Maisie

While I’d been out of commission, Regina had collected some of my things from the Night Shade pack. My fingers stalled on the old, worn photo frame of Dad, Mom, me and Lana.

My eyes prickled as I ran my thumb over the picture. I stared at Mom the longest. I’d never felt for a single day in my life that she wasn’t my real mom.

Soren’s recalling of events had made me start to feel and think other things. If Dad hadn’t left with Lana and I, what would my life have been like? Would I really have been mated to Kisten instead? Married to him? Popping out his babies?

I shuddered at that thought before it got replaced by another.

What was she like? My biological mother? Calling her that felt like a betrayal.

But I couldn’t help but think about her. This cruel woman, who had my father killed for taking us. This woman who killed Soren’s mother. If she had gone to such lengths to get me back... was it because I mattered? Or was it because she lost her little breeder daughter?

I was leaning towards the latter.

If she cared or loved us, she would’ve come for both Lana and I, not just me.

I felt a pang of ’something’ in my chest at the thought, but I shoved it down. My mother was Matilda Adams. I didn’t know who that woman was.

"You do not have to be uncomfortable around me," Juliette said an hour later when she suddenly moved into my space and I cringed. "This is about the kiss?"

My cheeks burned. "I’m sorry—"

"Don’t be." Her eyes were wide and earnest. "I wasn’t upset by it. For my first real kiss, it blew my mind."

I gasped with mortification. And then she started giggling. "I’m French, Maisie. We kiss every-time. When greeting, when happy, when sad, before breakfast, after breakfast, when grateful, when saying goodbye." As if to make her point, she said, "I should leave you to rest."

And then kissed me soundly on both my cheeks and flitted out of the room, humming like the world was made of rainbows and soft pink clouds.

I thought Juliette was a very strange woman.

****

Water beat down on my skin from the shower and I ran my fingers through my wet hair, shivering under the onslaught of the cold water.

It was happening again.

Heat.

I was mistaken to think it would end completely with the transition. Sometimes, it came out of nowhere, hitting me like a tsunami, and I didn’t know what to do with myself in those moments.

I had developed a habit of staying under the freezing cold shower until it passed. But it seemed I was beginning to grow immune to even that. My Lycan really wasn’t helping matters. She’d been sending picture after naked picture into my mind of the four of them.

My eyes squeezed shut as I tried to rid myself of the images.

And then, I felt a hot breath on the back of my neck.

I screamed, whirling with my fist aimed at—

At nothing.

My heart thundered in my chest as I glanced around the bathroom. There was no one in here with me.

I started to wonder if I was going insane when I noticed the door of the bathroom was ajar. And what followed was the sound of a rustle and a thud coming from my bedroom.

What the hell?

"Hello?" I called out, snatching my towel off the rack and wrapping it around my body.

I swore to the goddess that if one of them was creeping on me like a fucking stalker, I was going to hurt someone.

But the scent I caught when I got into my bedroom was unfamiliar. My eyes widened when I noticed my little box had been ransacked, and the photograph of my family was gone, the frame shattered on the ground.

The balcony door was open.

It hadn’t been before.

I heard another thud and a soft cuss echo from outside and I didn’t think before running over to the balcony, gripping the railing and glancing over the edge.

It moved so fast, I couldn’t follow it. All I saw was blue-black fur.

Not the wolf kind.

The Lycan kind. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

I glanced back at my clothes. It would take way too much time to put them on.

I leapt over the railing.

A soft cry tore out of me as I shifted. It hurt, goddess, it hurt so bad. I didn’t understand how anyone enjoyed doing this. It felt like I was being broken a million times and reset in the same breath.

I hadn’t tried to since the transition. Though I knew if I needed to, I could just reach down and shift.

My fur was brown, with streaks of gold. And when I caught my reflection on the surface of one of the tall windows as I ran, I thought I was on the smaller side. Obviously feminine. If a little cute. If you could call a monstrosity cute. But I was impossibly fast.

The world blurred around me as I went after that scent, letting my Lycan guide me forward.

I caught a glimpse of him again.

His eyes were sterling grey. There was something malicious and hateful in them when he saw me gaining on him. I caught a whiff of anger in the air, which only served to infuriate me some more when he blurred out of my vision like a ghost.

He broke into my room. Into my bathroom. Creep in on me naked. Stole something that belonged to me. What the hell was he pissed about? I didn’t even know who he was—

Something slammed into me from the side and I flew a few feet back, shifting swiftly and landing onto my paws like a cat.

The Lycan stood a few feet away, his teeth bared at me. And I blinked when I heard a word spat at me in a rough, male voice.

"Traitor."

Huh?

And then, he turned and disappeared into the trees.

I started to go after him when I noticed I was at the edge of our woods. Any further, and I would be out of the estate.

Walking over to where he’d been a second ago, my paws brushed over something warm. And I glanced down.

It was a blue sweater. With the familiar letters embroidered onto the front of it, like it was on every first year’s assigned sweats.

My stalker was a student at Greymoor.