Page 56 of Wolf Trial

Oh, god.

Someone else was dead because of me. First Suri at my hand, and now Oona.

“She insulted you,” Leander growled, as if that was a good enough reason to kill someone. His eyes were a brighter shade of green when he looked up at me, his brow a hard line over those dazzling eyes and his face… it was pure ire, sculpted into the shape of a man. I shuddered hard. “She pushed you. She killed you. She killed my mate.”

“I didn’t want her dead,” I cried in a strangled voice, stumbling back another few steps. “What have you done?”

“Avenged my mate,” he rumbled, unapologetic. No, worse. Proud.

I thought he was the normal pack member, the joker, the sweet, awed one. But he was a psychopath.

When he pushed off the ground, leaving Oona in a pile of dirt and trampled leaves, I exploded into movement. The back of my neck tingled as I sprinted back to the path, a stitch ripping across my middle as I followed it to the hill. Faster than ever, I scrambled up the dirt mound, grabbing protruding rocks and slanted trees to haul myself up. I only stopped running when I was inside the academy’s boundary.

I could never go back to the cottage, no matter what Verne promised. If Leander killed so easily and without a second though, they all did. My mates were no better than the slayers of Lunova Academy. My mates were killers.

CHAPTER 31

SADIE

Iwas beginning to understand what Verne meant by the bond gaining strength. It had been five days since I snuck away to see the wolves, since Oona found us on the return and Leander killed her in cold blood. The first day was the same as last time; I was distracted, a little itchy. By the second, my skin itched all over and a tug in my chest urged me to race out of the academy halls and into the forest. Day three, I couldn’t sleep, curled up in bed as my heart squeezed erratically, and I shook so badly that our professor for battle tactics sent me to the healer. Day four, I used the healer’s note to stay in bed all day, struggling to eat, to breathe, but today I had no such excuse.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Paige asked, frowning at me as we waited on the sloped grassy field at the back of the academy where loose training sessions were being set up. Reed barked instructions at people, seeming to take enjoyment from their incompetence. Drizzle hung in the air, invisible in the dark sky except for where the moon’s rays shone. It had already soaked through my training clothes and my ponytail, sliding down the back of my neck. “Maybe you should take another day off?”

“I’ll be fine.” I had to push through, had to work off the itch in my skin, this crumpling pain in my chest, the desperate desire to race into the treeline and return to the man who killed someone in front of me. My wolf was insane for wanting to go back to them.1

I couldn’t stay curled up in bed forever. Then it would be my name at the bottom of the slayer rank list, and someone would come to drag me out of bed and throw me into one of those training arenas. The next batch of abductees would kill me, and the cycle would begin anew. So I straightened as much as I could, curled my hands into fists so my fingernails pricked my palm, and I focused on that sharp discomfort to keep myself grounded.

We’re not running back into the arms of a killer, I hissed at my instincts, so get used to being away from them. But that was the thing; the longer I stayed away, my body acted like I was in withdrawals. I wasn’t just itchy; I was sweaty and cold and shaky. Last night, my teeth chattered as I pressed my knees to my chest, trying to sleep, trying not to think about the look in Verne’s eye when he said he wanted me for me, not just because fate had selected me at random.

Worse was when I woke up, when in the few slow moments before my mind began to work, a quiet voice ribboned through the chambers of my mind. Maybe you belong with a pack of killers, maybe fate chose well. You’re a killer too, after all.

“Paige, Oona, you’re up,” Reed shouted, her voice so naturally loud it carried across the field and made me jump.

“Oona’s missing,” a small voice said, not carrying nearly as well as Reed’s. Quiet and thick with unshed tears. Maveline. “We haven’t seen her in days.”

“Another one?” Reed grunted, shaking her head. “What a waste of a perfectly acceptable slayer. Islyn, then.”

“Good luck,” I breathed to Paige, Elix and I watched her cross the rainy field to stand opposite the tall, silver-blonde woman a few years older.

Elix held her pad so I could see it. Islyn is injured from a session two days ago. Paige will be fine.

“Thank god for that,” I murmured. Slayers were dropping like flies, and I didn’t care who went missing or turned up dead as long as it wasn’t my friends. As far as anyone knew, the same person who killed Fioranna and Soria was responsible for Oona going missing, and I wasn’t about to tell them it was a wolf who’d saved my life. But guilt made me jumpy, and I swore Reed could see it written all over my face.

Paige’s sparring session went quickly. Thankfully, this was only practice and not a fight to the death—those happened in the arenas—and like Elix said, Islyn was injured, which meant Paige could put her newly learned skills to use, kicking the blonde’s ankle and knocking her to the ground.

By the time three more fights had concluded, I was restless, shifting my weight. I wondered if I could skip our strategy session this afternoon and—no. No running into the forest. The forest is banned.

“Sadie,” Reed bellowed. “Get in here.”

I groaned when I saw who she’d selected for me. Lawrence Montgomery-Sutherland.

Kick his ass, Elix said with a smirk.

Paige squeezed my shoulder, looking fierce and sweaty and more like a warrior than she had last week. I wondered if I had changed, too. “You’ve got this.”

I’d rather spar against Lawrence than any of the slayers who had years of experience, but his smug face was the last thing I wanted to see on a morning where I was miserable and irritable—and hungry because I hadn’t been able to keep down my porridge.

“Surprised to see you’re still alive,” Lawrence remarked when I joined him.