Chapter 4

Chapter 4

~ Alyssa ~

Ditrian rose from the couch.

He didn't hurry. He set his drink down on the table, rolled his neck once, and started walking toward me across the veranda, and the crowd split apart in front of him without a single word, the way the forest goes quiet when an Alpha passes through it.

I pressed my back against the wall. I didn't know what the hell to do with my hands, my face, my breathing. Every instinct I had was screaming at me to run, but there was nowhere to run to. The gates were sealed. The warriors were watching. And my legs had stopped listening to me.

He stopped in front of me, so close that I had to tilt my head back to look at him. I had never been this close to him in three years. Up close he smelled like cedar and smoke and something wilder underneath, something that made my knees feel strangely weak.

Then, without taking his eyes off mine, he reached for the hem of his black shirt and pulled it over his head.

The crowd screamed. My jaw dropped.

I had seen him from a distance at the swimming pool, through the library window where I studied alone during lunch. Distance had not prepared me for this. His body was hard and lean, every muscle carved like stone, and his skin was covered in ink. A black wolf ran down the length of his ribs, its jaws open, so detailed I could see each strand of fur. Across his chest, right over his heart, sat the Regulus crest, a crown of seven stars, every point sharp as a blade.

I realized my mouth was open, and I shut it quickly.

The corner of his mouth lifted.

He bent down slowly until his lips were right beside my ear. I felt him breathe in, deep and long, and a low growl rumbled in his chest, so quiet that I was sure nobody else could hear it. His whole body went stiff for a second. When he spoke, his voice was rougher than before, almost angry.

"So, Bunny," he murmured. "Are you going to do it, or are you going to pay the price?"

I swallowed. "I'm not part of your game."

"You're inside the gates."

"So?"

"Didn't you hear Austin's announcement before they sealed them?" His breath was warm against my neck. "Everyone inside the gates plays. Those are wolf rules."

"What announcement? I didn't hear any announcement."

"Not my problem." He pulled back just enough to look into my face, and his eyes flickered between grey and gold like his wolf couldn't make up its mind. "You're inside, and I've been dared to have you. So what do you say?" He bit his bottom lip slowly. "I'll make it worth your while."

I should have said no.

Any sensible girl would have said no. But I had dreamed about this boy every night for three years. I had imagined his hands on me, his mouth on mine, his eyes looking at me exactly the way they were looking at me right now, like I was something he wanted instead of something he wanted to crush. And now he was standing in front of me with his shirt off and his heart thudding so hard I could almost hear it, asking.

I already knew what I wanted. I wanted him. I had always wanted him.

But I wasn't going to make it easy.

"And what's the price?" I asked. My voice came out steadier than I expected. "If I refuse."

Austin answered from behind him, loud enough for the whole veranda. "Fifty grand!"

The crowd laughed, because everyone knew.

"Fifty thousand dollars," Ditrian repeated softly, his eyes never leaving mine. "And we both know you don't have that, pauper. You can barely afford the bus." His voice dropped even lower. "Come on. After tonight, we'll never see each other again. You'll go back to wherever it is you came from, and I'll go back to my life. It's just one night of fun."

Just one night.

The words should have stung, and they did. But beneath the sting was something else, something reckless and hungry. Xavier was leaving. School was over. Tomorrow I would go back to being nobody, selling herbs at Grandma's market stall and counting coins for college applications I might never send. What did I have left to protect? My pride? Ditrian Regulus had been stepping on my pride for three years.

Before I could finish the thought, he lifted his hand and slid it along my jaw, tilting my face up.

Then he kissed me.

It wasn't what I expected. I had expected something cold and cruel, something that would finally cure me of wanting him. Instead his mouth was slow and warm and almost careful, like he was tasting something he didn't fully trust. Then his fingers slid into the hair at the back of my neck, and the kiss deepened, and every sensible thought I had ever owned disappeared.

I kissed him back. Three years of hopeless, stupid longing poured out of me all at once, and I didn't care who was watching.

When he finally pulled away, we were both breathing hard. His forehead rested against mine for one heartbeat. Then he straightened, and his eyes were pure gold again.

"Well?" he asked. His voice was rough.

I nodded. "Yes."

"Say it again."

"Yes, Ditrian. I'll do it."

"Protection, please!" Austin shouted, and he tossed a small foil packet across the veranda. Ditrian caught it in one hand without even looking, and the crowd roared like he had won a match.

He held out his other hand to me.

I looked at it for a long moment, at the long fingers and the silver Regulus signet ring on his thumb. Then I placed my hand in his, and his grip closed around mine, warm and firm and certain.

He didn't lead me into the lodge. He walked me down the veranda steps, past the bonfires and the whistling crowd, along a narrow path of wooden planks that ran along the edge of the lake, toward the old boathouse sitting dark at the end of the jetty. The full moon hung huge and white above the trees, and its light lay across the black water like a road.

The noise of the party faded behind us with every step until all I could hear was the water lapping against the jetty and the pounding of my own heart.

He pushed open the boathouse door and held it for me.

Inside, it smelled of cedar and lake water. Moonlight spilled through the high windows and across the old wooden floor. There was a dusty mirror hanging crooked on one wall, and in it I could see a girl in a silver dress with her hair coming loose and her lips swollen from his kiss.

I barely recognized her.

The door shut behind us with a quiet click.

Ditrian stood behind me. Our eyes met in the mirror. For a long moment he didn't touch me, and I could see something working behind his face, something confused and unwilling, like he was fighting a battle I couldn't see.

"Last chance to go back up to the lodge, Bunny," he said quietly.

I held his gaze in the glass.

"I'm not going anywhere."