Page 11 of The Awakened Wolf

“Except you.” I gave her shoulder a little shove with my own.

“Yeah. I wish I could come, but I have some things I gotta do first. Like graduate from medical school.” She shrugged like it was no big deal. “But you’re free now.”

“I can’t just leave, Jayla,” I said, my voice soft. “I know you mean well, but being a shifter isn’t a lifestyle. It’s my species. I’m not a person, and I won’t suddenly be one in a new city. And neither will Evan now. Other shifters—”

“What do you mean you’re not a person?” She was back on her feet, throwing her hands up. “Of course you’re a person.” She pulled me to my feet and then led me over to the now black TV screen. The pristine surface shone like a mirror. “See?”

Other than throwing on some street clothes in the subway station, I hadn’t had a chance to clean myself up since the attack, so I knew I must’ve looked like I’d shifted from human to drowned rat in Jayla’s eyes. But what I saw in the ebony depths of the TV screen wasn’t tangled blonde hair and a too-big T-shirt hiding a torn shiftskin. I saw my wolf, ears drooping like a hound dog and blue eyes full of infinite sorrow.

Jayla was wrong. I wasn’t a person. I was a shifter. And Sebastian’s fated mate. Yes, our world was screwed up, and I was navigating that as best I could, but no amount of running away could fix that. I wished I could explain that to my friend, but I knew it would never make sense. My problems didn’t fit into human categories. There was no treatment or remedy she could prescribe.

I sighed. “Thanks, Jayla. I know what you’re trying to say, but I can’t run away. Let’s leave it at that.”

“Alright, alright.” She gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Maybe that’s not the move, but we can still figure something out, I’m sure. I’m going to use the bathroom—it’s been hours of this girl just moping around about her mother.” Jayla shot the TV itself a dirty look. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back and you can tell me the rest of what happened. And then we can keep working on ideas for you.”

Jayla’s reflection walked off the screen, leaving me alone with my wolf.

She’s almost as persistent as you.

My wolf stared at me blankly. I tilted my head, and she did too.

Now you’re quiet?

You don’t like it when I talk.

Only when you’re being tragic.

I’m sorry. I’m sad. Her ears drooped further. I need him.

I know. Me too.

Turning away from my morose wolf, I spotted Jayla’s phone on the sofa, abandoned just like me. If only Sebastian were on a very long bathroom break. Biting my lip, I picked up the phone. She couldn’t blame her for being curious, considering how much she loved cats, so I punched in the passcode, which she’d once foolishly revealed was her future husband’s birthday, and found myself looking at her newsfeed. I chose the first video.

Another choice I’d always regret.

It was strange, realizing I’d become a character on TV. On Alma Mater Animalis, they used a combination of highly trained animals and big-budget CGI effects, but I wondered how satisfying audiences would find the fight scenes now that they’d seen us in living, breathing, bloody color. Wolves bigger than bears.

Keeping the video on mute, I punched the circling arrow again. And again. And again. Each time I saw Sebastian turn and run away from me, his mother in his arms. The footage was from above, a drone or helicopter, like Jayla had said. You couldn’t see the snarl on his face, the horrified betrayal beneath it. You couldn’t hear him shout at me above the screams of the terrified crowd or the chop of helicopter rotors. But every time he turned, I knew.

After the fourth time, I flicked the app closed, sickened but determined. I knew Jayla was going to come back from the bathroom with fresh arguments for why Evan and I should run, but I couldn’t leave my own kind behind now that the whole world knew we existed. Especially not when there were twenty-three terrified people out there who weren’t my kind before they met me. I took a deep breath and dialed an extremely private number before I could have lost my nerve. It rang once and then…

“Who is this?” Kiana’s voice rasped with suspicion. “How did you get this?”

“Hey, sis.” I choked out. “Can I come home?”

Chapter Five

“What in Halo’s name were you thinking?!” Kiana roared the second she opened the penthouse door and yanked me inside as if there were anyone else on this level to see the end of my long walk of shame. “Mating before the ceremony! I could smell it all over you as soon as we set foot in that tunnel! You’re lucky Max didn’t call you and Evan out in front of both packs!”

“I didn’t mate with Evan!” I huffed, instinctively moving toward Father’s old familiar couch but stopping short when I discovered it had also gone AWOL.

Kiana’s residence on the floor below had always reflected focus and sacrifice with clean lines, neutral walls, and utilitarian furnishings. But in the month she’d had since becoming Alpha to renovate Father’s apartment, Victorian England had swallowed that vibe whole. Or maybe Versailles? There was a lot of wallpaper. And paneling. And when I looked up at the loft, I could just make out the shine of a satin curtain surrounding a carved bed. If she was going for ‘Now that I’m Alpha, let them eat cake’ she’d totally nailed it.

“I know that,” Kiana said, her tone softening ever so slightly. “But surely you can see how it looks. You smell mated. He smells mated. Sebastian left.”

“Evan smells like that because he had an incredibly vibrant life before I bit him,” I grumbled, helping myself to a flop on Kiana’s medieval excuse for a sofa. “And Kenzo knew. He smelled it on Sebastian this morning. But he didn’t tell Max.”

“Kenzo’s an idiot.” Kiana rolled her eyes. “And so is Sebastian.”

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