Lya My eyes snapped open. Time to run. Everything I thought I knew of this place was a lie. That’s what I get for trusting too easily. A mistake I have made before and know better than to do. 'No,' the wolf - Tala - said. Her voice was harsh, and I was scared of her. 'Yes,' I insisted. 'I won’t let you.' I knew she wasn’t lying. She had taken control of me before, and I knew she would have no qualms doing it again. 'Look around, Lya. They trust you. Now you trust them.' I did as she asked, expecting to be back in the hospital, probably behind a locked door. But, I was still in the room at the packhouse. Alone.'You could leave if you wanted. There’s the door, but that would be conspicuous. We have an entrance to the patio, and it would take a while for them to realize we are gone.''We aren’t safe here, Tala,' I moaned. The wolf growled. 'Yes. We are.''How do you know?''Adair.' She slunk back, leaving me in control. The vote of confidence from her left me uneasy. There

Lya The silence was strained in Oliver’s Land Cruiser. I sat with my arms folded across my chest, refusing to look at him. 'There’s no harm in enjoying the view,' Tala insisted. I rolled my eyes. Oliver was, unfortunately, exactly my type. The dark and broody mountain man looked like he was chiseled from stone. I wondered if Michelangelo was jealous. I settled for studying the tattoos down his right arm. Oliver kept glancing over at me. He looked like he was trying to come up with something to say while I was trying to put off vibes that discouraged interaction. 'He’s not the one you’re angry with,' Tala reminded me. She may be right, but I wanted to be angry with him, too. “Have you been feeling better?” Oliver finally asked as we pulled into the parking lot. I nodded, still not wanting to talk. “That’s good,” he nodded. I hopped out of the SUV, and Oliver fell in stride beside me. “You haven’t really come out of your room - have you been bored?” “I found a book to read.

Lya Oliver didn’t complain about me calling it an early night. He had offered to show me around a bit, but I just needed to be by myself. If I didn’t know any better, I would think Oliver was trying to surprise me with a date, but I was certain it just had to be a tactic to get answers out of me. I wasn’t exactly upset he was asking nosey questions - I knew that would be coming at some point - but I needed some time to think and process. The past few days had been such a whirlwind, I hadn’t even had time to do that. I wondered if this was how they handled all surprise pack visitors. It didn’t seem at all like the most secure setup. This pack would be very easy to infiltrate if someone harbored any amount of ill will toward them. It couldn’t have happened before, though, otherwise I probably would have been in a cell rather than the packhouse. Maybe that reputation of Oliver’s really did precede him. I sat in the loveseat in my room with a book cracked open on my lap, staring at

Lya I woke up to the sound of gentle snoring. I tried to sit up, but a weight was pinning my arm down. Fuzzy tingles ran up my arm, almost like the weight was causing it to fall asleep. Wide eyed, I looked around, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. My eyes fell on a giant black dog sprawled out on the bed with his head on my arm. What the hell? I shifted around, wiggling my arm free, keeping my eyes glued to the dog. How did a dog get in here? I hadn’t seen one roaming around the packhouse in the days previously. 'Hate to break it to ya hun, but that’s not a dog.' Tala’s snarky tone was about the last thing I wanted to wake up to. I looked a little closer. I gasped in horror as I realized I had been curled up next to a wolf. And, given that we were in a werewolf pack, I could only assume where there was a wolf, there was a human counterpart that went with it. I tried to fly off the bed to get out of the room, but Tala wouldn’t let me budge. 'Chill, he is frien

Lya For being alone most of the day, it passed quickly. So much interaction was jam packed into the morning, I was thankful for the break. I just buried myself in more werewolf books, which made it a little difficult to pretend the disaster that was my life wasn’t happening. I had to wonder if the books in my room had been carefully selected - all of them pertained to werewolf history. The evolution, notable battles, remarkable people. It frustrated me that it all seemed to make entirely too much sense. Maybe Allyssa had a point when she said because it’s in my DNA, the adjustment wouldn’t be as rough. Additionally, this was the most open communication with my wolf had been in years, and all desires to drive her away were quickly vanishing. The ways I had kept her out made me feel sick, and it was a relief to not feel like I had to go to that extreme anymore. A knock came from the door, startling me from my book. I glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was only 7:30. I shuffle