Forsaken by E. M. Moore
20
“So, I guess you’re my babysitter?” Nathan asks Jonah. He’s not happy that we all need chaperones, but what are we going to do? He can’t stay in the cabin and protect me at the same time.
Jonah grunts in response. Looks like neither one of them is crazy about this predicament we find ourselves in. My stare lingers longer on Jonah. I know he’s a good guy because he did the right thing by Kinsey, but the only thing I want from him is reassurance that he’s not going to turn Nathan and I in for breaking the mate law.
His shoulders are still, and he looks a bit uncomfortable; however, that might not have anything to do with us. It could be because Kinsey has basically inserted herself into this whole mess, and since she’s his world, he would obviously be worried for her.
Kinsey pats his chest. “We’re fine, aren’t we?” she says, giving him a look.
He relaxes a little, some of the thick tension sliding off him with her touch. He nods. “Yes, completely fine.” He drills holes straight into Nathan and me when he says it, and some of the tension eases off my shoulders.
The other member of our rejected mate trio has already left for the festival with her mate, so it’s only the four of us here. We don’t discuss anything until we get into Kinsey and Jonah’s vehicle. Nathan reaches over to hold my hand and my heart flips. We’ve never been able to show our affection outside of very small spaces. We’ve hidden touches, cut lingering glances short. And right now, my heart soars as his fingers entwine with mine. Coming together out in the open feels right.
Kinsey turns to face the backseat. “Okay, Jonah and I discussed strategy last night. One pair spies on Sean and Gayle. The other mingles with shifters outside of our packs, preferably Twilight.”
Nathan agrees the Feral Pack angle is too far-fetched. I’ve only really been exposed to two packs—Daybreak and Lunar—but the rumors about the rest are that they’re just as strict. There are rejected shifters from Twilight at Greystone Academy. If there was a pack of abandoned wolves nearby, wouldn’t they know about it? Wouldn’t they do anything to not show up at the Rejected Mate Academy?
Beggars can’t be choosers, though, and my options are dwindling. So, pretend Feral Pack, here I come.
Nathan and I navigate Jonah to a side street he can park on to avoid the traffic heading toward the festival. All of our huge parties are held in a meadow just to the south of Daybreak proper, and the Winter Solstice celebrations are no different.
Each year, the pack that hosts the different solstices tries to outdo every single one that came before them. Mom told us a few of the plans when we had dinner the other day. Daybreak is going all out. There’ll be live music downtown, along with shopping booths and food carts.
Oranges and pinks blush the darkening sky as we get out of the car. Street performers and spectators walk toward the clearing, and we fall in line with them. Acrobats on huge stilts breathe fire from their mouths or juggle. The theme for the solstice is Awakening. Some of them take it in a dark route with fangs and black paint. Others went lighter, yellow sunshine and enlightenment.
Moody music plays from an enormous, concert-level stage. Giant speakers hang off metal supports on both sides, blaring the tunes back at us. A crowd of shifters—both wolves and humans—form a semi-circle around it, dancing and screaming. The woman singing is a firecracker, running around on stage and rocking out with her all-male band.
Kinsey wraps her arm around mine. Nathan and I are both wearing our Greystone Academy uniforms so we don’t rock the boat, and yet, she has no shame in showing everyone that she’s hanging out with me.
She leans over. “With Jonah’s background, he and Nathan will search out Sean and Gayle. He says two pretty girls like us should be able to talk a couple of male shifters out of anything, so we’re on the rumor hunt.”
I smirk. I highly doubt Jonah said anything close to calling me pretty because Kinsey would probably tear his heart out.
What can I say? Shifters are a jealous bunch.
But I’ll go with it. We both know I can’t be asking any questions like that with my Greystone Academy uniform on, anyway. This will have to be all Kinsey while I wait in the wings.
Before we split, Jonah drags Kinsey to him in a hug. Words pass between them, whispered into one another’s ears. Then, he tilts her head up, and I look away, giving them a significant amount of time before looking back.
Come to find out, I hadn’t given them nearly long enough.
Kinsey breaks away with a laugh. “Go get ‘em, Big Guy.”
Jonah gives her a daring look before she and I walk away. I peer over my shoulder to find Nathan and Jonah making their way through the crowd. I only wish I could’ve given Nathan an equally sexy send-off. He looks back, meeting my gaze, and in that moment, I know we’re both feeling the same thing.
Whatever we do next is for the two of us. If I focus on that, I can do anything.
“Where are we going?” I shout to Kinsey over the music.
“We’re going to wherever people are drinking. Loose lips and all that.”
I can still feel the dead weight of the alcohol I’d consumed the other day.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going to partake,” she tells me. “We’re going to pretend.”
That sounds like a good plan. I take control, steering her toward the area behind the stage where food and drink booths line a walkway. The grass has been trampled down, well worked over already. We got here in the evening on purpose.
At the very end of the food and drink alley, a seating area has sprung up—complete with picnic tables and personal chairs dotting the space. As I watch, someone jumps back while flames from a huge bonfire shoot toward the sky. Several people laugh like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever seen in their entire lives.
“Looks like we found them,” Kinsey says.
Too true. Why do drunk people like to play with fire? I’ll never get it.
We stop off at the closest booth to the lounging area. It boasts the largest line, so where better to start?
I never pegged Kinsey as the sociable type before, but she becomes a talking head as we wait in line, engaging everyone in conversation. When the first person she talks to says they’re from Eclipse, I almost gasp. Aside from other rejected mates, I haven’t been around shifters from different packs. The last time Daybreak held a solstice party, I was too young to partake.
Eventually, Kinsey and I get to the booth owner, order our decoy beers, and head toward the fire. The evening has grown dark, the licking flames providing the only light in the sky. The music blasting through the speakers sets the stage for the undercover work we’re doing. Every time someone looks at me, I almost spaz out, though. It’s like they can read my thoughts and know I’m only here to pump everyone for information.
“Relax,” Kinsey singsongs in a whisper.
I take a deep breath and let it out, but the crushing pressure in my chest barely subsides. I have a lot riding on this: my life.
We take up a spot in the back corner by the stage. Luckily, all the huge speakers, which look even bigger this close up, are pointing in the other direction so we’re not overpowered by the music.
“I wish everyone’s pack mark was visible,” Kinsey complains.
“Tell me about it,” I mutter. It would make it so much easier to pinpoint the shifters from Twilight Pack.
She fidgets from foot-to-foot. “We have to attack this together. If I let you out of my sight, Nathan will kill me.” She turns, smirking at me. “He told me so.”
My shifter heart grows about three sizes. Who doesn’t love someone threatening others for them? “Aww.”
“I know.” Kinsey’s eyes shine. “He’s—”
The groaning of bending metal splits the air. The hair on the back of my neck rises. Above us, a crackling explosion, almost like fireworks, bursts to life. Both of us whirl, hands in front of our faces as flickers of fire rain down from the gigantic speaker above. The music cuts out, and the world around us moves in slow motion as the speaker begins to separate from its fasteners one-by-one. My wolf barrels forward, in full protection mode, taking over in an instant with her superior abilities.
Before I’m even fully in my wolf form, she’s dodged out of the way as the tall speaker falls right where Kinsey and I stood. My wolf pants, heart beating a mile a minute as she scans the area for our friend. Other shifters are in their wolf forms now, too, growling and baring their teeth.
My wolf retreats, prowling low. In this form, I can tell which shifters are Daybreak and which come from other packs. In the dark, their symbols shine on their foreheads in soft, white light. My wolf blinks. I’ve only run with Nathan and my own pack at night, so I’ve never seen this nifty feature in real time with other packs involved. With my own pack, our symbol just fades away.
A beautiful brown and red wolf bolts for me, the Lunar Pack symbol of a quarter moon decorating the top of its head. My wolf knows who it is right away, and the feeling of friendship spreads through our limbs.
A howl carries on the wind, and Kinsey’s wolf ears twitch. A striking brown wolf barrels into view. When he spots Kinsey, he slows his pace. Directly behind him comes another wolf—one I’m very familiar with. He hangs back, though his eyes say everything.
Kinsey’s wolf nods as she looks at Jonah, and then she nudges me. The four of us leave the scene while those who were far away and were able to remain human come closer. While they stare at the downed speaker, questions pour forth as the electricals fizzle. Puffs of gray smoke billow into the sky.
Nathan takes up the rear, and Jonah leads, navigating us back toward the car against the growing crowd. My wolf spots his keys dangling off his front leg. Smart to always have them on him like that in case he needs to shift quickly.
When we arrive, Jonah transforms into human form, barking orders for us to stay the way we are as he opens the trunk. Nathan and my wolf turn away while Jonah is naked. With a bag hefted over his shoulder, he takes one of those worn paths that guides us to the woods. Just inside the forest, he takes out three sets of outfits, leading Kinsey further away. With the way they look at each other, they’ve already been talking, and Kinsey’s no doubt filling him in on what happened.
Nathan shifts and grabs a pair of loose-fitting exercise pants from the ground, tugging them on. “Jesus, Mia. Are you okay?” He runs his hands through his hair, staring at me while I make my own transformation into human again.
I stand from the ground with the borrowed shirt already in my hand. My shaking fingers give me away as I pull the clothing over my head. “It fell right where Kinsey and I were standing.”
Nathan sets his jaw. He tugs his shirt on, and I hurry and pull pants up my legs. They’re about five sizes too big, so I roll the hem and then realize I’ll also have to hold them in place so I don’t moon anyone. Once we’re fully dressed, Nathan starts forward like he wants to hug me, but he stops himself.
He breathes out heavily, hands flexing.
Jonah and Kinsey walk toward us. The serious look on Jonah’s face has me swallowing. “We need to go back over there,” he informs us. “We need to see if that was an accident or not.”
“What do you mean?”
Nathan fixes me with a hard look. “You and Kinsey just happened to be under a speaker that falls? I’m not buying it.”
“It could’ve been a fluke,” I offer. If this was Sean, I don’t understand what he wants from me. I’m the one who’s been in Greystone Academy all this time because he decided he didn’t want a mate.
“With what’s been going on,” Jonah starts, “it’s highly unlikely. We have to go back and record that it was you standing under there.”
Nerves still frayed, I follow the rest of them, returning to the festival. The broken speaker has put a damper on all the festivities. The spotlights are up, the music is still off. Street performers litter the meadow, but people are more interested in what happened than being entertained right now.
“There they are,” a shifter says, pointing at us as we make our way to the area behind the stage.
Jonah takes point, walking up to the group of shifters. Some of them are clothed and some not, having no doubt fallen victim to their shifter side went shit went down. In Jonah’s extra sweats, I feel ten times better talking to these guys than if I was in my Greystone uniform.
Kinsey and I explain to the festival workers that we were standing there when it happened. When questioned why we left, Jonah gets all growly, telling them that no mate of his is going to shift back in public. The old men of the packs nod and smile at him, looking amongst one another as if they remember that time in their lives.
Honestly, it’s a good thing Jonah is here because I suspect the conversation may have gone differently if it was just Kinsey and I trying to tell them the story. Jonah, however, turns the tables on them, asking how in the hell a speaker almost fell and injured his mate. He also vows to take it up with Daybreak’s alpha to make sure that the equipment goes through regular safety checks.
When Alpha Richard’s security arrives, Jonah tells them the same thing. They make a report, transferring to a quieter area to do so because the festival is back in full swing. They may not have a band—they’re still being interviewed—but they have a Bluetooth speaker.
Kinsey, Nathan, and I move toward the bonfire as the night drags on. The heat from the flames helps calm me.
“So,” Kinsey says, drawing it out. There’s a hint of humor in her voice like she’s trying to lighten the mood. “How did your guys’ night go?”
“We found Sean,” Nathan offers. “Then we lost him when Gayle decided she was going to start shit with me.”
I recoil. “What did she do?”
“Basically just wanted to make me look like an asshole. She was with a bunch of friends from school.” His eyes grow dark. “I’m beginning to wonder if it was all a diversion.”
I peer over my shoulder as an awareness trickles up my spine. In the woods behind us, I spot the yellow glow of eyes. In my head, I know it could be anyone, but I also wonder if it’s Sean, waiting for me to be alone.
If he couldn’t magic the bond away, will he try to sever it with death?
