Chapter 5: The Alpha's Table

"Don't listen to what?" I said. "Who's in the wall?"

My cousin let go of my wrist and slid back into the dark of the loft.

He rocked, and the boards creaked, and he would not say another word.

"Bryn."

June stood at the bottom of the stairs in one of her father's old flannel shirts with the sleeves rolled to her elbows.

She was nineteen, and she was the only person in the house who had ever sat beside me on purpose.

"Dad said you'd be back," she whispered. "He said you'd want to see Tobias."

"Take me."

She led me down the back corridor to the cells.

Tobias sat on the stone floor of the end cell with his knees up and his back against the wall.

He was in human shape again, in a torn shirt, with a bruise swelling on his jaw where I had thrown him into the rock.

He lifted his head when he heard us, and he saw my throat.

I watched the green in his eyes go through every shade of horror a face can hold.

"Bryn," he said. "Bryn, I'm so sorry."

"Don't," I said.

"I can still feel it," he said, and he held up his hands and stared at them. "I can still feel it."

I did not step closer, because my hands were shaking too.

"I'm going to eat dinner," I said. "I'll come back after."

He nodded without looking up.

June walked me to the dining hall doors and stopped.

"They're all in there," she said. "Mom too. Don't let them see you're scared."

"Thank you."

"I mean it," she said. "I'm not just being nice."

I pushed the doors open.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Everyone Who Entered the Forbidden Room Wanted Me Dead from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.