“Why should I? Is it true? Do you have a pack?” Devon snarls at the door, though his eyes swing back and land on me.
A sob breaks free, but he just growls, unmoved.
“Devon, please, I can explain.”
“How can you explain this?” Devon says, his voice soft, broken. He stops abruptly when Elijah puts a hand on his chest.
“You have a pack!” Mack says in a horrified whisper. “Sofia, you should have said something.”
More and more people start throwing questions, start shouting. It gets louder and louder, but I can’t look away from them.
They’re going to leave. No, I have to stop them.
“Wait.”
They can’t hear me.
“Devon, stop!”
He’s turning away. I have to tell the truth. All of it.
“I don’t!” I shout over the roar of voices. “They are courting someone else. That pack isn’t mine. They didn’t want me. I was just a joke, a way to hide their real choice from their parents. I didn’t want them. Nothing was agreed; they never touched me. I was just a joke.”
My words trail off in the silence.
Humiliation burns through me. All eyes are on me; every single person I care about is staring at me, watching this lowest moment. I should have said something earlier.
Devon has paused; he’s still breathing hard.
“They were going to make it official when I found everything out. They never wanted me. It was a game. I was a fool, but…”
I look at all the angry and disappointed expressions of my family. Everything I feared has come true. Everything I was hoping to avoid.
I snuggle Danger closer and then spot Felix.
“Felix?”
His eyes are hard and distrusting. “Can you take Danger to the secret beach? Don’t let anyone stop you.”
“Why?” he practically spits. “Will you tell me the truth?”
“Because I…” I look around, and I duck my head.Fess up, Sol. “I stole him. They are probably here to arrest me. Trust me, that pack doesn’t want me; they want Danger back and probably money for the damage I caused.”
My mother shrieks and grabs my arm. “Sofia, what were you thinking? What damage? You stole their dog?”
I rip my arm free of my mother’s grip. “I was thinking the job I went to the city for didn’t exist. It was a scam. The apartment was crap and no bigger than my bedroom here, probably smaller, and it was scary. That first night, I was robbed, and all my money was gone. I was thinking I couldn’t get home even if I wanted to.”
“Why didn’t you call for help?” she whispers.
“And say what? That I failed? Come back here and spend forever pining for someone who would never look at me twice?” I say bitterly. “That all my dreams dried up in the smog-filled city in just a couple of hours?”
They stare at me.
“I had to try. Then I had my heat, and it costs money to hire a pack, and I couldn’t afford it, and…” I glance down. “I had to borrow money. Every time I paid it off, something would come up, and I would need to borrow more. The pack bought my debt; they claimed it was love at first sight. They rescued me.”
I squeeze my eyes closed.
“It wasn’t love for me, but it felt like a way out.” I open my eyes, focusing on Elijah. “They said they loved me. They helped me find clean, safe housing. I got a job as a waitress. I started getting back on my feet. They were nice, but then, one day, they brought this puppy, and I fell in love. They promised everything was going to change when we became an official pack.”
