Maisie

"You’ve been avoiding us," Regina said in an accusatory tone.

She’d blocked my path right after Combat and followed me down to the bathroom despite my efforts to shake her off. I was sporting a black eye from being so distracted, I didn’t notice the punch coming until Rachel’s fist slammed into my cheek.

I could swear the girls in the next stall were laughing every time they looked in my direction. I recognized Claire. And I caught a flash of Lana’s blonde hair.

"I’m not," I said. "I’ve been... busy."

"Too busy to check your cellphone or respond to my calls or messages," she retorted.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Regina enough to tell her. It was that I knew if I did, she would make it her problem and begin looking for solutions to it.

But there was no helping me out of this.

I gave her a blank stare. "I don’t know what you want me to say, Regina."

"I want to know what’s wrong with my best friend," she said. "You haven’t been yourself lately. You look pale. Haunted. We were supposed to hang out during your suspension, but you completely blew me off and I swear you’ve lost some more weight since I last saw you."

"I’m fine," I said, shrugging on my jacket.

"Won’t you tell me?" she said.

"Tell you what?"

Just then, Claire’s obnoxious laughter echoed in the bathroom. "I hear she’s been reduced to the status of a maid again. I can’t tell what’s funnier. Tumbling in bed with an engaged man, or walking around believing she was special because they picked her out of the gutter. Pathetic fucking bitch."

Regina slammed her fist into the bathroom door and every girl inside jumped. Including Claire. "I dare you to come out and say that again to her face. This is why every guy you kiss dumps you, Foreman. Nothing but shit and maggots frothing in your mouth."

Claire hurriedly walked out of the bathroom. Her friend, Debbie followed. Lana lingered for a moment, but she didn’t need to say anything.

She’d always been able to read me better than most. All she had to do was stare at my fingers trembling under the faucet and know it had gotten to me.

I fixed my hair. "You don’t have to fight my battles for me, Regina. I’m fine."

I would be.

"Maisie, I’m here," she said, eyes filled with worry. "I’m always here if you ever need to talk. Or you know, kill someone."

I would’ve laughed. Maybe I should’ve pretended for her, at least. But I didn’t have it in me anymore.

"Thank you," I said, slipping my hands into my pockets and I stepped out, into the hallway.

I slipped my hands into my pockets and stepped into the hallway outside.

There was a buzz of excitement in the air.

A count down had begun to the wedding day. Someone had placed a decorative banner in the school’s most busy hallway, and it was five more days left.

Everyone knew about the wedding now and it was all they could talk about. The entirety of Greymoor was attending in tribute to the Lycan Queen, considering she had built the school. They had received a free invite to the celebration. It was one of the perks of being in Greymoor. Access to high-class events being hosted by the Queen.

Everywhere I turned, the girls were excited and talking about what they would wear and possibly catching the attention of other Lycans and hybrids.

The guys were talking about Tessa like she was the moon goddess herself.

Tessa didn’t even go here and I was haunted at every turn with her name. Her face. It was all over the internet. It was plastered on the walls. It was the term break even our tutors were looking forward to.

With what little news the general public heard about the Lycans on a daily basis, it was completely normal to make this into a festival.

I wondered if I might have been rejoicing with them if I had never run into them in the first place. Or gotten bitten. Or gotten a mate like Cole Hayes.

All in all, I cursed the Moon Goddess for my luck.

I had just picked the seat at the back of class, ignoring Jenny’s worried look as I drew my hood over my head to avoid any unnecessary attention, when I heard the loud screeching of a chair being dragged toward me.

Cole Hayes planted the chair backward in front of me and straddled it, resting his muscular arm on the back of it. Tucker and Reid stood behind him, ever the gracious henchmen.

Cole had a smarmy smirk on his face. "Why, you look like shit, Maisie. Did your fancy prince finally dump you?"

The entire classroom was watching now. Soft laughter echoed off the walls.

I gave him a very dead stare. "If you don’t want me rearranging your face, you’ll get out of mine."

Usually, he hated being talked back to. Usually, Cole would have snapped back. Grabbed my hair. Snarled something degrading at me.

But his smile stayed confident. "I did tell you, didn’t I?" His voice dropped into a whispering taunt. "In the broom closet. I told you this would happen. I told you when they grew bored of you, they would leave. I guess we could consider this... a fall from grace."

I bit the inside of my cheek in habit. The sharp pain and the sting of the blood wasn’t enough to override the shame.

He leaned forward, eyes bright with glee. "That look on your face right now... I’ve been dying to see it. The realization that you are fucked, and I am all you really have left. And of course, I am gracious enough to take you back, Maisie."

A voice slithers into my mind. Shut him up. Hit him. Hurt him. Hurt all of them. They’re laughing at you. They’re always laughing at you. Would it not please you to destroy everything?

Blinking back the red tunneling in my vision, I glanced down at my fingers and I saw claws. Black. Sharp. Long, Lycan claws.