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I ignored the hundred other antlers.

“And before you get the wrong idea, I'm not here to help you in any way. I'm helping him.”

From the start, it had been clear to me that Alarik and Emely had a good relationship. And I knew that Emely didn't trust me.

Ever since I'd been having these strange dreams and my eyes had been acting crazy, I didn't even know if I could trust myself.

We walked past beautiful paintings of hunting scenes and animals in fairytale Canadian forest landscapes.

“What messed up bullshit... It gives me stomach pains that a witch is now lurking around in my family home.”

“On campus, we also...” I began cautiously, but Emely spun around and interrupted me. Her eyes glowed yellow, and I suppressed the urge to step back.

“However you managed to do that with your eyes, you may have fooled the pack, but not me.” Her brows narrowed. “I know exactly what you are.”

I would have loved to tell her that I was neither one nor the other, but that was too risky in a house full of people who could turn me into ground meat in a second.

With a warning glance, Emely turned away from me and walked on.

The feeling of being watched made me look around like a paranoid lunatic.

The moment I spotted Nash Copeland staring at me like I was some kind of animal running through his house, my heart started racing.

His gaze was searching, but... not judgmental in the slightest.

I looked back at Emely and hurried to catch up. When I turned around again, her brother was gone.

“This is your room,” Emely announced, as if she would rather be somewhere else.

She put down my backpack, and I entered the room.

It was a colonial bedroom with a rustic touch, the walls and furniture in wood colors, but I immediately felt comfortable. It seemed to be a guest room because the bed had no sheets.

“Don't make yourself too comfortable.”

I turned to Emely.

“Who knows how quickly your little lie will be exposed.”

At this point, I had to say something.

“Emely, believe me, I'd rather be at home right now.”

She eyed me as if she didn't believe me.

“Vivienna saw me the other day. With those wolf eyes. And she seems to have ratted me out.”

Emely didn't change her expression, but she listened to me.

“This morning, a bunch of Quatura showed up at our front door and accused my mother of treason.”

“If she really had a forbidden affair with a Senseque...” she began disparagingly, but I interrupted her.

“I don't know, okay? There's so much I don't know. My mother never told me anything, and I didn't move to this cursed town by choice. Everyone here seems to hate each other, and damn it, all I wanted was to start studying literature, but now I'm stuck in an old mansion with werewolves, unable to go home because vengeful witches are waiting there to probably torture me to death, and I don't even know what they did to my mother.”

My stomach cramped as my vision blurred.

“We're not werewolves,” Emely snorted, as if that was the only thing I had just said.