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“Of course,” I said. “That’s not even a question.”
She glanced down at her hands, now folded in her lap. Her posture was perfect, making me realize that I needed to put more effort into my own. Sometimes, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe we had been switched at birth; she acted so much more like a true heir than I did. She would never sneak off-campus because the pressure got to her. She would never slouch. And she always started her homework right after classes.
“It might be,” she said before tugging her bottom lip between her teeth. “If this Marriage Law goes through, anything can happen. My family…well, you know my family. I come from a couple with no wolf genes in them. We still don’t know how I am what I am, but I know how I’m viewed in this community. And I don’t know what’s going to happen. And I just…I just want to make sure that no matter how things change here, what you and I have never will.”
I opened my mouth, ready to tell her I didn’t care about her family or her status or any of that. She had always been my friend, and that was the only thing that mattered to me.
“Please,” she added, knitting her brow together. The only time I had seen her so serious was when we studied for exams or were doing a particularly difficult assignment for Professor Bell’s class.
“Okay,” I said. “I promise, Rianne. Nothing will come between us. No matter what.”
She stared at me for a moment longer before releasing a slow breath. It whistled slightly, reminding me of the wind outside.
“Anyway,” she said. “Let’s not change the subject. You snuck out. Is that a new necklace, by the way?”
I tried to keep up with her constant change of subject and how she managed to pin me in place like a collector pinning a butterfly to a piece of cloth. I didn’t have any time to question why she needed a promise like that in the first place – if she was genuinely overthinking things because of the rumors and the Marriage Law and her blood, or if she knew something was set in stone and just didn’t have it in her yet to tell me what it was.
Freya
To say Kent was pissed about what occurred would be an understatement. Even I knew that and I barely knew the guy. Luckily, he wasn’t the type of guy to mutter under his breath. I wasn’t sure how I would have handled that right now, on the way to a dorm I never signed up for, in a school I didn’t want to be.
I hadn’t known my mother was an alumni here. She didn’t talk about this place, or Master Grey, or even my father. All she talked about was being on my guard, trusting no one, and fighting until my last breath.
I followed the Alpha captain down another dimly lit hallway. I tried to memorize the direction he took me in because I didn’t want to be that person who constantly needed help from everyone, but it was difficult for me to focus. This place was a fortress, filled with winding halls filled with stone and shadow instead of space and rooms. Even the cottage Mom and I lived in before…before the attack seemed much more comfortable and welcoming than the cold stiffness this place offered.
When we emerged from the hallway, I was surprised to find a grand room filled with four tables placed vertically down the length of the room, with benches on either side of each table. There was another table on higher ground facing horizontal, each with an individual chair for the occupant.
“This is the Dining Hall,” Kent said. “You’ll dine here for each meal, sitting at the first table here.” He gestured in front of him at the table lined in a long green tablecloth with gold designs on it. The closer I looked, they almost seemed like thin, gold branches. “You just missed dinner, so I’ll stop by the kitchens to see if we can find some leftovers for you.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, even though I knew he didn’t have anything to do with this. Master Grey remarked as much; Kent was just following orders.
“The kitchen is off-limits for students,” he said. “I don’t know what classes you’ll be in, but tomorrow is Thursday, so be prepared to sleep soon. Curfew is eight thirty during the week, ten on weekends. The lieutenants and underlings of each pack patrol the grounds and the building for anyone out of bed. This is not the time to prove yourself. Detention will be given, and it will be harsh. As an Alpha, I expect a lot from my pack, meaning, if I find out one of my own was assigned a detention, I assign two more.”
I nodded, unsure what to say.
He gave me a long look.
“What?” I finally asked.
“I can’t tell if you’re going to be trouble for me,” he admitted.
I shrugged.
Finally, he looked away and proceeded to cross the Dining Hall. I had to run to catch up to his long strides, but I did, and we made our way through a small doorway across the room.
“Captain Byron!” a voice called. I turned, only to find a girl a few years older than I was, with flour on her thin face and her brown hair pulled into a bun. She was washing dishes, and somehow managed to get little pieces of food stuck to her apron. Water splashed outside the silver sink. “So good to see you. I noticed you weren’t at dinner, but then I remembered it’s your night for patrol, so –” The girl quickly cut herself off when she noticed me. “Oh, you’ve brought someone new!” She batted brown hair from her face and wiped her hands on a dirty, otherwise white apron. “Is she…um, students aren’t supposed to be –”
“Master Grey enrolled her tonight,” Kent said smoothly, keeping his tone even and warm. “Lily, this is Freya Foster.”
“Foster?” An arched brow, almost as though she recognized my name. She turned to look at me. Her grey eyes held suspicion in them, which I understood. I was new here. She might have heard of my mother but that didn’t mean she knew me. “She looks young.”
“Yes,” Kent said before I could respond. “A couple of years younger than our First Years.”
“Hmm,” she said, giving me another pursuing glance. “Must be nice to have a mother so intricately linked to this place.” Her nostrils flared. “And human.”
“I’ll have you know –”
“Lily, if you’d be so kind as to get the food?” Kent asked with just a hint of a command to his tone.
