CHAPTER TEN

THE INEVITABLE CONFRONTATION

The bonfire at Miller's Field was supposed to be a fresh start.

That was Carly's thinking, anyway. She'd spent three days icing Chris out, waiting for him to crack, to explain, to beg forgiveness. Instead, he'd only grown quieter, more distant, his eyes taking on that haunted look she was beginning to hate. So she'd taken matters into her own hands. She'd texted the group, bonfire, Saturday, everyone come, let's reset the summer.

She'd watched Anna read the text from across the diner booth, watched her friend's face go pale, watched her make excuses about the fake summer class. Carly had smiled through it and said, "Perfect. See you there."

Now, standing by the flames with a warm soda in her hand, Carly wondered what she'd been trying to prove. That they could all be normal? That the thing she kept glimpsing in the corners wasn't real?

Because it was real. She knew it was real.

She'd seen them at the lake yesterday.

She hadn't meant to spy. She'd gone looking for Chris, worried when he wasn't answering his phone, and she'd found his truck parked near the north shore. She'd walked the trail with her heart in her throat, telling herself she was being paranoid, telling herself to trust him.

Then she'd seen them through the trees.

They weren't touching. They weren't kissing. They were just standing too close, their foreheads nearly touching, Chris's hand raised like he was about to cup Anna's face. The air between them had been thick, visible, a living thing. And the look on Chris's face, the hunger, the devastation, the relief was a knife Carly would carry forever.

She'd backed away before they saw her. She'd driven home, thrown up in the bathroom, and stared at herself in the mirror for an hour.

Now she watched them from across the fire.

Anna stood near the cooler, hugging her elbows, her gaze flickering toward Chris every few seconds like she couldn't help it. Chris stood on the opposite side of the flames, ostensibly talking to Jim Keller, but his eyes kept drifting to Anna, tracking her movements with the unconscious precision of a compass finding north.

Carly felt it like a physical illness. The pounding in her temples. The sour rise of bile. The way her hands shook around her plastic cup.

She set the cup down and walked.

****** ******

Anna saw her coming.

She saw the determination in Carly's stride, the set of her jaw, the red-rimmed eyes that spoke of sleepless nights. Anna's stomach dropped through her knees. She cast a desperate glance toward Chris, but he was trapped in conversation, oblivious.

"Carly…." Anna started.

"We need to talk." Carly's voice was flat, stripped of its usual music. She grabbed Anna's wrist, her fingers digging in hard enough to bruise, and pulled her away from the fire, away from the crowd, toward the dark line of trees where no one could hear.

"Carly, you're hurting me…."

"Good." Carly shoved her into the shadows and let go, her chest heaving. "Now you know how it feels."

Anna stumbled, catching herself against a tree trunk. The bark scraped her palm. She looked up at her best friend, her sister, the girl who'd held her hair when she had food poisoning at fourteen, who'd sent her care packages every month at college, and saw a stranger wearing Carly's face.

"What's going on with you and Chris?" Carly asked. No preamble. No softening.

Anna's mouth went dry. "Nothing. Carly, I swear…"

"Don't." Carly held up a hand, her voice cracking like a whip. "Don't you dare lie to my face, Anna. Not you. Of all people, not you."

"I'm not lying…"

"I saw you!" The shout ripped out of Carly, raw and jagged. She advanced, her hands shaking at her sides. "At the lake. Yesterday morning. You think you're so careful? You think no one notices how he looks at you? How you lean into him every time he walks into a room?"

Anna pressed her back against the tree, her heart hammering. "Carly, please…"

"How long?" Carly demanded. Her eyes were wet, furious, devastated. "How long have you been screwing my boyfriend?"

"We haven't…." Anna gasped, the accusation like a physical blow. "We would never… I would never do that to you…"

"Bullshit!" Carly laughed, ugly and broken. "I saw you, Anna! I saw his face! You think that kind of look is innocent? You think I'm stupid enough to believe you've just been hanging out?"

"We haven't slept together," Anna said, her voice trembling. "I swear to God, Carly. I swear on our friendship. I never touched him like that."

"But you wanted to." Carly's voice dropped to a whisper, the words slicing deep. "You want to. Right now, standing there, you're thinking about it. I can see it on your face."

Anna squeezed her eyes shut. The truth was a boulder on her chest, crushing her. She thought of the bond, of the magic, of the destiny she hadn't asked for. She thought of how pathetic it would sound, the moon made us do it and how little it would matter to the girl standing in front of her.

"Carly," Anna whispered, opening her eyes. Tears tracked down her cheeks. "I never meant for this to happen. I tried to stop it. I've been trying to stop it since the day I came home."

The admission landed between them like a gunshot.

Carly staggered back, her hand flying to her mouth. "Oh my God. Oh my God, you actually, you actually just admitted it."

"Carly…"

"Don't say my name!" Carly screamed, her composure shredding. "Don't you ever say my name again! I trusted you! I loved you! I told him you were the one person in the world I never had to worry about!"

"I know…"

"You know?" Carly advanced again, shoving Anna's shoulder, hard. Anna's head snapped back against the tree trunk, stars bursting behind her eyes. "You know what? You know that you're a snake? You know that you're trash? I gave you everything, Anna. My home. My secrets. My boyfriend, apparently I just handed him over like a gift!"

"It's not like that…" Anna's voice broke on a sob. "Please, Carly, if you would just let me explain…"

"Explain what? How you seduced him? How you play the sad, lonely friend until he felt sorry for you?" Carly's face was streaked with tears, her mascara running in black rivers. "Was it fun? Was it exciting, sneaking around behind my back? Did you laugh about me together?"

"No! God, noo we never…"

"You're a liar!" Carly shoved her again, and Anna let her. She let the physical pain ground her, let it match the devastation in her chest. She deserved this. She deserved worse. "You're a lying, backstabbing, pathetic excuse for a friend, and I hope you burn for this. I hope you both burn."

"Carly, stop…" Anna grabbed her wrists, trying to still her, trying to reach her. "Please, just listen. It's complicated. There's something you don't know about Chris, about what he is…"

"I know exactly what he is!" Carly wrenched free, her eyes blazing. "He's a coward. And you're a whore. That's all I need to know."

The word landed like acid. Anna flinched, her hands falling to her sides.

"Hey!" The voice cracked through the dark like thunder.

Chris.

He emerged from the firelight, his face pale, his eyes wide with horror. He must have seen them leave, must have heard the shouting. He moved toward them with that preternatural speed Anna now recognized as wolf-born, stopping between them like a shield.

"Carly," he breathed. "Stop. Please. This isn't her fault."

Carly spun on him, her grief transmuting instantly into rage. "Her fault? Oh, so it's your fault? You just tripped and fell into her?"

"Carly…"

"Don't." She held up a hand, her whole body shaking. "Don't you dare use that voice on me. Don't you dare look at me with those sad eyes and expect me to forgive you. I saw you, Chris. At the lake. I saw your face. I saw how you looked at her."

Chris went very still. The silence stretched, taut and humming.

"Tell me I'm wrong," Carly whispered, her voice suddenly small, suddenly young. "Tell me you don't feel anything for her. Tell me you love me, and only me, and I'll forget this. I'll forget everything. Just tell me."

Anna watched his profile, her heart hammering. She saw the war in him, the loyalty he'd tried to maintain, the truth he'd been hiding, the damage he'd already done. She saw his jaw tighten, his hands fist at his sides.

"I can't," he said, the words barely audible.

Carly made a sound like a wounded animal. "What?"

"I can't tell you that." Chris looked at her, his eyes wet, his face ravaged. "Because it would be a lie. And you deserve better than another lie."

The world seemed to tilt. Carly stumbled backward, her hand pressed to her chest like she was trying to keep her heart from escaping.

"I love you," Chris said, his voice breaking. "Carly, I do. You're good and kind and you loved me without reservation, and I will hate myself every day for hurting you. But Anna..." He stopped, his throat working. "Anna is something else. Something I don't understand. Something I can't fight, no matter how hard I try."

"So you chose her," Carly said, her voice hollow.

"I didn't choose anything. That's what I'm trying to tell you." Chris reached for her, but she flinched away, and his hand fell. "Something happened the day Anna came home. Something changed in me. I look at her and I feel…" He stopped, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter. The point is, I failed you. I should have ended this weeks ago, the moment I realized I couldn't give you what you deserve. I was a coward. I thought I could control it. I thought I could keep everyone from getting hurt."

"Well, you failed at that too." Carly's laugh was sharp as glass. She wiped her face with her sleeve, smearing mascara across her cheek. "You know what the worst part is? The worst part is that she knew. She knew she was hurting me, and she did it anyway. She watched me plan our future. She hugged me. She told me I was lucky to have you." Carly turned her gaze on Anna, and the hatred there was bottomless. "And all that time, you were waiting. Stealing him piece by piece."

"I wasn't…" Anna's voice was a rasp. "Carly, I would rather have died than hurt you. I tried to stay away. I made excuses, I cancelled plans, I…"

"You should have left!" Carly screamed. "You should have gotten back in your stupid truck and driven back to college and never come back! That's what a real friend would have done!"

"I know," Anna whispered. "I know. I'm so sorry."

"Sorry?" Carly laughed, wild and broken. "You're sorry? You're sorry?" She turned in a circle, her hands in her hair, looking like she might tear it out. "I hope you both choke on it. I hope whatever this is… this 'can't fight it' bullshit… I hope it ruins you. I hope you look back on this summer and realize you destroyed the best thing in your life for something that won't last."

She turned and ran.

"Carly!" Chris started after her, but Anna grabbed his arm.

"Let her go," Anna said, her voice hollow. "She doesn't want you to see her like this. She needs to be alone."

Chris stopped, his chest heaving. He stared after Carly's retreating figure, his face crumpling. "I did this. I did all of this."

"We did it," Anna corrected. She released his arm, wrapping her own arms around her middle, suddenly freezing despite the summer heat. "I knew. I knew from the beginning, and I kept coming back. I kept letting you look at me. I kept looking back."

"I should have been stronger." Chris turned to her, his eyes red-rimmed, wet. "An Alpha is supposed to protect his pack. His people. And I destroyed her."

"You didn't destroy her." Anna's voice was soft, certain. "She's stronger than either of us, Chris. She'll survive this. She'll survive us."

"Will she?" Chris stared into the dark where Carly had disappeared. "Because I don't know if I will. And I don't know if I deserve to."

He walked away from Anna then, toward the firelight, toward the people who didn't know what had just broken in the shadows. Anna watched him go, her tears finally coming hard and fast, her body sliding down the tree trunk until she sat in the dirt, her knees drawn to her chest.

The bonfire crackled on, oblivious. Music played somewhere, something bright and poppy and obscene in its cheerfulness. People laughed, their voices carrying across the field, untouched by the wreckage of three lives.

Anna sat in the dark and let herself feel it, the full, crushing weight of what she'd done. The friendship she'd burned. The trust she'd shattered. The girl she'd been, who believed in loyalty and blood oaths and the sanctity of sisterhood, who was now just another person who'd chosen desire over devotion.

She didn't know how long she sat there. Long enough for the fire to die down. Long enough for the party to thin out, car doors slamming, engines starting. Long enough for her tears to dry, leaving her face stiff and strange.

When she finally stood, her legs numb, she saw one figure still standing by the dying embers.

Chris.

He didn't look at her. He stared into the coals, his face illuminated in shades of red and gold, his expression empty.

"We can't do this," he said, not turning around. "Not like this. Not with her blood on our hands."

"I know," Anna said.

"We need to end it properly. Me and her. Maybe a little distance. Whatever she needs."

"I know."

"And then..." He finally looked at her, his eyes reflecting the firelight, ancient and exhausted. "Then we figure out what we are. What this bond actually means. If there's anything left of us worth saving."

Anna nodded, though her chest felt carved out, hollow. "I'll wait."

"You shouldn't have to," Chris said. "You shouldn't be waiting in the dark for a man who just destroyed his girlfriend. I'm not a prize, Anna. I'm not a reward for patience."

"No," Anna agreed. "You're not. But you're my mate. And I'm yours. And that doesn't stop being true just because we wish it wasn't."

Chris closed his eyes. A tear tracked down his cheek, catching the firelight.

"Go home," he said softly. "Get some sleep. I'll call you when... when I know what to say."

Anna hesitated. She wanted to touch him, to comfort him, to take comfort, to confirm they were still real in the aftermath of so much pain. But she kept her ha

nds at her sides. Some wounds needed air. Some wounds needed time.

She turned and walked toward her truck, leaving him alone with the ashes.

Behind her, the fire died, and the dark closed in.