“Sorry ‘bout the status kid.”
The hairs on the back of my neck shot up and I stumbled to a stop. I gulped, and despite every fiber in my body telling me not to, I turned ever so slightly to see who had spoken.
A man stood near the door, leaning against the wall with his enormous arms folded. He was like a brick storehouse. He wore robes that weren’t of the city, I could only imagine where he was from—the fang hanging around his neck marked him as—A shifter within the walls!
I had only heard rumors that shifters wore fangs though. I should alert the guards. I should—but I didn’t want to. How had he gotten in? How had he heard about my status? I would’ve been almost fifteen feet away from him at the desk when it wasread.
A shiver unfurled in my brain and zipped down my spine.
He smiled. “Time to get going, kid.”
Not a question, a command.
I faltered for a second, and his smile was a wolf’s grin. The voices that had felt cut away began trickling back.
Go.
It echoed in my head. I grabbed the handle and opened the door. I was moving without thinking. Then I heard the screams.
I turned and the man was gone. In his place was an enormous wolf stalking forward. Inspectors and guards ran forward, screaming for the shifter to change back. Sirens began blaring around me. My ears screamed in pain and I fell to my knees, gripping my head.
The first guard to meet the werewolf was swiped sideways and thrown meters into the air, blood flowing in spurts. The next was practically cut in half and fell away from the wolf. He stalked forward as guards flooded in at him.
Move kid.
The voice kicked me upside the head and I began crawling.What the hell was going on?More guards and inspectors met the werewolf stalking forward, all of them falling easily at his swipes with moaning screams.
Then I was on my feet, running away from the hall and fighting the throng of people trying to escape with me. My blood was pumping and body heating up like a furnace. Guards flooded down the narrow passageway at the back of the building. They screamed for people to calm down, but were then drowned out by the roaring wolf inside.
I stopped when I could only hear the ringing in my ears from the sirens back in the hall. I felt sick like I was going to vomit. What had happened in there? The blood…The screaming…the wolf.
Then a voice screamed in my mind, rebounding off my skull.The wolves will rise again!Then I was off running again.
By the timeI reached Aunt Teetee’s half an hour later I was soaking with sweat and out of breath. I hadn’t stopped running since the Inner City. Between the market stalls of Outer Lassig his voice followed me. His screaming still echoing out from the hall and into my head.Inside my head.I’d ripped the locket from around my neck and clutched it in my hand as I ran.
I collapsed onto Aunt Teetee’s bench that hung into the street, the smell of lavender intoxicating and strong. The voice kept repeating.The wolves will rise again!Of course he’d heard my status if he was a werewolf. But it was like he’d spoken to my soul.
I opened my fist and looked at the paw shaped pendant. It had been laid on my chest when I was left at Aunt Teetee’s step. It was the only thing left from my parents. They were, as far as Teetee had been able to tell me, dead.
I didn’t open the pendant though, I didn’t have to. The words inside were seared into my brain,Our little cub.If I was meant to be a shifter, if my parents had expected me to be one, then I certainly had shown any sign of it.
And today of all days had only cemented that.
I stood, straightening my linen dress, and shoved the locket into the pocket. I should be happy. Aunty would want me to be happy. This meant less stress for meandher. I looked at myself in her window and smiled. My hair and eyes would just remain sandy brown and never tinge like those of the wolves.
I took the letters out of the mailbox and entered the house.
“Where you been?” Aunt Teetee called as I entered, the smells of the herb garden wafting through from the back pulled me in. “How’d it go?”
How did having your dreams crushed normally go?I shrugged, not saying anything. I leafed through the mail in the hallway. She began chatting about her day and I looked at the letters one by one. Most were correspondence for Aunty Teetee or orders for medicines.
But then there was one for me.
I entered the kitchen and sat down, turning the letter over in my hands.Feyra.There was a wax paw print in the corner.
My lungs practically burst from the shock of my breath catching. My hands began to shake like leaves in the wind. I knew that shape.
“Feyra?” Aunt Teetee turned. “Fey–”
