Perrin
Jaz was asleep. I wasn’t surprised. She had barely slept the night before.
I couldn’t imagine what it took to deal with what she dealt with on a daily basis. How could she treat life and death so clinically when Kira was on the table? It blew my mind.
A low buzzing sound echoed from somewhere in the pocket. I checked the bedside table. Where was my phone?
I crept out of bed, trying to find my jeans. Another buzz from the tiled floor. Ah.
I retraced my steps, pulling my phone out of the vibrating denim on the kitchen floor. Lo’s face flashed on the screen.
“Hello?” I whispered.
“Hey! Wh
Ethan“She doesn’t want to see you.”“Are you serious?”“She needs time.”“She doesn’t get the luxury of being selfish when she pulls a stunt like that.” I growled. Jennivah didn’t deserve the attitude and I knew better. But I couldn’t help myself.“She needs time,” Jennivah stressed. “Go enjoy your evening. I’m sure you can find something else to do.”Her tone was light and playful, a direct opposite of the scolding I had received trying to break in behind the reception counter when Lorrie wouldn’t give
EthanI hadn’t had enough time in the last few days to fathom what it would be like to be with Justin. But I had time well before I had a mate to think about it, in the quiet times when I had a chance to admire the fine male figure of someone else at the Lodge, or when we were forced to study the head shots of the challengers. I wondered if I would have stopped on Justin’s picture if I had been looking at the photographs of the Alpha Challengers as I had studied, rather than the Beta ones. Would I have known then? That this dark and attractive male would be my mate?I turned to him, his massive form now flooded with low lamplight. Would I have recognized the face of my mate in a picture? Would something in me have known he was the one?On those days that I had allowed myself to admire the male form, I hadn’t imagined it
LoThe next week passed in somewhat of a blur. I spent most mornings by myself in the quiet of the pack archives, crawling through encyclopedias--and in rare cases, translating them from Latin. It was long and tedious work, best done without company.My concentration was typically punctuated in the noon hour with the arrival of Perrin, typically sweating with the exertion of running the few miles from the Lodge to spend a portion of his lunch break assisting.“Why don’t you just get Charlie to bring you here?”“Faster this way,” he said with a cocky grin.And then I set him to work.The first day it was largely moving boxes. Marge’s gnarled hands an
PerrinIt hadn’t sat well, what Lo had said. Jaz had held too much from me. We were supposed to be talking more, to make this all work. And I hear that she’s sharing things about my Beta with Lo that she hasn’t bothered telling me?I texted her, asking her to join me for a walk. Part of me didn’t want her being in the pack house tonight, a gut feeling that I couldn’t quite explain. Walking gave us direction, momentum of some kind that we just weren’t getting outside of the bedroom.She agreed to meet me when she got off work. I had switched out patrol so that I could get to the bottom of this. While nothing typically came before my sense of duty and running patrol, this thing with Jaz was stuck in my head and throwing all of my concentration.“Hey,&rd
Deidre“How did it go?”“She is one unhappy she-wolf,” he muttered, waving at Cynthia to shut the door.“Which one?”“Both,” he said, agitation all over his face.He has spoken to Mistra to inform her about Jaz joining the ‘inner circle,.’ I snorted at the thought. “It’s not like she had a choice in the matter.”Jason’s face was dark. “I don’t think she quite sees it that way.”“What do you mean?”“I think she’d rather…” he didn’t finish the sentence. My blo
Lo He stared blankly after I finished. I wasn’t sure if he was still breathing. “Ethan?” Perrin prodded gently, approaching him slowly. Ethan blinked. “You think I was poisoned?” I sighed, suddenly lighter, as if the weight of telling him was off of my shoulders. “That’s a rather direct way of putting it, but yes.” “And you don’t know by what?” “No.” “Or by whom?” “Nope.” “And your research hasn’t turned anything up?” “Not entirely.”
LoThe next several days passed with more joy and ease and contentment than I had felt in awhile. It felt so at home in the archives, spending time with my two best friends. It was as though everything in our lives had finally begun to settle.Both Perrin and Ethan continued to help me during breaks from training, which, not that we were a month out from the Sacred Call, had become even more grueling and intense. I caught both of them more than once dozing with their heads on leather bound volumes, prodding them gently awake only when the danger of their drool would have ruined the books.The medical textbook hadn’t turned up as much help as I had hoped. There was no section on poison origins, and the section on anticodes were limited to plant poisonings. I had a hard time believing Ethan had been slashed to death by a venomo
EthanI didn’t care how bad it smelled. I took a strong swig of the whiskey, if only to have something to do with my hands. That, and to keep them from shaking.It tasted horrible, burning as it went down. I thought of Kira. How could she stand this stuff?I shuddered, draining the glass as if the smell of the alcohol would calm my mind.“Ethan?”Justin’s voice was gentle and tentative. I wasn’t sure how long I had been quiet. Lo and he had both sat still, across from me in the giant living room of Justin’s suite. The sun had set long ago, but as if not to want to disturb me, no lamps had been turned on. Instead, my gaze had followed out over the vast city of the Aperture pack, list from below, while