Chapter 2

DOMINIC

The sky is full of September storm clouds. Leaves rustle in the breeze, and it catches Billie's red shawl, giving her a cape before she wraps it up tighter. We're early as usual. It's always best to be either the first or the last to arrive. The whole pack has come to see Fleming off to his semester at the Lunacy house, if he'll ever stop kissing Will long enough to get hugged.

“Remember, Griffin,” Will calls Fleming by his first name. “We've got your back. You aren’t alone over there. I'll be by constantly.”

“So will I, though maybe not for the same reason,” Tristan adds.

Billie kisses Fleming's cheek.

“We all will,” says Raven. “They won't get away with shit.”

“Try to have at least a little faith I can take care of myself. I'll be running that gang before the semester's over,” Fleming says.

“Sure you will,” Billie says.

The delegation from Lunacy arrives, and we all look curiously at the black-haired girl.

She looks like an easy target.

It almost feels wrong.

Her name is Selena Cross. How ironic.

Nox gives her a deep kiss, then lets her go. I walk over to her to make the transfer, grabbing her by the wrist, irritable for no reason.

Her huge blue eyes have dilated pupils.

She is terrified. I don't have to smell her to pick up on other things. The dilation of her eyes. The erratic beat of a pulse beneath her skin. My predatory wolf senses tell me she's afraid…and something else I can't place.

It almost feels wrong to do the things I'm about to do.

Then I remember Billie’s terrified but resigned face, and our helplessness.

We aren't the helpless ones now.

“We didn't think Nox would come through with our request. He really must not give a shit about you.” I say it directly in her ear. Thunder sounds in the distance. She gasps and winces, then straightens her back. I grab her wrist and yank her along, along with her suitcase.

“Please, I'll come with you, you don’t have to–”

“Oh you'll come, all right. I'll show you right to where you'll be staying.”

“Nox said–”

I pull her to me. “Forget Nox,” I say in her ear. “Nox can't save you now.” Then I pull her along inside the basement, to her cage. The one Tristan and I set up just for tonight, for her first night here. It's in a tower that’s used mostly for maintenance purposes. I hope she's afraid of the dark.

SELENA

Mate.

That's all I can hear inside me, and I wish my inner wolf would shut the hell up.

I may be a hybrid, unable to shift, but I'm still in touch with the wolf inside me who wants to take over.

And she's trying to break my heart by telling me this jerk is my mate.

This boy with brown hair and the bluest eyes and strong, broad shoulders who obviously can't stand me, this boy with the cruel smile.

Yeah, right.

The goddess can't be so awful as to give me a chance at freedom at a horrible cost, only to deliver me into the hands of my fated mate…who hates me on sight.

That can't be how this story ends.

“Here, little bird. This is your cage.”

We've stopped in front of an actual cell inside a subbasement, with a cot against the wall and a pail.

“Wha-what?” I stutter.

“You heard me. Get in.”

He's standing so close, and all I can smell is him. Something sharp and dangerous. Like a sweet smelling burning stick of incense, smoky and hot and sticky.

So I get in the cage just to get away from him.

And he shuts and locks it.

“Someone will get you for the bathroom later, and your class tomorrow. Welcome to the Underground.”

And he walks away, taking my suitcase with him.

Mate, she says.

Shut up, I tell her.

But it's no use. She’s convinced. She thinks if we tell him, everything will be okay. There's no way to remove the scent blockers Nox had put on me, not without a witch.

Maybe he'll never even know I'm his mate.

I'm not who they think I am, and if they only knew–but no one can know who I really am, or I'll lose my last chance at freedom. The chance my body has already paid for again and again.

Whatever Nox wants of me, he gets. That's just how it is.

So I lay down on the cot and surrender to fate. Whatever happens, happens. It's how I've survived the past year.

I don't see the boy again until the next day.

He comes in and unlocks the cell. At least the cot was comfortable. I'm well-rested for whatever is coming next.

He grabs me by my wrist again and pulls me out of the cell. “Come on. You might want to shower and change before breakfast.”

“Aren’t you just going to keep me in a cell like a prisoner? Or do you have a heart after all?” I ask him.

He stops and gets in my face. “Let's get one thing straight. I've never had a heart, and I don't plan on getting one. I'm stuck babysitting you and so you're going to do what I say.” We resume walking, going up the spiral staircase of the tower. “And what I say is you sleep in the attic, do what you're told, and keep out of everyone's way. Think you can handle that?”

“F-fine,” I say. “Whatever you say, mister.”

I'm not looking to ask him why I slept in a cell last night, and now I have a room. Hazing happens.

We finally come to a stop at the top of the stairs. He opens a door and pushes me in. “Clean up, I'm hungry.” And he slams the door behind him. My suitcase is at the foot of a twin bed in this tiny room.

I still haven't gotten a name out of him.

I'll have to call him Crankypants.

In my head, anyway.