Ashford stood above me.
“Didn’t you hear me calling to you?” he asked.
I looked up and saw the moment he noticed Cole’s mark.
A long silence stretched between us.
“Here, let me help you up,” he said, offering me his hand.
I took his hand, and he pulled me to my feet with ease.
“Sorry, I’m in a rush,” I said without looking at him and tried to move past him back to the stairwell.
“Not so fast. Wherever you’re going can’t be more important than me, can it?” he asked.
Voices began to near us, and air rushed into my lungs. I wouldn’t be alone with him for long.
His eyes never left my throat.
“You must have been busy after we reconnected yesterday,” he said, scenting the air with no subtlety.
The swing doors nearest us pushed open, and a group began to walk towards us.
“I really should be going,” I said as Ashford turned to see the approaching group.
I quickly moved past him, just out of reach.
“I’ll see you tonight,” he called behind me.
Tonight?
It was only when I was outside—the cold air, the dimming light—that I recognised the feeling within myself, that foreign pull.
The full moon.
I had forgotten.
I ran back to the cabin, completely ignoring any attention that my frantic sprint may have attracted.
Back in the cabin, I made my way to the kitchen, opening each cabinet, desperately looking for wolfsbane. This was Hail. They had to have wolfsbane somewhere!
I opened every drawer next. Even checked the fridge and freezer, and finally the mirrored cabinet in the bathroom.
None.
Not a single tea, pill, gummy, or anything.
I walked out to the back porch and sat on its edge.
It was too late now to suppress the shift anyway, I decided, looking at how low the sun was above the treeline.
I was going to shift.
There was no choice.
Cole had offered to protect me during the last full moon. To keep the others away from me.
But she wasn’t here now. Obviously by choice. If I were her, I wouldn’t want to be near me either.
