Our shoulders press together and I hide my shiver in a bite of my food.
“We have to get to the witches, to make sure they’re alive. I’m not sure how we are going to get out of this,” I whisper.
“We could have run?”
“They would have caught us and asked questions.”
There are so many eyes on us. The search party members rotate which one of them keeps the closest watch on the newcomer.
Grayson is untried and untrustworthy. They don’t trust him no matter how much I vouch for his character.
“We’ll sneak out later,” he murmurs. “We have to make it through this first.”
I shake my head. My entire fucking life it’s been this way, the microscope of my family’s attention, waiting for something inevitable. It’s never happened.
They keep watching and pushing and I keep falling short.
I can’t shift. It’s something they’ll never be able to accept and so they’ve watched and kept me on a pedestal of attention.
They’d never let me get close to someone like Grayson. Will my father even remember helping him the night of the attack, when Grayson was bitten?
How could he not?
The bread and ham turn to cardboard in my gut and ash in my mouth. It fills the empty places but not well, gluing myinternal organs together and making the next leg of the walk uncomfortable.
Iziah marches beside Grayson and slaps a hand across the young man’s back when Grayson falls into a coughing fit. I crane my head over my shoulder but the view doesn’t help the concern building in my chest.
“Allergies,” Jrue supplies unhelpfully. “They’re horrible this time of year. Some people are more susceptible than others.”
He brushes his fingers along my spine and settles his hold above my tailbone.
“It’s not allergies,” Grayson replies with a thunderous scowl for Jrue. And unless I’m off my mark, a whisperedassholepunctuates it.
A chuckle winds its way out of me regardless and Jrue tightens his hold.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not wounded, are you?” He pointedly fixates on my arm and the bandage there.
“It’s a scratch,” I insist for the fourth time. “It was the vampires. I already told you.”
“I know. But I’m worried about you.”
Some other person would appreciate his attentiveness. Some other person would be a better mate for Jrue and his goodness, would be able to stand at his side proudly instead of uneasily.
He deserves a real wolf.
Will I ever be good enough to deserve the match my father made?
My smile falls a little easier this time. “Thank you for checking on me.”
Grayson scoffs behind us, scowling and broody, swiping his hand through his hair while Iziah marks every movement.
Jrue refuses to turn around despite the sound. “Everything is going to go back to normal once we get you home. You’ll see.”
I’m not sure which one of us he thinks needs the assurance more.
My own skin is tight and itchy by the time we make it back to the gated community. Twilight casts a sepia filter over the land and the moon does indeed ride heavy overhead, glowing a squash yellow color.
The square of my shoulders sags a little more with every hurried step to the gate.