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prologue the escape
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ODESSA STONE hated the smell of medical supplies. She had grown accustomed to the smell and didn't feel like she knew anything else but the smell of a Doctors office. The girl had grown numb to the feeling of a needle going through her vein and the Nurse who gave her a faux smile as she prodded Odessa with the needle. It was the same every day. Train, testing, train, sleep, repeat. It had been like that for as long as she could remember. But unbeknownst to her, that was going to change.
The methods used on the kids during training was something Odessa couldn't get behind. Punishments were used if someone went out of line. Odessa, even though she was, in all honesty, a hot mess in training, never had been punished too severely. A couple bruises on her wrist from an instructor pulling her too hard or a quick smack to her cheek, so quick she couldn't even feel it after the first couple of times. Other ways that were the simplest ways for instructors were to irritate the branding on the inside of kid's wrists. The branding mark was given to them as soon as they arrived. Other students around her had gotten much worse for things that weren't even that bad.
After giving the Nurse a soft smile that came out more as a grimace, Odessa made her way back to her room. It was dull—gray walls with a single twin bed. She wasn't allowed any pictures or posters, only a stuffed bear that sat on her white bed sheets. Her bear, who she remembered naming Luna when she was younger, was her only link to her childhood she could hang onto.
The Stone was taken away from her parents when she was very young. Over time, she forgot what her parents looked like and what their names were. Odessa still thought of them, even when her mind was racing a mile a minute on the most random things. Most of it was taken up by how her life could've been if she hadn't been taken. What her friends could've been like, how she would've bonded with her mom and dad—everything.
She didn't have a lot of friends where she was now. No matter how many years she had spent there, she kept to herself. Only one person got through to her and let her walls break: Silas Campbell.
Silas always seemed to be around at the early stages of their friendship. He was in all of her training classes, seeing as he was a fellow werewolf. He would sit next to her at lunch even though Odessa was known to sit alone during lunch hour. Silas Campbell was the first person to have the courage to sit next to her during lessons. And soon, Odessa grew used to the idea of having Silas around and didn't mind his presence. As the years went by, they became two peas in a pod.
Glancing at the clock on the wall, she realized it was time for dinner. Pulling her cardigan around herself, a habit she couldn't explain, she made her way to the huge cafeteria on the ground level.
She tossed around her plate filled with cold broccoli and chicken when she saw a familiar figure place himself across from her. She looked up at Silas, only to see him staring at her with a serious expression.
