“You mean . . . ?”
“I mean if we can’t figure something out, Walter will attack us with the biggest wolf army ever formed in our history. We’ll be at war. And Jasper is our commander in chief.”
Katie drops the hand holding her donut into her lap. Must have lost her appetite too.
“And if you actually want to know how I feel, I feel like a complete asshole,” I say, head dropping to my chest.
“Wait, why?” she asks.
Lifting my chin, I gesture at my desk, where a letter sits open.
“Is that . . . ?” she asks.
“I got in,” I say. “To CalArts.”
“I thought you were happy going to NYU?”
“I am. But . . .”
Recognition dawns on Katie’s face. “You were happier to get in there.”
“Bingo.”
“And I’m guessing you haven’t told Jasper?”
Shame floods my chest, and I shake my head.
It wasn’t as if I was planning on keeping my acceptance into one of the most prestigious fine arts programs in the country a secret, it just never seemed like the right time to bring it up.
“I wanted to tell Jasp in person, but he only just got back from Cambridge and then we had the party and now all this. I never got the chance.”
“He’d be happy for you, wouldn’t he?”
“Maybe.” The paper of the donut bag tears easily, trapped between my fingers. “But it would mean at minimum another three years of being long-distance, and even with our mind-link that’s a really long time.”
“Sure, but he’d want you to go where you want.”
“Normally, but now ...” With things as they are and Jasper needing me more than ever, there’s no way I could abandon him to go to college all the way across the country. I shrug. “Hey, maybe there’ll be a war and we’ll all be enslaved by Walter Bridgers, and it won’t matter.”
Katie clutches at my knee on top of the comforter. “Don’t think like that.”
“Whatever.” I continue to tear at the bag, dropping little shards of torn-up paper onto the comforter. “I can’t say anything to him right now, not while he’s dealing with everything.”
“You’ll find the right time,” she says. Again, we sit quietly. Then Katie looks up, her voice coming out breathy and quiet. “Do you really think there’s going to be a war?”
I bite my lip. And do my best to smile.
Neither of us so much as takes a bite of our donuts.
In the afternoon I return to the city, where Jasper has been in crisis meetings all morning. He told me he had a break around three, so I head straight to the apartment. When I get there I hear voices even before the elevator has pinged open.
“If you’re not part of this pack then why are you here?” I hear Jasper ask as the doors slide open.
Jasper and Aisha are standing in his living room, clearly having a tense moment.
“I’m here because I care about you,” she says.
They both notice my arrival but continue their ... conversation.
