All Chapters of Son Of The Betrayed-A Wolf Shifter Romance: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

My soul physically attempted to leave my body. I turned a wild look onto Harmony, gripping her jacket. “Harmony,” I hissed under my breath, my face burning. “No.”She pointed a finger wildly between me and Takoda, her eyes dancing with amusement. “No, because everybody on this beach completely heard that.”Unfortunately? Everybody absolutely had.Reeves looked one bad decision away from falling face-first into the lake laughing, while the nearby students immediately started paying attention with the terrifying speed only small-town gossip culture could achieve. Mason muttered under his breath, shaking his head as he watched the crowd, “Well. This is about to spread through campus by sunrise.”Fantastic. I love public humiliation.Takoda stood near the edge of the bonfire light with his hands shoved deep into the front pocket of his black hoodie while gray smoke curled through the air around his massive frame. He looked completely calm externally. But I noticed the tiny, dangerous sign

I felt the heavy tension tighten through everybody nearby. It didn't happen openly, but subtly, like certain people around the dark lake understood enough to recognize absolute trouble when it arrived on the ridge. Students farther from the fire kept right on partying normally, laughing, drinking, and shouting over the blaring music. But closer to us, the entire atmosphere altered.Reeves moved nearer without making the adjustment obvious. Mason stopped smiling entirely, his jaw setting into a hard line. Two older guys standing near the trucks looked up toward Carter’s idling SUV with the expressions of people who were already anticipating an immense amount of problems. It was a bizarre, synchronized change in behavior that made my internal alarms flare. Everyone was suddenly on guard, acting as if they shared a single set of instincts.Carter started down the gravel hill toward the lake slowly. He was in no rush, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his dark jacket. The flicker

The single word came out flat enough that I immediately looked toward Takoda. His broad shoulders had tightened up again beside me while his dark eyes tracked the guy weaving through the swarming bonfire crowd toward our circle. It wasn't fear, but absolute annoyance. Possibly homicidal annoyance.Harmony followed my stare before whispering frantically into my ear, “Okay, this one looks like he definitely owns a leather jacket and an immense amount of unresolved trauma.”At this point, that description applied to half the male population of Black Hollow.The motorcycle guy stopped near our folding chairs while students around the main bonfire greeted him casually. They didn't act with the same careful, tense respect they gave Takoda. This felt entirely different: looser, wilder, and more unpredictable. It was like people actively expected total chaos from him and secretly enjoyed the show.He shoved one hand through his dark hair, which was messy from the helmet, before smirking direc

The second I stood from my chair, every single person around the bonfire noticed. They caught the movement immediately, because apparently privacy did not exist anywhere within a fifty-mile radius of Black Hollow.Rowan leaned back farther in his lawn chair, grinning like a man personally invested in causing public chaos. “Well,” he announced dramatically, his voice carrying over the bass of the music, “this feels historically significant.”“Shut up, Rowan,” Takoda muttered, his jaw setting as his shoulders squared.Reeves pointed a wooden roasting stick directly toward our faces. “If y’all disappear into the woods and come back engaged, I want credit,” he called out, his posture relaxing.I nearly tripped over my own boots on the uneven sand.Harmony’s voice echoed faintly from farther down the shoreline trail, her shout bouncing off the dark water. “If they come back married, I’m throwing myself in the lake.”I buried my face briefly in my hands to hide the burning heat in my cheeks

The first thing I realized when we stepped back into the light of the bonfire was that people noticed everything.They didn’t just catch it in a general, small-town gossip way. They caught it specifically. Their eyes tracked the black hoodie hanging halfway down my thighs, swallowing my hands completely. They evaluated how close Takoda walked beside my shoulder. They measured the way neither of us seemed in a hurry to put distance back between us.Black Hollow observed people like a competitive sport.Reeves spotted our return first. Sitting near the flames with a beer in one hand, he immediately pointed the bottle toward Takoda like he’d just located a rare species in the wild. "There he is."I felt Takoda let out a heavy sigh beside me before the sound actually left his chest.Rowan glanced up from his lawn chair near the flames, his posture unyielding. His gaze moved to Takoda, then to me, then down to the massive hoodie. Finally, it settled on the suspiciously small amount of spac