Chapter 4

• Ayla Cross
• I didn’t know how long I stood there, heart hammering, staring at the taped-up photo on my locker.
• It was another fake image of me—shirtless, moaning, splayed between two men who were very obviously modeled after the Reyes twins. The expressions had been exaggerated for humiliation—mine: pure ecstasy. The twins: mid-thrust, muscles bulging, features blurred just enough to be “plausibly deniable.”
• I’d torn down half a dozen already—off hallway walls, out of the girls’ bathroom, even one slipped under my seat in English. But this one? On my locker?
• I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste blood.
• “This is sick,” Renee muttered, peeling at the duct tape with a grimace. Her neon-pink pixie cut stuck out from under her hoodie, and she kept her eyes anywhere but the… anatomically enhanced parts.
• “I’m gonna throw up,” I whispered, yanking down the image and crumpling it in my fist. Phones were already out, clicks echoing around me. People didn’t care what was fake anymore—just that it was funny.
• “I bet my life Brooke Leclair did this.”
• “We don’t know it was her,” I said, even though we both knew damn well it was.
• Right on cue: “Nice boobs, Cross! Bigger than your mom’s!”
• The hallway roared.
• Brooke’s voice—syrupy and sharp—rang out from the crowd. My stomach flipped. My fists clenched.
• I kept wiping at the locker with the edge of my shirt, fighting the urge to scream. The last thing I needed was the Reyes twins seeing this. I’d never live it down.
• “Ayla… don’t look now,” Renee hissed. “But they’re walking this way.”
• I froze.
• I didn’t have to look. I felt it.
• Zane Reyes’ stare hit like a blade. Cold, focused, searing. His brother Jace trailed beside him, smirking like this whole mess was entertaining.
• “Shit,” I mumbled, stepping back, cheeks on fire. I tried to speak before they did, hands half-raised in surrender. “I swear I didn’t do this. I don’t know who—”
• “Are you seriously standing here smiling about this?”
• Zane’s voice thundered in the hall, rough and dangerous.
• He slammed a palm against the locker beside my head and leaned in, his body crowding mine until the scent of smoke and cedar was all I could breathe. His chest brushed mine and I felt everything—heat, shame, anger—flash through me like lightning.
• “You think this is a game?” he snarled, his moss-green eyes flashing.
• “I didn’t make it!” I snapped, barely above a whisper. “Why would I humiliate myself like this?”
• Zane’s gaze didn’t soften, but he pushed back from the locker, exhaling sharp through his nose.
• “You might live under the same roof, but don’t get comfortable, Cross,” he said coldly. “You’re not one of us.”
• Jace chuckled beside him, eyes flicking to my chest, then back to my face. “Yikes. You’re not even good at being trashy.”
• The hallway was silent. Then the whispers started again, louder this time, cutting me apart from every angle.
• I wanted to disappear.
• “Hey.” Renee grabbed my wrist, grounding me. “Are you okay?”
• I nodded too fast.
• That’s when the first scream pierced the air.
• Everyone stilled.
• Another scream—closer. Shrill. Terrified.
• “What is that?” Brooke’s voice cracked from somewhere nearby. “What’s going on?!”
• I turned just as more students backed away from the front entrance, drawn toward the sound. The school buzzed with sudden, sharp panic. Then, the overhead speaker crackled to life.
• “Students and faculty of Hollow Ridge,” the dean’s voice came through, hoarse and uneven, like he was trying not to panic, “we are initiating lockdown protocol. I repeat—lockdown protocol. Rogue wolf activity has been confirmed outside school grounds.”
• Renee and I exchanged a wide-eyed look.
• The hallway rippled with gasps, feet shifting, whispers breaking into panic.
• “Some of them may have already entered the perimeter… disguised as students.”
• People started backing up.
• No one made a sound when the front doors rattled violently in their frame.
• “What the hell—?” Renee whispered, clutching my hand tightly.
• A shadow passed the glass window in the door—then a single glowing red eye stared through it.
• “Jesus Christ,” I breathed.
• The creature smashed itself against the glass.
• Students screamed and scattered.
• “This is not a drill,” the dean’s voice cracked out again. “Clear the halls. Lock yourselves in classrooms. If anyone appears… off—avoid them. Do not engage. Do not assume anyone is safe.”
• The speaker cut out.
• And then—
• BOOM.
• The front doors exploded inward.
• Chaos followed.
• Screams. Shoving. Bodies rushing to classrooms.
• I looked toward the Reyes twins. Zane and Jace stood still, heads tilted, expressions hard. For once, they looked exactly the same—like predators just waking up.
• “Ayla, run,” Renee begged.
• But I couldn’t move.
• Because stepping into the school—half-shifted, blood in its mouth—was the first rogue.
• Its jaw unhinged. Its limbs were too long. Its face was barely human.
• Everything I thought I knew about wolves cracked and collapsed.
• And that’s when I realized—
• I wasn’t just in danger.
• I was involved.