Page 38 of Who Let The Wolves Out?

“I don’t want to go home,” she murmurs. “I want to stay here forever.”

I stroke her hair. “Yeah. I know the feeling.”

She looks up at me. “Will you be here next year?”

My throat catches.

I open my mouth, but the answer won’t come.

“I hope you are,” Rubi says. “You make things feel... calm.”

I smile. It wobbles. “Thank you, Rubi.”

She squeezes my hand, then skips off, the bracelet swinging in her tiny fingers like it’s made of gold.

And I sit there in the grass, staring after her, heart full and tangled.

I want to take the job.

I want to stay.

But I don’t know if I can untangle the part of me that wants this place from the part of me that’s still breaking over Jason.

Because I’m not sure if staying would mean being brave.

Or just being stuck.

CHAPTER 14

JASON

I’m up before the sun.

Not because I slept well—hell no. I was up half the night pacing the bunk, chewing on every word Zack dumped on me like a gossip grenade.

Aisla filed a report.

Security risk.

Werewolves have no place guiding children.

It shouldn’t hurt. I’ve heard worse. My own uncle once told me I was better off as a lone wolf—less dangerous that way.

But here? At Lightring?

This was the first place that felt like maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t the monster in the story.

And now I’m sitting here wondering if they’re already writing me out of the ending.

I don’t even eat breakfast. I slip out before the kitchen lights hum on. No tank top. No clipboard. Just me, bare-chested, bare-footed, running.

The woods are quiet in that thick, early way. Mist clings to the underbrush. My breath puffs in clouds. My pulse roars in my ears like a warning bell.

I run faster.

My bones itch with change. It’s too soon for the moon, but the pressure is there, like my wolf knows something’s off. Like he’s pacing just under my skin.

I let him rise—just a little.

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