#clawless

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Chapter 37

“I have friends there. And while I appreciate getting free of the collar, I can’t go with you.”

JFC. She’s been doing everything in her power to get away from this shit. But now that the time has come, she’s like “wait, but my friends!!!”????

“Jesus, little Marrow. They collar your wolf and bug your ass, and you’re still calling them your friends?”

In their defence, they’re the ones who were the most upset over Jasper’s treatment of Vail. 100% of what happened to Vail can be pointed back to Jasper.

Callum’s hot breath scorched my ear. “Your pussy’s now mine, Little Freak.”

Chapter 37 summary: The mysterious person ended up being Sin, who was the last person I expected. She drags Vail further away and then uses some sort of master key to unlock the collar. Vail instantly feels better, and Sin explains to her that the only thing the collar does is to keep the wolf locked up. 

Sin then says that they have to go. That there’s something called a Skin King coming, and they don’t want to be around to see that. However, Vail is upset at the thought of the thing coming to the school, seeing as how her friends are here. And despite all of the shit that happened to her, I guess it would be bad if people like Marnie and Nadia were killed simply because they were in the path of this Skin King. (No, this is never fucking explained.) 

Upon hearing about the tracker, Sin forces Vail to the ground and removes that too. Right as they’re getting up, they come face to face with the same men who’d chased Vail at the start of the book. They have tranquilliser guns, and Sin tells Vail to run. She goes, but comes face to face with another pack, who still think that they’re playing a game. 

What happens next is another example of how vague and poorly-written that this stupid series is. I think that Vail transforms, but I don’t even fucking know anymore. She runs around a lot, and ends up hiding in a tree. When she finally comes down, she finds that there was a literal slaughter. 

That’s how Callum finds her. And then, completely and utterly ignoring the carnage around them, Callum is basically like “I’m going to rape you.” What a lovely fellow. 

Chapter 38

“Clan Alpha, Alphason Reed. Callum Sawyer has claimed me as his mate,” she said, her voice hollow, but also without a hint of a lie. “With your blessing, I’m now the Luna-in-Waiting of the Sawyer Pack.”

Chapter 38 summary: Jasper and Reed realise two things at the same time: that there are wolves from the Black Den coming out, and that Vail is in danger. They now put aside any differences they might have had for fear over Vail’s safety. As they go, Jasper senses that both the collar and tracker had been removed from her, since her “wolf side” that he can still sense is inside the school. 

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Chapter 35

Callum had left me in the booth without explaining what Reed had to feel guilty about…

Considering how muddled and vague that this series has been… Something tells me that not even the author knows why when she wrote this.

I churned up the side, my breath sawing in my lungs, and was almost at the peak when Jasper’s wolf came over the rise.

Chapter 35 summary: So everything in the previous chapter was simply the pep-rally. As it wraps up, everybody heads outside to start the actual game. There’s a brief moment where… IDK what even happened. Vail randomly wandered over to Jasper, but the other wolves kind of shut her out and insulted her until Marnie showed up and dragged her over to the Marshall pack, where she’s supposed to be. Reed is happy because she’s wearing his sports jacket, which has his name on the back. 

Then the actual game starts, and it’s… Why is this considered to be an “organised” sport? It’s literally every single student running after a singular ball. That can’t possibly be fun for 99% of the students. 

Anyway, since it’s the full moon and adrenaline is pumping, Marnie ends up transforming for the first time. She runs off after the ball, but Felix gives chase. Vail is angry about that, but then remembers that she has a “wolf zapper”. So she chases after him, and when she catches up to him, she squeezes him hard from behind. This allows her to get the ball and score for their team. 

Reed comes over and says that Marnie is an alpha. For the first time, Vail wishes Pearl was around, because she really wants to rub that into Pearl’s nose. Reed goes on to tell Vail to go watch from the sidelines, since it’s not safe for her. But she manages to convince him that she has a wolf zapper, so he agrees to let her be on the field, so long as one of his guards is with her. 

Then Jasper shows up. Because you knew that he would. 

Chapter 36

“I gave you the Wolf Fire,” [Pearl] said in a low, tight voice. “In your champagne, the night of the Hunter Moon Formal.”

I can’t even pretend to be surprised. I knew that the champagne was suspicious. 

And stumbled right into a scowling blonde in a leather jacket.

Chapter 36 summary: Jasper shows up and uses his supreme master alpha powers to force every single wolf down onto their belly. However, the power is a little muted with Vail, even though she does feel an immense compulsion. Instead, Jasper runs up to her, grabs her caveman style, and carries her off into the forest.

He drops her by where Pearl is waiting, and demands that Pearl tell Vail the truth. To the surprise of not one single goddamned person, Pearl gave Vail the wolf fire last month. (JFC how the hell has this series been only two months?) 

But then Reed shows up and he confesses that he gave Pearl the wolf fire when she asked for it. He knew that Pearl was going to do something about the Vail situation, but thought that she was going to use it on herself to seduce Jasper… Not to roofie Vail. Which… Why the fuck would that somehow mean that he now has to help Vail? Make it make sense. 

Anyway, Reed has now decided that Vail actually is his problem, and starts to verbally fight with Jasper over the entire thing. Meanwhile, Vail is practically screaming at Jasper for him to remove the collar, since it’s been making her physically ill… and it’s only getting worse now that it’s the full moon. He keeps refusing, insisting that it’s to “protect her”. 

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Chapter 33

“I’m not her father. And your only job is to make sure she stays off everyone’s radar until she comes of age. And that includes Trey Fucking Barakat.”

Considering that he was trying to hide and protect her, he sure did a bang-up job in dumping her back at the place where she has the biggest target on her back. 

I’m going to go ahead and guess that nobody’s going to be happy about her decision to bond with Reed. But honestly, that’s kind of what you get for intentionally keeping her in the dark. 

“The collar’s not working, anyway,” I told him. “Or not how you said it would. She bit one of my guards on Den Night. And it was definitely a shifter bite.” 

He went so still, I glanced at the window to see if the Denners were on the move. But everything was as normal, except for the tension rippling off Warren. “That’s not possible.”

 “You think I don’t know the difference? Even my mom recognized it.”

I wish that this series would get to the goddamned point about what Vail is. 

“It’s a scent shield. Something I cooked up in the lab. You give it to Vail to take a few days before I come for her, and it’ll cloak her scent.” When I just stared at the vial, he dropped it in the pocket of my shirt. “Relax. It’s completely harmless. Besides, she’s used it before.”

Right, because that worked out sooooo well the first time. 

“Relax. It’s completely harmless. Besides, she’s used it before.”

Chapter 33 summary: Despite Jasper being an absolute dick towards Vail, he mopes around when he realises that she’s left campus with Reed. 

He then goes to another meeting with Vail’s adoptive father, Michael. He once again hammers in how unsafe and dangerous that everything is to Vail right now. Yet he himself dumped her in a place where, as I mentioned, she has a huge target on her back. What’s worse is that her being there did nothing to stop Trey from getting to her. 

Jasper calls him out about that, but Michael seems to be under the impression that the biggest threat to Vail right now is Jasper not being able to properly control her. He thinks that Jasper isn’t using the collar right, since she did a mouth-shift and bit the guards. But Jasper insists that if he puts any more power into it, he’ll end up killing her. 

Michael goes back to how he thinks Vail is a void, but I’m still waiting for the actual truth about her to drop. That she’s something so completely foreign to the wolves that it’s not even on their radar. He warns Jasper not to mate with her if Jasper wants to remain the head alpha. 

He gives Jasper some scent blocker for him to use on her before Michael comes to collect her. Which… yep. That’s not going to end well at all. 

Chapter 34

“I’ve lived with him for a week. He’s never shown any sign of that kind of rage.”

Wow, a whole week! Tell me more about how deeply you know him!

“Yeah, but when it comes to you, it’s not rage,” he told me. “It’s guilt.”

Chapter 34 summary: It’s the day of the packball game. Vail has been staying with Jasper this entire time, but she always feels like Jasper is watching her 24/7. The morning of the game, she wakes up and then wakes up Jasper in bed next to her. They start making out pretty intensely, but before it can go too far, he pulls back and goes to beat up the shower wall. 

Vail still doesn’t feel good, but she has to go participate in the cheerleading routine on the field. Her friends help her paint her face, and then they all go out as a big group. The energy is pumping… Like any other sporting event. Several of the freshmen accidentally shift, and Vail desperately tries to call to her own wolf. But nothing happens. 

After fumbling around for a while, Mrs. Costa finally takes pity on Vail and sends her to sit in the sound booth with the male omega; Vail takes a second to tell the readers that he is 100% unaffected by her collar. However, a moment after she gets in, Callum shows up and sends the other boy away. 

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Chapter 31

He just squeezed my hand. “That’s the thing about shining so bright, Vail. It’s power. And powerful people can get away with just about anything.”

Chapter 31 summary: Vail runs back to Reed’s room, where she demands that they make out as an F U to Jasper. However, once she has him on the couch, he admits that he’s a virgin. Since she is too, they’re both kind of surprised that they’re in the same boat right now. He’s more surprised that she and Jasper never did the do. He also tells her that his wolf is difficult to control, so he has to take things slow. 

He then tells her that they should go flaunt their relationship in the dining hall, but she says she couldn’t stomach the meals that they force everybody else to eat. He instead says that they should go out, as yet another “fuck you” to Jasper, and she agrees. But even going out isn’t all that necessary, since by the time she’s ready, half of the school already seem to know. 

As they go to leave, Pearl and her shitty friends are lingering in the school’s front lobby. One of them says something mean about Vail, so Reed turns to her and Pearl and says that he’s going to give them a dud punishment if they don’t shut up. Pearl says something rude as they’re leaving, which obviously spoils Vail’s otherwise good mood. Reed promises her that he’ll get them to apologise to her tomorrow. 

Chapter 32

“And whoever put you on that leash better start running. Because the only thing your cousin hates more than a trapped wolf, is the asshole who did the trapping.”

Chapter 32 summary: Vail’s good mood deflates even further when she realises that their end destination is the hotel where they had the one party. Reed tells her that this was the only place Jasper would agree too, which obviously seems like a power play to Vail. That even when he can’t control her, Jasper is still controlling her. 

But they go inside anyway, where she’s even more dismayed to find that Gwen is in the booth next to theirs. Gwen ignores her, and most of the dinner is skipped over.

Vail goes into the bathroom, where upon coming out, Gwen basically ambushes her. She slaps Vail and again tells her to stay the fuck away from her family. 

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Chapter 29

At the sniff test, Cal had said she smelled like nothing. He’d been the one to proclaim her a dud, and since he had the best nose in the clan, I hadn’t argued with him. It was also one of the reasons I believed the lab report that said she was a void. When she’d come out as an omega, my dad’s theory was she’d had to hide her wolf so deep because of her human upbringing, and was only now able to let her shifter side rise to the surface. Which meant her wolf had to be tough. And maybe a hell of a lot stronger than anyone suspected.

Against all better judgement, I’m STILL waiting for the other shoe to drop in regards to Vail and her power. 

“You had a reaction to the medicine they used. It made you sick. You remember that?”

I refuse to believe that it was the actual medicine that they used, and more the medical abuse they forced upon her. 

“Whatever he does, it’ll be on me, not you. And I’ll make sure he knows my wolf and I are all in.”

Chapter 29 summary: Reed lies in bed with Vail while she sleeps. When she wakes up, he tells her briefly that she had a “bad reaction to the medication”, but I’m not sure if he even believes that. He gives her the food he ordered before she fell asleep. 

Then she suggests that they go to the pools so that she can heal. But Callum is already there. He’s quick to call out the findings that Vail herself is an omega, and is still of the opinion that he was right about her after he did the sniff test, back in the start of the first novel: that she’s not only a dud, but a void. He also says that Reed’s father would sell his own son out for the, and I quote, “chance to sniff the Marrow Alpha”. 

Reed and Vail drip all the way back to his room, since they wanted to get away from Callum as quickly as possible. Once in there, she asks him what it would be like for them to mate… Not the physical act, but the politics of it. Reed says that her grandfather would never allow for an arranged mate, but proposes a blood mating instead. That he’ll convince his two alpha friends to endorse the mating bond between them, so that it’s legitimate. That they’ll do it after the packball game this coming weekend, right in front of Jasper. Obviously, she’s worried about Jasper, but Reed says that any shit will fall onto Reed, not her. 

Chapter 30

I shuddered at the memory of walking into the principal’s office and realizing I was about to relive one of my worst nightmares. “They did it early in the morning after our movie night. Jasper, Principal Bregman, a couple of the security guards. They were all in on it.” 

Marnie shot forward on her seat with a cry. “What? Carter said he found you collapsed in the hall. He told me you were sick, but not because of that!”

I feel like his lying about it indicates that he knows, even if not subconsciously, that what they did to Vail was wrong. That if he tells others that he simply “found her sick and collapsed in the hall”, then maybe he himself would eventually come to believe it. 

A man in his late twenties looked back at me, but he wasn’t what I was expecting. He had a slight build and sharp cheekbones, emphasized by his swept-back hair. I couldn’t tell what color it was, but in every picture his beautiful blue eyes were the centerpiece. He looked kind, and thoughtful, and nothing like me at all. 

Let me guess: also not her bio-dad?

“You didn’t even warn me! Do you know what I thought when I walked into that office and saw the doctor there? All those medical instruments? And your asshole guards, holding me down? I thought it was going to be the same as the pack lab -.” 

He screwed his hands into fists, and I saw golden fur gleaming at his wrists. “Never! I would never let anyone hurt you like that again.” 

“What do you mean? You hurt me. With this!” I grabbed the collar at my throat, then turned to show him the scar behind my ear. “And this!”

Good. It’s about time that she finally grew a goddamned spine!!

“And the collar?” His face shuttered. “I know it doesn’t feel like it, but that’s for your protection.” 

“What?” I gaped at him. “It didn’t protect me from Trey! Or from your goons shoving me face-first into that bench!” 

He looked so furious, I expected his wolf to leap right out of his skin. “They’ll live to regret ever touching you.” 

“It’s not enough.” I got my hands between us and wrenched myself free. “You can’t just say stuff like that and think it makes it all better.”

 “That’s because you’re not listening to me!” He shook his head like he was as frustrated as I felt. “I’ve done it all to keep you safe!”

He complains that she’s not listening to him… Yet when she tells him of all of the shit that she’s been through BECAUSE OF HIS SHITTY ACTIONS, he shuts down and insists that this is “to protect her”. 

“But don’t worry. I’m with Reed now, and he’s promised to do all that and more.”

Chapter 30 summary: In order to make people believe that the Reed/Vail relationship didn’t spring up out of nowhere, they have to let people see them, and for them to act like they’re totally in love. 

Marnie comes to Reed’s room when he isn’t there. And Vail basically gets her to talk about how difficult it’s been to have been labelled as a dud for most of her life. Vail is obviously still angry about the way that the system is intentionally designed against the duds, and promises Marnie that she and Reed are going to change everything. 

The next day, Vail goes to classes like usual. Reed walks her to each of her classes, and kisses her on the cheek at the door. In deportment, Reed ditches his own class so that he can be her dance partner. 

During a break in cheer practice, Vail talks with Nadia. Nadia doesn’t believe for a second that Vail’s relationship with Reed is real, claiming that she’s known him forever. Then she complains about a stomachache, so she goes to sleep in Ms. Costa’s office. She wakes up to the teacher pulling out some photos of Parker West, her supposed bio-dad. However, Parker doesn’t look anything like Vail, but she takes the photos anyway. 

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Chapter 27

I hadn’t been able to escape my late-night conversation with Reed, and it had dragged me back to that day in the closet with Potter. He might say he saw me now, and knew I was more than just my pack status, but that memory was too raw to just forgive and forget. They’d thought it was fine to force me onto my knees for some random guy, just because I was worthless in their eyes.

I get that it’s difficult to look past that.

Yet at the same time, she’s willing to look past all of Jasper’s belittling, treating her like shit, throwing her under the bus when he thought that she’d taken wolf fire, and him putting a magical slave collar on her. 

I’m simply calling out how fucking shitty she’s being in refusing to forgive Reed for participating in her attempted sexual assault WHICH HE APOLOGISED FOR, yet instantly forgiving Jasper for every single thing because…??? He’s the endgame relationship????

“We’re very focused on keeping you safe, Ms. Marrow. The breach at your accommodation was unacceptable, but it was a good wake-up call. A reminder we have to be vigilant at all times.”

Literally the first time in 4 chapters that Vail is being painted as an actual victim in what Trey did. 

A hollow promise, but I clung to it, and fell into that pine-scented darkness.

Chapter 27 summary: Vail wakes up early, thinking about her attempted sexual assault because she and Reed had been talking about it the night before. 

As she’s sneaking from his room in her pjs, she runs into the new principal who insists he wants to talk with her. Although I was initially happy that he was finally treating Vail like the actual victim in all of this, this quickly morphed into outright horror. 

In his office was a woman in a labcoat. Vail is instantly taken back to the literal torture she underwent at the lab, and starts to have an immense PTSD episode. Eventually, the two guards who’d tackled her the night before and ripped the baby from her arms, force her down onto the ground again now. The entire thing is insanely rape-y, and it made me so angry. The fact that they’re doing this simply to inject the tracker into her neck doesn’t help, since they’re doing this against her will… Which anybody could argue is rape-like in its essence. The doctor also slips an unknown pill into Vail’s mouth and forces her to take it.

However, it’s only after this is over that the doctor announces that Vail’s having a bad reaction. Which… wow. You saw a literal child start crying at the sight of you, had two grown men forcefully hold her down on the ground, and injected her with a tracking device AGAINST HER WILL. Of course she’s having a fucking bad reaction. 

Carter carries her to Reed then, who is literally the only person who seems to give a shit about Vail’s actual emotions. 

Chapter 28

“You handed her over to Barakat? That’s what you call taking care of your own?” Wentworth’s face contorted at both the force of my power, and the waves of fury rippling off me.

 “It was arranged with her father. He wanted her safely off campus and Trey Barakat was more than motivated to help out.”

Right. And then not even a week later, Trey sold Vail out to those unknown alpha thugs. I think his motivation is more about power than because he actually wants Vail. 

 She’d been trying to research everything she could about voids; information I could have given her without wading through the whole book.

Yet you never once actually bothered to share anything with her. ANYTHING. 

“She rescued Rowan, mom. She went out into the night and brought him home safe.” 

Her eyes snapped with blue fire. “He was only in danger because of her.” 

It was probably true. Barakat’s obsession was with Vail, and my brother had been a means to an end. But she’d still gone out after him, not knowing if she was walking into a trap. Or that’s what I wanted to believe, anyway. 

I really wish Vail had marched the other twin back to the Den room and gone back to bed. Seriously. They’re treating her like she murdered the baby or something, when the only thing she did was to go out of her way to rescue him. 

Please remember that this is the thanks she gets for having been a good samaritan. 

“You claim her without Marrow’s blessing – which he’s never going to give - and it’s an act of war.”

Chapter 28 summary: Jasper, meanwhile, spent the rest of his night searching for any signs of Trey. He felt frustrated that Trey seemed to have, and I quote, “flown away”. He goes to where he’s stashed Wentworth, who insists that Trey isn’t a wolf. Jasper thinks the man means a “rogue, dud, or void”, but Wentworth seems to think that there’s another option: a shifter who isn’t a wolf. Jasper threatens Wentworth because the man had turned Vail over to Trey at the end of the first book. But Wentworth isn’t afraid of him, since according to Wentworth, the clans in Europe are way worse. 

Jasper then goes to talk to his mum, who is with her twin boys, but also a bunch of personal guards. She said that she called up Grandpa Marrow, and is basically yeeting Vail back to her supposed bio-family. Again, the book wastes no time in reminding us how little every single person thinks about Vail and her valiant rescue effort. Despite the fact that Vail is also a victim in all of this. Jasper seethes with anger, and now views his own mother on his personal shitlist: she’s standing in the way of him being able to be with Vail.