No reply came.
At 6:15 a. m. the following day, I peeled my body out of my warm bedsheets and got ready for my early morning run with Matt. I was lacing my sneakers when he messaged me that he was downstairs. Stuffing my key and phone in the zippered pocket of my track jacket, I tiptoed past my sleeping uncle’s room, opened and shut our front door discreetly, then bounded down the porch stairs.
“Sorry you got saddled with me.”
He pushed away from his silver Dodge sedan, palming his cropped blond hair. “Don’t sweat it, Little Wolf. I owe you.”
“What do you owe me for?”
“Stopping Liam from dueling Morgan without backup.”
I tightened my ponytail, sighing. “If only he’d taken her deal.”
“You’re telling me.” Matt Rogers was a big guy but as gentle as a puppy. “Should we get going? I need to be at work in an hour.”
I stretched out my calves. “I’m ready.”
Thirty minutes into our ridiculously strenuous workout-Matt had picked a trail that wound up the flank of the mountain-I wheezed, “I don’t get . . . why I have to train. Your brother said . . . Seconds rarely get . . . dragged into the fight.” I gulped in some much needed oxygen, then puffed it out. “Look at Nora . . .” My heart rate became so frenzied I had to take a minute off from speaking.
“If Julian’s sister had gotten involved, he might still be alive today.” Perspiration beaded on Matt’s forehead, but unlike me, he wasn’t panting like a bull in a pen.
I came to an abrupt halt, which forced Matt to stop, then bent at the waist and pressed my palms into my thighs. “The poison was already . . . in his system.”
His gaze swept over the fence of evergreens on our left, as though he were expecting to see furred creatures with perked ears and glowing eyes. “I heard about your theory, but Morgan could shift. If she’d been jacked up on Sillin, there’s no way she could’ve transformed.”
“I don’t think it was . . . in her blood.” I sucked in a lungful of hot, dry air. The sun was peaking, brightening the pink hue of the mountain lupines lining the steep path. “I think it was . . . on her skin.”
“Stuff on your skin penetrates your bloodstream.”
I straightened, crossing my arms in front of my still-heaving chest. “Don’t tell me you think . . . she won fair and square.”
“Nora Matz seems to think so.”
I wasn’t in wolf form, yet I growled at my friend. “That’s impossible.”
A slow smile lit up his ruddy face. “I agree. I mean, she is female-”
“Prick.” I slugged his huge bicep, which just increased his smirking.
“You know I don’t actually think your gender is feeble, right?” His smirk turned back into a smile.
“Yeah. I know.” It had taken me months to prove that a female could hold her own in a pack of all-male wolves. Did I regret entering the Alpha trials at the start of summer?
No.
Okay . . . Maybe a little.
After all, I’d almost lost my life during a landslide and then again during the final duel, which thankfully had been aborted when my crafty cousin had his mother kidnap Evelyn.
As Matt and I started down the mountain, I asked him about work, which was merely a roundabout way of getting to August since he was Matt’s boss.
He told me they were putting up the walls on some luxury lodge on Valmont Road. “Place is wicked.”
“Is August . . . Does he help with the building part?”
“Yeah. He gets his hands dirty.”
“Is he on site every day?”
Matt cast me a sideways glance. “What exactly do you want to know?”
I bit my lip but released it to gather some oxygen. “Did he stay?”
“You seriously think he up and left? He got the girl. He’s never going to leave. At least not without you.”
A flush creeped up my neck. Hopefully Matt would attribute it to our strenuous exercising. “Liam’s making me keep away from him.”
“What do you mean, making you keep away?”
“He told me that since he’s entrusting me with his life, he wants my entire focus to be on him. He said that until the duel, I couldn’t hang out with August. That if I did, he’d duel Cassandra on his own terms.”
Matt didn’t say anything, just focused on the dust puffing under his sneakers.
“You think he’s really worried about August being a distraction, or do you think it’s his way of getting me back?”
Without breaking stride, he said, “What do you think?”
“I don’t know what to think, Matt. I don’t know Liam like you do.”
“He’s not over you, Ness.”
Even though my limbs felt on fire from running, a chill crept into my bones. “You think he’d really face Cassandra without my help if something happened between August and me?”
“I’d hope he wouldn’t do something so dumb, but he was ready to challenge her without a Second, so yeah, I think he’d really schedule a showdown without you. Men will do stupid shit to impress girls.”
“It wouldn’t impress me, though. It would just piss me off.”
“It’ll get your attention.”
I sighed.
“Look, I’m not sure I’d take my own advice, but if you can rein in your urges, then do it.”
I snorted. “Rein in my urges? I’m not some animal.”
Matt grinned. “Beg to differ, Little Wolf.” After a beat, he added, “At least, try to repress your lustfulness.”
The flush, which had started on my neck, engulfed my entire face.