Page 46 of Wolf Trial

Now that I was aware of it, I heard those words crop up time and time again as our classmates discussed how to transmute water into silver. Some pairings had given up on the lesson entirely, and were swapping hair and makeup tips.

“Tell me no one gets murdered, or sacrificed to a dark God at this ball,” I said, throwing a desperate look at Rogue. I’d been murdered once, so if it was just an excuse for more violence and murder, I’d give this one a miss.

“Not usually,” Rogue replied, knocking her shoulder into mine, the coolness of her skin startling me. “Although you never really know with Lunova Academy. Don’t worry, kitty. I’ll protect you.”

“Thanks,” I drawled, lifting the stopper off one of the bottles and taking a delicate sniff. It didn’t smell like silver, and my wolf didn’t start howling and scratching inside me. It just smelled like water, fresh from a spring.

“Are you sure we can make silver from this?” I asked. “Not to be a Debbie downer, but I doubt my crappy high school education lends itself to alchemy.”

“Don’t worry, kitty, we’ll make a slayer out of you yet. I’m a very thorough instructor.”

I dropped the stopper back on the bottle before I could knock it over, willing the heat to leave my face. Damn these seductive vampires, making me all flustered. It was bad enough having two wolf mates and a wolf who wanted me dead, let alone a vampire who looked at me with bedroom eyes.

I was ninety percent sure I was imagining it, and this was just Rogue’s default state, but that didn’t stop me turning into a bumbling fool. She propped her chin on her fist and smirked at me, completely aware of the heart tripping in my chest and the nervous pulse in my neck.

“You’re supposed to be instructing me,” I reminded her, shifting in my seat and immediately regretting it. Memories came at me from every direction. I had to choke down a whine as my slumbering wolf began to wake, her interest piqued at my reaction. She didn’t just want a rerun of last night. She wanted to sprint right back into the forest, plant herself on the ground on all fours, and shake her ass at them.

Luckily, I had enough dignity to fight the urge, but there was no escaping what those memories did to me. I kept circling back to Verne’s refusal to bite me. There was no reason for that to hurt, but it did hurt, both in my chest and in my neck where my wolf wanted to wear the mark of his teeth.

I’d never wanted a man to bite me in my life. Actually, if anyone had tried, I would’ve rammed my boot right into their dick and never come back. But my one night hook-up didn’t bite me, and suddenly it was the worst thing in the world.

You’re being ridiculous, I thought in the general direction of the wolf I sensed circling, restless. Why would you want to be bitten by some guy you barely know?

No, it was worse than that. She wanted to be bitten by both of them.

All of them. Her irritation spiked through my chest; I rubbed the spot over my heart. Hell would freeze over before I allowed him to touch me, let alone put his teeth in my neck.

But Verne and Leander… I had never been looked at the way they looked at me. Had never been touched the way they touched me, not by one night stand, not even by a boyfriend. Certainly not by Derek.

Fucking Derek.

I hate that I kept thinking of that bastard, but he’d done such a number on my self-esteem that I couldn’t even entertain a casual relationship without him barging his way into my head.

“Did you hear me?” Rogue asked, making me jump.

“Yeah,” I replied automatically.

“Okay,” she agreed with a smile pressed in the corners of her mouth. “Then repeat what I just said back to me.”

Shit. Um… “You think I’m smart and funny and the most accomplished slayer you’ve ever seen. That’s what you just said right?”

She’s snorted. Which was rude, but okay. “Yeah, sure,” she agreed. “But shall I repeat what I actually said now that you’re listening?”

My face grew even hotter, but I managed to nod, and this time I actually paid attention when she picked up the dropper and began the process of turning water into silver

I managed to focus for ten minutes, long enough that the clear liquid in the metal plate began to change consistency. To shine like metal.

It made absolutely no sense, but a bit of water, heat, a Lunovan mineral, and a droplet of wolf blood sourced from God knows where… and what had started out as a clear liquid was now quicksilver.

A weapon I’d be expected to use against wolf kind. I didn’t have any allegiance to the wolves, even if I was one now, but the thought of hurting anyone still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Think of the money, I reminded myself. Think of the cottage in the middle of nowhere surrounded by peace and quiet. If I could survive one year in this place, no one would ever have to know that I died at the base of that hill. No one would have to know that I wasn’t human.

My wolf was still sulking about them saving me, but refusing to bite me. I ignored her as much as possible. They could use the word soulmates all they wanted, but I was pretty sure you had to actually spend time with someone to find out whether they were your soulmate. Which meant this world had a different definition, and I had no idea what I got myself into.

In a moment of weakness, I ducked my head and took a discreet whiff of the shirt I wore under my own clothes. But could you call them your own clothes when they’d been provided to you in a drawer of a room you only lived in because you’d been kidnapped?3 The one beneath still had a little scent of black coffee and forest clinging to it. I didn’t know why I was still wearing it, or why it had been impossible to leave it on the bathroom floor this morning after my shower. It was already beginning to fade, a fact that made my wolf even more restless.

I lifted my head, refusing to sit there taking drags of a shirt like a smoker taking breathless pulls of their twentieth cigarette of the day. I focused on the silver in front of us just as Rogue lifted the plate from the heat.