#Chapter 13: The Ambush

Derek went to the police station with his chin up and his voice carrying.

"My father will have me out in ten minutes," he told the officers. "You're wasting your time."

I gave my statement in a side room with a female officer who took notes without expression. Yes, he'd grabbed me. Yes, there were witnesses. No, I didn't want to press additional charges — the bonfire harassment complaint was enough.

When I stepped outside, a single text from Professor Aldrich waited on my screen.

You're not expelled. Don't give me a reason to reconsider.

It took me a moment to realize he was joking. Or as close to joking as he got.

Thank you, I typed back. I hope I didn't cause you trouble.

You can repay me by not failing the midterm.

I pocketed the phone. Something warm and stupid spread through my chest.

At the station, Derek was not having the quick exit he'd promised.

I heard the details over the next few days, secondhand and third-hand, passed down from the football team to the campus security guard to Gemma. Derek had waited an hour in the holding cell, telling every officer who walked past that his father would be there any minute.

His father did call. But the conversation went nothing like my ex had expected.

"Shut your mouth and sit down," his father had said. A regulatory agency had received an anonymous report about corruption and financial irregularities in the family's business holdings. The investigation was already underway. Lawyers had been retained. His father's own position was in jeopardy.

"If you cause one more incident," his father told him, "and the school pushes for expulsion, I will not be able to protect you."

Derek had gone silent. For the first time in his life, his name wasn't enough.

He spent a week in custody. His father stopped returning his calls after the second day.

I spent that week training.

Something had been nagging at me since the arrest. Professor Aldrich had barely moved during the confrontation. No phone call, no shouting for security. Yet the patrol cars had arrived within minutes. My best friend explained it that evening while we stretched after a jog.

"Mindlink," she said, touching her temple. "Wolf-to-wolf communication. Instantaneous. Every alpha can do it."

He'd summoned the officers with his mind. Coordinated the entire response while standing still, one hand pinning my ex to a wall.

I couldn't use mindlink. I had no wolf. If I'd had one, I could have called for help the instant Derek grabbed me. I could have broken his grip with my own strength instead of standing there, frozen, waiting for someone else to intervene.

My mother had her wolf by the time she was ten. She'd been a gamma warrior, the strongest in the pack. Between my parents, they'd given me every advantage a wolfless girl could have.

I hit the heavy bag until my knuckles cracked.

If my wolf wasn't coming on its own, I'd train my body until it didn't matter.

Every morning before literature class: the obstacle course. Every evening after dinner: the heavy bag. I ran until my lungs felt like they were full of sand and hit the leather until my knuckles cracked and bled. I shadowboxed in my dorm room, glasses off, squinting at the blurred shape of my fists in the mirror.

One week passed. Derek stayed in custody.

Brielle disappeared from campus. The training hall became my second home.

It was past eleven when I left the training hall. I zipped my hoodie against the cold. The campus was dark. Most of the lights along the path to the dormitory had been turned off for the night, and the trees threw long shadows across the gravel.

I was thinking about wolves. Not about the essay I still needed to edit, or the novel Chapter my readers were waiting for. I was thinking about what it would feel like to have a wolf inside me. A voice. A strength that wasn't borrowed or earned but mine.

I didn't notice the motorcycle until it was too late.

The engine cut. Three figures stepped out of the dark. They moved fast — faster than any human. One grabbed my wrist. A rough hand clamped over my mouth. Something thick and damp was shoved between my teeth.

I screamed into the cloth. The sound went nowhere.

"Don't fight," one of them said. His breath smelled like cheap beer. "Makes it worse."

I fought anyway. I kicked. I twisted. I drove my elbow into someone's ribs and felt the impact shudder up my arm. But I had no wolf, no claws, no supernatural strength. My combat training was six weeks old. Three wolves against one wolfless girl.

They pushed me to the ground. Gravel bit into my knees. One of them held my arms behind my back while another crouched in front of me.

"Pretty little thing." He tilted my chin up with his knuckle. His eyes glowed amber in the dark. Wolf eyes. "Shame you don't have a mark. Nobody's going to come looking for you."

I stopped struggling. "I can pay you. Whatever you want. My father —"

"Your father's a beta." He laughed. "What's he going to do?"

The leader of the group reached into his jacket and pulled out a small glass vial. The liquid inside was clear and viscous. I couldn't read the label in the dark, but I didn't need to.

I knew what it was.

Aphrodisiac. The kind that dissolved will and replaced it with raw, uncontrollable heat.

He unscrewed the cap.

"Open her mouth."