A THRONE OF SHADOW AND SOULMATES

"Hey! You're gonna drown out there!"

I heard a voice cut through the rain

I stopped mid-stride, water splashing up my jeans. The storm had turned my school

quad into a sea of puddles, lightning slicing the sky above the old stone buildings. I could feel the wind so cold with the rain drips and my hair clung to my face as I spun toward the sound.

Under a drooping oak tree stood a guy leaning against a sleek black sports car, the kind that didn't belong anywhere near student housing. He looked like he'd stepped out of another world, too composed for the chaos around him.

Derek Clawson.

Tall, broad-shouldered, his storm-dark hair slicked to his head. Even through the rain, I could see it - his eyes, faintly red. The first flash I dismissed as lightning. The second one made my pulse jump.

I clutched my folder of mythology notes tighter, though most of the pages had already turned to pulp. "I'm fine!" I shouted over the thunder.

"Not everyone needs a shiny car to survive a drizzle."

Derek's grin cut through the rain like light through smoke. "Fiery. I like it. Are you always this friendly, or just with me?" It was obvious that he said this Sarcastically. 

Trust me I definitely shot back

"Are you always this annoying, or just with girls who have better things to do?"

He turned off the car and started toward me, moving slowly and deliberately.

"I've seen you in mythology class," he said, voice dropping just enough to make me hear it over the rain.

"You write like the world's ending." Flirty right well

My chest tightened not because of his words, but because he'd noticed me at all, but I had to act cool I didn't let him know how nervous I was that he even noticed I existed.

"What's your deal, Clawson? You stalk everyone or just me?"

He laughed, the sound low and rough. "Only the ones who stand out." Gosh he's too flirty

Cold rain trickled down my neck, but heat bloomed in my cheeks.

I turned away. "Save it. I don't fall for wolf-in-leather types."

"Wolf?" he echoed with a smirk I couldn't see. "Interesting choice of words."

My mother's voice echoed in my mind, soft and casual from the night before.

"Your dad and I are heading to the forest, little pie. Back soon." In case you don't know I'm the little pie, it's just a pet name my mother calls me

My mother had married into that secret world - werewolves hiding behind human faces, but unfortunately I had been born on the border of both. Too human for the pack, too strange for everyone else.

Lost in thought, I didn't see the car until its bumper clipped my leg.

The impact spun me sideways. My folder flew open, papers and sketches scattering like feathers. Ink bled into the puddles, my work dissolving into a watercolor blur.

The car screeched to a stop.