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Glen let out a soft string of curses. “I don’t know if I can hear this again.”
I shrugged. “Ah, it was just a stupid game the males played. They would hunt me, you know. The sort of games packs play, maybe a little rougher in Southern.” I tried not to let the years of terror seep into my voice. “I got really good at sneaking around.”
Finnick hissed something in what sounded like Japanese. Glen tripped on something, growling low as he shuffled through fallen pine needles.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, uh, I just stepped on a pinecone.”
“Careful there, Glenda the Good Witch,” I teased. “A strong wolf knows how to walk softly.”
Glen let out a strained laugh. “You sound like Brand.”
“The bear shifter? Seriously, his mom must have fooled around on the side. Wolves don’t get that big.”
I felt Glen’s hand on my arm, and the night grew darker, warmer. In the pit of my stomach, a swirling started, like a whirlpool that was drawing me down. Making me dumb, almost needy. I closed my eyes for a second, my mind spinning.
I wanted to feel that hand everywhere. And Brand’s too, his big hands… and maybe even Finnick’s. He would hold me a little bit too tight, push my neck back as he… Whoa. Where was this coming from? Until today, I hadn’t thought about any wolf—except maybe Luke—in that way. Now I was panting over three new guys?
Finnick’s voice broke into my daze. “Why did the Alpha hate your mom?” I couldn’t see his face in the gloom, but his voice was filled with something dangerous. Dark. “Was it because she was mentally unstable?” He hesitated. “Or did he do something to her? Did he torture her somehow until she broke?”
He was too perceptive. I didn’t want to put the pieces together for these guys. Who knew what they would do with the information about where I’d come from?
“Am I supposed to have all the answers?” I replied, talking around the lie I would have to tell to deny the truth. “You know how Alphas are. Born and bred, elitist, toadfucking butt-nuggets.”
Not even a cricket interrupted the incredibly awkward silence.
“Present company excepted, of course,” I finally choked out. “And your dads, I’m sure they’re fine. And never fucked a toad.” Oh god, did they think I was calling their mothers toads now?
Glen coughed. “Good to hear.”
“Of course,” Finnick replied smoothly.
They left me in the clearing where I’d found them, thankfully before I could dig an even deeper hole. It had to be two in the morning, and I was exhausted. I trudged back to my campsite, my face still flaming, and my stomach churning.
At least they were going to help me. Before they ran off, Glen had assured me that he or Finn would get me signed up for the Games. I’d asked him to use the name Will L. Rains, as a tribute to Mom, whose name was Lily Rain. It seemed fitting to give my pack a giant metaphorical middle finger on behalf of Mama on my way out.
After I washed off in the creek again, I didn’t sleep that night. Instead, I watched as the nearly full moon passed overhead, fearing the coming days. Wondering how many more I would live to see.
13
Mate and Switch
FINNICK
In the end, I was the one to sign Flor up to fight in the Games.
My stomach churned as I walked to the clearing where a whiteboard had been set up against two sawhorses. I was committing a girl—an unshifted, immature female—to participate in the bloodiest battles a shifter could face, since our years of inter-pack wars had ended.
And not just a girl. My true mate. I’d known it from the moment I touched her arm.
Most shifters wanted nothing more than to find their soulmate. But I’d prayed for years that I would never find mine. Not only for my sake, but for hers.
As Alpha Heir, I was expected to mate eventually. The only Alpha in history who had ascended without one at his side was Callaway, and that aberration was only one reason Southern was seen as the worst of all the packs.
But I knew better than to hope that I would be given a choice. My parents controlled me as thoroughly as they did the lowest members of our pack. Everything down to who I was allowed, or expected, to bed.
I might as well wear a tag in my ear, for all the good my rank did me. I had to do what was required, no matter how unsavory those tasks were. No matter how degrading.
