on the island where all the kids turned into feral assholes.”
I shuddered. “Hated that one, too. I’m starting to think I’m just not into anything with too much realism.”
She blinked at me. “You think that was realistic?”
“Kinda reminds me of how our pack is run,” I said, trying—and failing—to sound blasé.
Simone side-eyed me closely before giving a shake of her head. “I can’t even argue with you. It’s a dictatorship, but that’s how shifters don’t turn mutt. Wolves need a powerful alpha or we go rogue and our beasts take over.” Her face fell. “Not that I’d know, having to wait another damn year to shift.”
To say Simone was pissed about our first shift not being together was an understatement, but the Rule of First Shift had been passed from the original creator of our kind. The dark deity we worshipped.
Shadow Beast.
He’d set the shifter command and it couldn’t be overruled. Wolves had tried in the past, but no one had been successful in bringing on the change early. Call it wolf puberty, set in stone.
Maybe it was because we aged slowly and could live for a couple hundred years longer than humans. Or maybe the beast just liked the age of twenty-two.
No one had met the demon of our kind to ask him.
“I want it so bad,” Simone continued. “But I’m also freaking out about the pain. You know how bad it is when I break a nail, and this is like…”
“Breaking every bone?”
She shuddered. “Girl, could you at least attempt to sugarcoat it for me?”
I shrugged. “Pain doesn’t bother me like it used to. What I’m afraid of is not being able to bond with the wolf. What if she rejects me?”
Like every other person in my life. Yeah, I know, sob sob, we all had a sad story.
“She won’t,” Simone said forcefully. “She’s going to love you, and you’ll hunt rabbits, and it’ll be like having your second-best friend built in for life.”
No one was replacing Simone in best friend numero uno spot, apparently… not even an entity I shared a soul with.
“I’m almost positive I’ll have control by the third shift,” Simone added, shaking her shoulders in a confident little dance. “I’ve so got this.”
“I have no doubts at all,” I said, meaning every word.
The first two shifts were always a complete loss as the beast took over, our human side barely remembering anything at all. The majority had control by shift four or five, but I wouldn’t put it past Simone to have hers down by shift number three. She was that determined.
Either way for me, the second I had control of my wolf, I was escaping this fuck of a town.
And never looking back.
Just as we passed the main run of lockers for the seniors, a familiar group came into sight, easy to spot as students parted along the hallway for them like they were royalty.
I supposed they pretty much were.
Simone saw them at the same time as me. “Run!” she whispered harshly, shoving me toward the nearest exit. It was too late, though. They’d seen me, and I couldn’t outrun them. Especially not the two who had already turned: Torin Wolfe and Jaxson Heathcliffe.
Why the fuck were they even at college at all? They’d graduated last year, but for some insane reason, would not leave.
“Stay!”
The command came from Torin, future alpha of the Torma pack. His father, Victor, had ruled us for fifty years now with no sign of retiring. I mean, the fact that he’d changed their last name to Wolfe pretty much said everything one needed to know about how highly he regarded himself and his standing in the shifter world.
And Torin, the precious only son, was the future alpha. With this power, he could command wolves in the pack. Not that he generally needed any help in controlling them, especially the female shifters, thanks to his bright green eyes, chocolatey dark hair, and the sort of chiseled jaw that love stories were written about.
For me, though, he was a horror novel—my worst nightmare.
Two of the three approached now, and my stomach swirled as I prepared myself for what was to come. Torin’s command had been the one to stop me in my tracks, but today he hung back to let his friends have their fun. In truth, Torin had never really hurt me, but he didn’t stop the others either, and that was just as bad in my opinion.
Sisily Longeran, the alpha chick of my year, started to circle me.