Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

I’m so upset, I get all turned around and lose my way among the trees. Some werewolf I am, huh? I end up trudging out of the woods over by the middle school. I cross the kickball field and reach the back of the school’s main building.

Schools are lonely places on weekends. No ringing bells. No chatting kids. Just a whole lot of silence. I pass by the classroom windows with my head down. The scent of pine trees still fills my nostrils. But I smell something else, just a hint of it in hanging in the air. Something sweet.

Suddenly, I’ve got this creeping feeling coming over me, like someone is watching every step I take. I quicken my pace, passing by the building’s front entrance.

I’m just being paranoid. Killer Paw is buried under a friggin’ mountain.

I reach the front gate, glad to leave the school behind. Everything will be okay, I tell myself. I can trust Justin. He’ll watch over Mom and Emily. Nothing bad will happen.

Then something bad does happens.

Something smashes into the back of my head. A bomb goes off in my skull. Not a real bomb, but it sure feels like one. The whole world spins wildly, and I tumble face-first into the side walk.

A thick darkness falls over me, like someone has thrown a heavy blanket over my head. The last thing I see is a pair of yellow high-heeled shoes. The last thing I smell is sweet lavender perfume.

***

I wake up in a cage.

I’m on my feet, pinned against thin metal bars. Pinned so tight, in fact, I’m forced to stand up. I can’t lie down even if I want to. I struggle to breath. A whole lot of round things press against my spine, my legs, my face. The round things have tiny little bumps all over them.

I’m buried in a pile of… basketballs?

Where am I?

A heavy fog clouds both my brain and my vision. I keep blinking until some of it floats away. I realize I’m in the supply room of the school gym, imprisoned in the ball cage. The thing looks like a trap for a rabid monkey. It’s maybe five feet tall with chain-link bars all around. Coach Ray locks all the basketballs in here so students don’t try to steal them. Once, I overheard some of the boys at school yapping about how fun it would be to dive right into the basketball cage. It’s not fun at all. It’s super hard to move in here, even a few inches. But I manage to slip my hand to the cage door and give it a shake. It rattles but doesn’t open.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Then perfume overwhelms me. It’s even stronger than the rubbery basketball smell. I hear the click-clack of high heels against the floor and I know who’s coming before I see her.

“I’m very disappointed in you, Katrina.” Miss Chaney strolls across the supply room, looking out of place in her yellow flower dress. The lights are all off in the room, but sunshine sneaks in through a high window. The sun throws her shadow against the floor.

“Miss Chaney? What am I doing in here?”

She ignores my question and runs her fingers across the bars of my cage. They make a horrible “Clink, Clink, Clink” sound, like metal on metal. But it’s not Miss Chaney’s fingers making that noise. It’s her fingernails. They seem longer… stronger. More like claws. “You should have been able to smell me. Even with all this perfume I wear.”

“What are you talking about?” I feel my heart pounding in my chest, so hard it hurts. “Miss Chaney, did you hit me? Did you put me in here?”

She ignores my questions again and rattles the bars once more with her fingernails. “It was understandable when we first met. You were just learning your powers. But we turned you a month ago. By now, you should be able to sense your own kind.”

I feel my grip tighten on the bars. I bet my eyes get all wide. “You’re… You’re a werewolf?”

She looks down at the tile floor, shaking her head and chuckling. “No child, I’m not a werewolf. I am the werewolf.” She turns to look at me then, and I swear her eyes have changed. They’re black as oil and fierce. “I am the alpha.”

My brain screams like crazy. The white wolf! The one that looked so powerful and noble. My art teacher is the white wolf. “What do you want from me?” My voice cracks like a scared little kid’s. Because right now, that’s exactly what I am.

“Somehow you managed to defeat Killer Paw,” she says. “Who knows how someone like you could outsmart him. I’d guess it was a fluke. But still, you took away a member of my pack.”

“I had to do it. He was going to kill me.”

Miss Chaney sneers. “Oh, boo-hoo for you, What about my problem? Now, the pack is short a member. We need a replacement. You seem like the most likely candidate. But if I’m being honest, I don’t think you have what it takes. I can smell the fear in you, Katrina Lupin. An awkward outcast like you should relish being wolf kind. Don’t you understand what an incredible gift you’ve been given?”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“And why not?” asks Miss Chaney. “Does the cat worry about hurting a mouse? Does a shark lose sleep over feasting on a seal? It’s the way of the world, girl. Eat or be eaten. But maybe you’re too stupid to understand that.”

She wanders away from the cage and runs her hands down the front of her dress, flattening out wrinkles. Pretending to be human, I realize. “Despite what you might think, I’m not a monster, Katrina.”

“You could prove it,” I say, hating how small my voice sounds. “You could just let me out of here. I won’t tell anyone about you. I promise.”

Her smile makes me think about a mean dog baring its teeth. “You would say anything to save yourself. But it won’t be that easy.”

“What do you want from me?”

Miss Chaney stops circling my cage and looks me dead in the eyes. “If you want out of here, you need to transform into a wolf. And you need to do it NOW.”