Thornwood High

Chapter Two: What Priya Wanted

Priya Kade was the kind of girl teachers described as "a lot of potential, if she'd just apply herself" — track star, valedictorian material, the sort of person who seemed to be running from something even when she was standing still. When Ren finally met her properly, in daylight, in the library, Priya looked at her for a long moment before saying:

"You didn't run."

"Should I have

"Everyone runs." Priya closed her book. "It's the smart move, actually. We're not — we're not soft around the edges the way the movies make it look. I could have hurt you."

"But you didn't."

"No." Priya's expression did something complicated. "I didn't want to. That's new."

It turned out Priya's off-moon shifts weren't random. They were happening whenever her stepfather raised his voice at home, whenever the pressure got too big for the shape she was supposed to keep. Her body was solving a problem her mouth couldn't say out loud. Nobody — not the pack elders, not Silas, not the school counselor who thought "anger management" meant breathing exercises — had asked her the right question.

Ren, who knew nothing about werewolves and everything about watching adults not notice things, asked it anyway.

"What are you actually afraid of, Priya? Not the wolf. The other thing."

Priya's eyes went amber for just a second, right there in the library, and then — for the first time in eight months — didn't.