Chapter 7

That night, an earthquake took the three of them. It left me alive.

When they pulled me out, I was an orphan. I was brought to the Hayes Shelter.

With no parents, I was bullied. I got called every name they could think of. I got sharp-edged.

Once a classmate called me a stray pup with no Pack. Said other ugly things.

I hit her.

Martha was called in. She asked me what happened. I wouldn't speak.

She never scolded me. She just went around asking people what had actually happened.

Then she took me to that classmate and said she was my mother. She said I wasn't a stray. She made the classmate apologize.

That was the first time I started letting anyone in.

Marianne looked hollow. She stood there like something had emptied out of her.

I wiped my face. I pulled a breath in.

"To you, Ivy is the pearl you raised with your own hands. The one you kept close."

"To me, because of her mother, I lost a family. I went through hell as a pup. I was bullied. I can't live under the same roof as the daughter of Rogue traffickers."

"So. Mrs. Sterling. You and I. We're not the same kind."

"Next time we see each other, let's just be strangers."

Two days later Martha was heading back to the shelter.

I wrapped the scarf I'd bought her around her neck.

"I wired another million into that card. And the weather's getting cold. I ordered every pup in the shelter a thick comforter. Good brand, really warm. Keep an eye out for the delivery."

Martha startled.

"More money? Where is it coming from?"

"I told you. Lottery money. Plus the tutoring, it all adds up to a million."

She looked at me, half convinced.

I felt her eyes on me.

"Enough. It's almost time. Let's get you in."

I walked her through to the platform and put her on the train. I told her to take care of herself. To not cut corners on food.

Once the train pulled out of sight, I went back to the Academy.

End-of-term trials were closing in. I was at the library every day. I forgot about the run-in with Marianne.

Until Caleb stopped me at the Academy gates.

He was shaking with anger. He glared at me.

"Wren. What did you say to Marianne?"

"Why has she been crying since the day she ran into you? And suddenly she wants to throw Ivy out?"

Today was my roommate's birthday. We had a table at a grill near campus.

I was about to be late. I didn't want to deal with him.

"You should ask Marianne. Not me."

I stepped past him. He caught my wrist and pulled me back.

"You think I didn't try? She won't say a word. She just says she owes you, and she's set on removing Ivy."

Caleb paused. He gritted his teeth like he was forcing himself to commit to something.

He looked at me with something raw in his eyes.

"Fine. Wren. You win. If you can make Ivy stay, I'll let you come back to Sterling."

I thought I would be angry.

But something in me was just tired. There was nothing left to feel.

I glanced at my watch.

I didn't have time to draw this out.

"You want to know what I said to her?"

"Fine. I'll tell you."

"While the three of you were taking Ivy to the carnival, I was breaking ice in a basin to wash clothes. That's why my hands look like an old woman's. The hands you laughed at."

"While you were throwing Ivy a lavish Bonding Age Celebration, I was terrified that if I cooked wrong that night, I wouldn't even get gruel and coarse bread."

"While you were delaying your own First Shift by a year so you could protect Ivy, I was being surrounded at school and called a stray pup with no Pack."

"That's what I said to her."

The color drained out of Caleb's face. His mouth moved, but when it met my eyes, he clamped it shut.

My throat tightened. My voice came out hoarse.

"A home with Ivy in it is not my home. I'm not coming back."

"And it's not Wren. My name is Wren Hayes."

When they'd brought me back to Sterling Manor, they hadn't bothered changing my name. They'd only filed the Pack registration.

Maybe they'd been telling me all along.

We were never going to be real family.

Caleb didn't come looking for me again.

End-of-terms came, and I forgot about that night quickly enough.

But after finals, on the day I was leaving campus, I ran into Garrett at the Academy gates.

When he saw me, something in his tired, dull eyes lit up a little.

We went to a café just off campus.

"We looked into your past. Everything that happened to you. We did it properly."

"Marianne has been crying for weeks. She keeps saying she's sorry."

I kept my head down and stirred my coffee. Ripple after ripple.

Inside me, nothing moved at all.

I had cried in front of them once.

It was my ninety-sixth run.

They had forgotten me at the Celebration again.

After that many failures, after being wiped that many times.

I was on the edge of breaking.

That night I went hysterical. I smashed the Celebration. I screamed at them. How could they not remember that there was another pup in this Pack?

Later, Marianne said I'd ruined Ivy's night. She slapped me.

Those warm eyes of hers had been pure ice.

When Ivy cried, the whole Pack circled her and soothed her.

When I cried, I got a slap.

After that, no matter how bad it got, I never cried in front of them again.

And Marianne's tears couldn't buy her an ounce of my pity.