Page 70 of Moon Kissed

Nyx and Orion bared their canines at me—stuck between wanting an answer, and not wanting to play my game.

“What about me?” Badr’s hate-burnt eyes wiped away my grin. “Which am I?”

The reply came to my lips unbidden. There was only ever one answer. “You’re the one who’ll trick me into watching my back, because you’ll be coming from the front.”

For the second time on so early and dreary a morning, Badr smiled. “You’re good, Volana.

“You got it in one.”

THE REST OF THE DAYwas like a scene from someone else’s life.

My fates were so kind and considerate to Nia, it bordered on surreal. They held open doors for her, pulled out her chair, shouted down anyone who called her fish, and didn’t land her in detention by way of sabotaging me.

All the thoughtfulness heaped on her only further chilled the freezing winds blasting in my direction.

After rising to my bait about how I saw them, the guys didn’t make the same mistake again. Instead, they flat-out wiped me from existence. They didn’t look at me. They didn’t speak to me. They didn’t breathe in my direction. Whenever we were around them, it was all Nia, Nia, Nia—

—and I hated it.

No, not me! Her!

My wolf hated it. She was filled with such hate and jealousy for all the attention and care they were showering on another woman, that she had my hand twitching for a weapon whenever Nia was within two feet of me—which was all the time.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was all a part of their plan to torture me, and even though I didn’t believe they’d sink thatlow as to use Nia again after what she’d been through, it was still working!

I hated it. I hated them. I hated Nia. I hated my petty-ass wolf. And I hated myself because all the insecure pettiness was all me, no matter how much I wanted to blame it on my furry other half.

“—and Nyx said the funniest thing the other day,” Nia was blathering on, unaware of the hole my glare was drilling in the back of her head. “We were sitting on the bleachers, talking about the monsters in the demigod dominion and he said— Well, you were there,” she said, laughing again. “You know.”

My brow twitched. I was there in the physical sense of the word, but I didn’t know what he said because Ava was sitting on Nyx’s lap at the time, howling like a hyena at everything he said, and drowning out even my wolf hearing. Easy to do since I long since stopped acting like a fucking barnacle on Nia’s hull, and went back to sitting at my own table and keeping my distance.

But not too much distance because I promised Nia I wouldn’t do anything to get her in trouble, and leave her vulnerable to Dagem or the alphas again. So in the end, I lurked on the fringes of their little popular group like a creepy, jerking-off-in-the-bushes stalker.

“And Edric,” she went on. We had just left History of the Dominions and were headed to the mess hall for lunch. “He comes off so hard and closed off, but when you get to know him, he’s actually quite sweet.”

Oh, yeah, he was real sweet when he was threatening me into scamming the alpha council out of millions, right after he tried to pressure Orion out of being my alibi.

“Orion too.” Nia sighed. “He opened up to me about his dad. Can you imagine waking up one day and realizing everything you know is a lie? His mom took off when he was little, and now he’s questioning that too. Did his mom leave because she suspectedsomething or knew about his dad? Did she abandon him to be raised by a monster? Or did she not leave at all and... his father did something to her?”

Nia clasped her hands tight over her heart, eyes pained. “He’s in so much pain all the time, and no one else sees it. They don’t care because they’re too busy blaming him.” She shook her head. “I wish there was something I could do to help him. Be there for him like he’s been there for me in the past—”

“MINE!”

Nia jumped out of her skin. Spinning around, she shot back against the wall—chest heaving as she gaped bug-eyed at me.

The sudden hot flush of wolf-induced jealousy left as fast as it came. Clearing my throat, I raised my chin. “Apologies,” I said lightly. “My wolf isn’t a fan of how close you’re becoming to my fates. Not your fault of course, but it might be best to change the subject.”

“Oh... right.” Nia slowly peeled herself off the wall, maintaining the distance between us. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s cool. No one wishes my wolf would get over those alphaholes more than me.”

“Sure, but still.” She edged to the side, keeping me in her sights. “I could’ve been more sensitive. Especially because they’re only being so protective of me because of my wolf too.”

“Let’s go.”

We continued on to the mess hall, turning the conversation to our assignments. The alpha track workload was as punishing as it promised to be. Luckily for Nia, she was passing with flying colors and parades. Unlucky for me, I was failing everything.

“Are you going to do the essay?” Nia asked me. “I saw the one Raza handed back to you, and there was more red ink than black on that paper.”

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