Bullshit.
His wolf might have been into me and protective, but his human surely wasn’t. I slammed the door on desire and pulled my lips back so my incisors displayed as I snarled with menace: ‘Don’t you dare come near me.’
I pushed the words into his mind, hoping he understood me.
He stopped, and his eyes narrowed in question. The way he cocked his head to the side reminded me of a scolded dog. ‘Mate mad? Why?’
Damn right mate mad. Mate gonna mess you up if you get close to me.
‘You don’t get to be with me,’ I growled again, gnashing my teeth to reinforce my point. ‘You betrayed me.’
‘No.’ He stepped closer, but the only act of submission was the slight drop in his tail, which could mean nothing more than a drop in his happiness. ‘Mate. Protect. Happy.’
Was he kidding? I laughed, the sound of short barks hard and cutting. He stepped closer, closing the gap between us, and I lunged. With a sharp snap, I grazed his muzzle, and the coppery taste of his blood filled my mouth.
He yipped and jumped away from me, landing in a crouch of bunched muscle with his teeth bared. ‘No.’
His wolf looked like he was in shock. Clearly a far cry from his human side.
‘Damn straight, no,’ I snarled at him again. ‘Don’t follow me. I hate you.’
I turned my back on him, keeping my tail up in a clear show of dominance, and walked away.
Mate … my wolf practically whined to me in protest. The urge to go back to him, to lick his wound and nuzzle his neck, swelled as I ran. I couldn’t sprint fast enough to escape the bombardment of my instinct. But I refused to give in. Refused to be with a wolf who would hurt me and abandon me like he did.
As soon as I arrived at the edge of the woods behind the hovel I called home, I shifted back into my human form. The need for my mate waned though not nearly enough, and I quickly dressed and ran inside, sighing with relief to see everything as I’d left it—gross and dirty with a stack of textbooks on the table.
The next morning, I understood why Nolan had no energy for cleaning this place, but it needed to be done. I’d dust as much of this place as I could now and worry about the rest later. The blessed weekend had come, praise the mage.
It was just after 8 a.m., and Nolan was still sleeping because that’s the kind of lazy bum he was. I, however, was up on my tiptoes with a wet washrag in hand, wiping down all the cupboards in the kitchen. The murky black water of the bucket was disgusting, but it felt good to get this place cleaned up.
“Knock knock!” Kaja yelled from the entryway.
“In here!” I shouted back.
Kaja and Nell had asked me to the same beach party that Noble and the boys had been asking me about last night. But I’d told them I’d had housework to do. They were probably here to beg, but I was going to put my foot down. I couldn’t live in this dump any longer. It was depressing.
When they walked into the room and I looked up, emotion tightened my throat. Nell was carrying a mop and bucket while Kaja held a paint roller and a gallon of paint.
Kaja set the paint bucket down. “We thought you might need help.”
“You guys … you don’t have to.” They were heirs for mage’s sake. They’d been waited on hand and foot their whole lives. Living on Alpha Island as an heir meant you had a household staff and certain amenities. I’d bet my life Kaja had never painted a wall in her entire existence. And Nell wouldn’t know the first thing about mopping. But having them show up was so sweet I rapidly blinked to keep from crying.
Nell held up the mop. “Oh, honestly, how hard can this be?”
I grinned. “You guys just want me to go to the beach party tonight, huh?”
They both nodded, and Kaja said, “Yep.
“The king sent word that the border around the island is secure again,” Nell added. “So the party is on.”
Laughter pealed out of me. “Well, whatever your motives, I’m grateful.”
The next eight hours were brutal. We cleaned, mopped, and painted my bedroom and the kitchen, covering the old stained walls with a fresh lemon yellow. By the time we were done, the place looked decent. The kitchen was spotless, entryway clean, and living room livable, and my room was perfect. The rest of the house would have to wait for another weekend because I was dead. Nell and Kaja had just left to go back to their house and get ready for the night. I was supposed to meet them in an hour. They’d finally worn me down about going to the party. After hours of helping me clean, I owed them big-time.
Chapter 11
“I don’t know why I agreed to this,” I muttered, following behind Nell, Rue, and Kaja as we made our way down the sloped trail. All of us wore bikinis under our shorts and t-shirts. I tugged on my tank-top, self-conscious of the wave-like mark on my solar plexus. I wouldn’t take my shirt off tonight, not after seeing the Harvest girls’ unmarred skin. I wasn’t about to reveal it to anyone else until I knew what it meant.
We stepped barefoot into the sand, me and the apparent supermodel Harvest girls. I would kill for those long lean legs. At least they’d pulled their red hair up into messy buns, mimicking mine. Loose strands fell around my face and neck, and for every single one I tucked up into the elastic, two more fell out.
Nell glanced over her shoulder at me and grinned. “Because you know we’ll have fun.”
The sun dipped below the horizon, twilight painting the sky in rich fuchsia and violet. Wolf-shifters occupied the beach, most of them crowding around the three fires, roasting marshmallows or drinking mage wine. One girl squealed as a guy hefted her over his shoulder and ran into the surf. Not all of them were students. I recognized a few king alpha guards who patrolled the palace and school grounds.
My gaze fell to Noble and Honor, both wearing huge grins as they waved me over.
Kaja told me to find her in a bit and left to follow her sisters, probably in search of food, leaving me with the two princes.
Noble settled back in his beach chair and pointed to the empty one next to him. “Come sit with me. Tell me how your week’s been. You’ve got meal duty every day, right? That sucks.”
I rolled my eyes, thinking of my sad little life here at school in comparison to the others, but accepted the chair. “You don’t have to remind me how much my life sucks. I’m living it—one hundred percent of it—so I know.”
Honor set down two more chairs on the other side of the coolers and winced when he came down on his right leg.
Noble froze. “Pain bad today?”
Honor nodded, but I didn’t dare ask. Whatever made my friend permanently limp must have been a bad injury. Wolves healed from almost anything, and pointing out weaknesses could be considered a challenge.
Honor opened the lid of the cooler, and my mouth dropped open. Bottles and bottles of mage wine were interspersed with water in one and food in the other. Kaja went to the wrong place. I wanted to cry when I saw chips and…
“Is that pico?” I asked, reaching for the chips and chunky salsa. I hadn’t seen anything resembling salsa in a week. Belatedly, I remembered my manners. Meaning my mouth was already full of chips and salsa when I mumbled, “May I have some?”