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That seemed to be a good place to end our meeting. I nodded goodbye to Tyrell, and Tavi and I moved out of the cabin as quickly as we could without looking like we were running away.
When we were outside, I turned to Tavi, who seemed to be trembling slightly. All trace of her earlier, forced pep had totally vanished. The woman who walked at my side wasn’t the Tavi I had come to know at the Wargs’ compound, but this version was more genuine, and that was a relief.
“Tavi,” I began gently. “Do you…want to talk about what happened back there?”
“I wanted to try being myself again,” she said. “That person who’s ‘good with people.’” She repeated the phrase slowly, like the words didn’t quite make sense to her. “I don’t know if that’s still me.”
“You don’t have to prove who you are, Tavi. Not to me. You’re still my best friend,” I said. “No matter what.”
She looked at me for the first time since we left the cabin. Her expression wasn’t happy, exactly, but it wasn’t sad, either. What I read in her dark eyes was…appreciation, I thought.
“It’s nice to hear you to say that,” she said. “It really is.”
21
BRYN
There was only one day left before the Alpha ceremony. I headed out on my own to walk toward the dining hall. I could have found my way with my eyes closed, I’d frequented the dining hall so many times throughout my life. But this was the first time since being back that I had gone out on my own.
Violet and the Elders had come over again to talk a bit more about the finer details of the ceremony, but after only a couple of hours, that meeting broke. Violet hated leaving her adoptive daughter for long, and she wanted to head back to the cabin where she and Tavi were staying.
I debated whether or not I ought to go outside once I was alone in the cabin, but ultimately I decided it would be best for me to get out there and interact with my pack. I was a wolf now, and their Alpha, and like it or not, they couldn’t mistreat me the way they used to. And if I was serious about being a good Alpha, I needed to do what I could to win them over.
I wasn’t naïve—I knew they wouldn’t immediately accept me with open arms. But I had to try if I wanted to earn even a shred of their respect. There was no way I would have anyone’s respect if I hid inside all day and night. I also wanted the chance to look around and see what Troy’s leadership had done to the land and its people.
Before I stepped foot outside the cabin, I spent an hour or so considering every negative possibility and what I could do in response. Only when I was satisfied that I had a plan for everything from a rotten tomato being thrown at me to a sudden attack of alien invaders, I ventured outside.
“Hey, just the wolf I wanted to see.”
I almost jumped at the voice. I looked to my right and found Evan Brandy standing there.
“You wanted to speak to me?” I asked.
“Of course. You are the new Alpha, after all.”
Never in my life had I shared one conversation with him, so it was bizarre to have him seek me out. I’d known who he was, I’d seen him plenty of times around the compound, but he was older than me, and from what I could tell, he had preferred to stick close to Troy’s inner circle. As far as I could see, he wasn’t one of Troy’s closest friends by any means, but he was someone Troy had liked to keep around. When Night had told me that Evan was spying for him, that close but not too close relationship made a lot more sense.
“Were you going on a walk?” he asked. “Mind if I go with you?”
“Sure. I think I’d like the company.” We started moving.
Evan was a handsome guy despite the scar that bisected his cheek. His chocolate-brown hair shone coppery under the sun, and he wore a friendly, white smile.
It was a sunny, gorgeous day highlighted by a clear, azure sky. I walked through the compound, glancing here and there, observing various wolves as they spotted me. Most of their stares held cold hatred. None of these people said anything to me, but they didn’t need to. Their coldness did more than enough to make me feel unwanted and unwelcome. I had grown up alongside these wolves, but I needed to prove myself to them. Simply beating Troy in a fight wouldn’t make up for the years that they had known me as a punching bag at best, and prey at worst.
“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way,” Evan said, dragging me from my thoughts, “but I never expected the two of us would ever walk next to each other like this.”
“Yeah. We lived in very different circles up until Troy’s challenge ceremony. It’s…pretty strange the way things have happened.”
“But it’s wonderful, too, right? I mean, finding out you’re a wolf and that you have a mate so soon after meeting each other must have given you some pretty severe whiplash.”
I laughed. “That’s one way to put it. I still kind of feel like I’m living in a dream.”
“I can imagine.” He smiled. “I’m sorry that the others have been giving you such a hard time.”
I shrugged. I knew he was talking about the way the Kings were watching us. “Honestly, I think it’d be weirder if they didn’t. At least I share a common enemy with them.”
“Ah. You mean Troy.”
