Sarah
“It really wasn’t that bad,” I explain, seated next to Hadley at the kitchen table. For the past half hour, I’ve been telling her about the dinner party and how Sydney announced our mate bond. Hadley’s been listening while picking at her food, nodding along and smiling when I explain the juicer bits.
“Well, look at you, getting to explore the castle. One day, I want to see it.”
“It sounds like we’re going to have a big wedding after all. I suppose the reception will be held there.”
Hadley smiles and pushes her plate away. “How are you feeling?”
“In general? A little overwhelmed, honestly–”
“No, right now.”
I look down at my plate. I’ve barely touched my food. In fact, my head hurts a little bit, and my stomach is in knots. “It’s been a busy week. I think I’m just tired.”
I glance at the kitchen where Cosette would normally be fluttering around cleaning up from dinner, but she excused herself to do the laundry ten minutes ago, giving me the privacy I needed to talk to Hadley about Ryan.
I share Cosette’s sentiments. Not because I don’t think Hadley deserves Ryan, but because it seems like, to her, this is a game. Like she’s holding the fact she kissed the Alpha above her head like a beckon, a prize.
She has no idea he’s her mate, and it’s not my place to tell her, but she’ll be the Luna of Silverhide one day, as well as part of the same family that has welcomed me with open arms.
I don’t want her to hurt Ryan, though. It’s a weird feeling. I trust Hadley. I know her. And her suddenly sly smile and propensity toward gossip is new behavior.
“Hadley, I have something I need to talk to you about,” I say, twisting to face her. I go to grip my fork, but my fingers feel numb. I flex them, trying to stretch the prickling sensation away, but it seems to spread instead.
“About what?”
“Ryan–”
“Sarah, you look exhausted. Are you feeling okay?”
“Honestly, no,” I admit. Can I really be this exhausted? “I shifted with Sydney last night. We were out pretty late, and I guess I didn’t get enough sleep.” I lift my hands and cup my face, resting my elbows on the table.
“I’ll go find Cosette. We’ll help you get to bed.” She stands.
I follow her with my eyes, unable to do much else as the numbness spreads through my arms and into my chest. My heartbeat wanes, slowing significantly, as the room around me starts to fade. But a nagging voice inside my head screams, “Wake up!”
I lift my head from the table and gasp as darkness swarms around me. The lights are off, and lifted female voices echo from what must be the foyer as I slide out of the chair and onto the ground, struggling to find my footing. The house feels cold and stale as I grip the chair and pull myself upright. It’s like the heat has been turned off, the power cut.
My head pounds as I look around, noticing my plate still on the table, the food untouched and cold. “Cosette?” I croak, trying to blink away the darkness still swelling in my vision.
Something crashes to the ground, shattering, the sound of glass breaking echoing down the hallway leading to the foyer. I push myself from the floor and throw my body against the kitchen doorway, clutching the wall to steady my weak legs.
Dalia screams, and my body reacts without my mind needing to catch up. I stumble down the hallway, leaning my shoulder against the wall as darkness threatens to pull me under again.
In the light of the nearly full moon, three figures tussle in the foyer. One of Cosette’s precious porcelain vases lies shattered in the center of the carpet.
Dalia screams again as one of the figures grabs the other. “Stop!”
“Dalia?” I whisper.
A low, crackling laugh echoes through the darkness. One of the two figures falls to the ground, her face coming into the light as she scrambles back to where Dalia is crouching surrounded by porcelain shards. Cosette, her face bloody and hair as wild as her eyes, doesn’t flinch as the shards cut through her hands.
The figure still standing turns, the moonlight touching her profile, and my heart sinks deep into my stomach.
“What are you doing, Hadley?” My weak legs nearly give out, my knees trembling violently as I drag myself forward, gripping the railing of the staircase.
Hadley looks murderous as she turns to face me fully. I barely recognize her.
“Hadley?!” I shout, and it takes a great effort to do so. My voice sounds like I’ve been punched repeatedly in the throat. “What did you do?”
“How are you feeling, Sarah? A little weak? A bit dizzy?”
“She poisoned you,” Cosette growls.
I let go of the railing in an attempt to walk to Cosette and Dalia, but my legs give out. I clutch the railing again at the last moment, saving myself from another fall. “What did you do?” I rasp.
“It’s just a bit of wolfsbane,” Hadley clucks, snickering. “Oh, but the ground silver isn’t doing you any favors. It’s slowly working through your system. You’ll succumb to it soon, I’m sure.”
I shake my head. “You didn’t–why would you hurt me?”
“When you mentioned you’d shifted, I knew I’d have to do something more extreme than just the wolfsbane laced chocolate. I could have given you anything, you know. You’ve always trusted me so blindly, especially when it came to food. You’re still so used to having to scrounge for anything you could get. And look at you now.” She laughs bitterly, reaching behind her to pull something free from her belt loop. “Mated to the heir of Crescent Falls, the son of the Beast.”
I shake my head, sure this is some kind of sick dream. “Hadley–”
“You thought you could forsake your own destiny, didn’t you, Sasha?”
My real name rings through the air like the steady beat of a drum. Hadley twists a blade over her fingers, the moonlight catching on its surface. I can barely catch my breath as I glance at Cosette, who is holding a sobbing Dalia in her arms.
Hadley follows my gaze and smirks, casually pointing her blade at Dalia. “That little bitch caught me cutting the power to the house after I left the table. I had to drag her by her hair into the foyer.”
“Why are you doing this?” I beg.
“Gabriel is the true king. All of this should be his. He can make it so.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, girl–”
“Shut up!” Hadley sneers, jabbing her knife at Cosette.
“Hadley, please, put down your knife and talk to me.”
“Like you’d listen.” She slowly turns back in my direction. “Our kind has been held back by the Goddess for far too long, and now the true king is rising to take back our power.”
“You are deranged,” Cosette hisses.
Hadley moves swift as lightning, chucking a shattered piece of porcelain at her. It grazes Cosette’s arm, but her howl of pain is enough to jog me into total awareness.
“You knew who I was this entire time, didn’t you?”
Hadley turns back to me and nods, her smile widening. “My brother and my parents were always so grateful for our lives here. They left Eastonia with nothing after their pack fell to Kane’s armies, leaving them packless. Here, they thought we’d have more opportunities. But when they died, James left me alone in that fucking boarding house so he could become a warrior. He abandoned me.”
“You were never abandoned, Hadley. You had family still–”
“I was born here. I was never meant for this place, just like you. I wanted to know why my parents hated Kane so much when he could have given them anything had he prevailed. We are mere wolves. Do you know what we used to be, Sasha? We used to have powers like the ones your precious royal family guards within their bloodline. Now, we’re reduced to workhorses, to beasts with claws and teeth, not the immortal gods we could have remained.”
“Sarah, get out of here, now,” Cosette growls, but Hadley laughs bitterly.
“It’s too late for that. The wheels are already in motion for the new era. My Lord Gabriel has seen to it. All he needs now is you, Sasha. The born-again queen of the mystics. The angel of the other realms. The decider.”
“What are you talking about?” I choke out, tears blurring my vision.
“SARAH, GO!”
Hadley growls, “I’m sick of your interruptions, bitch,” and launches herself toward Cosette, her blade sinking into Cosette's side.
I leap forward, but my legs give out, my knees crunching against the floor as I scream Cosette’s name.
Dalia sobs, begging for their lives as Hadley pulls the blade from Cosette’s side.
“Don’t touch her!” I scream, reaching a weak hand toward Hadley. “Take me. Don’t hurt them anymore.”
I scream down the bond for Sydney, but it’s radio silence. I can’t feel him. The wolfsbane and silver echoing through my blood must be choking out our bond somehow. “HADLEY!”
Hadley raises her blade toward Dalia. Dalia’s tear-filled eyes shine in the moonlight before she closes them in anticipation for Hadley’s killing blow.
But then the door to the foyer bursts open off its hinges, and two wolves rush inside.
The first wolf is black as night with eyes that match Hadley’s. He rushes toward me, blocking the view of Hadley as she ignores the wolves completely and slashes her blade toward Dalia.
But instead of the song of metal meeting flesh, a deep, guttural growl echoes through the room before the other wolf reaches Hadley, and she screams, her voice full of blood and pain.
I clutch James’s fur to pull myself upright so I can see over his back and then I’m…
I’m frozen.
Hadley’s blood coats the wall. She’s lying lifeless at the feet of the wolf before her, her eyes open but unseeing.
“Cosette? Cosette?” Dalia sobs, shaking our friend. Shattered porcelain squeaking beneath them is the only answering sound.
But my attention is on the wolf who just killed the woman I thought was my friend–my closest, dearest friend. I’ll never know why Hadley did this, if she’s been spying on me for years, or how she got swept up in Gabriel’s games.
My mind goes blank, and my heart lurches as the other wolf slowly turns to face me, his deep, stormy blue eyes shining with pain I can’t find the words to describe.
“Ryan?” I sob, clutching James for dear life. “Ryan!”
Ryan walks a few paces away from Hadley’s body before collapsing in a heap of fur, his groan of anguish echoing throughout the foyer.
Cosette moans, and over the sound of James’s rapid breathes I can hear Dalia murmuring desperate prayers to the Goddess.
How can this be real?
I let go of James and crawl to Ryan, porcelain scraping the palms of my hands. I grab his head, pulling his fur so I can look into his eyes. They’re dim with pain. “Ryan? Ryan, where is Sydney? Where’s Blake?”
‘She was my mate,’ Ryan says into my mind, his tone broken in a way I didn’t think possible. ‘I killed my own mate.’