“Is Revyn from your pack? Like your betrothed or something?”
I pour a cup full and chug the entire thing before answering. “No. We met later.”
When I don’t elaborate, Gemma sighs and flops down onto her back. “Could have fooled me. You two seem like you’ve known each other forever, so I assumed...” She glances at my face. “Sorry, I know it’s a sore subject. I shouldn’t pry.”
Wincing, I set down the half-empty canister on the floor before rolling onto my back beside Gemma. “No, it’s okay. I’ve never talked with anyone about him before, so I guess I...don’t know what to say.” I lace my hands over my stomach and stare at the faint glow of the ceiling. “He found me when I was?—”
How to sugarcoat an assassination attempt?
“—attacked by another shifter. A wolf, like me, only I wasn’t able to shift at the time. Revyn helped me learn control. He taught me a lot of things about being a wolf, actually.”
Like how to snap someone’s neck in one hard bite.
I leave that part out of my story.
“He’s saved my life more times than I can count. I owe him a debt I can never repay.” No matter how many times I’ve saved his ass over the years, it will never equal the life he’s given me. I was alone and afraid after my pack was slaughtered, and he took me in without a single hesitation. Even when I told him my name and which pack I’d come from, he didn’t care.
You’re like me, Sienna.
Free.
My chest aches, and I rub the spot gingerly. There’s only one thing he’s ever asked of me, and it’s the one thing I can never give.
“Why don’t you mate with him? Officially, I mean.” Gemma stares at the cloth wrap around my neck, like there’s more to her question. “He obviously likes you.”
“That’s an understatement,” I huff. He doesn’t just like me—he loves me. “It’s complicated.”
Gemma hands me her drink before grabbing mine from the floor. Refilling our cups, she clinks hers against mine and smirks. “Bottoms up, buttercup. I want to knoweverything.Including his dick size. I didn’t have a front row seat to your spat last night, but the girls tell me that he ishung.”
I laugh out loud, the sound spilling past my chest and making me dizzy. “We’ll need more alcohol if we’re gonna gothatdeep into my problems.”
“Dick size isn’t a problem,” Gemma snorts, downing her cup before setting it on the nightstand. “But fine. Let’s get more booze before we can’t walk straight.” Taking my hand, she sits me up and pulls me to the door. Neither of us have shoes, but neither of us seem to care as we push into the hallway, Gemma’s giggles echoing off the walls.
“C’mon, I know where we can get the good stuff without going all the way back to the vamp bar.” She pads barefootacross the carpet, giggling even more when she kicks up the corners of not one, not two, butthreerugs on her way to the adjoining courtyard. Beautiful, flowering vines curl around the columned arches displaying the courtyard in full moonlight, the snow falling from the skies above gently evaporating before its flakes touch the grass. The blades are soft under my feet as we step across the threshold and into the dappled light.
Trees sway as Gemma walks beneath their bows, as though greeting her warmly. I smile at the sentiment and brush my fingertips over a prickly bush. It cuts through my skin, and I hiss at the sudden slice of pain. Blood drips down the edge of my hand and catches on my wrist. Fuck. How many times am I going to bleed in one day?
“Gemma, do you have any ointment?—”
Glancing up, I find the walkway empty where she stood moments ago. “Gemma?”
Something tugs inside my chest, like a thread being pulled. I follow its pull to a different side of the courtyard and stumble up a short flight of stairs to a moonlit landing, this one covered in snow. The mountain we ran up last night looms in the distance, its path lost among the sheet of white and the bonfire at its base long since extinguished.
A figure is bent so far over the railing that at first, I think they’re throwing up the same drink Thorn mixed for us. “That shit’s strong,” I say without thinking, shuffling closer to the drunk person. “He really shouldn’t put so much in it?—”
Their head snaps in my direction, their nostrils flaring as their gaze narrows on my hand...and the blood dripping down my forearm. Oh. Shit. I don’t know this person. And Idefinitelydon’t like how they’re licking their lips.
Fangs protrude from their mouth as they smile warmly at me, but it doesn’t reach their eyes—bright red but flat and unappealing. “Hello, wild wolf.” Turning on his heel, hestraightens to his full height and takes a calculated step forward. “You look a little lost. Need help finding your way home?” His gaze catches on the cloth around my neck, and the corners of his mouth tighten. “You haven’t been claimed, have you?” He sniffs the air, the gesture as vulgar as it feels. “Doesn’t smell like it. I’m surprised that Callum got that close and didn’t have a taste. Then again, the bastard’s fucking ancient. I bet he doesn’t remember how to wet his throat properly.” His scratchy laugh fades in the cold breeze. “Show me your throat, girl, and I’ll make sure you get home before sunrise.”
“Fuck you,” I growl, clutching the nearest wall for balance. My claws lengthen, but not to their fullest. Shit. What the hell did Thorn put in that drink? “Get any closer, and I’ll kill you.”
“Can’t kill students,” the vampire laughs, tossing his greasy bangs from his face. “A pity they implemented that rule. I hear that a few years ago, you could kill anyone you wanted, and no one would bat an eye. Less competition that way.”
And an even smaller population than before. It’s no wonder they added a killing ban after how rapidly the world’s gone to shit since the rot appeared in the wilds.
The eerie scrape of claws on stone sends a shiver down my spine, and that thread inside my chest tugs even harder. I turn my head to find golden eyes glowing from the shadows. “There are worse things than death,” Alistair says calmly, stepping onto the landing in casual attire. A black, loose-fitting shirt and matching slacks. Bare feet, like mine. Hair tousled like he’s been tossing and turning in his sleep.
Claws that arefullyextended, unlike mine.
