Chapter 14 #2
“Of course. I’ll take you to one of my favorite places to eat.” I smile and lead the way toward my office. “We can go over everything—this job, what it entails—while we’re there.”
Half an hour later, we’re settled in my favorite spot by the window, the table between us piled high with plates covering nearly half the menu.
“So you really traveled overseas to intern at the Corpse Flower Gala?” Dria’s eyes go wide as she devours half her BLT in a single bite.
“Slow down—you’ll make yourself sick. Have you eaten at all today?” My gaze flicks to her plate, already littered with crumbs, and the other half of her sandwich still clutched in her hand. “Dria?”
She shrugs, avoiding my gaze. “I’ve had a few things here and there since moving here, but all the money I brought ran out fast. That’s why I need this job so badly.
” Her big brown eyes lift to mine, pleading, and my heart softens.
“I didn’t realize food and travel would cost so much. I’m not even paying rent yet.”
I reach across the table and squeeze her hand. “You’ll get there. But you don’t have to do this alone.”
To answer her earlier question, I add, “Yes, that was one of the most fascinating events I ever had the chance to work on as an intern. The costumes were… otherworldly.” The memory brings a smile to my face, the chaos and glamour of that whirlwind week still vivid.
“What did you wear?” she asks, polishing off her sandwich before gulping down her iced mocha.
“Well, I found this tiny boutique a couple days before the gala. It cost almost all my savings, but—”
“She wore the most stunning silk gown—midnight blue, studded with tiny gemstones, enchanted to drift like a cloud around her. She was the night sky itself. People couldn’t stop staring. Rosemary was the talk of the gala, featured in tabloids for weeks afterward.”
Carter’s voice rumbles behind me. He steps up, hands gripping the back of Alexandria’s chair.
The color drains from the girl’s face. She looks like she might hurl the entire contents of her stomach onto the table.
“Carter?” My brows knit as I tilt my head toward him. “How could you know that? I don’t recall you being there.”
“I wasn’t,” he admits easily, pulling over a chair from a nearby table. His gaze lingers on me, burning, before he sits and leans back. “But I would’ve paid good money to see it myself. Netti showed us.”
Heat flares up my neck under his stare.
“You told him I was here?” Dria hisses, snapping her accusing eyes to me. She shoves her plate away, pushing back as though ready to bolt. “I thought you said you weren’t sending me back to the pack.”
Carter tenses at her words, every muscle coiled, but I lift my hand, silently telling him to wait.
“I didn’t ask him to meet us here to drag you back to the pack.” I take a slow sip of my latte, letting the warmth steady me before I continue. “I brought him because, as much as I know about magic—and being a teenage girl—I don’t know what it’s like to be a teenage wolf.”
“I have control over my wolf,” Dria snaps, eyes glowing gold, a low growl threading her voice.
“Do you?” Carter cuts in, his gaze sharp. He nods toward the table, where her claws are extended, carving shallow grooves into the wood. “It takes years to master that kind of control.”
He falls silent for a beat, face flickering with something—pain, regret, memory—and I wonder what he endured at her age.
“What Carter means,” I say gently, leaning toward Dria, “is that we’re not here to punish you. We want to help. I see your passion and your dreams. But I also know how dangerous uncontrolled magic can be.”
Her gaze swings back to me, fierce and pleading all at once. “I don’t want to go back. I’ve made friends here. I have a job.”
“A job?” Carter arches a brow, his tone skeptical.
“They hired her to help part-time at the event hall,” I explain quickly before she can bristle further. Then I turn back to Dria. “But part-time isn’t enough to sustain living on your own.”
“And your parents are worried,” Carter adds, leaning forward, forearms braced on his knees, his gaze steady on her.
“All my parents want to do is control me,” she growls, pushing up from the table and storming out of the café.
“Fuck.” Carter tosses a few bills on the table, and we rush after her—but she’s nowhere to be seen.
“Where could she have gone?” I pant, chasing after Carter, his strides twice as long as mine.
“This way. I can smell her wolf.” He turns his head, and for a heartbeat his eyes glow gold.
“Alexandria!” We round a corner into a narrow alley filled with overstuffed garbage cans, the putrid stench of sewer assaulting us.
“I can’t smell anything over this,” Carter snarls, slamming his fist into a garbage can.
“Wait.” I lay a hand on his arm, then push past him, scanning the shadows. At last, I spot her—curled up against the dirty brick wall, tears streaming down her face. I crouch beside her. “Dria.”
“Go away,” she sniffles, swiping the back of her hand across her face, smearing dirt and tears over her olive skin.
“Let me at least take you where you’re staying so you can get cleaned up.” I offer her my hand and wait.
“There’s no point.” She sighs, head drooping.
“There’s always a point. And you always have a choice. Great cities weren’t built in a day—persistence and determination can get you through anything.”
Carter stands silently behind me, the low hum of air conditioners and rush of passing cars filling the alley. Sweat trails down my spine, sticky beneath my blouse, but a little discomfort is worth not rushing her.
“You can’t take me anywhere because… there’s nowhere to go.” She tilts her face toward the sky.
“Where have you been staying?” I ask gently, ignoring the prickling burn in my legs from crouching.
“Here, there.” She gestures vaguely, and relief washes through me when her claws retract to her normal nails, painted electric purple and neatly rounded.
“I’ve met a few friends. Mostly witches, a couple shifters, even a fae.
I’ve crashed at their places sometimes, but mostly I’ve been staying at the park in my wolf form at night.
I didn’t realize being on my own would be so hard.
I thought I could move, find a job, get my own place, do my own thing. ”
“Life is hard,” I say softly, “but it isn’t impossible.”
Her eyes finally meet mine, and I smile as she slips her hand into mine. I help her to her feet.
“You can come back to my place tonight.”