The Descent
857 Words
By 6 PM, the entire house vibrated with energy — the kind that makes your skin buzz before a storm breaks. Mom shoved me upstairs demanding I “glam up,” but the moment I hit my bed, I sank into it like I’d been drugged.
I closed my eyes for two seconds.
And suddenly—
“WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!”
Morgan flung her body onto me. My best friend, my personal menace, my long-lost sanity.
Her red hair whipped everywhere as she bounced on me like a child hopped up on sugar. I shoved her off, laughing, hugging her tight. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her until her familiar warmth hit me.
“You didn’t think I’d miss your birthday, my queen?” she declared, curtsying dramatically.
Before I could reply, the bedroom door flew open. My mom did not look happy.
“You’re STILL not ready?!” Mom barked.
I glanced at my clock. It was 7:45.
Shit. “Mom, I’ll be just a minute I swear!”
I scrambled into action, Morgan cackling behind me as I dove into the bathroom. In record time I showered, shaved, and scrubbed myself into human form. Morgan blow-dried my hair while I handled makeup — simple, sharp black eyeliner that made my hazel eyes smolder.
My straight hair fell like brown silk to my lower back.
The maroon dress slid onto my skin like it was made for me — hugging my waist, accentuating my hips, teasing at cleavage I didn’t usually have.
Morgan fanned herself like she was witnessing art.
“Girl… you’re a sin.”
I rolled my eyes but smiled. My wolf preened.
Heels on. Lip gloss applied. Breath steady. This was it. The reality finally set in. I was finally 18.
“Let’s get this over with,” I muttered, I was on edge about the party.
Morgan and I headed for the stairs, when a strange feeling came over me and it was coming from down the hall. Before I had to investigate, Morgan was already pulling me towards the banister.
The applause hit immediately as we entered the stairwell. The whole damn room looked up at me as if I were something mythic, they’d conjured by force of will.
My pulse hammered. Just a room full of people with their eyes on me. Just focus on not falling I thought to myself.
Morgan squeezed my arm tighter, anchoring me. When I finally lifted my head, scanning the crowd for something familiar, something safe, I found him.
Austin.
He smiled at me, that soft, boyish smile I used to trust.
But then his expression shifted.
His eyes snapped toward the door.
Curious, I followed his stare and immediately felt anger spread through me.
Carmon glided in like she owned the air she breathed.
In my dress.
No, wearing it like a taunt.
A challenge.
A knife wrapped in satin.
She moved through the crowd like sin incarnate, hips swaying, hair shining under the lights. She didn’t walk toward Austin; she hunted toward him, like a predator looking for her prey.
Once by him, she leaned in close — too close — her lips brushing the shell of his ear.
Austin froze. Not flinched, he actually froze.
Like she’d whispered something designed to splinter him from the inside.
Slowly… deliberately… Austin’s hand lifted.
And slid across Carmon’s waist.
A secret.
A choice.
A betrayal delivered in full view of everyone.
Including me.
My breath shattered.
The heat rising inside me wasn’t embarrassment — it was fury, raw and primal. My wolf surged, claws against my ribs, snarling at the sight of another female bearing the touch meant for us.
Morgan yanked me toward the stairs before I shifted right there on the hardwood.
In the privacy of my room, everything spilled out of me in a wild storm — Carmon’s texts, Austin’s lies, the chaos of the day. Morgan listened, then marched into my closet like a general preparing for war.
She flung out a new outfit.
A blue spaghetti-strap crop top.
A leather skirt that hugged every sinful inch of my hips.
I hesitated.
“Do it,” she ordered. “Let him choke on regret.”
When I put it on, I barely recognized myself.
Fierce.
Untouchable.
Dangerous.
Morgan stared at me like she was seeing a prophecy fulfilled.
“You’re stunning,” she whispered.
Heat curled low in my belly.
Then she dropped the bomb.
“So..there’s this guy Caleb. Rumor is he only came to this party because of you. If you want to make Austin eat his heart out?” She grinned. “He’s a walking, talking, panty-melting opportunity.”
My face flamed at the memory of Caleb’s touch earlier — that brief moment when his hand brushed my skin and my entire body reacted like I had been waiting my whole life for it.
Morgan gasped dramatically.
“You KNOW him.”
I rolled my eyes and confessed everything.
Her grin could’ve powered the entire pack.
She linked her arm through mine.
“Let’s go ruin some lives.”
- Writer
