Chapter 3

Chapter 3

~ Alyssa ~

Wolf rules were simple, and Austin explained them with the glee of a boy who had waited all year to say them out loud.

"You get asked, you answer. You get dared, you do it. You refuse," he grinned, swinging the bottle toward the crowd, "you pay the price. And the price is whatever the circle decides."

The circle roared its approval. They dragged couches and cushions onto the veranda and arranged themselves around the low table like a court around a throne, and of course the throne was Ditrian. He sat in the middle of the biggest couch with his long legs stretched out, Delilah curled against his side, and Austin perched on the table in front of them like a ringmaster.

I stayed in my corner behind the stacked chairs.

That was my entire plan. Stay small. Stay quiet. Stay invisible until moonset, when the warriors would open the gates and I could slip away down the forest road and pretend tonight never happened. I had three years of practice at being invisible. I was very good at it.

I pulled out my phone and pretended to scroll, and for once the stupid thing didn't overheat.

The game rolled on around me. A boy from the Silverbrook Pack confessed that he had a crush on his best friend's sister, and his best friend tackled him into a cushion. A girl was dared to drink a full glass of something blue in one go, and she nearly choked. Someone admitted they had never actually shifted in front of their parents because they were embarrassed of their wolf's colour. The crowd howled at all of it.

I didn't care about any of it. I wasn't really listening.

Except when it came to him.

"Ditrian!" Austin pointed the bottle at him. "Truth or dare?"

Ditrian lifted his drink lazily. "Truth."

The crowd went "ooooh" like they had been waiting for this moment all night. Austin's grin spread slowly across his face.

"What do you really feel for Delilah?"

The veranda went quiet. Delilah sat up straighter and smoothed her blonde hair over one shoulder, already smiling, already waiting for the answer she was so sure she would get. Everyone at Terracotta Valley knew the Quinn family wanted that match. Everyone knew Delilah had been practising the word Luna in her head since sophomore year.

Ditrian took a slow sip of his drink before he answered.

"She's got a strong wolf," he said. "And a body to match."

That was it. That was the whole answer.

The crowd exploded into whistles and laughter. Austin nearly fell off the table. But I was watching Delilah, and I saw her smile freeze on her face, something behind her eyes cracked like ice, and for a moment she looked exactly like I felt every day at that school. Then she laughed along with everyone else, because what else could she do?

I looked back down at my phone, and I hated myself a little for the warm flutter in my chest.

He didn't say he loved her.

It shouldn't have mattered to me. It meant absolutely nothing for a wolfless girl hiding behind a stack of chairs. But I was glad anyway, foolishly, stupidly glad.

The game moved on. I checked the time. Moonset was still hours away.

Across the circle, Ditrian kept lifting his head and turning it slightly, the way wolves did when they caught a scent on the wind. Austin asked him something and he didn't hear it. He was frowning at the air, his nostrils flaring, his jaw tight like something was bothering him and he couldn't work out what.

My phone buzzed in my hand.

Xavier.

‘It's decided. I leave for Scotland in three days. I'm so sorry I can't tell you in person, Lys. I'm going to miss you more than you know.’

Three days.

I stared at the screen until the words blurred. Three days, and then he would be gone, and I would be alone in Venus City with my grandmother's herb stall and a scholarship certificate that couldn't pay for college. My throat went tight, and I knew if I didn't speak to him right now, I was going to cry in front of a hundred wolves who would never let me forget it.

I pressed his name to call him. The phone rang once. Twice.

I was so focused on the ringing in my ear that I barely registered the voices rising in the circle, Austin shouting something, the crowd gasping, Delilah saying "No" in a high, sharp voice.

Then a loud crack of skin on skin split the night.

The call went to voicemail. I lowered the phone slowly and turned around.

The entire veranda had gone silent. Every single person in that circle was staring at me.

My stomach turned to ice. What was going on?

Delilah was on her feet, her chest heaving, her hand still raised in the air. Ditrian's head was turned to one side, and a red handprint was blooming across his cheek, bright against his skin. She had slapped him. Delilah Quinn had slapped the heir of the Regulus Pack in front of everyone.

But Ditrian didn't look at her.

He slowly turned his face back, and his eyes found mine across the veranda, and they were not grey anymore. They were pure gold, burning, fixed on me like I was the only thing in the world.

I swallowed hard.

"You're disgusting," Delilah hissed at him, her voice shaking. Then she shoved her way out of the circle and stormed off toward the lake, her heels stabbing into the wooden boards.

Nobody went after her. Nobody even looked at her. They were all still looking at me.

Austin hopped off the table and spread his arms wide, grinning like Christmas had come early.

"Well, Bunny?" he called across the veranda. "What do you say?"

"What?" My voice came out small. "I wasn't paying attention."

The crowd laughed. Austin laughed hardest of all. He walked toward my corner, slowly, enjoying every second, and the crowd parted in front of him until there was nothing between me and the circle but empty floor.

"Then let me say it again, nice and slow, so you don't miss it this time," he said. He looked back at Ditrian, then at me, letting the silence stretch until I could hear the bonfires crackling down by the lake.

"Ditrian Regulus has been dared to make love to you!"

The veranda erupted. Whistles, howls, someone banging a bottle against the table. The noise crashed over me like a wave.

My heart stopped.

"What?"