Page 4 of Misfit Monsters (Pack of Outcasts #1)

“Five!” I announce, relieved to find that piece of information stuck in my head.

“Hmm.” Gloss taps a finger to her lips. “I think there might have been some informal shuffling. Tansy, why don’t you check whether room five is actually free and which one has an opening if not?”

The shorter, sneering woman darts off down the hall to make her inquiries. The other shadowkind following our conversation watch Gloss avidly but with a prickle of anxiety.

I think they want to make sure they don’t disappoint her.

She obviously has some authority, considering she’s the one who greeted me and this isn’t even her dorm.

“Where’s your room?” I ask out of honest curiosity.

Gloss flicks her fingers vaguely toward the wall. “Oh, the voluntary students stay in the Citrine building. Reforms aren’t allowed into other dorms until they’re at least level four. Some of my friends are very bad at playing nice.”

She tsks her tongue playfully and glances at the other women and the icy man. But for all her effortless confidence, a trickle of doubt seeps off her—a tart splash of insecurity only I can taste.

She’s been welcoming enough to me that I want to reassure her. I should do something kind for her too .

“You don’t need to worry,” I say. “They really do care what you think.”

Her attention snaps back to me. “What?”

I fumble under the sudden intensity of her stare. “I just mean, you’ve already impressed them. They want to listen to you. So you don’t need to worry.”

For a split-second, Gloss’s eyes narrow. A jolt of fury hits me right in the throat, searing like charred peppers.

Then it’s gone. She takes a step back with a crisp laugh, and my sense of her inner state dwindles to nothing.

“It sounds like the only one who’s worried is you.” She turns to Tansy, who’s just hurried back to join her.

The other woman dips her head. “Mica moved into room five. But there’s a bed in?—”

“In room twelve.” Gloss’s eyes glint at me as if nothing went wrong, but several of the beings around her stiffen.

“Twelve,” her other friend hisses. “Are you sure?—”

Gloss clasps her slender hands together. “I think room twelve would be perfect for Periwinkle. Exactly the atmosphere she needs. Unless someone else wanted to claim that spot?”

The hall has gone silent, broken by a brief chuckle from the icy man. The pine tree he was conjuring flits apart into a puff of snowflakes. “Brilliant as always, Gloss.”

Gloss’s face lights up. She gestures for me to move on. “You won’t have any trouble finding it. They’re all in order.”

I summon a smile that feels tighter than before. “Thank you.”

As I weave between my watching dormmates down the hall, no one speaks other than a few murmurs. A hum of edgy anticipation has come into the air.

What are they waiting for? What do they think is going to happen ?

The room labeled twelve is right at the end of the hall on the right side. When I turn the handle, it opens easily.

There isn’t much point in locks when we can all slip through the shadows beneath the doors if we want.

I step inside.

The room appears empty—at least, of other beings.

Two twin-sized beds with simple wooden bedframes stand at opposite ends, with even smaller desks just beyond their footboards.

The walls are the same light blue as in the halls.

A square rug in a darker shade covers most of the floor between the beds.

I’m not alone, though. My senses quiver with the awareness of another shadowkind nearby, merged with the patch of darkness around the lefthand bed.

A shadowkind that’s radiating outrage.

Before I can even turn toward the impression, he materializes out of the darkness.

The huge man looms nearly as high as the ceiling, ropey muscles bulging across his limbs and chest, his tan face that might have been stunning otherwise set in a fierce expression.

Thick brown hair gleams like buffed bronze as it bristles from the top of his head.

His badge shows a number one like mine… and a ten-pointed star with a ring around it. Pearl said that means he’s hurt shadowkind as well as mortals.

“What are you doing in here?” he growls.

My heart stutters. I hold up my hands appeasingly and step back toward the other bed. “I—they told me this is the room I should be in. With a free bed.”

I can hear my voice going squeaky. A smattering of light touches the walls as my hair flickers with a sickly yellow flare of fear.

The immense man bares his teeth. “This is my room. I don’t share. Get out! ”

My pulse outright lurches. I back up, on the verge of fleeing, when a giggle reaches my ears from beyond the door.

My dormmates—and specifically Gloss—sent me into this situation on purpose. They knew the room’s current inhabitant would be furious.

They’re waiting for me to scurry out so they can laugh at me for failing.

My legs balk at the thought of playing the horrible game they made up. If I do what they want… what will they try to make me do next?

In my hesitation, the man lets out a snarl. “Can’t you hear? Get the fuck away!”

With the words, another waft of emotion washes over me. Not rage this time, but fear that’s not mine, as suffocatingly sour as a flood of cheap whiskey.

This being… is afraid of me ?

That can’t be right, but I know what I’m tasting.

I don’t like the idea of abandoning a being in some kind of distress any more than I want to submit myself to my other dormmates’ judgment.

I should show them I won’t fail. I can be kind to everyone here. I can find ways to be happy no matter where I am.

I back up another step, but this time toward the bed. Sitting down on the mattress, I keep my hands raised and my voice softly bright. “I promise I’ll keep my distance. I’m not going to bother you at all. I just need a place where I can sleep.”

The man could lunge at me, and I’m not totally sure what I’d do then. But he stays where he is, confusion trickling through the unpalatable mix of anger and fear.

“You’d better stay away from me,” he warns, and vanishes back into the shadows.

I lower my hands to rest on the bedspread. My pulse keeps hammering away, but a knot of resolve solidifies in my gut.

These are the circumstances I’ve been given. I’m lucky to be here at all, so I’ll just have to make the best of it.

I made Gloss upset—she thought I deserved this.

She doesn’t know how much I can endure. I won’t let her or any of the others shake me.

After all, I’ve lived through way worse before.