Ten

"Into the Woods"

Apparently word gets around fast here. Like, really fast. I left the gym after throwing the weighted ball around, and walking past a bunch of people, I heard them mumbling excitedly amongst themselves about tonight. Some even placed their bets. It's safe to say I have a few supporters.

However, of course, one particular princess was not pleased, and currently I'm getting chewed out. I don't get it honestly. Does she hate me or not?

Hope threw the invitation to the fight at my foot. "Why the hell would you agree to this? Do you not realize how badly beaten you could be?"

"I'm a hybrid. I'm naturally gifted with more strength and healing abilities than the average wolf. I'll be fine," I sighed, flipping onto the next page of this book I found. It's really interesting so far. But how the hell does one guy get dumped by nineteen girls named Katherine?

I closed the book, still keeping a finger in it to save my page, and look into Hope's wide, blue eyes. "You confuse me. Why do you care about my safety so much?"

She waved her hands frantically, clearly frustrated. "Because!"

"That's not an answer, Princess."

Hope gritted her teeth."Stop. Calling. Me. Princess." I shrugged one shoulder then went back to reading An Abundance of Katherines. Seriously, how do you get dumped by so many people? Get it together, Colin. "You are annoying. And annoyingly reckless."

"Says the girl that jumped into Malivore."

"What made you think accepting this challenge was a good idea?"

"I recall eight days ago, you told me to attempt making allies in this school-"

"Yeah, by talking to people."

I rolled my eyes, tossing the book to the side after memorizing the page I was on. "Hope, no one wants to talk to me. They still don't trust me because they remember that I literally popped up out of nowhere covered in stuff from the very thing that attacked this school many times. Rafael is the first to have come to me, giving me a chance to prove myself. To do that, I have to follow the wolves' traditions to be accepted."

"But fighting? Beating each other blind is the way to do that?"

"I won't get hurt, and neither will he. I'll simply make him submit."

Hope crossed her arms. "And when he doesn't? What then, huh?"

"For goodness's sake, just trust me on this. Do you want me to make friends or not?" I picked up the invitation that one of the witches must've made, holding it up. "This is how I reach out to and gain the favor multiple different people from every faction there is. If I win- which I will- then they'll maybe accept my being here and actually take the chance to get to know me. You know that as well as I do."

Hope brought a hand up to massage her temple, most definitely annoyed. I am right. Doing this will get me in. That's just how people work around here. "I cannot deal with this right now."

Sighing, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. "I'll leave then. I wanna go for a run anyway."

I grabbed my small leather bag to store my clothes. With that being all I needed, I left Hope in the room to think of the millions of ways she could chew me out some more.

The halls were empty so I was able to peacefully sneak out the back of the boarding school and bolt towards the woods.

It's been literal years since I last shifted. Honestly, I can barely remember how good it felt to run. And the fact that it's been so long means it'll hurt like hell.

It's more than worth the trouble.

Once I reached somewhere deep in the woods where there was a water source, put my backpack down and scanned the area. I had to make sure there wasn't some weirdo in the woods doing heaven knows what.

Giving myself the okay, I stripped from my clothing, putting every bit of it into my bag. That, plus any detachable jewelry I had, which wasn't much; it was only a necklace and a few rings. But since my ears were pierced, I could (strangely) keep the earrings in with no problems.

After placing everything in my bag, I swung it back over my shoulder, putting each arm through the loops.

I then got down on all fours, took a few deep breaths, then allowed my body to start changing.

Since it's been a hot minute, changing was excruciatingly slow and painful. First I heard and felt every bone in my body crack, break, and rearrange itself. Then slowly the rest of my body followed suit. I almost feared my gums would bleed from my canines extending. They were a little larger than last time. And I even felt a second pair of fangs extend from my upper jaw.

I think I found that part most interesting.

Besides how much this hurt.

The pain got so intense that I couldn't hold back from screaming. I wanted to avoid potentially drawing attention towards myself but that might now be compromised. Besides the pain, it didn't take much else to fully become my wolf self.

I wasted no time taking off, running ad fast as I possibly can, hopping over any fallen trees and branches in my way. I didn't know where I was going, but it didn't matter. I was running.

I always felt most free being in wolf form, mindlessly wandering places like this. Because one, it's untouched by mankind. While I do enjoy walking through cities, running in the wild was always better. Secondly, it's quiet. Sometimes it's really good to go somewhere and just be. No need to worry, no need to care, no need to think about anyone or anything. Never, not once, was this not peaceful.

Most important of all, I loved running because it was the last thing I could do with my mom before I lost her forever. And somehow, some way, I always felt like she was still beside me.

So I kept going, running further away from the Salvatore School and deeper into the woods.