Page 35 of UNAwere

‘Oh.’ I scoff, waving a hand. ‘That’s because I’ve been sharing a car with him for about a week. We’ve been forced to be super close together, and it’s just this whole thing, you know. We, I’m… um… on a road trip.’

‘A road trip?’

‘Yeah.’ I gesture towards outside. ‘I haven’t ever left my pack before, and he’s showing me what Sol has to offer.’

Paula laughs, a true witch’s cackle. ‘This one’s a terrible liar, too.’

‘Those of pure heart usually are,’ Lucia muses, still staring at me. And then she stabs her gaze at the pair behind me. ‘Take her to the basement. I’ll be down shortly for an interrogation.’

‘Wait.’ I glance behind me as Paula and Brady come forward. ‘Interrogation?’

‘Don’t waste my time,’ Lucia tells the pair. ‘Get her down there and tied up.’

Istruggle as hands grab me. I try to fight them off, but they overpower me easily. I think about reaching into my wolf self, but the process of Turning only makes me more vulnerable. I grit my teeth, dragging my feet as they try to pull me down the stairs and into the basement.

Someone hits me across the back of the head, and my knees buckle. I groan, feeling the sensation of being dragged and carried. When I come to, I’m tied to a chair in a dimly lit room with bare walls.

‘Why didn’t she try to Turn?’ a voice asks.

‘I’m not sure…’

‘Are we sure she’s even a Were?’

‘Of course she is.’ Lucia’s voice fills the void. ‘Can you not smell her? Can you not smell him?’ The woman comes around to the front of my chair and gazes down her beaked nose at me. Her apron is now gone, and her floral blouse and capri pants really don’t match her I’m about to interrogate you vibe. ‘This one didn’t Turn because she is not a fighter.’

‘Maybe she is the alliance gift, then?’ Brady asks, hopeful.

Lucia shakes her head. ‘The alliance gift wouldn’t mark another. Warner wouldn’t allow it.’

‘I didn’t mark anyone…’ I try to say past the throb in my head. ‘I just smell like him because we’ve been cooped up in a car for the past week.’

‘So you keep saying.’

‘You’re Karvers, aren’t you?’ I ask them.

‘You’re only regarding the alpha herself,’ Paula says angrily from behind me.

‘You?’ I ask, staring at Lucia.

‘You seem surprised,’ the old woman says. ‘Karvers aren’t afraid of a matriarch, unlike your Primrose friends.’

‘That’s not true.’ I swallow. ‘Alphas can change at the drop of a hat, depending on who challenges and who wins. If a woman won against Warner in a challenge, he’d step down and let her lead.’

‘You’re very innocent. Very young. Very kind.’ Lucia strokes the side of my face with the back of her knuckles, gnarled by arthritis. ‘It’s a shame to do this to such a lovely soul.’

‘Do wha—?’

Before I can even finish asking the question, an unholy pain erupts through my nervous system, and I scream, my throat tearing.

‘Who is the bride to be bound to Alpha Warner?’ Lucia asks me, voice calm.

‘What?’ I stammer.

The pain tears through me again, and I scream. My wolf side howls, back arching, her teeth lengthening, her nails sharpening into points.

‘She’s Turning,’ Paula warns.

‘She’s suffering,’ Lucia corrects her. She spins to me. ‘Answer the question and the pain will end.’