Jaz
I approached Cynthia’s desk slowly, as if dragging out this moment.
“I need to speak with the Luna, please.”
Cynthia didn’t even bother looking at me, fingernails continuing to tap away at her keyboard. “She’s busy until 4:00.”
“This can’t wait.”
The tapping paused, and she peered around the screen at me.
“Please,” I pleaded. “It really can’t.”
With a measuring gaze she rose, wary of me. Did she know that I was part of Deidre’s inner circle now?
She excused herself into the Luna’s office, then reappear
JazDeidre had wasted no time calling in Mark and Alpha Jason. The mixture of concern and anxiety on their faces didn’t help. And once I had told them about my exchange with Lo, all four of them had looked pale.Deidre turned to Mark, as if expecting an apology for how intelligent Lo had been in figuring it all out.Mark held up in his hands in defeat. “I have no idea. But didn’t I warn you about all of this?” He gritted his teeth and looked at me. “We have kept this secret for how many years, and within a week of someone else finding out--” his blame was clear.Alpha Jason shut him down before he had a chance to finish his sentence. “Your daughter’s intelligence has nothing to do with Jasmine. But it’s clear that they still don&rsqu
Alpha Jason’s Office Perrin I didn’t think there’d be enough time in the world to process what my father had shared over the last half hour. Some of it we knew, some of it made other things suddenly snap into place, and the rest? Well. It was altogether unsettling. Mistra sat whitefaced in the corner of the office, her face stony, refusing to look at Ethan. My step-mother maintained a quiet composure at her usual place on the sofa while my father spoke. Jaz for some reason was here, looming silently in the back of the office by the door. I could tell from her body language that she was uncomfortable; an unusual emotion for her to showcase so openly. And Mark stood behind my father as he delivered the true story behind Ethan’s treatment. Small components of his story seemed to fit like puzzle pieces into the last few months, s
Perrin“What the hell was that all about?” I asked, slamming the door behind me.“You didn’t see that?”“See what?”“What Mark and your father were doing?”“You mean trying to protect you?”Ethan barked out a laugh but didn’t reply, still pacing around his suite. I wasn’t sure where his mother had gone after I left, but given the face-off between her and her son I doubt she’d show up here anytime soon.“You call that protection? They’re trying to get dirt on my mate.”“Were you even listening to my d
Perrin“When’s the last time we’ve sparred?”Ethan finished with his warm up. He had looked distracted when he got here, but was now the textbook of concentration and focus.“Honestly? Way too long.” He grinned, and took up position on the opposite side of the floor.“I’ve missed this,” I said openly. He knew how much I had missed him. How my right hand felt like it had been missing for the last few months.He nodded, the natural grin of my best friend taking over as we began to circle each other. The downside of training with your best friend your entire life is that you knew every strength, every move they would make. They were predictable in their strengths as much as their
Perrin“Again!”Jack’s form wasn’t anywhere near as polished as it should be. It’s as if he hadn’t even shown up to the Lodge for the last year.“Again!” I tried to keep the snarl out of my voice.He was sweating and panting as he had been going for nearly four hours. But he wasn’t good enough. He wasn’t ever going to be good enough.“Are you sure you’re not pushing him too far?” Seth sidled up behind me, watching Jack struggle against one of the Alpha Guard who offered to train this morning.“I’m not sure anyone has pushed him enough. He isn’t anywhere near ready to go up against Gowan!” I pause
LoMy alarm didn’t need to go off. I was awake already. So when the buzzing of my phone sounded from my side table, I turned it off without my normal disgruntled haze.The hint of a sunrise has been illuminating my shaded window for the better part of the last hour. I was mentally awake. Had been, really. A looming sense of stifled excitement that today was my eighteenth birthday.But as big of a deal as that typically was, I couldn’t help but feel that it was all a little anticlimactic. Not just because this was usually all about becoming eligible to mate. I was long past wanting that or even thinking it was right for me. Besides--it didn’t actually happen until the sun set on your eighteen birthday anyway. But it was typically a day in which an heirloom was passed from mother to daughter, moreso as an antiquated custo
LoI ran to my bedside table and reached for my phone.I began to draft a text to Perrin, but another knock sounded at the door. I couldn’t imagine who it could possibly be and swung iit open.“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” A confetti cannon exploded in my face and a sea of balloons clouded my vision.Ethan laughed as I stumbled backward, picking confetti out of his own hair.“Thank you,” I laughed, trying to pop my ears from the sound of the mechanism and brushing confetti out of my eyes. “That’s one way to do a wakeup call.”“You only turn eighteen once!” He beamed at me.“So they tell me,&r
PerrinPERRIN: Did they make it ok?ETHAN: Yes. They were there before I got there this morning.PERRIN: Excellent. I’m glad she was pleased.ETHAN: You did a great job. Inviting them was an excellent ideaETHAN: Are you sure you just did that as a ‘friend?’PERRIN: Yes. We’re just friends. I’m in no headspace to think about any of that right now.ETHAN: Why not?PERRIN: Are you too wrapped up in your own mate to remember I broke up with my girlfriend of over two years like a week ago? For good?I stared at my phone after I sent the text. It was harsh. But I was being honest. And Ethan wouldn’t want anything else.ETHAN: You’ve been avoiding me. I knew it.