Scarlet
The first day back at school felt like stepping onto a battlefield.
I walked through the hallways with my head held high, but inside, my body ached in ways I hadn’t expected. It wasn’t just the rejection—I had prepared for that. It was the emptiness.
The lingering pull of the bond that had once tethered me to Damien was fading, unraveling thread by thread, and with it went the last of the warmth I had once associated with him.
I had known it would happen. I had wanted it to happen.
But nothing could have prepared me for the hollow silence where his presence used to be, for the cold ache in my chest that not even my wolf could soothe.
I wouldn’t let it break me.
The whispers started the moment I stepped into the hall. Eyes followed me, some filled with curiosity, others with
