My heart pounded. I could feel my pulse thrashing wildly against the skin of my neck. I span around, my eyes roving across the darkness desperately.
“Hey, it’s okay,” came Jacob’s soothing voice. It did little to calm me, but I took a deep breath before I jumped up.
“Jake,” I hissed. “Help me look.”
“It’s probably just an animal,” he placated, but he stood up beside me nonetheless. I held a finger up to my lips.
I crept away from the log we’d been sat on, my eyes wide. I was afraid to blink. I could smell something unsettling, and familiar, but I couldn’t place it. The sun had set completely now; the woods were washed in darkness, shades of black and blue coating the forest floor like bruises.
Another footstep fell to the ground. It was quiet, but the sound radiated through the trees like ripples in a pond. I turned towards Jacob, but my breath stilled in my throat when I caught sight of him.
<“Watching me?” I gasped. “But why?”“That’s why Silver Shore are coming early,” Jacob said. He stood and slid the chair back under the table, and then moved to stand beside me. “Their patrols caught a rogue between our border and theirs. They’ve kept her for questioning. She hasn’t said much, apparently. But she did let one thing slip. They haven’t told us what, yet, though. They said they wanted to discuss it in person, but that it couldn’t wait for the ball.”“I’m sorry we chose to keep this from you,” Kele said. “It was wrong. You fought off a rogue singlehandedly. I am ashamed that I thought you could not protect yourself, that hearing this would weaken you.”“It’s okay, Alpha Kele,” I said. My head was swimming with new information, but I was processing it quickly. I moved to add a dot to the map, and placed it where Rosa and I had come across the rogue. “In future,
I spent the rest of the afternoon working with my mum. We ended up with a detailed security plan for the ball, and a concise note of key points to discuss in the meeting. We then met with the Female Gamma, Ryna, and Liliana, and talked through the rogue situation together. My mum encouraged me to share my concerns that the rogues may have formed a pack, but the idea was quickly shot down. Ryna looked at me patronisingly, as though she wasn’t sure why I was present. “The whole point of rogues is that they aren’t in a pack, sweetie,” she’d drawled. Unlike when my parents or Jacob called me sweet, a rolling ball of anger spat fire in my chest. Ryna was usually nothing but nice to me, so I was surprised by her tone. I shrugged it off, though, and was determined to stand up for myself.&n
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“I can’t believe I don’t turn eighteen for another month,” Rosa huffed.We were sat together in my bedroom, getting ready for the annual Mating Ball. Rosa was pouting, her lips bare without their usual swathe of red lipstick. It was unusual to see her without makeup on, but I knew that soon she would look back to normal and then some.We had about two hours until the ball commenced, and we finally got to meet the other three packs in attendance. So far, five of our pack had found their mates in the Silver Shore pack. Hopefully, tonight that number would increase drastically.The only two that I knew even moderately well were Michael and Ellie, who had quickly become the source of many jokes around the reservation. They surpassed even the grandest legends of the mate bond; they were near constantly entwined, not kissing, just holding one another and staring into their eyes. It was sweet, really, and underneath the ligh
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