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“Keith again? Fine, let’s say he’s poor. Maybe his sheriff father doesn’t make enough money to outfit their house in the best werewolf deterrents, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s still a werewolf hunter.” I clicked my tongue, dropping an arm to my side. “And why are you such a kitten when it comes to him? You’ve never acted like this around anybody else. This is so wrong. You know what you should be doing? Avoid him. At all costs. Please tell your mother what he is, and let’s see what she says. Do I have to give up my steak for him every day? Please. He can’t do anything for you or me. He’s too poor and he keeps taking my extra steak. Find someone else to like, someone who’s not a hunter.”
“He’s not poor,” he corrected me. “Actually, he owns the original Nike Air MAG sneakers. I just think he refuses to understand what’s at stake here.”
I wanted to slam his head against the desk so badly. I hoped he’d forget why we were talking in the first place.
While on the verge of exploding, I managed to spit, “Why? Why didn’t he buy anti-werewolf devices for himself to make my life so much easier? If he’s not poor, maybe he just has apoorsense of safety precautions?”
“Maybe, yes. That’s why you need to be there too. To protect him. I can’t do this alone. I need you. You’re the strong one,” he tried to convince me.
“And what would we do against a whole pack?”
“We fight them.”
“Oh my god.”
Cole had officially gone crazy over this boy. He not only teamed up with Keith’s group of teenage werewolf hunters, he was also willing to sacrifice his own cousin’s life, and not because he wanted to avenge his kind. It was all to protect the alleged murderer instead. A tragic twist.
“N—O,” I spelled it out for him. “Not helping you.”
“Why not?” he demanded.
Why was I so adamant about not helping?
“I justcan’thelp you. Now please go back to your room,” I repeated, clenching my fists as I looked down at my feet, listening to Cole’s heavy footsteps fading down the hallway.
I let him leave. All because I couldn’t tell him the truth.
The truth that they didn’t know me well enough.
They didn’t know I was the king of pretending. That I was no lone wolf just because my parents passed away, and that I’d kept them in the shadows for years.
I was an alpha, groomed to succeed my late father, and I had a pack to lead behind their backs—the Crescent Pack, the group they thought had disbanded after the tragedy. Rainer? Huxley and Gretta? My father’s friends? They were all part of my pack, and all of them were adept at masking their wolf scent.
The hunters Cole had been trying to protect? They killed one ofmypeople not long ago. Her name was Willa Simmons. And if I failed to steer my pack away from all the murder and revenge, then I’d have to pull the trigger to satisfy their vengeance and greed.
For Willa’s soul to rest in peace.
Warning from Hell
I spentthe first day of school wishing I could forget everything. After escaping the cafeteria and skipping the rest of my classes, I went home with a heavy feeling near my left boob. The Cole and Keith thing—Coleithas I liked to call it—nearly unhinged me, but the heavens must have thought boys’ love wasn’t enough to make me go crazy and decided to give me a vision of Gray Yoo’s death too. Was I whining? Hell, yeah. It was easier to complain when nothing in my life made sense.
The following day, Mom drove me to school in her navy Nissan Rogue. Last semester, she had the early shift at work and could only manage to pick me up after my last class.
“I don’t feel like hearing my boss tell me everything I need to do. Why did he bother hiring me, if he doesn’t trust me to do my job? He’s a pain in my ass. I’d rather drive my daughter to school than see his face.” She pouted like a duck.
“As if you have an ass,” I teased. Luckily, she was too preoccupied with broadcasting her own thoughts to hear the dig I made.
While waiting at the stop light, I shifted my gaze toward the side street and saw Gray walking to school with one of his guy friends. He was laughing, likely telling a lame dad joke or some unfairly hilarious story from what was probably a great first day of school for him. I shouldn’t be surprised by his lackadaisical demeanor. I’d known him longer than any of his friends, but what I couldn’t wrap my head around was how different he seemed in my vision.
“He looks so happy,” I mumbled out loud. “I don’t understand why he’d do something like that.”
“Did you say something, honey?” Mom asked, her eyes fixated on the road. “Who looks happy?”
“Gray Yoo,” I responded. “He’s annoying.”
“Oh, the Yoo boy?” She craned her neck to glance in the rearview mirror, smirking when she caught sight of him. “Didn’t he used to have a crush on you?” Mom still remembered. She always thought if a guy annoys a girl, it must mean they like them. According to her, Gray fit the notion of the more you hate, the more you love. She wasn’t a big fan of his black studs, though. “You know, I’m kinda glad you decided to date Cole and not him.”
I sighed. “Eomma, I know I already asked you this before, but what would you do if you saw someone die in the future?”
