A Bite's Tale: A Furry Fable Read Free Page B

to the curb in front of the school and swiveled in her seat, her short, dark brown hair whipping around her cheek. “You sure?”
    I nodded and found the door handle.
    “If anything changes or if it gets to be too much for you, call me.”
    “Thank you. I will.” I gave her a weak smile and turned to Gavin, wishing he were a little older, so we didn’t have to go to different schools. Several weeks ago, I’d been wishing he lived on another planet. I’d been absolutely positive he was the most annoying person ever. When our mom died, everything changed.
    “See you after school, Gavin.” I cuffed the top of his head and shot out of the car before he could hit me back.
    “You are so dead.” Gavin’s eyes turned to playful slits. “You just wait.”
    “Dream on.” I smirked, but my cocky smile faded as Aunt Mina’s Audi pulled away from the curb. I missed Gavin already.
    “You don’t have to do this,” Winnie said, scooting up beside me as Beatrice dashed off to join her friends.
    Beatrice stood by the front steps with several girls in designer outfits. Her blond hair bounced off her shoulders as she tossed her head and laughed. A pang of envy sliced through me. I wanted what she had. Normalcy.
    “Mom would totally let you off the hook for another week if you asked,” Winnie went on.
    “I’m fine.” My eyes drifted to the school’s façade behind Bea. Any time we’d driven by the building years ago, I’d been captivated by its old-world charm. But now, the belfry and gargoyles seemed to stare at me, reminding me of a creepy building from a horror movie. Why they needed this mammoth, freaky building for just a few hundred students, I had no idea.
    “Are you sure you’re ready?” Winnie prodded.
    I blew out a breath. “I have to be.”
    Her gaze fell to my hands clamped around the strap of my backpack. She gently tugged on it and my frozen fingers uncurled. “I’ll show you to our lockers,” she said.
    We entered the eerily dim corridor and my eyes sifted through the crowd of students in the hall, mentally seeking the unique energy that nearly every paranormal creature emitted.
    They were all around me. Most of them had very likely already marked me as a werewolf the moment I stepped out of the car.
    Did any of these werewolves know about the incident years ago? Had any of them been blamed for what I’d done to Jack? Until this moment, it had never occurred to me that someone else might have paid for my crime. Now that I’d returned, would they figure out that the attacker had been me?
    At the very least, the other supernaturals would smell my fear and know something was up, which increased the risk of my crime being discovered.
    Fear enveloped me like a dense fog. My lungs felt like sponge as I struggled to deflate them, then fill them again. Very soon, I’d be sitting in my first class. In smaller populations and smaller classrooms, I couldn’t avoid the non-humans. I zeroed in on the main door to the school and everything else swirled in my peripheral vision.
    Maybe I wasn’t quite ready for school. But the alternative — staying home and listening to Aunt Mina’s subtle comments hinting that I should get out of the house — didn’t seem much better. I couldn’t hide forever. Eventually, I’d have to confront my fears.
    “Cydney.” Winnie grabbed my arm and pulled me into an alcove displaying an elaborately gold-framed painting of a Knight on his horse. “You sure you’re not going to… change in the middle of class? Or right here?”
    Winnie’s voice soothed me and my breathing eased. “What? No. I’m okay.”
    I hated being different. I hated that my aunt and cousins didn’t always understand me. At that moment, I missed Gavin even more for his quiet understanding. He’d grown up knowing all about my peculiarities, so I never had to explain anything. We rarely even talked about it. Every now and then though, he’d tease me about being a freak. But he always seemed to know