#chapter quotes

“How do you know that?”

Lindsay huffs. “Um, because I can read? Sierra is writing a new blog post about him right now! Oh, well, maybe. A-L-E-H-E-A-T-H-E-R.”

“Sierra!” Heather snarls. 

“You can read?” Courtney asks, genuinely surprised. 

Sierra doesn’t even look up from her phone. “Not now, Heather, my readers expect rapid behind-the-scenes updates from me, and I just know that Aleheather is going to be Total Drama’s next big ship!”

Scott pokes Courtney’s side. “I can read some too, you know.”

“No one ever claimed you couldn’t read, Scott-- wait a second, what do you mean some?”

Making bookmarks to sell with my novel Wolfen's Rage at a Local Authors event at my library in a couple of weeks!

Each chapter is headed by a relevant quote and the symbol attached to whichever character holds the main point of view, and I use those again here, but with extra quotes that will pop up throughout the trilogy. A few favorite examples:

"Monsters are made, not born. Each of us has the potential to become one, no matter race or upbringing." -Wol, the Wolfen Primari

"You're a fool following a bigger fool, but that sadly is no true crime." -Lillia Crant

"I do consider spite to be a key portion of any healthy diet - how else do you think I've lived this long?" -The One Who Dwells in Past and Present

"Power is power. Whether you control it or it controls you is the difference between strength and weakness." -Dragon Queen Talasta

“So be it,” Breezepelt mutters, and suddenly Mousewhisker can understand why Heathertail might struggle with Breezepelt. Mousewhisker has spent his entire life trying to make cats forget about where he comes from; so that when they gaze upon him they find him perfectly acceptable. So when they compare him to Foxleap or Poppyfrost or Lioblaze they can’t find the differences. The faults.

Breezepelt is the son of a Clan hero, he’s the friend of Onestar’s daughter, he was mentored by Onestar’s mate. Breezepelt was born with It, born with whatever Mousewhisker lacks. It should be so easy for Breezepelt to be accepted, to be loved, to climb the ranks even despite his father’s affair, and yet here he is so bitter at one cat that he would burn his own birthright to ashes.

The silence prompts Breezepelt to tilt his head back, and now Mousewhisker can clearly see his mocking expression. “What?” He asks. “Can’t relate to that, can you?”

“Not really, no.”

You’re the only cat in the entire forest who thinks my life is worth anything at all. 

“Tigerstar doesn’t value you.”

“I know that.”

“I value you,” she presses. “More than anyone else, more than anything else. Do not force me to stand back and watch you die, Blackfoot. I swear on every single star threaded in Silverpelt’s fur, I’ll find a way to raise you from the dead, and then I’ll kill you myself.”

Dizzy, he smiles into her fur. 

Silverstream lets loose a mrrow, startled. The trout she had been watching takes its chance to dart underneath a rock, safe to swim another day. Furious, she lifts her head, prepared to give this-- this saboteur a piece of her mind, except...

The saboteur looks exactly like that ThunderClan tom she rescued from drowning. In his defense, he looks awfully sheepish when confronted with her heated glare.

"Excuse me?" She asks, aggravated. "Is it your goal in life to make sure I never catch another fish? Is that why you tried to drown yourself, and why you-" she pauses abruptly, only now realizing what the tom had asked her, "... did you use a pick-up line on me?"

Heather doesn’t respond. Her eyes are glued to their reflections. His hand still rests on her hipbone, but she can hardly feel the pressure of it through the fabric of her sweatpants. As she imagines Alejandro easily slipping his hand underneath the waistband, her tongue swipes along her bottom lip. 

Over the years, she’s grown so used to the constant ticking sound that she’s learned how to tune it out, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t always tick, tick, ticking away in the back of her mind. 

She can only hope that, once it finally explodes, the shrapnel doesn’t take out any of the few people she’s come to truly care about.