CHAPTER 121 Rachel~ My mom had looked at me very strangely when I had finally come home late last night. She said she understood that I was getting older, and that it had been my birthday, but she wasn’t all that happy with not having seen me much at all. So when I told her at breakfast that Ally was picking me up to go to the beach, she put on her twisted mouth, contemplative face. “Okay, Mija, but not as long today, okay? You have school tomorrow. I want you home by 7pm so we can have dinner together,” she conceded. “Thanks mom!” I said excitedly. She kept giving me strange looks last night and all this morning. Like she was trying to figure me out. Did she know how much my life had changed? “What?” I finally asked her. “You just seem… so happy,” she concluded. I choked on the water I had taken a sip of. “Is that bad?” She thought for a second and then said, “No. It’s really nice.” I thought about telling her everything. I wanted us to not have this big gaping secret bet

CHAPTER 123: Kyle~ A few days go by with a similar routine. Ally and I get dropped off at the bus stop where we meet Rachel. We go to school together and silently plan the day through texts. We meditate before school, and during break. Lunch we focus on expansion. The days bleed together for the most part. Take our first day and today and there’s not much visible difference, but we are staying positive. Hoping that every millimeter of growth will help. We know every bit could mean the difference between our success… and our deaths. It’s a relief not to have to see these two suck faces with their big bad wolves during the weekdays. Not that Nick and Jake stay away. No, after school they’ve been getting picked up by Nick and Jake, and they take a scenic way home. I can only take the very clear separation between them and me for so long. Between the couples and the lonely guy. Between me and Rachel. Yeah, I can only fifth-wheel so much, so I made it a point that I would take the bus

CHAPTER 125: Rachel~ The weekdays start off the same. Bus, school, and training. “Ugh!” Ally exclaims in frustration. “You alright there?” I ask her, one eye open since I was in the middle of meditating. It’s been getting easier, practicing the expansion of my well of power. Basically I spend a long time going down, down, down into the bottom and then I spend time trying to dig it deeper. It’s where I am trying to store the energy and magic I’ve been collecting from everyone. “You’re starting to sound like me from like a month ago.” “I’m pretty sure you were much whinier than that,” Kyle says wryly without moving at all. He looks like he could be frozen in his seated position with his eyes closed. Ally sucks in a breath, her fingers touching the bridge of her nose. “Goddess Hecate, give me patience with these two.” “Hey!” I swat at her. Her face breaks into a smile and she huffs out a breath. “Sorry, I just- I don’t understand how I keep hitting these walls. Like I was so

CHAPTER 127: Rachel~ I could feel how worried Ally was in my bones. Having been friends for so long, and with her talent for wearing her heart on her face, it was clear to see that while she was playing down her worries out loud, she wasn’t believing the words she was saying. “We have the location, Nick knew something was off, so he sent the location. He’s going to be okay. He’s smart. He’s got this,” she chanted in the car. I noticed Kyle looking at her with worry, and Jake must have felt something from me from the look on his face. I reached over and squeezed his hand firmly. To let him know I’m with him, that I feel how he’s feeling. His actions took over and he appeared calm outside, but I knew him. Nick and Evan are his brothers - they always stick together. I can guess what he’s feeling while we rush past cars on the freeway - worry for Nick’s safety, guilt that he isn’t with him, anger that Nick did this without telling anyone, and probably a million other things. We rush

CHAPTER 129: Jake~ I should have been staying out of it. I was trying to. But it was so hard to watch the redhead who clearly had feelings for Rachel get so close to her. Yeah, I’m a jealous wolf. What can I say? At least I could hold back. Giving them their privacy as much as I could I stood over as a protector. I nearly ran over when Ally fell over. But somehow it had been Rachel that had pushed her into sleeping. I stood there with questions swimming in my head when the Fae and Rachel got even closer and then touched knees. MINE, Aamon roared in my mind, prompting my legs to start walking on their own towards them to stop this. But I held back. They spoke for a minute and he gestured to Ally before they connected their hands and the next second their heads were slumped to the sides. Asleep already. Looking for something. Likely to find Nick somehow. If his own mate was unsuccessful, I had some doubts about them being able to find him without her… But then again this was Rahce