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I was sure that Nash Copeland wanted me dead by now and that the weird Russian had a similar list with me at the top, but I hadn't cared that evening. My brain had somehow shut itself off, and then there had only been Emely Copeland.

“And we can't afford that.”

When I had started teasing Emely a few months ago, I had done so because I had wanted to piss off the pack. This girl had been the perfect target. But somehow, I had focused too much on her, and now I was getting my just desserts for my hyperfocus.

“Do you all understand me?”

Adrian was the first to grumble something, and Larissa finally sighed in agreement, so I ended up giving him an “of course”.

Obviously, our “yes” meant “no”.

Adrian would always put Nicolaj’s orders above Bastien’s, no matter how crazy they were.

Larissa wouldn't abandon her strange friend, and besides, she too was obsessed with this Alice Blair.

And I, as much as I wanted to, couldn't stay away from Emely. Too much had happened for that.

I had to talk to her, although I didn't know what to say. The mere thought of it made my stomach go crazy.

Bastien drove into the large parking lot in front of the campus meadow, stopped his car in the middle of the parking lot, where everyone could see us, to drop us off. And then we got out.

I immediately felt eyes on the back of my neck.

Normally, I would have enjoyed the attention of the campus, but I wasn't wearing my sunglasses, nor did I have the cool head that a Legacy Ruisangor was supposed to have. Besides, it wasn't my car I was getting out of...

I was done for, because nothing, not even the thousand images of her that had formed a strangely hazy color film in my head, had prepared me for her true appearance.

With growing nervousness, I slammed the car door shut, unable to resist the reflex to turn toward the largest oak tree on campus.

And then I spotted her. Standing there, among all the other members of the pack. Her dark, almost black, long waves, which she wore lose today, tousled by a light winter breeze that drove the frost across my cold-resistant skin, until I no longer knew whether it was really the breeze that was causing my goosebumps.

And that look... full of surprise, overwhelm, and as if… petrified.

She looked like she had that night when I had pulled her onto the dance floor.

And suddenly I felt it again. A million lightning bolts in my stomach.

Chapter 9

Emely

War Of Hearts

Ruelle

I felt like an idiot. And at that moment, I was exactly that.

Everything inside me froze the second he got out of that damn luxury car, only to turn toward me.

The first thing I saw was his eyes. And that's where I got stuck.

Miles DeLoughrey was back. And everything I had tried to prevent from happening seemed to come crashing down on me in an instant.

He, like me, was frozen in motion, staring back.

Every second that passed felt like half an eternity in which he had power over me with his mere gaze. My naive emotions belonged to him. And me? I stood there like the idiot I was and gave him that power over me.

Not able to move, I watched as the dark blond man who had gotten out of the driver's side talked to him, and finally, Miles took his eyes off me and looked at him.