Page 51 of The Sacred Wolf

“Ruby?” I called from the closet. “Do you know where Kiana is?” I pulled my now clean hair into a high pony as quickly as I could and jammed my legs into skinny jeans, hopping in a circle and cursing as I tried to work my toes through the ends with limited success.

“I believe Maximo called a car to take her home.” Ruby replied, poking her head in, and biting back a smile. “Here, let me help,” she offered, heading my way.

I made a face. “How on Earth can anyone help someone else get into skinny jeans without giving them a wedgie?”

She stopped. “Fair enough. Take this, though.” She handed me a light grey raincoat. “It’s sprinkling.”

“Ha!” I replied, as I finally freed my feet and jammed them into my favorite checkerboard Vans. “That, Ruby, can’t be true. The skies have already opened, and I’m drowning as it is.”

“I’m sure it’s not as bad as all that, Elyse,” she said as I waved to her on my way out the door. It was some comfort that she’d finally relaxed enough to use my first name, given that now everyone else I knew was starting to treat me like I was the Empress in Sebastian’s beloved The NeverEnding Story or something.

I hurried to the elevator, determined to corral my sister into a real conversation before she disappeared on me again. I knew she’d taken Mateo’s offer to clean up before departing as Ruby had grabbed some things for her from my closet. When she’d asked what Kiana would like, I’d told her to take everything I’d declared horrific and that should do it.

When I hit the lobby and raced outside to the pavement in front of the park, I saw my sister stomping toward the darkened park, looking like she’d stepped off a runway in a tangerine silk shift over black-on-black leopard print leather-look jeans and camel stiletto booties, her now perfectly made-up face topped with a tousled cascade of Charlie’s Angels curls. Ruby had nailed it. It was a good thing that look was departing with my sister because I’d never have pulled it off.

“Kiana!” I called as I darted across the cross walk, which was still crowded at this time of night, thanks to the start of tourist season. I pulled up to her on the other side, huffing and staring up into her pinched face. “I have…to…talk…to you,” I wheezed.

She sighed, tossing a curl over her shoulder in annoyance. “Is it intentional, or are you incapable of doing normal things without making a massive scene?”

“What? I…” Stopping, I cut off the growl rising in my throat. Like I was the one who was irritating. Not Ms. Houdini who’d disappeared on me for a month after lighting our lives on fire. I took a long, deep breath in my best imitation of a guru so that I could find my inner calm. Unfortunately, the second my mind cleared, a derailed train of questions ran through it at top speed and piled up on itself.

Why had she been following me?

Why hadn’t she spoken with me?

What did she think of what we’d learned from Leto?

What did she think about Evan and me and the Children and…

“How long have you been following me?” I blurted.

She tapped her toes impatiently, glancing at her phone, mostly, I assumed, so she wouldn’t have to look at me. “A few weeks.” She admitted. “Basically since, you know…”

My wolf stirred, but we both must have decided to let that go, because she kept silent. No need to rehash Kiana nearly killing our only remaining parent.

“Why?” I said, after a moment. “And why didn’t you just talk to me? After what Leto told us –”

“We don’t understand what Leto told us. I’m still not convinced we didn’t suffer a dual hallucination.”

I rolled my eyes. “C’mon, Kiana. You can’t possibly mean that now.”

Holding out her nails and examining them, she shrugged. “It’s as plausible an explanation as an actual Goddess whisking us away to some shifter la-la land to give us a lesson in sisterly duty.” She turned and met my eyes, her deep baby blues a mirror of my own. “Speaking of which, I have a question for you.”

I startled and took a step backward. I’d been so intent on my own interrogation that it hadn’t occurred to me that she might have things to ask me. My heart stuttered now as I wondered what pileup of questions might be eating at my sister. “Okay, shoot.”

“Why aren’t you and Sebastian mated yet?”

Her crimson lip curled as my face turned roughly the same color. Damn our loudmouthed pheromones broadcasting our sexual status to every shifter we met. Not that Kiana could talk. She looked like she knew her way around a male, but her pheromones told a different story. Just like mine.

“I mean it,” she added, her booted foot giving a tiny stamp. “You obviously care for him, so what gives?”

She makes a good point.

You can’t possibly expect me to listen to you if you’re going to side with her. You’re just horny.

And you’re in denial.

Turning out my personal Greek chorus for a moment—thank the Gods Evan wasn’t here to add to my embarrassment—I looked her in the eye and told the truth I hadn’t totally admitted to anyone else, not even Evan., “I like him when he’s kind and thoughtful, but not when he’s being a demanding, authoritarian Alpha.”

---