Everly was being strangely quiet at breakfast, and Jack wasn’t sure why. He was worried about the conversation Slate had had with her the night before, but he didn’t think there was truly any risk of Everly taking the Nachtwolf seriously. After all, she had to know by now that Slate wasn’t trustworthy, and she needed to ignore everything he said.But watching her slowly eat the pancakes the staff had set in front of her, it was clear that something was bothering her, and Jack couldn’t imagine what else it would be. He prayed she wasn’t having second thoughts about the mate bonding ceremony they had gone through with. He’d sacrificed everything to make himself available to her, and the idea that she might not want to be with him now made him sick to his stomach.He didn’t want to say anything in front of his family, so he didn’t. His mother was in a cheerful mood, despite the fact that they had work to do as soon as he too

It wasn’t common for members of one pack to show up on another pack members’ territory. Apparently, Slate Bose had forgotten that when he’d shown up at the cabin the night before, but Victor had called Brock while Jack was taking Everly home and asked if the two of them could come over to the village in Nachtwolf land and speak to them.Brock had needed some convincing, but Victor was persuasive, and before noon, Jack found himself climbing the steps to the Bose residence along with his dad.He was nervous, though he didn’t want to admit it. They were greatly outnumbered, the two of them in the center of enemy territory without anyone else from their pack anywhere nearby. Though his father had ordered all of their warriors to come to as close as possible to the border, they weren’t in the territory, and they were hanging back so as not to be intimidating. They didn’t want to pose a threat. They just wanted to be ready in case somethi

Maura was staring at him. Jack could feel her eyes on the side of his face, and it was annoying. No matter how hard he tried to listen to the math teacher, having her eyes bore into his soul was a distraction.She had only said hi to him in the hallway earlier that day. He hadn’t been lying to Everly. But it had been the way that she’d said it that made him hesitate to assure his girlfriend that everything was fine. It was still hard for him to believe that Maura was a witch, but he knew that Everly thought she was, and as long as she felt like Maura was a threat, it was going to be hard for him to just tell her that everything was fine.As soon as class was over, Jack gathered up his books and briskly walked toward the door, hoping that he could get out of there before Maura had a chance to say anything to him, but she was a quick little witch, and within a few seconds of him leaving his chair, he felt a tug on his arm. “Hey, Jack!” Maura’s s

“Jack,” Everly said, the image of him kissing Maura coming back to her immediately, the second she laid eyes on him.“Everly!” he said, rushing over to her. She backed away, running into Slate, before he could touch her. “Listen, you know that I would never, ever kiss her. She kissed me. I didn’t even want to talk to her.”“What’s the matter, Grey?” Slate said, sounding a little cockier than he should’ve been considering that he hadn’t actually won anything. “Did you get caught with your pants down?”Jack glared over her shoulder at the other wolf shifter. “Stay out of this, Slate!” he said. “This doesn’t concern you! The fact that you just happened to be standing around outside of the school, waiting to swoop in and snatch Everly up the moment she ran out of the school is pretty good evidence that you and Maura set this up.”Slate came around beside

When Jack gave her the word, Everly turned around and ran for the door, headed out into the street as fast as her legs would carry her, not sure where she was headed after that but knowing she needed to get as far away from his house and the council members as possible.It had been a mistake going there. They should’ve known that. What could the council members possibly want that was good? To have a discussion with her about how three of them had killed her mother eleven years ago, and it was one of the most fun activities they’d ever taken part in, so they’d very much like to do it again? Everly felt stupid for ever even considering coming to talk to them like civilized people. They weren’t even people.But then… neither was she. Not anymore.But she didn’t want to shift at the moment because if she did, she’d lose her clothes, and if she lost her clothes, eventually, when she shifted back into her human form, she&rsqu