Choices, Love, and Magic (Complete)

chapter 31

The next morning, I trudged nervously to breakfast as Clarissa tugged me along gently by my hand. When we rounded a corner and I saw the doors to the dining hall, I immediately turned around and started walking back toward my room, but was stopped by Clarissa standing in front of me with a stern look.

"Why do I have to go in there?" I pleaded,"Can't I just starve?"

She gave me a look that said,"Quit being a wimp and get your butt in there."

"Fine," I huffed, and hesitantly turned back toward the doors of my doom. Then I sighed nervously and walked inside, immediately spotting Antonio sitting by himself at a table in the corner. Clarissa and I got our food and she gave my hand a reassuring squeeze as she led me to Antonio's table. When he saw us approaching, he immediately started to stand up with an extremely unhappy look. However, before he got too far, I begged quietly,"Antonio, please, just let me explain."

Slowly, he looked at me and sat back down. "Fine," he conceded,"talk."

I sighed in relief and sat down opposite him as Clarissa disappeared somewhere. "Thanks for hearing me out," I said quietly as Antonio stared at me skeptically. I looked down at the table and murmured,"All you need to do is listen now. Yes, I kissed Tristam. No, I didn't tell you. No, I don't know why I did either thing. And, no, I don't know what I'm going to do." I looked up, meeting his eye as I continued strongly,"I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I don't know how so much crap got piled up in my life. All I know is that I'm doing my best not to drown in it, and that doesn't leave a lot of space for good decision making. So, I'm sorry, but I make bad choices, and I don't know which decisions were the bad ones. And can you blame me? I might be some great Empowered One, but I'm still a 16-year-old girl, so I don't always know what I'm doing." I paused, then sighed,"I'm sorry for dragging you into my hell hole. If you want me to stay away, I won't argue." With that, I stood up to leave, and Antonio didn't stop me.

I walked out of the dining hall without a backward glance.

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At training, I worked with Jessica as I avoided Tristam and Antonio avoided me. Then was lunch. I grabbed my food and ate on the lawn, taking off into the woods as a wolf afterward for a run. About 10 minutes in, I caught a scent that smelled familiar and decided to follow it. After a couple hundred yards, it joined a group of other scents that, once again, I followed. After a few minutes, I came to the end of the trail, finding Cora, Christian, and their pack in a hunting formation that I recognized from Fang's pack. I saw an empty flanker position and ran into it seamlessly, without even alerting the wolves that I'd joined their formation.

When we finally caught up to the prey, a buck and 2 does, and brought them down, the alpha pair noticed that an unknown wolf was in their formation. I was immediately circled by a growling pack as Cora and Christian, now in human form, walked up to me angrily as I struggled to keep in laughter.

When Cora ordered,"Turn," I lost it. I burst out laughing, and the pack looked at me like I was crazy as Cora fumed and Christian looked at me curiously.

When I finally stopped laughing, I looked at the alphas with amusement and scratched into the dirt,"I'll shift if you can guess who I am."

Cora looked at me and guessed,"Megan?" I shook my head and let out a huff of laughter.

I rubbed out my earlier message and wrote,"I look nothing like her!"

Cora growled a little and I sat in boredom and tilted my head at her. "Clarissa?" she guessed after a moment of thought and I shook my head again with amusement.

Cora opened her mouth to guess again, but Christian stated,"Katherine, just shift."

Cora looked at him skeptically as I looked at him in surprise. Then, regaining my amusement, I shifted back into my human form.