“Sending the girl in first. Howgentlemanly.”
Liam’s eyes flashed behind the fog in his goggles. He pushed past me and flopped onto his stomach and started creeping down the tunnel. “Covermethen.”
So I shielded him. I thought I caught the glow of red. Sure enough, someone from the enemy team shifted inside the dilapidated cottage. I raised my gun and fired through the window. My pellet hit its mark. The guy turned in my direction. I couldn’t see who it was, but did it matter? He retreated into his camp’s bunker with his gun and hands raised. On the other side of the tunnel, I noticed another red light. I clambered over the dirt piled atop the plastic tunnel and shot at the person before they could duck and locateLiam.
I hit the person’shelmet.
He raised his hands and gun just as a pellet smacked the base of my spine. “Got you again,Clark.”
I grabbed my walkie talkie. “I’m out. Lucas is at the south entrance of the tunnel,Liam.”
Just as I spoke that, Lucas raised his gun to me again, but before the jerk could get another shot in, a pellet hit him on thethigh.
I wheeled, half expecting one of my teammates to have shot him, but found one of his owninstead.
“Stop picking on her, Mason,” Augustgrowled.
Lucas glowered at him before prowlingoff.
“Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that,” Isaid.
“This is a preview of the trials, Ness. They’ll stab you in the back the first chance they get. Drop out. You hear me? Drop.Out.”
“I drop out, and I have to pack my bags thisafternoon.”
“I’ll talk to theelders.”
“I’d rather youdidn’t.”
He huffed. “I won’t stand around to watch you gethurt.”
I laid a hand on his forearm. “It’s a game, August. They’re not going to killme.”
“They might not kill you, but they’ll—” His body jerked as a pellet smacked hisback.
Liam had crawled out the other side of the tunnel and openedfire.
“What will we do to her, August?” His voice was as harsh as his closeshot.
“You won’t hesitate to hurt her,” August bitout.
“Didn’t you hear? Nothing can hurt her.” Liam was tossing my words back at me with such a derisive tone, that for a second, I tightened my gloved grip on the gun, tempted to shoot athim.
But I took the high road; I spun and walkedaway.
If thiswasa preview, then at least I knew what toexpect.
Chapter Ten
My body resembleda sheet of blotting paper. Like ink smudges, bruises marbled almost every limb on my body. The worst one was on my innerthigh.
My team ended up winning. Not that I’d felt in a celebratory mood. After the game, I’d vanished into my bedroom to take a hot bath, then donned leggings and a super soft off-the-shoulder tee. I skipped wearing a bra because the wires dug into my bruised ribs. On the upside, my cheek and jaw were looking a lot better. My werewolf blood was kicking in and working itsmagic.
I simply prayed my body wouldn’t decide to change tonight. I didn’t think I could take any morepain.
A text from Lucy had me heading to the laundry room in the late afternoon. Now that the weekend was over, all the beds had to bechanged.
I loaded up the industrial-sized washers with sheets and pillowcases and duvet covers, trying not to gape at certain stains. I washed my hands twice then started on the ironing of the loads that had already been washed and dried. I fed sheet after sheet through the rotary iron, watching the furrows smooth out of the fabric, feeling them smooth out of me,too.
