by E. M. Moore
He glances over, appraising me. “Mia seems nice.”
“She is,” I tell him. “Her mate sounds like a dick, though.”
“You probably think all the mates are dicks.”
I press my lips together. “Actually, I do.”
The rest of the ride passes with small talk about my classes and his security studies. When the roads we turn down start to feel familiar, I lower the window. The aroma that hits me sends a knife into my gut. Lunar should smell like home, but it doesn’t. I quickly roll it up and lie back.
“You’re nervous,” Jonah states.
I rub my stomach unconsciously, wondering if this is all my nerves or if Jonah is feeling it, too. “Of course I am.”
Reaching over, he places his hand on my thigh. “I’ll be right there.”
The worst part is knowing that I’m going to be judged on this excursion, too. It’s bad enough that I have to be thrust into the same vicinity as these people but the fact that Jonah will also be watching me to see how it goes makes my stomach turn over.
I’ll be pulling triple duty tonight. Trying to forget past hurts, attempting to get people who’ve hated me all my life to like me, and making sure I don’t commit any huge faux pas. All those etiquette classes might actually come in handy. Mrs. Graves’ handbook talked about how to react when someone’s being a douche, and I must have read that section a hundred times. Mind you, that wasn’t the actual title but it should’ve been.
I turn my head toward Jonah. Straight lips and a feathering jaw greet me. He looks about as nervous as I am. I want to ask him what will happen if I don’t pass his test, but I already know. If I don’t get out of Greystone, it’s Feral living for me.
A lot is riding on this night.
Every step forward I take with Jonah is followed by multiple steps backward. The tension between us is too much, but in a lot of ways, I’m relying on him tonight. “You’ll stay with me, right?” He’s already said so, but I need to make sure.
“Until you feel comfortable.” He casts a glance over at me, then returns to watching the road.
His answer doesn’t sit right with me, but I can’t very well tell him not to leave my side. That isn’t the purpose of this party. This party is to show him that I can be a part of the pack, so I have to try.
My heart thumps while we drive into town. We skirt the outermost side streets and then head toward the lake. I press my nose against the glass as we pass the public parking where Mom and Dad have taken me before, and we keep going until we’ve almost circled the body of water. Jonah pulls over on the side of the road behind a line of cars.
Would throwing up count against me? I’m pretty sure it would.
My wolf straightens her shoulders, and through her, I gather some strength. It honestly doesn’t matter what these people think of me. Fate paired Jonah and I together, so everyone else will have to get over it.
Jonah opens my door and helps me out of the truck. We turn toward the massive, modern house, and I loop my arm through his. He freezes at first, but then he brings me closer, tucking me into his side while we make the trek over the loose-pebble driveway.
Music drifts outside as a guy steps out of the doorway ahead of us. “’Sup, Jonah?” he calls, but when he sees me, his face falls.
Instead of letting that be it, I smile even though it’s the last thing I want to do. “Hi, Spencer. Good to see you again.”
He mumbles something unintelligible in response, and I’m totally putting that in the plus column. Maybe if I act as if I’ve been friends with these guys all along, they’ll be so shocked, they won’t talk to me. That’s a win-win scenario.
Jonah pulls the door open, and we step inside. It’s the typical scene I’ve devoured from movies. One area—the living space, in this case—is for dancing. The bar in the kitchen is lined with drinks. A slider on the opposite wall opens to a deck where more people are hanging out. In the grand scheme of things, there aren’t a lot of people here. There isn’t much inter-pack mingling until you get older, and even then, it depends on the position you hold.
“Do you want a drink?” Jonah asks.
I shake my head. “Ms. Ebon went over the rules with me. I’m not allowed to consume alcohol.”
“A soda, then?”
“Sure.”
We walk toward the kitchen. I ignore the way my feet want to lag behind, and instead, stay with Jonah by plastering myself to his side. I almost don’t let him go so he can grab two cans of soda from the fridge but when I realize what I’m doing, I let go of him with flaming cheeks.
Jonah glances at me and smirks. My wolf and I are getting better smiles from him, but they’re still not full-blown, ecstatic ones. He pops the tab on my drink and hands it to me. I take a few huge gulps and then stop myself. If I down this, I’ll have to use the bathroom, and that’s one place Jonah won’t follow me.
“I want to say hi to Jesse. He’s probably outside.”
My stomach squeezes, but I don’t linger on it. I smile at Jonah, and we pass through the slider that opens to a large deck. The lake lies beyond, the moonlight playing over the surface and reflecting the night sky above. It’s so beautiful that I stop and stare.
Jonah pulls his hand from me and greets someone. I’m not paying attention because I’m too busy staring out at the water. It isn’t until he nudges me in the ribs that I shake my head and bring myself back to reality.
The future alpha stands in front of me. He and Jonah are about the same size, but I’m pretty sure Jonah beats him by a little. I plaster a smile on my face and remember what Mrs. Graves taught me. Greet and compliment. “Jesse, hi. Good to see you. I was just admiring your view. The lake is so beautiful.”
His gaze travels down the length of me and back up. Waiting for his response starts butterflies flapping in my stomach. He frowns but says, “Hello, Kinsey.”
Jonah relaxes next to me, threading my arm through his again, and they start a conversation about alpha family things. I follow along fine until Jesse’s girlfriend pops up. I try to keep the smile on my face but I’m sure it wavered. She was one of the biggest bitches with the loudest mouth. She graduated with us and she didn’t bond with anyone in our class. No doubt she’s waiting for Jesse to shift next year to see if they’re true mates.
She puckers her lips, kissing Jesse on the cheek. “Hey, babe. Jonah,” she says giving him a huge smile.
I tense. I’m in a shifting ban, but all bets are off if she tries to hug him or something. I will literally rip her head off. Luckily, she has enough sense in her airhead brain. “Kinsey, look at you.”
“Hi, Laura,” I force out. “Good to see you. How are you enjoying Brixton?”
She blinks at me, her eyes narrowing before turning to Jesse. “Do we have to do this?”
It’s evident she said it loud enough for me to hear. She’d be getting an F if Mrs. Graves were here. Total bitch.
“Yes,” Jesse whispers back. To me, he says, “I’m sure Laura meant to tell you how much she’s enjoying Brixton.”
The shifter in question rolls her eyes, so Jesse tugs on her arm and they walk away.
When they leave, I shake my hands out, close my eyes, and take several deep breaths. The wind off the lake helps calm my nerves. When I open my eyes again, Jonah is watching me. “That went well.”
I refrain from rolling my eyes like the Queen Bitch just did. “Swell,” I tell him. “Lovely.”
“They’re just not used to you talking to them. It’s going to take a bit for them to warm up to you.”
I practically bite the end of my fucking tongue off.
I know, they were so busy picking on me that they didn’t have time to get to know me. But that’s not what Jonah wants to hear, so what-fucking-ever.
We walk to another group where more hard eyes land on me. People start whispering behind their hands, and it drives a wedge between me and Jonah. Once again, I feel like I’m on my own.
Well, this should be fun.
17
I’ve been in plenty of situations before when I realize I’m the butt of the joke, and this is exactly like that. So help me, Fate. I plaster a damn smile on my face the whole time even though my heart beats like crazy. When the group Jonah is in decides they’re going to go for a swim, he turns to me with narrowed eyes. “You need to chill out.”
He pointedly peers at my hands which are basically squeezing into his huge biceps, and I relax them. “Sorry,” I mumble.
“It’s going fine,” he reassures me.
I swallow, gazing around. No one seems to be paying attention to me at the moment, so maybe it really is me. Since we’re off to ourselves, I tug on my lower lip and stare up at him through my lashes. The boots Mrs. Graves bought me are really working with the height difference, but in actuality, I kind of like that he’s so much bigger and stronger than me. Especially tonight. He makes me feel protected.
“Am I doing okay?” I hate how uncertain my voice sounds, but I put on a brave front anyway. He filters his fingers through my hair, his thumb passing over the shell of my ear.
“Yes, you’re really trying, and I appreciate it.”
The doe-eyed look on his face makes my core heat. Is this party like television? Do couples find rooms and go to town on each other? Can we move on to that experience? Because that sounds like a hell of a lot more fun.
“I’m going to grab us some more sodas. Meet me at the dock?”
I nod. I can get behind a trip to the lake. It’s so beautiful. He leans down and feathers a kiss across my forehead. It’s not the domineering, mind-melting kiss I’ve felt from him before, but my eyelids flutter closed in response like I’m trying to soak it in. In a way, it’s more intimate. Rough kisses are spurred by our natures, but that? That may as well have come from human-Jonah.
His hand trails down my arm, and I open my eyes to find him disappearing through the slider. I take off down the deck and onto the lawn, my lips tugging into a smile. Forty yards of grass extends in front of me until a dock juts out into the lake. A few bodies are already standing there, and as I watch, one dives into the water at the excitement of the cheering crowd.
I won’t be going in the water, but I don’t mind watching the fun. It beats being at Greystone, and honestly, it’s just nice to be with Jonah. Part of me is happy to be staking my claim here. I didn’t want to come, but if he’d gone without me, I would’ve been a jealous bitch.
Don’t ask me about shifter feelings. I don’t understand them myself.
The stars twinkle above my head. A thread of excitement buzzes down my spine as I make my way toward the dock. Footsteps come up behind me, and I relax thinking they’re Jonah’s but tense when the scent is all wrong. I move out of the way, but the shifter falls into step beside me. I peer over and find Rachel, Laura’s best friend. I tamp down my first reaction, and instead, say, “Hey. How’s it going?”
She smiles, but it’s cruel. “Hey, Kinsey. I heard you were coming.”
I don’t know how to respond to that, so I keep my mouth shut and continue on my same path. Jonah will be coming soon, and at least he’ll be a buffer between me and anyone else. He may be blind but he’s also not going to let anyone do anything to me either.
“Us girls are actually heading over here,” she says, steering me down a separate path. She winds her arm with mine like Mia does, but it feels all wrong. Her hold is too tight.
“Oh, but Jonah—”
“Jonah said he’d be coming, too. It’s a better spot to sit and relax. You know?”
My gut instinct tells me this is a bad idea, but I can’t go running to Jonah. He’ll just think I’m not trying. “Sure. Cool.” We keep on the path that threads through a forest of trees. The canopy above us blocks the stars and the moon, but our wolf vision makes us see more than the average person, so we easily traverse the landscape. Remembering Mrs. Graves’ lessons, I ask, “So, are you at Brixton, then?”
“Yes,” she answers, a sliver of ice threading through that one word.
My hackles start to rise, suspicion building between my shoulder blades. “You know,” I start, about to tell her I’m going to wait for Jonah on the main lawn, but she pushes me into a clearing in the woods.
Yellow, beady, wolf eyes stare back at me. I spin, and several human forms surround the clearing in all directions. They move in closer, surrounding me. It’s the same few bitchy girls from Lunar that used to gang up on me, and they’re doing it again now. Here.
Laura chuckles, the sound sinister in the back of her throat. “I can’t believe you went through with it. Coming here was a risk.”
“I’m here with Jonah,” I remind them. “You know, my mate.”
Her gaze narrows. “Aren’t you the lucky one? Elevated by about a couple hundred spots.”
“If he lets her out of the academy,” Rachel offers smoothly.
Laura tsks. She’s always been the head bitch, acting as if her shit doesn’t stink, and using Jesse to do it. Her claws are sunk so cleanly into him that if he ever matches with someone else during graduation day, whoever that girl is will end up at Greystone Academy. “Do you really believe you have a chance of him choosing you? If you’d been made to go Feral with your family when you should have then at least he wouldn’t know this shame.”
Her words sink into me, and I hate her for them.
“You’re pathetic,” one of the other girls snarls. “You should just go Feral so you don’t put him through any more of this. His parents won’t talk to him. They’re trying to do everything to not have him tied to you and your disgraceful family.”
My heart beats painfully in my chest. I breathe in steadily to try to calm myself. Back at Lunar High, I’d walk away or lash out. This time, I decide to stay and face it. “I don’t want to be anyone’s enemy,” I say, trying to keep my cool even though it feels as if my wolf is beating a door down inside my chest. “Fate chose this. Not me. Who are we to decide she’s wrong?”
“You’re wrong,” Laura snaps.
“If I’m not a product of my parents,” I growl, assuming that’s what she’s getting at, “do you really believe Fate would’ve matched me with someone at all? Not to mention someone like Jonah.”
“Fate gets it wrong all the time,” Rachel concludes. “Why would we need a place like Greystone Academy if it didn’t?”
Because there are people out there like you.
Behind me, someone snarks, “Yeah, what’s it like there, anyway? Eating out of troughs?”
I snicker at that. If they only knew how nice it was. Not to mention that the people there are one hundred times better than the ones at Brixton. “Something like that.”
Laura’s eyes glow in the dark, snapping from her normal color to her wolf teeming at the surface. “You find us funny? Someone really thinks highly of herself now.”
A growl tears from my chest. My fingertips throb, and I close my eyes to talk myself down. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.
Keeping my wolf in check goes against our nature, though.
A ripping bark sounds from behind me, and I spin to find a wolf launch through the air at my head. I fall to the ground, and it flies over, landing on all fours behind me. A whine bursts from my lips as the overwhelming urge to shift and defend myself laps at me. Shifting hurts like a mother, but nothing hurts worse than holding it in.
“Just shift, Kinsey,” Rachel calls, laughing. “How come you’re still human?”
By the echo of giggles rising up, realization dawns on me. They want me to shift. They want me to go against Lydia Greystone’s orders because they know what will happen if I do.
“Pathetic,” Laura cackles. “She’s deformed. Did anyone even see her on graduation day? She probably walked around half shifted like the freak she is.”
I snarl. “Yes, Jonah saw me on graduation day.” Peering around, I search for a way to get the hell out of here. Nothing good is coming from this. I march toward the girl who’s in front of the path, but she gets in my way. I try to walk
around her, but she shifts closer, staying in my face. My wolf roars in my chest, and the sound comes out right in her face. My incisors elongate, and I physically remove her from my way and start down the narrow trail.
A hand grabs my hair and yanks backward. Searing pain emanates from my skull, and I fall to the ground. “We didn’t say you could leave, bitch,” Rachel thunders.
A figure emerges out of the tree line. A flood of relief flows through me at the sight of the larger-than-life form, but I quickly realize it’s Jesse Greystone wearing nothing but a pair of joggers. He was the wolf who flew at me. He leans down and locks lips with Laura in a searing kiss. She pats him on the chest. “Let’s get this over with. Send her to where she’s belonged all along.”
Jesse swaggers toward me. He gets down on all fours and scoots next to my side. I try to move away from him, but two hands on my shoulders pin me in place. “Smile,” Jesse teases.
“The fuck?”
Someone tugs my hair again and yanks me against Jesse’s shoulder. A flash lights up the forest, and I blink, waiting for my eyes to return to normal.
Jesse jumps to his feet, clapping his hands together. “Good enough? I want to go for a swim.”
Laura lowers her cell. “One more thing,” she says. The group of girls descend, walking toward me. The one girl still has me by the hair, keeping me in place. My heart ricochets around my chest. They loom closer and closer. Rachel swoops to grab a rock protruding from the ground, and Laura’s fingers turn into black claws. My wolf batters at me. My deep breaths turn into pants through clenched teeth. “Get your cameras ready,” Laura calls out, smiling at how much I’m losing control.
I gnash my teeth together, a rumble emanating from my chest. But it’s of no use, I’m going to play right into their little act.
Behind the head bitch, a wolf launches into the clearing, landing in front of me. Jonah’s huge, brown wolf howls, a snarl ripping through his chest. Laura takes several retreating steps, knocking into one of the other bitches. Backing up, Jonah turns to the girl behind me who drops her hold on my hair. I don’t see her run away, but branches crack in the forest.