The next two weeks dragged on painfully slow. Everyone and their fucking mother had heard about Sawyer cuffing me. Rumors swirled about me not being able to control my wolf, or about me attacking someone and that’s why he had to cuff me. But the best rumor was that he had in fact found out that I was an assassin and I wore these cuffs to keep from killing him.
Fuck my life.
Sage was so confused, kept asking me why Sawyer would do that and pried for more information, but I was too depressed to tell her everything. If this was my life now, caged inside my body, I’d better get used to it and there was no sense in telling her now.
Sawyer had sent approximately one giant bouquet of flowers per day since he cuffed me, and it was getting to the point where I couldn’t walk around my apartment. He’d even been commenting all these cute apologetic things on my Instagram photos. Sage was ignoring her cousin in solidarity on my behalf, and I was turning down date requests from him daily. Let him go out with the other nineteen girls; I couldn’t be with a man who wanted to see me imprisoned, even if it was because he thought he was protecting me. This was no way to live, especially after getting my taste of freedom.
Yesterday I’d found out that I made the top twenty.
Yay. Cue sarcasm.
“I’ve got a surprise for you tonight.” Sage turned to me as I pushed my eggs around my plate. Sawyer was eating breakfast with Meredith and Priya, while not so casually sneaking glances back at me. Today I was wearing a custom t-shirt Raven had made me that said Feeling Stabby with a little wolf cartoon holding a knife.
It perfectly displayed my mood. Raven and my parents sent weekly care packages with human candy I didn’t get in Werewolf City, and we talked often, but I was starting to feel lonely and homesick.
“I hate surprises,” I informed her as I watched Sawyer take a drink of his orange juice. Even his jawline was attractive.
Asshole.
Sage waved her hand in front of me. “Hello.”
My gaze snapped to hers. “What?”
“You’re going to like this surprise. Trust me.” She grinned. She was such a good friend, doing her best to take my mind off of the fact that I was a prisoner in my own body.
Giving her a weak smile, I stood. “Okay. Thanks. I gotta run. See you later.”
She frowned. “Yeah … later, Demi.”
When I got to class, I immediately threw myself into my art. Taking pictures was the only thing keeping me sane right now. I’d talked Sage into letting me do a series of four shots of her a few weeks ago and they all turned out amazing. Her vibrant red hair against the muted background I’d chosen was perfect.
“These are impressive, Miss Calloway,” Professor Woods spoke from behind me as I laid the prints out on my desk.
“Thanks. I was thinking of doing a nature series next.”
He nodded. “Well, you might just get your wish, because today we are all going on a field trip with Professor Hines’ class after lunch.”
Excitement thrummed through me. “Where are we going?”
Please say something cool like to snap pictures of a cemetery or something.
“The Dark Forest.” He winked and moved on to the next student.
It sounded ominous, but I had no idea what the Dark Forest was.
“Holy shit,” Chris whisper-screamed from behind me. “The Dark Forest? I wonder how the alpha approved that?”
I spun, stepping over to his and James’ shared table as I fiddled with my wide-angle lens. “What do you mean? Is it haunted or something?” I whispered back.
Chris chuckled. “Yeah, by wolf rebels and hybrids that want to cut our throats out.”
I froze, looking up at him. “What?”
Chris and James shared a look that said “Aww, the cute blond is an idiot,” before leaning back into me. “Seriously? Your parents didn’t tell you about the Paladin family? Or the Ithaki?”
The whati? Hadn’t Sage mentioned the Paladins at the welcome dinner?
I shook my head. “Who are the Paladins?” Sounded like some made up fantasy stuff to me.
Chris chortled. “The original alpha royals. Before the Hudson family stole the crown.”
James slapped him on the chest. “That’s not true, they weren’t royal, just badass. Back when you became alpha by fighting, and not by bloodline.”
My eyes bugged. “And they are still alive?”
James nodded. “They live in the woods like animals. I heard they don’t even have plumbing or toilets. They attack us every once in a while, but obviously our army is stronger.”
Holy crap. Between the vampires and these … Paladin’s, Wolf City was way more dangerous than I thought.
“And the other group? The Itakie?”
Chris laughed. “Ithaki. They’re worse than the Paladins, they—”
“Okay, class!”
Before I could respond, Professor Woods called our attention to the front and I pushed what James had said to the back of my mind.
“Please finish up any work you have in the darkroom today and post your final pieces in the display cases out in the hall. The staff will be voting on who should be showcased in the end-of-year exhibit.”
We scurried to get our work together, James running into the darkroom and Chris mounting his photos to the blackboard. I snatched up my prints of Sage and slipped out into the hall to tack them up into the cases. I decided to keep them raw with no border or anything fancy, let Sage be the beautiful part of the piece.
Reaching the first case, I flipped the lock and opened it up, pulling some of the pins out and sticking them on the corners of the photo. I was halfway through my second photo when I smelled him.
My heart hammered in my chest as I ignored the footfalls and earthy scent of sexy almost-alpha male. I’d singlehandedly avoided being alone with him for two weeks, but I guess my time was up.
“Demi?” His voice held mock shock, “Weird seeing you here. We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”
I positioned a pin between my fingers and spun, pointing it at him threateningly. “You’re pre-med. You have no classes in this building, which means you’re stalking me.”
His face fell and he sighed deeply as he stared at the cuffs on my wrists. “Demi, you’ve been ignoring me…”
I scoffed. “Sawyer, you imprisoned me!” I held up a cuffed arm and shook it in front of his face.
He stepped closer to me and I held the pin up, narrowing my gaze at him.
He produced his arm, shoving it right in front of my face. “Go ahead. Stab me if it will make you feel better.”
I snort-laughed, I couldn’t help it. He was funny and fucking adorable. “Eugene will kill me.” I gestured to the giant man standing thirty paces back who was trying to pretend he wasn’t looking at us.
Sawyer shook his head. “No. I deserve it. Quick, before I change my mind.” He mock flinched as if anticipating great pain.
Part of me really wanted to drive this pin into his fucking arm for what he did to me and my wolf.
So I did.
Without thinking, I rammed the pin into his arm, only stopping when he hissed. We both yanked back at the same time.
“Holy shit! You really stabbed me.” He looked at me with half wonder, half amusement.
I snorted, falling into peals of laughter, and looked at the end of the pin. “This has your blood on it. I could take it to a witch and make a nice voodoo doll to cause you even more pain.”
A seriousness clouded his face. “Oh, Demi, nothing would cause me more pain than knowing I hurt you and your wolf.”
My gaze went to the red pinprick dot of blood on his arm which had already crusted over and healed. He reached out, slowly, giving me time to back away, and grasped the bottom of my chin, forcing me to look into his eyes. “Will you let me explain? Meet me for dinner tonight?” He ran his thumb over my bottom lip and I swallowed hard.
I knew what he was going to say, that he was trying to protect me. I’d read the book page. It said that I should be put to death; they even put it in the bylaws. But to have him force the cuffs on me, against my will, it was like being raped all over again.
“There’s more you need to know…” He looked over his shoulder to make sure we were still alone. “I’ve got one shot at picking the perfect mate and I don’t want to fuck that up with you.”
The air charged with electricity.
Wait, what? What did that mean? That he thought I might be the perfect mate?
My head spun with his words as he leaned in and whispered into my ear. “Meet me tonight? My dorm? I’ll cook for you. Don’t make me beg. I will if I have to.”
There was something so incredibly sexy about a dominant future alpha saying they would beg for you. With a shaky breath, I nodded and he started to pull away, which made me realize I didn’t want him to go. His smell, his heat, his everything. I needed it.
I wrapped my fingers behind his neck, crushing my lips to his. A moan let loose from his throat as I slipped my tongue into his mouth and stroked against his own. Reaching out with my teeth, I nipped his bottom lip harder than I normally would and then pulled back to meet his searing blue eyes. “If you ever force something on me again without talking to me first…” I shoved one of my cuffs in his face to indicate what I meant. “I’m done.”
His brow furrowed. “If it means I’ve saved your life, then it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
Now it was my turn to furrow my brow. Did he really think someone would kill me because of what I was? His dad, his sweet dad who I’d met and seemed as alpha as a stuffed teddy bear would kill me over some bylaw? But the blazing yellow protective eyes that stared back at me said yes, he did believe that, and maybe I should too.
Fuck.
I released him and he plucked the pin out of my fingers. “I’ll be confiscating this, Miss Calloway. No voodoo dolls for you. I’ll see you tonight. After Sage’s surprise.”
I grinned and watched him walk away, more confused than ever before. How did he know about Sage’s surprise? I thought they weren’t talking.
Maybe Sawyer knew more than he let on and maybe he had saved my life. Maybe binding my wolf had stopped the scent or whatever was leading the vampires to me. Shit, I didn’t know what to think anymore. But I couldn’t wait until dinnertime to find out.
The drive to the Dark Forest took about half an hour. It was beautiful to weave through the mountains, houses topped high on the hills, verdant green trees dotting the landscape. When we reached a small access road, the school bus took a hard left and I clutched my seat to keep from tipping into Walsh.
“Now, the waterfall assignment is broad. I don’t want to stifle anyone’s creativity, so if you want to hike to the top and take a picture looking down in a bird’s eye view or whatever, it’s fine with us.” Professor Woods looked at Professor Hines, who shared a conspiratorial wink. They would make a cute couple. Lord knows they were always batting eyes at each other.
“Just stay on our side of the woods.” Professor Hines tone dropped into ominous levels and I perked up.
“Werewolf City’s border is marked with red stakes every few feet. Do not step over into the Wild Lands.”
Walsh shifted uncomfortably next to me and I frowned. “What is the Wild Lands?” I whispered to him.
“Look…” He ignored my question and I peered up to see the bus drive out from the thick canopy. As the treed road opened up into a green valley, the breath hitched in my throat.
“Holy crap,” I breathed.
Two giant mountains stood next to each other like old friends. Between them was a bright green valley full of lush green growth and mossy sponge covering the ground. The mountain to the right, the slightly bigger one, had a cobalt blue vein of water pouring down its middle. It was like we were at Yellowstone National Park or some other famous place, but instead we were in an unknown portion of Werewolf City, gazing at the most beautiful waterfall I’d ever seen.
Walsh pointed to a small cluster of wood cabins to the right. “I used to come here as a kid. My mom has a cabin over there.” I’d never spoken to him this much, but seeing his home seemed to bring the chattiness out of him.
On the other side of where his mom’s cabin was, there were a line of reddish-orange flags in the dirt, clearly demarcating a property line. I thought about what Professor Woods said about staying on “our side” and frowned.
I wished my parents had told me more about this place. I had little idea who the Paladins were, or any of this stuff.
We parked the bus in a designated spot and disembarked, taking in the picturesque surroundings. The beautiful sound of over thirty students’ shutters opening and shutting in tandem made a grin pull at the edges of my lips. I decided to try something different. Pulling a spare lens out of my bag, I held it up, looking through it about twelve inches away, and then snapped a picture of the lush landscape through the lens, through my camera, catching my fingers holding it in the frame as well.
“That’s going to be a good one,” Professor Woods murmured beside me.
I gave him a wry smile, so grateful for this fieldtrip.
“Let’s start hiking! We aren’t even to the really pretty stuff yet,” Professor Hines said.
I’d worn my white Converse knockoffs, which I had a feeling I was about to trash. Mental note to get hiking boots with Sawyer’s money, because now that I had these cuffs on I felt less bad about spending his cash. If he was going to be a dick and cage me, I was going to retaliate with shopping therapy.
“Oh look!” Jennie pointed to a thick fern bush and I followed her gaze.
It took a second for my eyes to adjust, but when I realized what it was, I gasped a little.
Whoa.
There must be over a hundred orange and black butterflies dripping down the branches like a living sculpture.
I screwed on my macro lens and took an amazing zoomed-in picture of the texture of the wings.
Click, click, click. We all snapped pictures.
“The monarchs. We only get them for a few months and then they’re back on their way to Mexico,” Professor Hines said.
After that, we silently settled into the hike across the valley and over to the base of the waterfall.
“Can I go in the water?” Jennie asked.
I liked Jennie, she was chill, low maintenance, and didn’t make the top twenty with Sawyer, so she wasn’t an asshole to me like the other girls.
“Absolutely,” Professor Woods said.
Chris pulled a camera drone from his backpack and I scowled at him. “Cheater.”
He grinned. “I’m not climbing all the way up there for a good shot.”
“I am!” I announced.
“Me too,” a dude named Samson said, and started to hike in that direction.
“Wonderful! It seems you all have an idea of the shot you want to get. Take your time. We have three hours slotted for the fieldtrip.”
I started to hike up the well-worn path to the right of the waterfall, and Walsh stepped in behind me. “You don’t have to go up with me,” I told him.
He just grumbled under the hood of his jacket, which was now pulled up because the waterfall was spitting mist at us when the wind changed directions.
Okay, I guess my chatty Walsh was gone.
It was a steep hike. Like a freaking stair stepper. My thighs burned when we got halfway, and I stopped with Samson to pull water from my backpack and take a long swig. Walsh didn’t look nearly as out of breath as Samson and I, and I wondered what kind of exercise regimen Sawyer’s guards were on. Because clearly I needed it.
“Fuck this. Good enough,” Samson groaned, and walked over to the edge, starting to snap pictures.
I frowned. “Not going to the top?”
He shook his head. “Too much work for a photo.”
I swallowed my scoff and nodded. Photography was my life. Most of the time it was taking a photo in a moment, but others it was waiting hours for a bird to show up and drink from the bowl of water you set out, or to hike a mountain and get that shot that’s in your head. Photography was freezing your memories so other people could view them forever, and that’s what I was determined to do today.
I took off up the mountain with fierce determination. I wasn’t going to back down because something was hard—what kind of person did that? No one I could ever respect or be with. I glared at Chris’ drone as it flew down from the top, already having taken its amazing photos and now done. An annoyed growl ripped from my throat and I picked up the pace even faster.
“You’re pissed about something,” Walsh commented, barely winded at my side.
I gave him a long side-look. “Yeah, it just seems like everyone in Werewolf City is used to having things handed to them on a silver platter.”
A slow smirk pulled at his lips. “And you’re not?”
“No,” I growled, and pushed harder into the hike. It hit me then, I was so mad. Mad at Werewolf City, mad at Curt Hudson and his stupid bylaws, mad at the system. Why did my mother and father get kicked out? Why did I have to grow up without a pack, in a school of misfits who shit on me every day, when these Wolf City kids were being spoon-fed every drop of luxury. I guess I was glad it happened that way, it made me who I was. I wasn’t the girl who took the easy shot.
Before I realized it, I’d reached the peak of the mountain. It was craggy and pointy, with a path only about twelve inches wide. If you slipped forward, you would fall down the front of the waterfall, and if you slipped backward you would fall down the back of the mountain.
Note to self: Don’t do either.
I peered to my right, down the backside of the mountain, and noticed those little red boundary flags and a blur of motion as something moved in the thick tree line down there.
A Paladin?
My heart hammered in my chest as I stared at the spot, but I didn’t see any more movement and started to think I was making it up. Picking up my camera, I took a picture of the boundary flags, reminding myself to ask Sage more about it. I stepped about five paces along the path until I was directly up to the waterfall, hovering right over it. Part of the mountain was flat, bringing water from a river somewhere, but the part I stood on, that I’d just climbed up, steeply cut off the back like it had been shorn off in an earthquake or something.
Nature was crazy.
Pulling my camera up to my eye, I stepped forward and looked down over the waterfall.
“Be careful,” Walsh warned.
I pulled the camera back and looked at him, twenty feet away back at the path that led down the mountain. “Come here, you gotta see this. It’s amazing.”
He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t like heights.”
I chuckled. “Okay.”
Looking back down through my lens, I couldn’t help but feel a thrill run through me at the sheer size of the height I was standing at. Water flowed unrestricted down the mountain, slower at first, until it crashed into a mass of white rapids and turbulence.
I hung my head directly forward and snapped the picture. And that’s when I felt my balance go wonky. The ground was wet, so when I went to take that half a step forward to get the shot, my foot gave way.
Oh hell no.
I felt myself fall forward, toward the waterfall a little, and panicked, throwing my weight backward to counter the move.
Bad idea.
“Demi!” Walsh screamed as I overshot the path and began to fall completely backward. My ass hit the ground hard and then I was sliding. Pain laced up my back as I slid like a kid on a snow day, except without a sled.
Oh fuck, was all I could think as I dropped my camera around my neck and started to grasp at ferns, tree trunks, anything to slow my fall.
That’s when I started to roll. I hit a little rock shelf, went airborne, and when I came down on my left shoulder, something snapped. I wailed in pain and I just started rolling. Like a fucking bowling ball, I tumbled down the mountain, Walsh was screaming my name like a madman and I just kept thinking: How is it not over yet? How am I still falling? My wolf surged to the surface, but the cuffs kept her at bay as I rolled and rolled, until I felt sick and battered and half dead. Pain throbbed and sliced through my entire body as the mountain chewed me up and spit me out.
With a grand finale, my head smacked the side of a rock and everything went blurry.
I cried out as pain laced behind my skull, and I finally stopped rolling, skidding to stop on the ground.
With a shaky hand, I used my right arm to grab the side of my hair, and upon feeling the sticky wetness there, I pulled it back with a whimper.
Walsh’s voice felt far away and warbled. I was confused.
What happened? Where was I? How did I get here?
Fuck, I hit my head.
Oh God, my shoulder.
I focused on Walsh’s voice, something familiar, something that I knew would keep me safe as I lay there and felt sleepiness work its way into my body. A twig snapped, and then a giant of a man, big enough to rival Eugene, stepped over and crouched in front of me. A man about sixty years old stood shirtless with bright blue tribal war paint on his chest and face. A necklace made of tiny, sharpened bones hung around his neck. He bent down and looked at me, frowning.
I was scared of him for a moment. I mean who was this? A Paladin? Had I rolled on to “their” side?
Everything was confusing.
When he crouched down and looked at me, I was taken back with how kind his blue eyes were. Eyes that kind couldn’t hurt me, right?
He reached out a hand to place two fingers at the pulse on my neck and I smelled him.
Wolf.
Dominant.
Magic?
Satisfied with my pulse, he picked up my right, good hand, and inspected the arm cuff, then he leaned down and smelled my wrist, looking back at me wide-eyed, his eyes the color of the waterfall.
“You need to be more careful, pup. I’ve seen the Ithaki drain your kind in less than a minute,” he whispered, looking behind him as if he’d heard something.
Ithaki? Drain my blood? Maybe my head was still concussed, because I was confused about what he was saying. Walsh still sounded so far away, screaming for the guy to leave me alone. I just wanted to sleep. I groaned, my eyelids closing. The man lightly slapped my face, causing my eyelids to flutter open.
“No sleep,” he told me, and looked back up to where Walsh was screaming.
I whimpered as the pain of everything that just happened seeped into my body all at once, and the adrenaline left me. “It hurts.”
He frowned and then nodded. Reaching into a pouch at his waist, he pulled out a small white root. “Chew.” He shoved it in my mouth and I nearly spat it out. It was bitter as all hell, but within a few bites I’d crushed the outside and a sweetness coated my tongue as some of the pain was chased away along with my foggy thoughts.
Oh God. I fell. I fell really bad. The last few minutes were coming back to me now and how badly I’d royally screwed up.
“Get the fuck away from her!” Walsh screamed, closer now.
The man looked over at Walsh sadly and then down at me. “Stupid city wolves. Have you been with them this whole time?” he grumbled, and started to unfold an animal skin from his waist pouch.
Leaning down over me, he lay the animal skin blanket over me, and that’s when I realized I was shivering. He picked up my cuff again and inspected it. “Won’t heal with this on,” he growled, as if he were angry.
What would a random forest caveman wolf have to be angry about on my behalf?
I pointed at him, finally feeling the effects of the pain-relieving root. “Paladin?”
His blue eyes flicked to mine and he nodded, just once, before his head was sliced from his body.
Terror ripped through me as I screamed bloody murder. Crimson blood splattered over me as the man’s head fell to my side and his body tumbled forward.
Walsh was no longer human, because instead of hearing him scream my name, I now just heard the howl of a wolf.
Looking up at the shadow that crossed over my face, I saw a … I don’t know what it was. A pointed-ear fey man that smelled of a wolf? He was dressed in the same crude homemade clothing style as the nice man who’d just tried to help me, but he looked much more sinister. Black hair hung to his waist in a thick braid, and he had small pockmark scars over his greasy face. With one kick, he knocked the head of the Paladin away from me and then leaned down to smell my neck. It was then that I saw a dozen more men behind him, all grinning and holding long, curved and serrated, sickle-type blades.
I screamed again, trying to move, but when I did pain just laced up my body in all directions and I felt dizzy.
Taking a deep inhale of my scent, he grinned. “Little demon, you’re coming with me.”
Then he struck the side of my temple with the blunt end of a sword and I was met with blackness.
