Grace of a Wolf by Lenaleia

Chapter 177

Chapter 177: Grace: Fake It Til You Make It

I collapse where I am, curling my knees to my chest. My throat still feels tight.

Caine must think I’m certifiably insane. What kind of person freaks out the way I did? And the moment he grabbed my wrist, I shut down completely.

It wasn’t like he hurt me. It wasn’t like he did anything wrong. He was trying to talk to me in private. Perfectly understandable.

And yet my entire body reacted like he was about to throw me into traffic.

I slide up the bed until I can bury my face in a pillow.

"I’m losing it."

It’s the only explanation.

I smack my forehead against the pillow once. Twice. Three times. Maybe if I hit hard enough, I can knock some sense back into myself.

Heat crawls up my neck and spreads across my cheeks. Caine was so worried and gentle, he’d even asked if I thought he would hurt me. Of course I don’t think he’ll hurt me.

Well—not anymore, anyway.

"You’re crazy. You’ve gone insane. You’ve lost your mind."

Each sentence is punctuated with a frustrated thump of my face into fluff.

The embarrassment is almost worse than the sudden spike of fear. Now, anyway.

My heartbeat gradually evens out, and the flush of heat going up my neck and prickling along my scalp recedes.

But the self-loathing stays.

It doesn’t make sense. Caine wasn’t yelling at me. He didn’t grab me with any real force. Sure, I couldn’t pull away easily, but it wouldn’t have been impossible.

Nothing about the situation should have triggered such a level of panic.

So why did it feel like—

cold against my feet. The smell of mold and dust. My throat

Please let me out.

I’ll be good.

I’ll be

shake my head violently, forcing the memory back where it belongs. Locked away. Buried deep, where it’s been for four years and

Completely different. It was a big mistake.

Rafe said it was my

Not the new one, who’s cruel and strange and somehow thinks

again, refusing to linger on the whys

wolf is not the same as bringing a

pushing myself up, forcing my

pillows is childish. Get over it and

my hair back into some semblance of order and cross my legs into the fake zen pose people do when they’re trying to

Me.

I’m people.

lifelong yoga-doers (not me), I suck in a deep breath

only one way out of this horrible, mortifying

be shameless and

pretend nothing happened, maybe Caine won’t say anything either, and we can just... keep pretending.

apparently prone to freaking out when he

he wasn’t

to be getting from this is

bounce around behind my

Okay.

Grace is back, and ready to shamelessly pretend like she didn’t have an absolute fucking meltdown when

plaster a smile off my face, but my cheeks ache almost

I approach the dresser mirror, leaning in

like a lunatic. Or maybe someone auditioning to play a haunted doll. The reddened eyes from almost crying don’t

Grace. You’ve faked being okay a thousand

out my hands out and roll my

Take two.

think of something genuinely pleasant: Bun’s excitement every time we hand

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255