The Girl Who Cried Wolf (New Edition)

BONUS CHAPTER // CAMILA: And The World Was Gone

The bottoms of my feet were raw and blistered. Each step sent wildfire racing through my veins. I wanted to stop moving. My muscles quivered, begging for me to quit, but I didn't. This was a death march and I kept the beat, one foot in front of the other-slow, and steady. Behind me a trail of bloody footprints stained the orange and yellow leaves that had once clothed the branches of the trees that engulfed the world around me.

My eyelids fluttered closed for the briefest of moments, heavy from exhaustion. Behind my eyes I could still see Rhys face, the disgust and hatred that had burned there. It craved a mark into my heart. The boy I'd grown up with, the boy I'd always loved-that was all ashes in the wind. I'd never be able to go back now. Regret was eating me alive, hollowing out my insides.

A tree root snagged my foot and I pitched forward. My senses sharpened all at once, everything around me becoming clearer. My other nature rose, threatening to take control but I forced it down. There was no reason to protect me from what was coming. I let myself fall, never trying to catch myself. The earth was solid and it jarred me as we met. The pain rippled through my defeated and battered body. Stars winked in my vision.

Above me birds sang their carefree songs, flittering from one tree to the next. Tears slips from the corner of my eyes, rolling across my skin. I laid on the ground, the dirt cool and damp against my cheek. This was a lonely oasis and It welcomed me to rest my weary and pained soul.

Here you will find peace, it whispered.

My instinct pressed in around the thought, urging me to get up and keep moving. To survive.

Why? What else is there? I asked of it.

There was nowhere to turn, no other place that I called home. My mother was dead and my father soon would be. The pack would never forgive me so I was as good as dead to them. No, there was nothing. The nothingness swept over me, draining the last of my will. I closed my eyes, the memory of what brought me here chasing me into the darkness like a wolf running off into the night.

*

Astrid smiled warmly as she sat down next to me at the bar. Even as I willed myself to calm down, my heart beat riotously in my chest. It had always been this way whenever I was around Astrid. Though her smiles and words were always kind-her eyes were sharp daggers waiting and searching for weakness. She was the only person, beyond Rhys, that I feared.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine," I said softly, clearing my throat. "And you?"

"Just one of those days it seems." She looked to the beer in my hand, understanding in her tone. "I heard you went to see Henry. How is he?"

A darkness twisted in my stomach at the mention of my father, the acidic burn creeping up my throat. I turned my eyes away from her for a fraction of a moment. "He's doing good. I try to make sure to visit him every other week."

She hummed. "It was good of Atticus to take him in. He'll get the care he needs there."

I nodded my head. He'd been sick a long time. Even before my mother died and it had only gotten worse with her passing. He was forgetting himself more every day, losing himself to his other nature. And that was dangerous for him, for the pack, for humans. Nobody would say it but I knew eventually he'd have to be put down. Moon sickness was rare, and no one knew what caused it. More affluent packs had the money to put into researching it but there was no cure as of yet. They had only found ways to stave off the inevitable, give people more time with their loved ones.

"I know he's only there because you requested it." I picked at the label on my bottle, unable to meet her gaze. It hurt my pride to know I'd been incapable of doing this for myself. I didn't want to be anyone's charity case.