Forsaken by E. M. Moore
19
Several days pass, and Sean doesn’t get another chance at me because Kinsey is always there. And I mean always. From sunup to sundown, she’s at the cabin like she’s my personal protector. Sean got so frustrated yesterday that he bailed out of our walk midway through a pretend tour of Daybreak’s downtown that Kinsey inserted herself into.
We laughed our asses off when he made up a story about a work emergency.
This afternoon, I’m sitting in the passenger seat of her car on the way back into the center of the city. Jonah had to step away to do some security checks for Alpha Greystone before he arrives tonight for the festival. “What are we doing again?” I ask Kinsey.
She’s been skirting around my inquiries concerning our little impromptu detour, which Nathan was not happy about. My new phone pings, and I read the text he sent to check in with me. All good, I reply.
I understand what Kinsey went through with Jonah now. I don’t understand the nature and science of Sean taking on the mate personality traits, but I’m not questioning it. It’s obvious that’s the way it is.
“You’ll see,” Kinsey replies.
I lean back in the seat. “I’m so happy you came when you did. They still haven’t lifted the restrictions. If I’m going Feral in less than a week, at least I get to go out and do stuff before then.”
“You’re not going Feral,” she states like it’s as simple as that.
I don’t argue with her; however, last time I checked, she had no sway over pack decisions. We still can’t find my phone, and the only thing we’ve been able to do after being restrained to the cabin is keep Sean away from me. It’s not as if Nathan and I can sneak out at night to spy on Sean and Gayle. I’m almost ready to tell Kinsey to lay off so that I can give them an opportunity to make their move—lure them in, so to speak.
Kinsey drives through our small downtown and parks in one of our public lots close by everything. She leads me out of the car, and her own phone pings. No doubt it’s Jonah, who’s been checking in with her, too.
She leads me toward a side street and stops in front of a small dress shop. I eye her. “What’s this?”
“I don’t have a dress for the ball, and neither do you.”
I scoff. “Yeah, pretty sure I’ll have to wear this,” I tell her, fingering the hem of my Greystone Academy skirt.
Kinsey turns up her nose. “Let’s hope not. You’re way too hot to be covered in that.”
The smell of vanilla filters through the air as soon as we enter the shop. The woman behind the desk greets us, only giving me a second glance to notice what I’m wearing. Kinsey takes charge. “We need two dresses for the Winter Solstice ball.”
The woman plants her hands together in front of her like she was put on this earth to do just that one thing. “I have a vast collection. Feel free to look around and take some off the rack. I’ll get two dressing rooms ready for you ladies.”
“Thank you.” Kinsey smiles, wrapping her arm in mine and dragging me through the store. It’s not that I don’t love the idea of dressing up, especially after having worn this for the last few days. Ever since I was a young pup, I’ve dreamed of dancing in a beautiful dress at one of the balls, but everything is so tainted by what’s going on right now that I can hardly find any enjoyment in this.
Kinsey spots me moping at the line of gowns and frowns. “Not that this will be your last hoorah, but if it was, wouldn’t you want an opportunity to wear a pretty dress to a ball before you go?” She lowers her voice. “Especially if Nathan’s going to be there.”
I blink at her, a solid plate of ice forming in my stomach.
She eyes me knowingly. “You could’ve told me,” she chastises.
I give her big, worried eyes. “How do you even know?”
She moves closer so there’s no chance that we can be overheard. “I see the way he acts around you. It reminds me of someone else I know,” she says wistfully, and I’m sure she’s picturing Jonah in her head.
“I didn’t want to bring you into that. It’s bad, Kinsey. We could—”
“It’s not like I’m going to say anything. I love you two together.” She flips through gowns on the rack like we’re simply having a conversation about the weather. “From this point forward, trust me with everything. I’m serious about helping. No friend of mine is going Feral. Especially one who helped me through one of the most difficult times of my life.”
I wrap my hand in hers, out of view from everyone else.
She squeezes me back. “Let’s pick out a few, and then we’ll talk strategy. Plus, I want to hear all about him,” she says. “We can talk boys.”
I chuckle and roll my eyes. Kinsey’s so different from the girl who showed up at the academy. I like both versions of her–the fierce one and this one. I only hope I have as much fierceness in me like Ms. Ebon pointed out. If I’m to survive this, I’m going to need it.
Kinsey and I try on dozens of dresses. She decides on a beautiful, shimmering, midnight blue that hugs her curves and ends on a small train. I choose a stunning black one that skirts the floor and laces all the way up the back into a collar around my neck. We both felt that the black suited me better than the purple one I’d also loved. Unfortunately, the purple in my hair and the purple in the gown clashed.
We sip from the glasses of wine that the store owner provided us as she rings up our orders. It was such a happy, carefree hour that it’s hard to step back out into the real world.
With the dresses in fancy garment bags, we make our way back to the car. Kinsey hangs both of them on the rear seat hooks and then starts to drive. When we’re out of town, she says, “Okay, let’s talk. I’ll just cruise, and you get everything out. And I mean everything.”
I don’t even know where to start. As much as I’d love to gush about Nathan the whole time, the reality is, I’m not sure if that’s what’s in my future. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, Kinsey. Lydia seems to have a hard-on for getting me out of the academy. Nathan and I thought I could just get Sean back, but that doesn’t seem to be an option now. So, I can go Feral or I can turn Sean in.”
“Sean should go down,” Kinsey grinds out. “Asshole. But there has to be another option besides Feral.”
“I wish,” I huff, rolling my eyes. “The hairdresser at Greystone mentioned some community of wolves that accepted Ferals, but that sounds like a bunch of fantasy bullshit. Who would do that?”
“Wait. What?”
I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. Either way, I lose Nathan. We go Feral, we both die. We turn Sean and Gayle in, if by chance we find evidence, who knows what will happen to us. We’ll have to live in secrecy for the rest of our lives.”
“Mia, wait. This other community, that could be your ticket to safety. Yours and Nathan’s. If they accept Ferals, I find it hard to believe that they would care you weren’t really mated.”
“It’s only a rumor, Kinsey. I can’t stake my life on a rumor.”
“Humor me. What did Grace say?”
I blow out a breath. I shouldn’t have told her about it in the first place. I need real, concrete routes to take. She glares at me, and I crumble. “Okay. She says it’s in Twilight Pack. Well, not exactly in Twilight Pack. Near Twilight Pack. That’s the pack where the—”
Kinsey snaps her fingers as she takes a right, heading down a narrow street. “That’s the pack where the alpha heir ended up at Greystone, right?”
I nod in agreement. “It’s rumored the brother bribed the future alpha’s mate to reject him so he could become alpha. The guy went Feral. Of course, no one knows what became of him. He’s probably skeletons in the woods by now,” I say off-handedly.
“Did you tell Nathan about this? What does he think?”
“I honestly can’t remember if I did or not,” I tell her. “There’s been so much that’s happened. If I did, he obviously thinks it’s a pipe dream, too.”
Kinsey tosses her auburn hair over her shoulder, her fingers tightening on the wheel. “I don’t blame you for seeing no way out. Your situation seems impossible. But you’re forgetting that you do have friends on the inside. We can ask around.” Before I can tell her she’s crazy, she lifts a finger to shush me. “They wouldn’t trust you if you were asking, but I’m a respected member of the community. Plus, I know how to talk to people. There are going to be so many shifters from other packs here tonight. There’s got to be people from Twilight coming.”
I shake my head. Tonight, the festival starts. There’ll be many other shifters from different packs here, but most of them will be higher-ups. Regular shifters don’t usually get to travel from one pack territory to another.
Unless it’s shifters who’ve remained unmated for a long time. They’ll often accompany their alpha to these parties to see if they mate with anyone from a different pack. That’s why every party has a run involved. We all gather together under the moon in our shifter forms and frolic through the forest.
I always thought it would be kind of cool to mate with someone from another pack. The waiting around part wouldn’t be fun but being able to experience another way of life would be cool.
Kinsey doesn’t bring it up again, but I recognize the set of her shoulders. She’s not going to let this go. “I worry about Nathan, too,” I admit, changing the subject.
“That he’s going to go all alpha on Sean’s ass? I’d like to see that.”
“That would be fun, but no. I don’t know when Gayle, or Gayle and Sean, will try to do something to him like Sean did to me. If they are together, wouldn’t Gayle try to break her mate bond with Nathan?”
“Unbeknownst to them, it’s already happened.”
I smirk, rubbing my hands down my thighs. “Why do you think that happened?” I ask. “I don’t get it.”
Kinsey reaches over and pats my hand. “Don’t question things that make sense. Though, if I had to guess, you can’t breathe to life things that you keep rejecting. Even if fate had something to do with it. When Jonah rejected me, I was ready to say fuck it. I didn’t care if he was mine or not. I’m glad it turned out that he was just a stubborn asshole who thought I was trash.”
I laugh. “I bet you haven’t let him live that down.”
“Hell no. When we have pups, I’m going to make him eat out of the palm of my hand.”
I could see her following through on that threat, too, but the mention of pups brings me back to Nathan. I wonder if we’ll ever get the chance to do that.
Kinsey peeks over at me. “You know, shifter babies aren’t everything. There’s a lot of fun to be had between the two of you.” She gives me an exaggerated wink that rinses all my negative thoughts away. “Which reminds me,” she says, hitting the steering wheel. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it in the two of you before.”
“We’re all kind of preoccupied with ourselves at Greystone. Plus, it didn’t really become a thing until after you were gone.” I leave out the part where our very first kiss happened just before she knocked on my door.
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you and the way you return it. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that you guys are the real thing. He’s much more your match than even your own—” She stops herself. “I don’t want to call him your mate because it just seems so wrong. I bet Nathan’s beside himself with worry. And when he gets like that, he’s bound to do something stupid. I dealt with it with Jonah.”
I rub my temples. More and more, I’ve been waiting for Nathan to blow up at the wrong things; to give us all away.
“I’ll have Jonah with him,” Kinsey offers. “I’d like to tell him what’s going on so he can help, too. But I also don’t want to betray your trust.” She waits for my answer. When I don’t give her one right away, she says, “I wouldn’t offer unless I was absolutely sure that he’d be on your side. Yes, he’s been engrained since he was little into the pack system, but my situation opened his eyes. He’d help, I’m sure of it.”
I swallow the pit of uncertainty. “Yeah, let’s do it. I’m going to need all the help I can get.”
