CHAPTER TWO

ELARA

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“Your boyfriend is going to cheat on you!”

Kirsten yelled it through the blaring speakers. I snatched my hand out of hers so fast you’d think she burned me.

“You said palm reading would help my anxiety! That was the whole point, Kirsten. Now you’re—” I gestured between us. “—building a panic attack from scratch!”

Ignoring my glare, she shrugged. “I’m just telling you what it says. A special person in your life is going to betray you. And we both know Nate is the only special person you’ve got.”

I took a rapid sip of my drink. The alcohol didn’t help. Her words had already spiked up my nerves. “Nate would never do that. He’s the most loyal man alive. If loyalty was a disease he’d be terminal.”

“You really love him, huh? Like, love love?” She rolled her eyes, flipping her strawberry blonde hair over one shoulder. Everything about Kirsten was loud—her laugh, her opinions, her looks. She was tall and golden, built like the goddess had taken her time on the sculpting. High cheekbones, full lips, blue eyes that are framed by naturally long lashes.

“Is there room for me in your little relationship? I could be the third wheel. I’d be cute at it.”

I snorted. “Don’t be weird, Kirsten.”

“Okay, okay.” Kirsten stood up with the kind of energy that meant trouble.

I watched suspiciously as she adjusted the straps of her dress, pulling the neckline down just enough that a whole new territory of cleavage appeared. When she caught me staring, she blew me a kiss.

“I’m buzzed enough. Time for the mission,” she said.

My jaw dropped. “Please tell me you were joking.”

“About shooting my shot on Ian Nightshade?” She said it like she was reading off a to-do list. “I was not joking. I am not joking. I will not be joking.” She smoothed down her dress and her expression went dreamy. “Didn’t you see him staring at me at the rink earlier? He literally looked right at me.”

“Kirsten—”

“Look.” She grabbed my arm and squeezed once, firm and quick. “Good luck tonight. The mate thing. I really do hope it’s you. You deserve it. Truly.”

Then she was gone, swallowed into the crowd.

I sat there. Alone. My cup of whatever getting warm in my hand. The dress Nate bought me riding up my thighs no matter how many times I tugged it down.

I checked my phone. 11:45PM.

Fifteen minutes until midnight, until Nate’s birthday.

My knee bounced under the table. My fingers were cold around the cup.

“Look, the Alpha is here!” some girls giggled near me.

“Fuck, he’s so hot!” Another said.

I could feel the energy in the room shift at the mention of his name. I nearly rolled my eyes out of my skull.

Ian Nightshade.

The soon to be Alpha of our pack. The Icy Captain. Hockey god, emotional void, six-foot-four wall of hostility wrapped in a striking face.

The guy didn’t smile. I was fully convinced his facial muscles weren’t wired for it.

And I could not—for the life of me—understand why every girl in our class, including my best friend, acted like he was the goddess’s personal apology to women.

He was mean. He was a fuckboy. A cold, heartless, unapologetically cruel fuckboy.

I didn’t want to know these intimate details about him, but the information kept finding me anyway. Uninvited.

Apparently, Ian Nightshade was—and I’m quoting multiple sources here against my will—incredible in bed and, quote, gifted below the belt.

I did not ask for a single piece of this information. Not one. It had been dumped on me and I wanted a full refund and a memory wipe.

He was still a jerk. Knowing that a jerk had a big dick didn’t make him less of a jerk. It just made him a jerk with a big dick.

I shook my head hard, like I could rattle the thoughts loose.

Where was Nate?

That was the only question that mattered.

Nate was the best thing that had ever happened to me. And I know how that sounds. I know it sounds dramatic, maybe even pathetic. But when you’ve spent your whole life being the girl people whisper about—the wolfless one, the one who brings bad luck—you stop expecting good things.

I loved him so much it scared me sometimes.

Please.

The Moon Goddess had already taken everything she could from me. My wolf. My parents.

She wouldn’t take Nate too. She couldn’t.

Right?

I checked my phone again. 11:50

My stomach felt like it was slowly being tied into a knot by invisible hands.

I pushed into the crowd to look for him when something slammed into my shoulder, knocking my glasses straight out of my nose. Before I could catch my balance, a boot came down and I heard glass crack.

“Ow—hey! That was my glasses!”

I looked up.

The twins. Zane and Rhys. Ian’s personal shadows and the two most irritating people in the SilverCrest Pack.

They were carrying Sheila—the cheerleader queen—between them. She was draped across their arms, wearing what used to be a dress but was now mostly just suggestions.

“You just stepped on my glasses!” I said irritably.

Zane looked down at me like he’d just noticed a stain on the floor. “Oh. The Muteblood. Watch where you stand, You’re in the way. It’s kind of your whole thing.”

Sheila lifted her head from Rhys’s shoulder and traced a finger along his pierced brow, her eyes sultry and curious. “Is it true you have another one of these somewhere else?” She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth. “I wanna see.”

“Patience, baby,” Rhys grinned. “You’ll feel it before you see it.”

And just like that, they disappeared down the hallway, Sheila’s giggles trailing behind them like perfume.

I stood there. Blurry vision. My pride in a puddle on the floor.

Those jerks.

I seriously hoped they caught something contagious.

The house was a maze. I turned a corner and opened a door.

The sound hit me before the visual did.

Moaning. Loud, shameless, pornographic moaning. The slap of skin on skin, the bed frame knocking against the wall in a pattern that felt personally offensive.

I squinted my gaze, and then—eyes. Grey eyes. Ice cold, sharp, completely unbothered. Staring right at me over the girl’s shoulder without even the slightest hitch in his rhythm.

Ian Nightshade.

He didn’t stop. He didn’t cover up. The asshole didn’t even have the basic decency to look embarrassed.

I didn’t mean to look. It was involuntary. A reflex. The way you look at a car crash or a spider on the wall or anything horrifying that your brain screams DON’T LOOK at but your eyes do anyway because they’re traitors who don’t follow orders.

I looked down and I saw it, every single rumor I’d ever been forced to hear was confirmed in one devastating glance.

It was kinda blurry but I saw enough to know the sources had not been exaggerating. If anything, the sources had been conservative. That was not a gift below the belt. That was a punishment. There was a whole horse between that man’s legs.

“Either get in or fuck off, Mute,” he said in a bored tone that still managed to be icy and insulting.

Before I could even process the absolute insanity—

The brunette beneath him arched up, fisting the sheets, and let out a moan so loud it had to be fake. “Don’t stop—I want you all to myself—”

I gagged.

My throat convulsed, my body rejected the entire scenario on every level.

I slammed the door so hard the walls shook.

What the fuck. What the actual fuck.

That image was in my brain now. Permanently. I could feel it settling in. I was going to need therapy. Several rounds. Possibly hypnosis.

I pressed my palms against my chest and breathed.

Okay. Okay. At least one good thing came from that traumatic experience—the girl under Ian was a brunette. Not strawberry blonde. Which meant Kirsten’s mission had failed, and I was relieved about that because I didn’t want my best friend to be his victim.

Right now I needed air.

I checked my phone as I pushed toward the back of the house.

12:01 AM.

Midnight.

Please. Please. Please.

The back door spilled me out onto the patio, and the night hit me like cold water. It was clean and quiet here. The noise from inside dulled to a muffled thrum.

“Kirsten—” I started calling out, because I could see her near the tree line, the shape of her hair lit up faintly by the light from the house.

But she wasn’t alone.

My feet slowed before my brain caught up.

Nate.

He was standing in front of her. And even from twenty feet away, I could tell something was wrong. His face, when I got close enough to see it—

Pale.

Sick pale.

“We have to tell her,” Kirsten was saying. Her voice was shaky, as though she was crying.

My stomach didn’t just drop. It—plummeted with dread.

“T…tell me what?”

They both turned at the same time, wearing expressions I’d never seen before. Nate looked like he was drowning. Kirsten looked like she was trying very hard not to burst into tears.

“What do you have to tell me?” My voice trembled.

“Elara…” Nate started.

His eyes were wet. I’d never ever seen his eyes wet before, and the sight of it sent something cold and jagged through my ribs.

I could feel it coming. Every nerve in my body lit up, screaming at me to run, to cover my ears, and not let the words land.

“Don’t,” I whispered. I didn’t even know what I was begging him not to say. Just don’t. Please. Whatever it is, keep it inside you.

“We’re mates,” Kirsten said.