My wolf might be excited, but I am trembling in fear.
3
EVAN
Ididn’t sleep. All I could think about was the man with green eyes and tattoos covering his arms and neck.
What other parts of his body are inked?I shake my head and roll onto my back with a groan.
Sunlight seeps through my blinds, and my eyes ache from desperately wanting to rest but not being able to. My wolf howled inside me all night, and I didn’t get a second of peace.
When I head down to breakfast the next morning, Ava, Jaxon, and Aurora are already there. Aurora sits in her high chair as Ava feeds her, and Jaxon makes breakfast.
“Morning, Evan,” Ava says as her head lifts. “We didn’t see you at dinner last night.”
“Wasn’t hungry,” I murmur.
Jaxon glances at me, but I look away.
“Everything okay?” she asks, her voice dipping with concern.
I merely nod. “Yeah, just tired.”
For a second, I peek at Jaxon, who is now paying attention to the stove as he cooks.
Who was that man he was with last night?
Why was he here?
Ava mentioned someone taking over Cole’s pack. Surely it’s not him. A thousand different questions rush through my head, and yet my wolf weeps. I can’t even think about it without shuddering.
“Well, we’ve got a big day,” Ava says, snapping me out of my trance.
“Huh?”
“Jaxon’s got news to share with the pack.”
I frown. “News?”
“Yeah,” he says without even looking at me. “Everyone needs to be in the main hall at midday.”
“Oh…is it something bad?”
Jaxon starts to plate up their breakfast, his eyes locking with mine. I swallow thickly at the way he looks at me. “You’ll find out at the meeting.”
My stomach churns when I attempt to eat, but nothing goes down right. Everything tastes like cement.
After gathering in the hall with the rest of the pack, I clutch my hands together and pick at the skin around my fingernails in anticipation. There is quiet chatter amongst us, but I stay back with Nina and Leon, two people I’ve become close with after private training sessions with Kayden.
My body has barely recovered from yesterday’s session; I feel wobbly and unstable. I need to rest and eat, but my anxiety is betraying me.
A wave of gasoline hits me right in the chest, and I stumble backwards a little as I flick my gaze over the crowd of people. It’s so consuming that I can hardly breathe. That’s when I see Jaxon step to the front, and right beside him is the man I saw yesterday.
He looks even more intimidating than I remember. My wolf whines inside me, and my eyes begin to water.
No. No. No.
This cannot be happening.
