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Colton shook his head.
“Well, she’s the bit of a wild sister I never wanted.”
There weren’t too many people here. Most were teens and kids jumping off of the peak of the small shelf above the water.
“I was actually heading back when I caught both your scents. Just be careful.”
I nodded and headed out towards Sarah.
“Strip. No one here is shy.”
If only I’d lived an entire life of a normal shifter. Instead, here I was peeking around, wondering who could see me. Hell, even Colton being near made me nervous.
“Goddess. Kiara just jump in. I promise you. You won’t regret it even fully clothed.”
Chewing my lower lip, I pulled off the sneakers I’d trained in and peeled off the leggings, but decided to leave on my shirt.
“Alright. Here I come.”
The wind blew through my hair like a soft caress as I moved closer to the edge of the rocky cliff. One more time to remind myself that I was free. Free to make choices. Fate had delivered me to Devon and, at the very least, I knew he wouldn’t control me. He wanted to keep me safe. He loved me.
I smiled for the first time since spiralling into a dark place I didn’t know existed.
“One, two, three,” I said for no one’s benefit but my own.
“There you go.”
I heard Sarah’s words as I surfaced.
The coolness of the water washed away the sweat from the workout. I couldn’t say it washed away everything else going on inside me, but as I let myself sink below the water, the entire world quieted.
Peace. Maybe this was all I needed. To block out the entire world around me for a few minutes. My wolf seemed to enjoy the calm for a beat, and down here I felt more in tune to her than I ever had in the last week.
As my lungs started to burn, I pushed myself to relax another minute before I pushed off the pebbled bottom and gasped for the air as I surfaced.
“Girl, I wasn’t sure if you were trying to drown yourself or not.”
I smiled at Sarah. I wasn’t great at swimming, but it was one thing that I could remember a bit from my childhood. A time before my mother had died and left me with a broken father and a step-monster. Maybe my father had always been an asshole, and I’d just never realized it because as a child I didn’t see the evil as clearly as I did now.
“Look who it is, boys,” said a male.
My heart tripled its beat. My wolf recognized the new pack members. The Cripple Creek members. They had all pledged their loyalty to the pack and although Devon had confidence that they would fall in line, I wasn’t so certain.
As five of them jumped into the small and now overcrowded space, my wolf howled a warning. Sarah was next to me, yelling something, but I couldn’t hear her. The static of panic filled my ears as I tried to remember how to swim and get to shore. I needed to get away from them. I couldn’t be here.
There might have only been a handful, but I wasn’t dumb to think that I could take them all on. Or maybe I could, but right now my fight or flight had kicked in and I wasn’t going to try to fight. I didn’t want to.
An arm snaked around my waist.
“Come here, Luna. We just want to play.”
The way he said Luna dripped of disdain and mockery. I knew it. I knew they would never assimilate into this pack willingly. They would never accept Devon as their alpha.
“Let me go,” I said and thrashed at him—at them—and they pulled me further into the water. My feet dragged on the floor as it got more shallow and then back to being deep.
“Let her go, you assholes. She’s your fucking Luna.”
I heard Sarah scream and someone swear. I couldn’t see her to know what she’d done.
