Marked By Fate

y how I'd left it.

m, already pulling my shirt over my head as I walked. Rhea had made herself at

er drawing. "This is the T-Rex

and grinned. "He's terrifying. Y

," she

eld trip stories, her opinion on cafeteria pizza (gross),

hrew in a "yeah?" and

ice-or didn't care-tha

d me there. Th

r was

tes, Lilian added in soft encouragement, and I stayed mostly

long, especially for someone like him-part of the Alpha's outer ring

back into my work clothes. The second

der ones-either graduated or dropped out-worked full-time. Most of them had

olding on b

olf, I could apply to become a full-fledged pack doctor once I graduated. That t

thout

am meant

l bond to the pack. Just

died. I work

arting to taste lik

then, and the place became a hive of activity-dinner being prepared, meetings held, gossip whispered in

e dining hall clean-up. Scrubbing tables, collec

my mind drifting as I watched the high-rank

asn't

er wa

ing in the p

ye contact, kept my head d

nvisibl

at felt safer t

l, casting a soft silver glow across the trees as I walked down the gravel road toward the outer gates. Most of the

lpha's inner circle, reporting on the day's patrols with the other senior warriors. I didn't interrupt-he wouldn't wa

er quite reached

all did. School was always the same. The Alpha's house was always the

ow it wor

knew he coul

anym

nsulted me, spat on me, he'd show up-quiet but furious-and step between me an

e names

s littl

iding behind her

own battles-nee

ed to. But eventually he realized something: if I never learned to

ne a lot more

tecting me, he st