Chapter 23
SADIE
Iwaited until I was sure they were asleep, Verne and Leander passed out on either side of me, and then I slid out of the covers, hating to leave them.
The wolves, yes, but the covers mostly. They were so damn luxurious, so inviting.
I wondered if I could use some of my twenty grand for this term on fancy thread count sheets.
I fled into the hallway, barely letting my feet touch the ground, my footsteps light.
It turned out being a wolf was useful for one thing because it allowed me to sneak out, to hear every minute noise I might have made and to avoid it.
But motherfucker, I was sore. I felt like I’d taken a baseball bat inside my pussy; every tiny motion made me twinge and wince.
Carefully, I helped myself to clothes in another room. Clothes that smelled like Leander, I couldn’t help but notice. I took a deep whiff of black coffee, my nose lingering, Verne’s explanations of scents replaying in my mind. Maybe I did know what he meant.
Part of me, loud and snarling, didn’t want to leave him behind. It didn’t want to leave Leander, either. Memories of his eyes rolling back flashed behind my eyes, but I shut them out, hurrying downstairs, past inviting sofas and a kitchen to die for.
I’d just made it outside, taken one step into the forest, when a shadow filled the doorway behind me.
I clenched my jaw, and refused to show weakness, refused to show even a bit of hurt when I realised it was Lainsz. Silently, I held his stare, challenging, defiant. He didn’t like me; well, I didn’t like him, either. My wolf might want him as hers, but I fucking didn’t.
“Gonna stop me leaving?” I asked. I didn’t recognise the cruel answer of my voice.
“They’ll slaughter you the second you step over the boundary.”
“You think I’m going back,” I asked with a little laugh.
“I know you are,” he replied, not bothering to make his expression anything but what it was— mean and cold and loathing. “I couldn’t give a shit if you get yourself killed.”
That hit my wolf with all the force of a dagger to the chest, but I locked down my expression and didn’t let it show. I refused to let this bastard see what he did to me, or how badly the wolf side of me wanted not only his acceptance but his affection.
“But if you die, they die,” he said, his jaw clenched and his expression shifting in the moonlight. I didn’t know him well enough to read it, even if I wished to know what that look meant.
“Take this,” he spat, “and get the fuck out of my sight.”
“I’m not taking anything from you,” I replied, biting. For good measure, I gave him my middle finger, too.
His eyebrow raised, both sardonic and taunting, like he knew exactly who I was, saw through all my shields to the person who was beneath, and despised it. A lump rose in my throat, and the burning in my eyes intensified. I hated him. Hated how he affected me.
“It will hide your scent,” he said with a sneer. “And mean the vampires at your precious killer Academy won’t know what you’ve become.”
That was too good to be true. I folded my arms over my chest, fighting to keep my expression even when a whiff of black coffee rose from the fabric. “Why should I trust you?”
“Like I said,” he replied. “If you die, they die.”
“And you?”
“Only if I accept the bond,” he replied, “which I do not.”
More daggers pierced the vulnerable muscle of my heart. I ignored them, denied their existence. He was a stranger, a nobody, and I refused to let him hurt me the way I let Derek hurt me for too fucking long.
“Take it and leave,” he said harshly, and tossed what looked like a bracelet into the dirt at my feet.
It could be a trick, I reasoned. This could be a cage, or handcuffs, or a new curse. But I was already a wolf and that was a curse in itself. So I gave Lainsz’s back my middle finger again as he disappeared back into the cottage, and I retrieved the bracelet, snapping it around my wrist.
Nothing happened, no sign that there was wolf magic attacking me, no sign that my scent had been suppressed or changed, either. But in the middle of the chain was a flat silver charm, and I knew there had not been a symbol on it before. Yet now there was a half moon.
I had no reason to trust Lainsz. But I did believe that he cared about the others. And if I died, they died. It was in his interest, strange as it was, to protect me.
There was nothing for me back at the academy except for killers and training and suffering. Oh—and three bitches who murdered me.
I thought of Elix and Paige, and our too brief friendship. It wasn’t enough to make the risk worthwhile, no matter how badly I craved that companionship.
But thoughts of Rev, Oona, and Marveline… those were enough. Revenge was enough. My wolf agreed with a low growl, and I had to lock my jaw to stop that sound emerging into the forest.
Revenge. The idea was seductive, more appealing by the moment. So, I turned away from the cottage, and set my sights on the academy that loomed over the forest.