Free Feral (The Irisbourn Chronicles Book 1) by Victoria Thorne Page B

didn’t force me.”
    “You chose on a passing whim,” I
said, clearly aggravated.   “And Matt
willingly indulged that whim.”
    “It wasn’t just some passing wh--”
    “You don’t get it, do you?” I
said.   “You still have parents and a
brother, all of whom are very much alive and miss you right now.   I think you have a bigger commitment to your
family than you do to the kids who used to live next door.”   I glared at him.   I had been dying to say that since chemistry,
but I had been restrained by the accepted social norms of public facilities
until now.
    “I had to-” Dylan broke in, only
for me to cut him off.
    “No, we moved because we had to.   You moved because you wanted to!”   I exclaimed.   “Big difference.”
    I heard the front door open, and
Heather appeared in the doorway, her long hair dancing around her in loose
ringlets.   She was completely unaware of
the tension in the room.
    “Dylan!” Her eyes lit up when she
saw him.   She skipped up to him and held
out her arms in anticipation of a hug, but Dylan remained motionless. She
awkwardly cleared her throat and asked, “How was the flight?”
    “No,” I blurted.   “No, come on. Heather?   Heather knew?”
    “Surprise!” She did jazz hands next
to Dylan.   She was so hopelessly
clueless.
    “That’s it.   I’m done,” I said, walking into the
foyer.   “Dylan.” I held his eyes with
mine.   “Please reassess what you’ve done
before you rashly throw away something I don’t even have anymore.”
    “Where are you going?” Heather
asked from behind Dylan.
    “On a walk,” I opened the door, and
Dylan put his foot forward.   “Please
don’t follow me.   I need some time to
think.   Alone.   I’ll be back later.”   I slammed the door behind me before I could
change my mind.
    Behind the house trickled a small
stream leading into a woodsy area.   I had
never been back there before, but I knew no one would come looking for me in
the woods, so I followed the water.   The
forest closed in around me, and the air grew heavy with the smell of wet earth
and trees.   A thick layer of dead leaves
sealed the ground and prevented the growth of excessive shrubs which would have
hampered my movement.   The blanket of
leaves crackled under my feet with every step, making it impossible for me to
move silently.
    When I was tired enough to deem
myself worthy of a break, I collapsed under a tree and buried my face in my
hands.   My bag dug into my back
painfully.   In my haste to leave the
house, I had forgotten to take it off.
    My mind was running at a thousand
miles a minute.   I would have given
anything to change places with Dylan.   He
had a life, a home, a family.   Why would
he give that up for this?   I groaned in
frustration.   I needed to stop thinking
about that.
    I stroked my mother’s necklace in
my pocket, and a lullaby she used to sing to me when I was a child came
flooding back to me.   I placed the chain
around my neck and hummed the tune against the babble of the stream and the
hypnotic songs of bird and frogs.

Chapter
Eleven
    I woke up in complete darkness, my
fingers scraping against raw dirt as I pushed my body into a sitting
position.   I was completely
disoriented.   I couldn’t remember where I
was until I recognized the sound of running water.
    My eyes struggled to adjust to what
little light the moon offered.   When I
was asleep, the woods had changed from welcoming to menacing, and, without a
doubt, I had already outstayed my welcome by several hours.   I could hear the faint cry of a coyote in the
distance, but it sounded too far away to be of any danger to me.
    I sat at the base of the tree,
listening to the bubble of the stream as I tried to regain my bearings.
    Just as I was about to get up, I
heard leaves crunching along the riverbank.   I held my breath and stopped moving.
    I could tell from the heavy steps
that it was definitely big, whatever it was, and it was