Chapter 5

My family did the best they could, and I managed to loosen up enough and was able to enjoy the weekend to my satisfaction. And I may have gone back on my promise and splurged a little on the chocolate fudge cake my mother had made.

But you can’t fault me; it was just irresistible.

I had dragged my mother to the mall on Sunday afternoon for a new round of clothes and makeup. There was also news that had been going around about a new contour palette that made the face even slimmer, and I was dying to get my hands on it.

We had spent most of the day going from one store to the other, and after spending nearly all of my allowance, I was ready to resume.

I returned to school early on Monday morning; it was a miracle I even got out of bed, as I was reluctant to leave home. I got dressed in baggy jeans and an extra-large black T-shirt that stopped just after my butt. I had tied a scarf around my neck and doused myself in a series of scent-masking perfumes—a new addition.

It was easier to blend in with the crowd with this style, and I lowered my head even more, wishing I was invisible. I was able to make it through the first half of the class without issue, but I dreaded the next class.

Gym.

The words alone struck fear in my heart. It was one of my hated subjects for obvious reasons, and if it wasn’t so compulsory, I would have dropped it a long time ago.

Cleaning my sweaty palms on my clothes, I swallowed the ball of saliva that had pooled in my throat, and I entered inside. I beelined straight to the corner and sat there, trying to blend into the walls.

But Natalie locked eyes with me, and all hopes of going unnoticed flew out the window. I would have sworn that she had taken a vow to make my stay in school miserable, but I was ready for her.

My face was a blank slate as she came closer, determined not to give her the pleasure of seeing me break. “Hey, fatty, what are you doing here?” My lips tightened in a thin line, and I looked ahead. “Poor thing, are you sure you didn’t misread the sign as the ‘fattening class? Or a pigsty?”

I almost choked on a sob, but I swallowed it down. Her words were even more deadly than they should be, and people had begun to gather around us. They all watched as she continued to torture me, but no one was brave enough to stop her.

Instead they all enjoyed the show, waiting until I broke, but I had promised that none of them would see me break.

I tucked my arms into each other, my body as rigid as stone as I took all the hurtful words she had to offer. “Oink, oink.” One of her minions imitated the pig sound, and I blinked back the tears that had begun to gather.

“Ahh.” Natalie sighed, shifting back in disgust. “She is so ugly and so fat that I doubt she even has a mate.” She eyed me, her nose high up in the sky as if afraid to breathe in the same air that I did. “And even if she has, I doubt her mate would recognize her in all that layer of fat.”

My ears rang as I heard the spiteful words she had just spat, my heart hammering behind my ribcage as the rage began to build. There were so many things I could take, and I have been enduring a lot since I came to this school, but when it came to my mate, I lost sense of everything, and my blood boiled.

“Shut up!” I yelled, my fist trembling as I squeezed tight. It was the only thing that was holding me back from carving a hole in her face with my fist.

My heart was pounding furiously as I tried to calm down, my lips slightly opened as streams of hot air escaped. Slowly, the rage fizzled out, and I came down from my high, but I was all too aware of how silent the room had gone.

I forced myself to look around, and several pairs of eyes were on me, all looking at me with certain curiosity. I left their gaze and finally settled on my tormentor, Natalie.

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and I could see something new growing in her face.

I shook my head, unable to stay here any longer, and I grabbed the bag I had dropped on the floor. I hugged it to my bosom, and I ran out of the classroom.

I bolted across the campus, tears blinding my vision now that no one was around. I raced to the science building, taking the stairs two at a time until I got to the rooftop.

My head was pounding even as my pulse raced, and I collapsed on the floor as I got to safety. And as if it had been waiting for an outlet, I burst out into tears.

“I hate them!” I screamed into my clothes as I sobbed. My fingers were tangled in my hair, and I pulled them hard because I was sure I was going insane. “Why? Why does it have to be me? Why couldn’t I just be like the rest?”

There were so many questions I had, but no answer was coming forth, and the tears continued to flow. My nose was clogged, my throat raw from sobbing, and every breath I tried to take felt like dragging air through a narrow pipe.

“Stop crying, Callista.” The voice in my head was saying something, and it took some seconds to realize that it was my wolf. “You will be fine.” For the first time since I got her, she had chosen to show her face and comfort me.

And that should be enough to put me in a good mood, but it only managed to make me angrier.

So the tears continued.

I was still crying when my ears pricked, a tingling sensation crawling up my neck, and I heard what was unmistakably the sound of a camera shutter going off.

My head snapped up, my eyes widening in fear, wondering if it was another tormentor that was looking for materials to further torture me.

I whipped my head to the side, ready to face the intruder, but I locked eyes with the prettiest set of brown eyes I had seen—after Selim, of course.