When Monday came around, I dragged myself to classes with bags under my eyes. The nightmares that had begun bothering me never left even after several days, and they were becoming more and more graphic each night. Maybe it was because I was trying to hard to forget about Evan. The futile conditioning I tried to put my mind through was only making me think of him more. I couldn't keep going like this. Seeing Evan in my dreams was torment enough, but Evan doused in blood, in pain, drowning in anger and hatred as he killed me over and over again... The banshee weed might find good use with me, too, not just him. The first class today was physiology and the discussion of the evolutionary leap from human to werewolf. Hundreds of years ago, a mutation in a small group of our progenitors became a dominant trait, one that spread to many of their offspring. The ability to shift into a wolf form was determined by the inheritance of a protein chain. Th

I'd been beaten before, punished for every imaginable thing including when I simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and within reach of Elly's or Maria's slaps. But this was the worst pain by far, dull and gouging as I got up from the table without a word. Evan. He was angry Ken was picking me up. He didn't want me to go with him, jealous and possessive as if he wanted me -- but he had made it clear already he didn't want me enough to stop looking for his real mate. I wasn't good enough for him and never would be. Evan could be as angry as he wished, but in the end, he was treating me as nothing more than a toy to pass the time with. And the only reason he was angry was because he thought someone was taking that toy away from him before he'd had his fill. And he couldn't even commit himself to it enough to ask me not to go. Not that I would have let him win because I refused to be played with, but if

He must have taken my suggestion seriously. By the time I washed up and went down for breakfast fifteen minutes later, Evan was gone. The housekeeper said he had disappeared in a hurry, driving off with Peelle without an explanation to the staff. But I knew. He must have gone off to Dark Moon territory again.Was there a point, though? It was not only possible but likely that if someone there had been intimately involved in the betrayal of his family, they were already dead. He had slaughtered everyone related to Alpha Kris after all... I shook my head, driving the grisly thoughts away. That was in the past now. I would never forget what Evan had done, but there was no way to bring anyone back from death. It was over. Evan might find that the path was a dead end.But maybe he could find clues another way. I texted Peelle, staging the suggestion like an uncertain question. Didn't we stop by the city garden that day you escorted me? I asked. I can't remember clearly anym

Leon and Rafael picked me up in his truck. I had only one duffel bag of my clothes and my backpack, just the essentials. I could have never lived with myself if I had taken any of the luxuries and creature comforts that had been given to me during my stay here. Not once had I ever forgotten all of it was a kindness, and that at any time, I could have been tossed back into Dark Moon to live out my days in captivity and servitude.That life was far behind me now, but I would never truly be comfortable in all these affluent trappings because of it. Leaving them all behind was a comfort more than a sadness, but I was thankful for all the generosity everyone had shown me since my first day.It was just time to strike out on my own. It had been time for a while now.What awaited me back at the tiny house that was now mine was amazing food, cake, and various housewarming gifts. How Raf and Leon had managed to get all of this together in less than three hours, I didn't