A Heart Bound In Shadows

Chapter 7

Jace

The air in the school cafeteria was suffocating. For me, being surrounded by so many people in an enclosed space had always been a form of torture. The overwhelming perfumes, greasy food, hormones, and shallow, loud chatter blended into one continuous, nauseating assault that constantly irritated my heightened senses.

I sat with the pack at our usual spot, a secluded table at the very back of the room. We were the group everyone stared at but no one dared approach. To them, we were the rich, arrogant elite. To us, they were blind, fragile mortals who had no idea that the monsters they had feared as children were now eating in the same cafeteria as them.

But right now, I couldn't care less about the chaos surrounding us.

There was only one thing on my mind.

Willow.

I stared at the untouched food on my plastic tray while my mind replayed our encounter in the hallway that morning over and over again.

Her touch.

That electric, scorching jolt that had shot through my arm when I'd grabbed her wrist.

I was twenty-one years old, and in a matter of weeks, I would take over full leadership of the pack from my father. I had fought countless battles, but that thin, terrified human girl had turned my entire world upside down in a single second.

My wolf was constantly restless beneath my skin, pacing, growling, demanding her scent.

"You can't let her distract you this much, Jace," Zane, my future Beta, spoke up. His voice was quiet and rational, as always. "You haven't talked about anything but this human for days. The vampires are stirring along the border, and Silas provoked us again last night. That's what we should be focusing on."

"Zane's right, man," Caleb added, leaning back in his chair. "I get that the girl is... weird. And you feel sorry for her and everything. But she's just a human."

I slowly lifted my gaze and fixed Caleb with such a dark, threatening stare that he immediately stopped chewing his gum. His throat bobbed as he swallowed involuntarily.

My Alpha aura began seeping out of me without my permission.

"She's not just a human," I growled, my voice rumbling from deep within my chest. "Last night in the alley... when I touched her, my wolf nearly broke through my control. And her scent, Zane. You don't understand. She constantly smells of fresh blood and fear. Someone is systematically beating that girl. And her clothes... she hides herself so no one can see."

Lexi, who had been silently picking at her salad until now, suddenly put down her fork. Anger flashed in her eyes.

"When I saw her in the hallway this morning, she could barely put any weight on her left leg. She was limping, Jace. And no matter how much of that damn makeup she smeared on her face, I could still see the purple bruise beneath her eye."

My jaw clenched so tightly that my teeth ground together.

A sharp, red haze descended over the edges of my vision.

The thought of someone physically hurting that fragile creature awakened a murderous instinct so deep inside me that I could barely contain it.

I wanted to find whoever had done this to her.

I wanted to hunt them down.

I wanted to tear them apart, slowly, piece by piece, and smear their blood across the ground.

"So what's the plan?" Maya asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She was our best tracker and, when necessary, our most ruthless warrior. "Want me to follow her and sniff out where she lives?"

Before I could answer, the air changed.

There was no breeze. No window had opened.

A scent simply reached me beneath the overpowering smell of cafeteria food.

Coffee.

Cheap soap.

Jasmine.

And that suffocating, salty aroma that always accompanied terror.

My spine straightened.

Every one of my senses immediately focused in a single direction.

The entrance.

"She's here," I whispered, my voice barely more than a growl.

The pack immediately followed my gaze.

Willow stumbled slowly through the cafeteria doors, her steps hesitant and unsteady.

Her enormous navy-blue hoodie practically swallowed her thin body. The hood was pulled low over her face, while her black hair hung down like a dark curtain, shielding her from the world.

But my wolf's vision didn't need to see her facial features to recognize her suffering.

I saw how her left leg nearly buckled with every step.

I saw how tightly she clutched her side, as though she needed her own hands to keep her ribs together.

And I heard her heartbeat.

It hammered like the heart of a trapped bird.

Zane hissed softly beside me.

"She's really limping. Badly."

"Someone seriously messed her up," Lexi whispered, her voice tightening.

I watched Willow join the line at the food counter.

She tried to shrink into herself, to make herself so small that it almost seemed as though she hoped she could simply disappear into the tiled walls.

That was when I noticed them.

Two tables away, near the center of the cafeteria, Brad and Chloe sat with their idiotic little clique.

After the incident at the café last night, I had thought they'd learned their lesson.

I had thought my threat alone would be enough to make them understand that Willow was untouchable.

But humans were stupid and arrogant.

I heard their whispers.

My werewolf hearing easily separated their voices from the cafeteria noise.

"Look at that pathetic loser," Chloe hissed, leaning toward Brad. "We made complete fools of ourselves in front of that asshole Jace yesterday because of them."

"I'll take care of it," Brad grinned, his voice dripping with cruel, malicious amusement. "Let's make it look like an accident."

Every muscle in my body turned to stone.

My wolf roared inside my head, and adrenaline flooded my brain.

My hand gripped the edge of the plastic table so hard that it cracked with a loud snap.

I rose from my chair.

"Jace, don't!"

Zane's hand immediately slammed against my chest, holding me back. A warning burned in his eyes.

"There are too many humans! You can't expose yourself in a school cafeteria because of some f*****g football player! You'll be breaking your father's rules!"

"I'll slit that bastard's throat," I snarled.

For a brief moment, my eyes flashed green.

My fangs pressed painfully against my gums, while my claws began splitting the skin at my fingertips.

"Watch them," Maya suddenly said, her voice sharp.

Willow had just collected her tray, which held a glass of water and some cheap sandwich.

She turned and started toward the edge of the room, heading for the most isolated tables.

Chloe sprang to her feet at that exact moment.

She pretended to bend down toward her bag, as though she were looking for something.

Then, with a sudden, calculated, aggressive movement, she slammed straight into Willow as the girl limped toward her.

It wasn't a simple collision.

Chloe used her shoulder to shove Willow with the full force of her body weight.

For Willow, who could barely remain standing because of her injuries, the impact was devastating.

The tray flew from her hands.

The plastic cup hit the floor with a loud clatter, sending water splashing everywhere.

And Willow followed it down.

But she didn't fall like a healthy person who could catch herself.

She landed directly on her left leg, on her injured thigh.

The sound of the impact was dull and sickening.

The cafeteria immediately fell silent.

A few people laughed, but most simply stared.

"Oops! Sorry!" Chloe whined, dramatically covering her mouth with her hand. "You're so clumsy! You're always getting under my feet!"

All hell broke loose at our table.

Before I could take a single step, Lexi shot to her feet so quickly that her chair toppled backward and crashed against the tiled floor.

Pure murderous intent burned in my sister's eyes.

She didn't give a damn about our secret.

She didn't give a damn about the school.

Like an arrow released from a bow, she charged across the cafeteria toward Chloe and Brad's table.

I moved too, with Zane and Caleb right behind me.

The air vibrated with the power radiating from us.

Students who found themselves in our path instinctively leaped aside, their faces twisted with terror.

No one wanted to stand in the way of an enraged pack.

But as I approached, my gaze wasn't fixed on Chloe.

It was fixed on the floor.

The pressure in my chest became so painful that I could barely breathe.

Willow wasn't getting up.

She wasn't trying to make herself invisible.

She wasn't trying to escape the curious stares like she always did.

The pain was simply too much for her to keep her mask in place.

She lay curled up on the filthy floor.

Both hands were wrapped tightly around her left thigh, trembling as she clutched the exact spot where I suspected an enormous purple bruise was spreading beneath her clothes.

Her hood had slipped backward, exposing her face.

And then I saw something I had never seen before.

Willow was crying.

Not just shedding tears.

She was sobbing.

Small, violent spasms shook her body, and a muffled, heartbreaking whimper escaped her chest.

The sound shattered the very last remnants of my wolf's control.

She didn't care that everyone was watching her.

She didn't care about the humiliation.

The physical pain and terror that had been consuming her for so long had finally overwhelmed her completely.

That sight...

That fragile girl lying on the floor, sobbing as she wrapped her arms around her own body...

Something inside me broke beyond repair.

Lexi was already there.

She dropped to her knees beside Willow and, without hesitation, pulled the trembling girl protectively into her arms.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm here... It's okay," Lexi whispered, shooting a murderous glare upward.

And I stopped directly in front of Chloe and Brad.

The two humans looked up at me, and their mocking smiles froze on their faces within seconds.

My mere presence seemed to suck the air from their lungs.

I didn't need to shift for them to see me as a monster.

The darkness radiating from me, the pure, raw fury of an Alpha, was almost tangible.

Behind me, Zane and Caleb silently blocked their escape routes, their expressions threatening.

Slowly, very slowly, I leaned toward Brad.

My voice wasn't loud.

In fact, I was practically whispering.

But in the deathly silence of the cafeteria, my words sounded like a death sentence.

"Tonight," I hissed, drilling my gaze into Brad's terrified eyes, "when you close your eyes... pray. Because if either of you ever goes near that girl again, even once... I swear on my blood that you will never wake up again."

Chloe broke into muffled, hysterical sobs.

Brad trembled like a leaf in the wind.

Neither of them could speak.

I turned away from them.

The rage was still pulsing through my veins, but my attention immediately shifted back to the fragile figure on the floor.

Lexi was trying to help Willow stand, but the girl could barely support her own weight.

Tears soaked her cheeks, and her eyes were filled with confusion and terror.

Ignoring every human and wolf law, every school rule, I walked toward them.

Lexi stepped aside.

Without saying a word, I bent down and lifted Willow into my arms in one effortless movement.

She was light.

Far too light.

She settled against my chest as though that was where she had always belonged.

When my arms wrapped around her, Willow gasped for breath, her hands instinctively clutching the fabric of my shirt.

But she didn't fight me.

The pain and exhaustion had drained every ounce of strength from her.

Instead, she simply buried her tearstained face against my neck.

The crowd parted before me.

With enormous, wide eyes, they silently watched as the school's feared, untouchable bad boy carried the most rejected, most despised girl out of the cafeteria in his arms.

I didn't care about any of them.

All I could feel was the warmth of her body in my arms, the salty tears against my neck, and the pounding of my own heart.

A heart that, in that moment, became irrevocably intertwined with hers.

Whoever the monster was who had done this to her...

Their days were numbered.