Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Stepping out from behind the table, Badr planted himself in front of me. “Why?” His voice shook as hard as his body. “Just tell me... why.”
I faced him head-on. “I already told you.” My voice was soft, but serious. “I told everyone.”
“That wasn’t the reason.”
“It was—”
“No, it wasn’t! You didn’t kill my brother because you didn’t want to be forced to be the mother wolf, or you would’ve killed us all!”
The barest flicker of surprise popped my brow. Badr picked up on that, did he? Well, I guess someone eventually had to probe that obvious hole in my motive.
“You want something.” His words were arrows through my chest. “You have some kind of plan, and you’re holding the fate of Wolf Nation hostage to get it, and you know what, it’s working!” Emotion bled into his voice. “No one can touch you. No one can kill you. No one can stop you.
“So just tell me.” He flashed out, grasping my shoulders—shaking me. “Tell me why you killed him.”
I didn’t speak for a long spell. No one did. A heavy, smothering hush filled the room as they all waited to hear my response. The truth of what happened that day.
My lips parted.
Crash!
We spun around, all eyes flying to Holly and the plate of steak and pineapple salsa she dumped at Nia’s feet.
Gasping, Holly’s hands flew to her neck as she dropped on her knees—bulging eyes pleading what her cracked jaw and closing throat couldn’t.
“What the hell?”
“She’s choking!” Nia jumped up. “Someone do something. Get help!”
Holly flopped face-first on the floor before Nia finished the sentence. One deep gurgling noise erupted from her body, and then nothing.
Not a word. Not a blink. Not a breath.
Beneath her body, the hardwood started blackening and rotting. Amid the chaos, the words formed.
Destiny is Known. Destiny is Dead. Two Down. Six to Go.
Slowly, I turned back to Badr, Orion, Nyx, Edric, and their wide, bugged eyes.
“I think it’s time for you to accept,” I whispered, speaking too low for everyone else’s wolf ears to pick up over the screams, cries, and clamoring for Holly. But not so low they couldn’t hear. “Accept that I do everything for a reason, and when I dole out my will...” I stepped back, smirking right into their eyes. “I’m giving them exactly what they asked for.”
Twisting on my stolen pumps, I sashayed out the door—leaving that nasty, rotted bitch Holly dead in a pool of her own vomit where she belonged.
THAT NIGHT, I TRUDGED into my bedroom, and nearly broke the doorknob strangling it.
It was a wreck.
Mattress overturned and thrown against the opposite wall. Wardrobe on its sides with all my clothes spilling out. Rug torn up. Vanity in pieces. Mirror broken. And all of my books and textbooks ripped to shreds.
I was sure this mess was the result of another search, and not simple vandalism, but no doubt whoever blew their hurricane through my room had a lot of fun doing it.
“Was it you?”
The whisper turned my head to the hallway. Nia stood there—head lowered and back pressed against a laughing mermaid.
“Did you kill Holly?”
I sighed. “Come on, Nia. Not you too.” I knelt down and began the slow work of returning my room to rights. “Dagem questioned me for six hours. How many times and how many ways do I have to say it? I didn’t kill Holly. You know I didn’t kill Holly. You were sitting right there, Nia. I never came within ten feet of her.”
“But you were talking to her before I joined you at the table.”
“And every wolf in the room heard what we said,” I rebounded. “It was nothing. Just polite conversation between me and the only person in the school who knew what I did, and was still nice to me.” I heaved the wardrobe off the floor, muscles straining. “Why would I hurt the one person in this school who treats me like a human being?”
“I... I don’t know.”
It’s because she fucking deserved it, and my only regret is that I can’t kill her twice.
“But Orion...” Nia slowly edged inside, keeping one foot outside over the threshold. “Orion said you told them something strange after she died. And that you were smiling.”
Oh, yeah. Orion The Snitch said that to Nia, Dagem, the vice headmaster, the head of security, and everyone loitering in the halls when they hauled me out of Economics and dragged me back to the headmistress’s office for another useless interrogation.
“I was just messing with their heads because they won’t stop messing with me. All I want is to graduate from the academy and move on with my life.” I faced her. “Look, if there really is a killer in this school, and all signs point to yes on that one, then everyone should be asking themselves why they’d go after an alpha teacher, and a sweet omega lunch lady.