Chapter 53
Everly
The Wilder bonfire party was even bigger and better than I expected.
By tradition, it was held in the deep woods on the Wilder property, a sprawling estate that felt worlds away from the hustle and bustle of Havenport and the busy college scene at Hollingsworth.
A massive black lake lay in the middle of the woods, and the party stretched out along the edges, where warm, golden light from several small fires flickered against the dark water, casting eerie shadows.
Strings of colorful bulbs hung in loops around the surrounding trees, leading up to the center of the action in a large clearing next to the lake.
There, a massive bonfire blazed high into the night, sparks crackling and spiraling into the black sky as party guests drank, laughed, and hooked up all around it.
On the other side of the clearing, a DJ booth had been set up on a raised wooden platform, blasting music that thumped through the trees.
Some people were dancing in clusters near the booth, swaying to the beat, while others stood back with drinks in hand, leaning close to talk over the music.
The air was thick with excitement, mingling with the woodsy scent of burning pine and the heady aroma of cigarettes, cologne, and alcohol.
Tessa told me that the party was inspired by an old pagan festival, meant to honor the end of summer and the subsequent descent into the darker, colder months.
But really, it was just an excuse for privileged, popular students to get loose and revel in the anonymity of their costumes as they partied like there was no tomorrow.
Many costumes kept the pagan theme, though, with some dressed as forest spirits draped in ivy, others as haunting figures in antlered masks, and a few adorned in shimmering gold, embodying ancient gods and goddesses.
Others were dressed in more random costumes—sexy vampires, shadowy specters, and masked figures in cloaks.
Some of those wore full masquerade masks, while others opted for elaborate face paint in grotesque patterns like skulls or demons.
As for the girls and me—we’d all chosen to dress as ‘harvest sacrifices’ in long, gauzy white gowns, gold domino masks, and ivy wreaths atop our heads. It seemed in keeping with the theme while also granting us some anonymity, making it easy for us to avoid people we didn’t want to hang out with.
People like Jake.
I’d already spotted him over an hour ago, hanging out with a group of guys—including Rhett—at one of the smaller fires near the lake’s edge.
All of them were dressed in black with black and white face paint that transformed the left half of their faces into death masks.
It seemed to be the standard Wilder costume, setting them apart from the other guests.
“I need another drink,” Tessa shouted over the music. “Want one?”
I shook my head. “No, I need to pee,” I shouted back, gesturing toward a path that led away from the bonfire. “I’m going up to the house.”
“Oh, do you want me to come? We can get more drinks after.”
“Sure.”
We started pressing our way through the crowd around us. A moment later, a tall guy in a vampire costume gave Tessa the eye and leaned down to whisper something in her ear. She giggled, grabbed my arm, and murmured in my ear. “Mind if I go and dance with him instead?”
I grinned and waved a hand, signaling for her to go ahead. We’d lost Bree and Sloane to a sexy masked guy and a pretty woodland nymph earlier, so I was already half-expecting to lose Tessa at some point too. “Sure! I’ll be okay. The house isn’t that far.”
“Thanks, babe!” She grinned and took the vampire’s hand, and they disappeared into the crowd.
I headed down the path, rubbing my bare arms as goosebumps cropped up all over them. By the bonfire, the air was warm and toasty, but out here, the air was cold, and the breeze blowing through the trees wasn’t helping.
My breath hitched as I caught sight of the smaller fire that the Wilders had marked out as their exclusive spot for the evening. Jake was sitting on a log, loudly telling the others a story about some beach club he’d visited last summer.
Thankfully, he was too distracted by his own bullshit to notice me creeping down the path near the fire. The golden mask around the upper half of my face probably helped too.
I let out a small sigh of relief and kept walking. A familiar deep voice echoed through the frigid air a minute later.
“You lost, princess?”
I stopped in my tracks and whirled around to see Rhett staring down at me, dark eyes looking even more intense than usual due to the creepy skull paint on his handsome face.
Ugh. Apparently, my mask wasn’t much of a disguise after all. Unless he called everyone ‘princess’.
“I’m fine,” I said curtly, lifting my chin high. “I’m just going to the bathroom.”
He jerked a thumb in the opposite direction. “The house is that way.”
“Oh.” I looked around, brows furrowing. Damn. Just a minute ago, I’d genuinely believed I was heading in the right direction, but Rhett was right. If I’d continued down my current path, I could’ve wound up hopelessly lost in the woods for the whole night.
Rhett’s eyes narrowed slightly as he regarded me. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I… um… thanks,” I muttered, stepping past him.
“Ev. Wait.”
I turned back to him, my forehead wrinkling. “What?”
“I didn’t just stop you to give you directions. I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Oh. Um… okay.” I hated how squeaky my voice suddenly sounded, but I couldn’t help it. “What is it?”
“Well, I know you think I’m a giant asshole, and I fully admit that I am in some respects, but still…” He trailed off and flashed me a smile; one that probably always got him exactly what he wanted from women. “I think we got off on the wrong foot when we met. I want to fix that.”
My eyes narrowed. “Rhett, I saw you beating up a guy half your size like some sort of pathetic high school bully. I doubt there’s much you could say to fix that,” I said. “Besides, I gave you the opportunity to explain yourself that night, and you said no.”
“I can explain it now.” He paused and rubbed his jaw, eyes slowly traveling over the lines of my dress. “Unless you’re too busy getting yourself lost in the woods.”
I raised a scornful brow. “I thought you said it was none of my business.”
“It’s not, and I really shouldn’t be telling you anything at all.” Rhett took a step closer. “But I want to anyway.”
I swallowed thickly, pulse picking up. “Why?”
“Because I don’t like it when hot girls hate me for no reason.”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Wow, what a line. Truly the height of romance.”
“Well, you haven’t run away screaming yet, so it obviously worked,” he said, baring his teeth in another wolfish grin. “I thought I might have to chase you through the woods to get you to talk to me.”
“Okay, whatever. Go ahead and explain,” I said, waving a nonchalant hand.
On the inside, I wasn’t nonchalant at all. I was practically hyperventilating in my mind, trying to push away thoughts of Rhett chasing me and pinning me against a tree, his skull-painted face looming over me as his hot breath fanned over my throat and—
Stop it, I chastised myself. I’d already dated one major asshole. I didn’t need to start obsessing and fantasizing over another one.
“I can’t tell you much, but I can tell you just enough to make you understand,” Rhett said. “And this stays between us, okay?”
“Got it.”
He gave me a hard look. “I’m serious. You can’t tell anyone. Especially not your roommate.”
“Tessa?”
“Yeah. She has a bit of a reputation,” he said. “Nice girl, but she has a big mouth.”
I wondered how he knew who my roommate was. Did someone simply happen to mention it to him during a conversation? Or had he been checking up on me?
I took a deep breath and nodded. “Fine. I promise I won’t breathe a single word.”
“Good girl,” he said, lips quirking in the tiniest of smirks. The dark, commanding tone of his voice coupled with his choice of words made my pulse spike, but I managed to keep my cool as he went on. “I’m sure you’ve already been told that I’m a member of The Wild Hunt.”
“Yes.” I raised a brow. “Are you about to spill all the society secrets to me?”
“You wish,” he replied, still smirking as he rubbed the stubble on his jaw. “Anyway, Ryan Gardner—the guy from the tunnel—was a member like me. Key word: was.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“Basically, the way it works is: you get initiated in freshman year, go through training and trials, and then in the summer before senior year, you have your final trial. If and when you pass that, you become a full-fledged member, and you gain access to the encrypted society files.”
“So you’ve just become a full-fledged member, then?”
“Yeah. About three months ago. Ryan passed too, which surprised everyone, because no one thought he’d make it through any of the trials, given what a fucking pussy he is.”
“What exactly happens in these trials?”
“I can’t tell you that that part. We’re sworn to secrecy.
But the point is: Ryan had full access to all the society secrets.
” Rhett’s jaw tightened. “Anyway, The Wild Hunt only has male members, but we have both men and women working for us in various capacities. Like event planning, admin, and so on. One of those women is named Lila. She’s like a secretary, I guess.
Sends out the meeting invites, and so on. ”
“Right.”
“Ryan asked Lila out after the last trial. She wasn’t interested. But he doesn’t like to hear the word no. So he decided to go with blackmail as his next move.”
My brows rose. “Blackmail?”
Rhett nodded, eyes flashing with malice. “He told her he was going to leak all the society information online. Make it look like it came from her. Even though she’s not a member, she’s still around us a lot, so it makes sense that she’d know some stuff.”
“Let me guess,” I said in a low voice. “He said he wouldn’t do it, but only if she slept with him?”
“Yup. She was scared of retribution from the Wilders, so she felt like she had to fuck him to stop him from doing it.”