toward the cafeteria. Where do I belong now? Not that I thought I had a place, but in a school where people were put into groups by their rank and classification and me, being the one who belonged nowhere, I found the task of sitting at a table more daunting than ever before. The truth was I didn’t want to sit with Danielle.
“Well, if it isn’t the girl who can’t be named.”
The irritation Danielle and her posse gave me was nothing compared to Wolf. A lazy smile played at the edge of his mouth. Gosh, he had that whole smoldering, grunge-look down to a science. When was the last time he shaved?
“You again?”
Waves of brown hair fell along his face as he tipped his head back and soaked up the slight sunshine.
“Were you expecting someone else?”
“No.” I grinned, latching onto the strap of my bag as I walked over to him, like a magnet being pulled forward without any control. “Then again, no one stalks me but you.”
He barked a laugh, one that made chills run up my spine and down my arms. It was deep and full. “What can I say? You’re kind of like a science experiment gone wrong.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”
In the time it took me to blink, he closed the space between us and latched on to my arm, turning it over to my bare forearm. His warm skin hummed against mine, heightening all my nerves with one single touch. I sucked in a sharp breath, unable to back up, though I should have.
“It’s true,” he murmured. His thumb trailed over my bare flesh where the quill had burned me. There was no trace of the damage, no trace of the nightmare that was yesterday.
“They’ve never not classified someone.” His eyes bolted to mine. The flecks of gold brightened, dimming the scarlet ring around his iris. He cocked his head to one side like a puppy. “You’re going to be trouble, aren’t you?”
“I’m not anything.”
“I think we both know that’s not true.”
Nothing came out when I opened my mouth. No sound, no air. The world slowed, dimming around us as we stared at one another, connecting on a level far away, making little to no sense. For a moment, I wondered if we were speaking. My heart surged forward, beating inside my chest at a pace I’d never experienced.
The conversation outside the infirmary replayed once more, as it had last night and most of the morning. I wanted to ask Wolf what it meant, but why? We didn’t know each other beyond our strange encounters. Yet in that brief moment in time, my heart expanded, ready to spill the secrets and fears of my soul.
I was ready to lay it all out, like two old friends catching up, but we weren’t friends and we definitely didn’t know one another before this school. Yet something called out to me, tugging at my heart strings, begging for more. His thumb trailed over my skin, leaving behind a warm, tingling sensation.
Blinking fast, Wolf released me and stepped back, blowing out a heavy breath. He blinked again, confusion tightening his brows as we stared at each other. But this time was different. He looked at me unsure of the moment that had passed between us.
“Hey you.”
The voice sounded like it came through a tunnel. My hand, which once held a tight fist, loosened,
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