第3章

By that afternoon, before I had even started getting ready, the messages were coming one after another.

Some of them had reached the venue and started setting up.

I frowned and opened the photographs they had posted.

They were discussing the seating for the evening.

Someone posted a picture of a booster seat.

It was raised and fitted with straps.

It was unmistakably an infant booster seat.

[Save this one for Liora. A weak little broken wolf with no wolf at all. What if she gets emotional and faints and can't even stay in a chair?]

[This chair is exactly right for her kind. Weak little babies, weak little rabbits, weak little Liora.]

A dozen laughing messages appeared beneath it almost at once.

They made no attempt to hide their contempt for me.

For once Blake was not joining in.

What he said instead was this.

[Leave it. She isn't coming.]

Then Serena posted.

[That's right, everyone. Stop setting it up.]

[What if Liora does come? It isn't her fault her wolf never woke. Imagine how upset she would be to see this.]

It would have been better if she had said nothing.

After that they were all the more eager to see me upset.

I closed the chat and leaned back against the head of the bed.

Three months ago, on a full moon, I went alone to the top of the hill on pack land.

After eighteen years, my body finally answered.

That night every werewolf for miles around felt something strange and powerful.

The northern guards sounded the alarm, and the Council immediately sent people to locate the source.

And nobody knew it was me.

From then on, I had to keep my power tightly leashed at every moment.

At the academy I walked with my head down, met nobody's eyes, and kept up the disguise of the silent broken wolf.

Carrying enough power to change everything and having to act as though I had none is harder than actually having none.

At five that afternoon, someone posted a video from the ceremony site.

The long table before the stage was draped in silver-gray cloth and crowded with tall white candles.

It looked less like a mating ceremony than a funeral.

Harsh laughter rang around the room as Kael said to the camera, "For Eric, mating with a broken wolf like Liora is no different from holding a funeral.

"So the decor fits perfectly. Wouldn't you say, Blake?"

The camera turned to Blake on the sofa opposite.

He was smoking, and the haze concealed his true expression.

"A broken wolf turning up would only be embarrassing. She won't dare."

Serena sat down beside him, smiling.

"All right, all right. It's nearly seven. We'll find out soon enough."

I closed the video and headed out.

But the moment I opened the door, I found a tall figure waiting outside.

I did not know him, and something in me said this was Eric.

He came toward me.

"I've come to take you. Don't worry. This forfeit was never anything to do with you.

"Whatever you do, I'll follow your lead."

His body tensed slightly, as though he were holding something back.

I could feel the black wolf inside him trembling and had no idea what it meant.

Something strange rose in me at the same time, and my white wolf began to stir.

I forced her down and nodded to him.

A month ago, my father had told me, "Liora, the day you make yourself known is the day you step forward.

"Don't be afraid. The Moon Goddess is with you."

I touched the faint mark on the inside of my wrist.

It was time.

About half an hour later Eric's car stopped at the doors of the Silver Moon Lodge.

We got out together.