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CHAPTER 1

~ JADE ~

I should have taken ood advice Simple advice Advice that I had lived by for two full years All I had to do was stay clear of the pack They were just a bunch of dogs That was it Nothing special Just dogs with a superiority co mixed up with them I had seen the proof of their destruction over and over and what had I done? I had let one of the was, it wasn’t easy to avoid the Mountain since, well, forever I was pretty sure that the toas even na Mountain? Anyway, they were everywhere; in school, on the streets, at the stores; you couldn’t go anywhere without running into one of them Everyone knew about them In most towns, that would have freaked people out, but not here Here, the olves elcomed by everyone, well, everyone but me

Personally, I couldn’t stand theuessed they kind of did, or their families did But that wasn’t the point They were possessive, territorial, and a serious pain in the butt Especially the she wolves The she wolves were the worst

And it was because of one of those nasty she wolves that I was trapped in the girls’ locker roo like this would have happened Erika and her little gang of dogs had been on my back ever since Dominic -- the alpha’s beta -- drove me home last week It had been co rain, my car had broken down, and he had stopped to help That was it But Erika, well, Erika wanted hih her thick head that it had only been a ride ho line of metal doors and slaym have to be my last class of the day?

Frustrated, I plopped down onto the cold bench and pulledthem closely They didn’t even leave my backpack, and, of course, that’s where my phone was

How could I have been so stupid? I had Mr Townsend for gy laps Only laps He thought running was the only kind of fitness anyone ever needed Personally, I thought that thatlaps sucked And yes, ym teacher was a olf Needless to say, by the tioing shopping after school, just to kill soot horab a quick shower Clearly, leaving lanced at my watch, 3:30 Another hour or so before the after school clubs would finish Maybe I could y around school aled to avoid those … those … dogs And now, I couldn’t get away from them I didn’t even understand why Erika cared so much Dominic hadn’t spoken to me since that day And honestly, I didn’t even knohy he had stopped to help me in the first place Since he had beco to throttle that she wolf!

The pack had alwaysMountain life They prowled the streets, taking what they wanted when they wanted it Well,Mountain willingly gave whatever it was that one of those stupid dogs wanted, but that wasn’t the point The point was that they never actually worked for anything; they just took What happened to the days olves had kept hidden?

The ti, but then, I was always starving, and since I had just finished gy to get a headache I could feel it at h my head What a fan-freakin-tastic way to end the first week back at school

"Jade, you in here?"

Doh the door, as he pushed it open a crack My heart jumped in my throat, and I was pretty sure my whole body flushed I felt it like a flash fever Hot and sticky

"Go away, Do from my seat I whipped open one of the lockers and hid behind the metal door "Don’t cohter in his voice "It’s not like I haven’t seen you in your underwear before"