Poor attempt to cover up the fact that it needed to be bulldozed and started again.

“I’m not sure I can stay here for another year.” Simone sighed, her dark brown eyes dropping dramatically. “I mean, is it even legal to stop us from traveling and meeting new people? I’m sick of all these assholes.”

She wasn’t the only one, but legal or not, we weren’t allowed to step foot outside Torma without permission. Leaving us stuck here, with the same shifters whom we’d grown up with. Shifters I hated.

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up about leaving until you’ve shifted and learned to control the beast,”

I said, repeating the cardinal rule while holding open the glass doors to the building for us to enter.

Personally, I wouldn’t be asking for permission, but Simone, unlike me, had good standing here thanks to her parents’ place in the pack: enforcers for the alpha.

She let out another exaggerated sigh. “True. But the moment that happens, we’re heading on an epic road trip. I already have it all planned out.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her I would be long gone before that. Simone’s birthday wasn’t until January, so that meant she still had over a year until her first shift, missing this year’s winter solstice.

I couldn’t wait for her, and I wouldn’t ask her to be a lone wolf… Most of them turned mutt in the first few years, losing control of their beasts completely. Mutts were always put down by the packs, but it was a risk worth taking for me.

One way or another, I’d be put down whether I was mutt or not. It was just a matter of time, so why not give myself at least a fighting chance out in the real world?

“So,” Simone said, changing the subject rapidly, “your hair… I mean, we’re going to talk about it, right?”

Reaching up, I attempted to run a hand through the bird’s nest I had going on up top. “Shit, I forgot to brush it. Had to get out of the dumpster-house in a rush this morning.”

She examined me closer. “Look, normally, I don’t blink an eye, what with my own…” She waved a hand toward her “braid.” “But today is a new kind of interesting you’ve got going on.”

Dammit. There was a bathroom nearby, so I ducked inside with Simone following.

My hair was long and wavy, a stupid wave that wasn’t quite a curl but had enough definition to make it look constantly unruly. And it was red—the only redhead in the pack, to make blending in so freaking easy.

“You should let me cut it? Or Daphne,” Simone suggested unhelpfully.

Gritting my teeth, I shook my head. “You know I can’t waste fifty bucks on a cut.”

Pulling out the tie, I ran my fingers through it a few times. Simone stepped in to help as well, and eventually, we tamed it.

“The color is still the most stunning shade I’ve ever seen,” she said wistfully, tracing her fingers through a few loose strands.

It was an unusual color, that was for sure. A deep burgundy at the scalp, it lightened in an ombre effect to end up strawberry blonde on the tips. Subtle and natural— and weird as fuck.

Story of my life, really, being the freakshow of the pack. Thanks, Dad.

The sound of students filtered under the door, and as soon as a few juniors entered the bathroom, we bailed. I couldn’t stay in any enclosed space for too long or I’d end up with the crap beat out of me.

The hall was busy, so I put my head down and hugged the strap of my bag closer. “Did you get the assignment done?” I asked Simone, who was partially blocking me so we could maneuver through the shifter students.

She nodded and sighed simultaneously. “I want the twenty hours of my life back that I spent reading that shit, though,” she stated. “Like, it was worse than that one on the island where all the kids turned into feral assholes.”

I shuddered. “Hated that one, too. I’m starting to think I’m just not into anything with too much realism.”

She blinked at me. “You think that was realistic?”

“Kinda reminds me of how our pack is run,” I said, trying—and failing—to sound blasé.

Simone side-eyed me closely before giving a shake of her head. “I can’t even argue with you. It’s a dictatorship, but that’s how shifters don’t turn mutt. Wolves need a powerful alpha or we go rogue and our beasts take over.” Her face fell. “Not that I’d know, having to wait another damn year to shift.”

To say Simone was pissed about our first shift not being together was an understatement, but the Rule of First Shift had been passed from the original creator of our kind. The dark deity we worshipped.

Shadow Beast.

He’d set the shifter command and it couldn’t be overruled. Wolves had tried in the past, but no one had been successful in bringing on the change early. Call it wolf puberty, set in stone.

Maybe it was because we aged slowly and could live for a couple hundred years longer than humans. Or maybe the beast just liked the age of twenty-two.

No one had met the demon of our kind to ask him.

“I want it so bad,” Simone continued. “But I’m also freaking out about the pain. You know how bad it is when I break a nail, and this is like…”

“Breaking every bone?”

She shuddered. “Girl, could you at least attempt to sugarcoat it for me?”