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“Come here,” Alarik demanded, and I took off my coat, but immediately regretted it as cold air crept under my brown knit sweater and through my white blouse.

Nickolas is watching you. Act normal.

“What should I do?”

With both hands, Alarik held the thick, sturdy branch up horizontally.

“Break it in the middle.”

I looked at the branch in despair.

“I picked out a rotten one especially for you,” he said with a serious expression.

I was tempted to look at him in frustration, but refrained from doing so in order not to attract attention. And so, I ended up breaking a good seven out of ten rotten branches.

The advantage? I was no longer cold. The disadvantage? I felt exhausted and like an idiot.

“You should never have brought me here,” I sighed as Alarik picked up the eleventh stick, as if this were only the beginning.

“You're doing well.”

He smiled, but I couldn't smile back.

“How much longer?” I dropped out of my fighting position, knowing that I hadn’t looked particularly serious in it and that Nickolas had probably long since realized that Alarik was trying to fool him. “How much longer before someone finds out?”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“But I do.”

Alarik lowered the stick.

“Bayla...” he began calmly.

“No, Alarik,” I blurted out, immediately lowering my voice. “I'm not your responsibility. And if something goes wrong, it could ruin your life.”

Alarik stared at me as if I had punched him in the gut. And something else... I felt my eyes burning.

Whatever was happening, I was overwhelmed, didn't want to talk to him like this, but I was right. Alarik was putting himself in unnecessary danger, lying not only to his brother but also to his Alpha. For someone insignificant like me?

Alarik's gaze wandered to my hands, and I didn't have to look down to know that my veins were standing out.

I had to get out of here. As quickly as possible. And there was only one place that immediately came to mind.

True Love’s Last Kiss

Eternal Eclipse

I rushed into the house, grabbed Emely's car keys, which she always left in a bowl next to the front door, hoped she wouldn't kill me, and got behind the wheel of her car.

I also pushed aside the thought that I had run over a squirrel on my last real drive, because my desperation was stronger than my fear of causing an accident.

My driving wasn't exactly careful, but luckily it was only a forest road, and somehow, I made it through the Senseque neighborhood with its dense woods, the moss-covered woodpiles along the road and the many rustic wooden houses.

A road with a few bends and crossings took me past the town center and quickly brought me to the neighborhood I was currently supposed to avoid, but I stepped on the gas and just hoped that no one would spot me here.

I kept driving, and when I spotted the turnoff to the forest road, I turned the steering wheel sharply, and immediately the road became bumpy. The car rattled over the gravel, then through the mud, and eventually I hit the brakes.

I took one last deep breath, then got out.