Ayla's POV.
Friday.
The longest week of my life finally dragged itself to a close, and I was still here. Breathing. Barely.
I hadn’t cried in four days. Not at school. Not at night. Not even when I saw the new graffiti scratched into my locker that said "omega trash." I kept my head down, stayed quiet, and kept moving. That was the only way to survive in a school where people like Rowan ruled.
Every night, I scrubbed tables at the diner. Gloria paid me in cash and kindness, and sometimes let me take home soup in a paper cup. She was the only adult who looked me in the eye like I mattered.
‘You’re stronger than you think,’ my wolf said. Her voice was always quiet, always there. Weak, yes. But mine. A whisper that had never left me since I first shifted.
‘You made it to Friday,’ she s
