“Tell me!” I knew that whatever Sam was about to say would be bad, and
I didn’t need her pussyfooting around it. Better to rip the band-aid off
quickly.
Irritation flashed in her eyes, and her kind demeanor vanished. “You’re a
werewolf, Savannah. You shifted for the first time last night, and Jaxson
found you in the woods broken and nearly dead.”
Silence settled over the room, and then I broke it with a guttural laugh. I
couldn’t explain it—it was like the floodgates of a dam opening, and I just
couldn’t stop laughing. The absurdity of Sam’s words was hilarious. Was she
joking? Was I dreaming? I doubled forward, tears gushing down my cheeks
as I cackled like a madwoman. It felt good, like a release of pent-up tension.
The tears kept falling, though, and soon, my laughs turned into heart-
wrenching sobs.
I dropped to my hands and knees, ignoring the pain because as the
memories of my cracking bones and tearing muscles bombarded me at last, it
was all I could focus on.
My vision blurred.
Sam dropped beside me. “Breathe, Savy!”
My lungs screamed, but I couldn’t draw a breath.
I sat upright and pushed her away, gasping for air that never came. Now I
remembered everything from the night before—the argument with those
jerks, the bathroom where I’d begun to shift, my escape through the woods.
And the pain. The excruciating, endless pain that had nearly split me in two.
Maybe it had.
I clutched my hair and screamed through my gritted teeth—at the
circumstances that had landed me here, at my parents for leaving me in this
shitty world, and at God for making this my cursed fate.
How was I ever going to face Laurel? And Casey?
I’d just met my estranged family, and I’d actually liked them. Now? Now
I had turned into one of the monsters they hated so much.