“Hey.” He slid me onto my side, then brushed his knuckles over my face to dry my wet cheeks. “Hey. What’s going on?”
A savage sob raked up my chest, erupting from my mouth. I threw the back of my hand against my trembling lips and bit the thin skin to silence myself.
He combed a lock of hair behind my ear. “Tell me what’s going on.”
The words shivered on the tip of my tongue but never made it out. I couldn’t tell him.
I tried to turn my face away from his, but he forced me to look at him.
“Do you also think my mother cheated on my father?” I croaked. It wasn’t what had set me off, but it was troubling me almost equally.
The tension burst from his taut features in time with his breaths. “You have his dimples. And his smile.”
Were dimples and smiles proof of genetic affiliation?
He caressed the side of my neck. “Is that all that’s bothering you?”
I swallowed before I lied, “Yes.”
“Good.” He smiled, the slow scrape of his nails agonizingly pleasurable.
I shivered, and not because of how good his touch felt, but because I knew, with unfaltering doubt, that the next time his fingers would come in contact with my neck, it wouldn’t be to caress it, but to snap it.
Liam left a little after midnight. I’d pretended to have fallen asleep so he wouldn’t soil his lips further on mine. The guilt of having let him kiss me was tenfold-worse than the guilt of having drugged Heath.
In the gray hours of the morning, glum thoughts turned my mind the same dull shade as the sky. I got up and walked onto my balcony. A warm wind combed through the tall evergreens, making them shiver, making me shiver. My skin itched to shift, and I let it. I pulled off my tank top and sleep shorts and transformed into my other self, and then I jumped over the balcony and raced away from the inn, not caring if any guest had awakened. They all looked forward to wolf sightings anyway.
The lavender sky was no longer littered with stars, and the air was calm, abuzz with the beating wings of oblivious things. By a stream, I ran into a herd of mule deer. Even though I meant them no harm, their perky ears twitched at my approach. When their large, shiny eyes zeroed in on me, they pranced away in a blur of gray-brown fur.
I watched them leave, like everything else in my life.
Only Evelyn remained.
Evelyn…
I needed to get back to her. I needed to speak to her. But what would I tell her? I hadn’t decided what to do. To leave or to stay?
I stared at the horizon.
I couldrun.
Right now, I could run. As a wolf, I’d cover a lot of ground.
But Liam could run too. I had no doubt he’d track my scent with ease. Even if I had hours on him, his legs were so much longer than mine that he’d catch up. And then what?
A fly buzzed by my ear, droning loudly. I flicked my ears.
If I could get away, I’d have to relearn to live only as a human, my body frozen in a single shape. I’d done it once. I could do it again, but did I want to? The need to shift had become visceral, part of me, like the blueness of my irises and the blondeness of my hair.
I watched the horizon as it yellowed and greened, and then I turned and started to run back, savoring each tread of dewy earth, each crunch of crumbling rock, each crush of springy grass. I breathed in heavy lungfuls of the sweet dawn, cherishing them as though each breath were to be my last.
I thought of Liam. Of his mouth and hands. And my muscles swelled with adrenaline. I was thankful for last night. Thankful to have felt desired. I almost wished I hadn’t pretended to sleep, that I’d stripped Liam of his clothes and let him peel mine off my body so I would finally know what so many accused me of taking against payment.
But it would’ve been greedy and unfair.
I was grateful for what we’d shared, even though I was haunted by the hatred he’d feel once he knew who the girl he’d called perfecttruly was.
Ahead of me stretched the hedge of pines that separated me from the inn like a picket fence. I slowed.
If these were to be my last moments in wolf form, I’d savor each second.
I MADE it back to the inn without being discovered, leaping onto the little balcony Liam had scaled just a few hours ago. I trotted back into my bedroom, my claws clicking on the hardwood floors, and then I changed back.
Swift as it had appeared, my fur retracted, leaving behind flushed skin. Sweat salted my lips. I licked it away as I pushed off the ground and rose to my feet. I headed toward the shower but stopped when I spotted a folded sheet of paper by my bedroom door. Muscles tensing, I approached and snatched the letter up, unfolding it in the same breath.
IF YOU WANT TO SEE EVELYN AGAIN,
GO THROUGH WITH THE LAST TRIAL.
SPEAK ABOUT THIS NOTE AND SHE DIES.
My fingers turned as cold and hard as ice chips and crimped the paper. I read the words; reread them. The letters blurred and fragmented, then knit back together and smoothed.
Who would do this to me?
Someone who was aware of how much I cared for Evelyn. I’d never made it a secret, but still…how many people possessed this knowledge? She so rarely left the inn that it would have to be someone close to me.
Who could possibly want to blackmail me into killing Liam?
Or was their intention to get mekilled by Liam?
Could it be Julian? He’d guessed Liam cared about me-made several allusions to it last night-and wouldn’t want to murder me, which would force meto kill Liam and become the Alpha Julian so desperately desired as an ally.
But Julian didn’t know about Evelyn. Or did he? I’d told Sarah about her when we’d had lunch. Had Sarah been spying for her uncle? Was her friendship an act?
My stomach turned as cold as my fingers.
But Julian had seen how determined I was last night. He couldn’t possibly know I’d chicken out of the last test. Unless he’d heard what it entailed…
Something hardened inside my mind. Whoever sent me this note knew what the last test would be. They knew blood would be spilled. Mine or Liam’s. Whose death were they rooting for?
Lucas hated me and had never hidden how much he wanted Liam to become Alpha. It wouldn’t have been difficult for him to find out about my relationship with Evelyn. I could go to him and confess my plan, but if he hadn’t sent me the note…
I brought the paper closer to my nose-crushed flowers. The scent could’ve drifted from the dirt embedded underneath my fingernails. I sniffed the paper again. There was another scent. Something almost sour but also a little sweet. I inhaled so many times that my head started to spin, and all the smells melded together. I crumpled the paper and tossed it against the door.
A violent chill curled around my skin but was soon replaced with heat. My body smoldered with anger. One person would die today…and it wouldn’t be me or Evelyn or Liam.
It would be whoever fucking wrote this.