My mother yelps as I tug her back and we all sprawl out on the bed. “Looks aren’t everything, Jessalyn,” she says primly. I turn my head to her.
“They don’t hurt, though, right?”
“Well… no.” My staid mother actually giggles. “Certainly not.”
I can’t help but join in her laughter, a heaviness lifting from my shoulders as the worry I’ve been carrying around for weeks evaporates.
The Cohen Pack.
Sienna Cohen.
I’m on the verge of pulling out a notepad to practice my future signature when my little sister bursts through my bedroom door.
“Sienna!” Elise gasps, her blonde hair dancing around her face. “Is it true?”
I sit up, opening my arms, and she dives into them as I drop my head to breathe in her soft, flowery scent. “I don’t want you to leave,” she mumbles. Stroking her hair, I lift up her face to look into her blue eyes, the exact mirror of my own.
“I’ll still be around, ‘Lise. And it means you get to have my room.”
She shakes her head stubbornly. “Don’t care.”
“Now, Elise,” Mama scolds. “Be happy for your sister. It’ll be your turn soon enough, miss.”
Elise retches dramatically into my stomach. “Eurgh. No, thank you.”
A grin tugs at the edges of my lips. All we have to get through is the Bonding Trials, and they’re only a formality, a stupid process set up by the Council when Navarre first separated from the mainland more than a hundred years ago. I’ve been preparing foryears.
What could possibly go wrong?
2
TRISTAN
“Out of the question. To bring down the wall would be to destroy more than a century of building Navarre to the crowning jewel that it is today. It would be heresy.”
I fail to muffle my yawn, and Council Justice Milo swings to me, his finger pointing accusingly.
“Sacrilege,” he hisses. “How easily you dismiss our long and prosperous history, Tristan!”
My father sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as he closes his eyes. “Milo, please. We’re not dismissing anything. We are merely presenting the opportunities that may come from opening a relationship between Navarre and Herrith.”
Milo postures, throwing up his hands. “Have you forgotten the reason the wall was built in the first place, David? To protect us. We were significantly outnumbered against the beta population. To bring down the wall that keeps our people safe is nothing but foolishness.”
“It kept us safe a century ago, Justice. Now, it only holds us back.”
My father turns to me as Milo's face suffuses with color, his cheeks darkening. “You are not part of this Council, Tristan,” he reminds me, his voice gentle but firm. “Not yet.”
Milo sniffs. “Your boy needs to learn his place, David.”
Dad’s voice is calm, but the thread of steel underpinning his words is unmistakable. “Tristan is more than aware of his place, Milo. That is why he is here, observing this Council session.” He emphasizes his final words, his eyes landing on me as I nod. The ball of frustration in my gut simmers as the Council members continue to argue, my fists clenching as I bite back from opening my mouth.
One day. One day I’ll be able to make a real difference.
As the Council session concludes, Justice Milo sweeps past me with a huff. Health Elio winks at me as he follows, the other Councilors trailing behind. Ollena Hayward, leader of the Omega Hub and omega representative on the Council, stops when she passes my chair.
Impeccably dressed, the older omega still retains an air of elegance as she draws an envelope from the folds of her silver dress. My mouth goes dry at the unmistakable gold shimmer, and her mouth tips up as she hands me the envelope.
“Congratulations, Mr. Cohen,” Ollena says, her green eyes sweeping over me. Her expression remains carefully blank, the omega leader always careful to keep her true thoughts well away from her face.
