“I’ve missed you, too,” I whisper.
“So have the rest of them.”
I don’t answer that.
“How is Angel doing?”
“Ah, well, he’s gone into a memory. He’ll come out when he realises that you are not them.”
I wince. Riot rocks us both and kisses my head.
I shouldn’t be doing this, but I can’t make myself stop.
“I’m trying to fix this.”
“No, we don’t have to talk about this.”
My laugh is broken and bitter. “I’m working on it. I’ll figure it out.”
“No, Casey. I can’t. I can’t talk about you, about this being over.”
“Itisover.”
“It’s not. It’s fucking not. There’s no way. I’m not giving up on you, on us.”
“I won’t hurt you. Riot, there is no way for this to work. Khaos was right. I won’t hurt him anymore, or you,” I snap.
“He can heal. He can get better,” Riot snaps back. “But this…this is a once in a lifetime.”
“And maybe we all pissed off the fates. Maybe we don’t get a happy ending.” I turn my head, and our lips are so close I can almost taste him.
His eyes drop to my lips. He searches my eyes slowly, and then he closes the space.
I groan into him, opening my mouth, our tongues sliding together.
“We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“We’re destined to be doing this. You belong to this pack, Casey.”
There’s a bang on the door.
I tear my mouth from his and struggle out of his arms.
“Your family is here,” Khaos snarls through the door.
I feel myself grow cold. Time just ran out.
Casey
I walk outside, flankedby four wolves. It doesn’t feel right without Angel. Still, I’m shocked by what I see. A car? Cars! How did they get up here without me knowing? The wolves must have run up the side of the mountain; there are so many.
It scares me, giving me a terrified flip of my stomach. My whole world crumbles, every future I’d dreamed about crashes in quick glance. There is no getting out of this, no survival, no way to win.
They are here.
The entire Foster pack.
Everyone is here in fur or on two legs, teeth bared, ready to take us on.
