Summer released my ankle and smoothed her hair, flashing Aidan a smile. “Hey.”
Aidan paused long enough to give her a quick up and down and shook his head. He looked at me. “You coming?” My escort.
I nodded and got up, trying to put all my weight on my other ankle. I tested the one she’d tortured. It hurt terribly.
“Um…” I looked at Aidan, not putting my back to Summer. “I can’t…”
He growled, grabbed me by the wrist, and started pulling me. I hobbled along, glancing back once at Summer. She waved mockingly.
As Aidan led the way, I reached back into my bag, and hit the Stop button. I sighed with timid relief. Surely, they’d listen and we’d all be OK.
Aidan stopped at my car and opened his palm. I gave him a confused look.
“Keys.”
I gave them to him. He didn’t open my door or help me in. I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad about that. Being in a car with him was terrifying. He’d tried to choke me only… When was it? Yesterday? He radiated anger. Why had they sent him? Why couldn’t they have at least sent Nick?
The drive was the longest of my life. I didn’t put on any music. Not even good music could take my mind off what was going on. I started praying mentally, but I had no words.
I would not be killed. I had overdramatized the whole thing. That was it. I would explain my argument, and they’d listen. I would let them listen to the tape. We’d work it out. This was real life. People didn’t get killed over secrets in high school.
I couldn’t stop shaking.
My phone rang, and I checked the caller ID. Mom.
She’d be home by now, wondering why I wasn’t there. I silenced my phone. What could I say?
Right, I know I’m grounded, but I have to go plead my case with a bunch of shifters who want to kill me? Can we make an exception?
I’d be in a world of trouble when I got home.
If I got home.
“Stop it,” I mumbled to myself.
Aidan turned his head slightly, like he’d heard me, but he made no comment. I clasped my hands in my lap tightly. I looked out the window at the trees, but saw flashes of color that were definitely not trees. Wolves.
Aidan kept driving, never saying a word. I glanced at my phone again to see that Mom had called four times. I felt awful. She would worry now. Probably over being angry and just really worry. Usually moms and dads worried pointlessly. Now there was plenty to be worried about.
The car stopped, but we weren’t at the house. Just somewhere in the woods. Aidan pulled well off the road and got out. I sat for a few seconds, my heart desperately trying to jump out of my chest.
The door opened. “Get out.” Aidan’s voice was more growl than human. After grabbing my recorder and shoving it into my coat pocket, I undid my seatbelt and stumbled out. I locked my door out of habit.
He shut it and tossed my keys on the ground in front of me. I leaned over, picked them up, and stuck them in my other pocket.
I placed one foot in front of the other, finding I could walk decently. My ankle hurt so much, but not as much as it had earlier. My shaking didn’t help. I opened my phone inside my coat pocket and by memory tried to text Jules. My fingers found the familiar keys.
Summer and Naomi. In it together.
Hopefully the message came out like that.
Aidan didn’t notice. I didn’t recognize the area of the woods that we were in. We weren’t near Fangorn or the Varden house. I wasn’t sure why, but that relieved me.
I heard footsteps to my left and Nick came through the trees. Nick, the goofball, who I’d always liked, was someone I didn’t recognize. But him being there calmed me. A little. He was less scary than Aidan.
I kept walking with care, avoiding trees and roots. I stumbled a few times, but didn’t fall. I could tell the guys were annoyed with my slow pace, but how could I go faster? Each step hurt.
They never told me to veer either left or right. I was heading straight for the creek.
Would they drown me?
Stop it, just stop it.
I eventually could see the river. We’d arrived in a clearing. The pack was there. Micah, Gil, and Naomi.
Ezra was off to the side. The overcast sky dulled his blond hair and green eyes. I stared at him helplessly. “Ezra—”
Nick grabbed my arms so fast, I stopped talking. I looked down.
I stood at the edge of a hole. Not some rabbit hole. A large hole. On one side was a huge tree, fallen over so that all the roots were exposed. When its roots had pulled out of the earth, it had left a hole maybe nine feet deep and twice as wide. Like a small gladiator arena. A wooden board lay against the hole’s side, leading down. A ramp.
“Where’s Jules?” I asked.
No one answered.
“Micah.”
“Quiet!”
Nick and Aidan dragged me to the wooden board and shoved me in. I fell, putting my hands out and rolling haphazardly to the bottom, the rough wood, stones, and twigs scraping through my cardigan to my skin. I landed with a grunt on the wet ground. They pulled the board up as I tried to stand. I nearly fell again. If Summer hadn’t broken my ankle, the fall certainly had sprained it.
I searched around, grasping at any root sticking out from the side of the hole, and tugging on each to see if I could climb up. I stuck my sneaker into the earth wall, again trying to climb. Pain shot up my leg. The dirt was so loose and damp that I slid back down.
“Micah,” I cried. “Micah, I didn’t—”
“You have nothing to say.” Micah’s voice boomed.
I felt much smaller than five five. My eyes teared, and my stomach clenched. They weren’t going to let me defend myself.
He went on, “We trusted you. You betrayed us. The punishment is simple. I even gave you second chances and still you persisted.” He shook his head. “And you nearly revealed our secret to the entire school. Fortunately Nick got to the breaker box quickly.”
“No! I have proof!” I cried, pulling out the recorder. “It was Summer!”
“Sophie, this is—”
“You could at least listen to it.” Ezra’s gaze met mine and stayed there for a long time.
Nick took the recorder before Ezra broke our gaze.
“It needs to be rewound,” I said, my heart lifting.
Naomi stared at me. Stared like she couldn’t believe it. I heard the recording begin. There was lots of noise. Lots of people talking. Like the hall.
Had I turned it on in the hallway?
I heard my voice. I was talking to Mom.
“No,” I said quickly, “It’s after that.”
I heard the squeaky sound of the tape being forwarded. Micah hit Play again. Lots of wind sounds. Outside.
“Soon.” I tried to sound confident. As the time passed, I felt less and less sure.
“Keys.” That was Aidan.
“No, before that, I talked to Summer, she admitted that—”
“You’ve stalled enough,” Micah answered, tossing the recorder away into the woods.
I heard it hit a tree. “No, it’s on there, I promise. She admitted that she put that DVD in my bag.”
“Then where did she get the DVD?” Micah asked.
I looked at Naomi. Her eyes pleaded with me. I couldn’t say it.
“You’re accusing my sister?” Ezra came to the edge of the hole. His voice shook.
I started babbling, “I don’t want to, but she gave the DVD to Summer to give to GTV and then took it back after they copied it and was supposed to stick it in Jules’s bag, but because Summer saw me with you, she put it in my bag. After we…” I bit my lip. “When I saw you this morning.”
He remembered how we’d kissed that morning too. I could see it in his face. That kiss, that moment felt like a million years ago.
“It’s on there,” I continued, my voice trembling. “I swear.”
I realized what must have happened. I’d taped when the machine was supposed to be off, like with Mom on the phone and I’d hit another button when I’d hoped to record. My great plan hadn’t worked.
Ezra stepped back from the hole as Micah moved toward it. I plopped down on the ground, defeated. My ankle was killing me, and I couldn’t stop crying.
“Please, Ezra, you know I didn’t do it. Why would I? I love Jules, and you know how I feel about you.”
“This is not a court of human law. You are guilty,” Micah said. “The sentence is death. And as Alpha, I will carry out this punishment.” He paused. “Your family will have a body. You will be found in the river. Animal attack.”
“Please.” Tears streamed down my cheeks. This couldn’t be happening. I was seventeen years old. “Don’t do this.” I couldn’t breathe.
“I protest this.” Ezra.
“On what grounds?”
“On the grounds that it’s bullshit!” Ezra said. “We don’t know anything for sure. Why would Sophie put the DVD into her own bag? She’s not stupid.”
He did believe me.
“And I’m not saying Naomi did this either. Summer Harlan is manipulative and she could—”
“Ezra, we know you’ve claimed her. It’s clouding your thinking.” Micah pulled his shirt off. He was going to change.
“It’s not Sophie!” Was Naomi going to admit it? “It was Jules. Maybe Sophie helped, but Jules is the one who’s breaking up our pack!”
“Naomi,” Micah growled.
“Jules is the one that messed everything up. We don’t have to—” She broke off, her eyes wide with anger and fear.
What was she scared of? It dawned on me. She didn’t want me to be killed. She didn’t want that on her hands.
I heard a cracking sound. Micah had begun to phase.
“Dammit, Mic!” Ezra growled. “If it was her, why did she do it? Why would she decide to tell the world and risk her life? It makes no sense! Pack law says that the second can protest a judgment by the Alpha if he finds fault with it. We have not proven that Sophie did it.”
Another long pause.
“It is noted,” Micah said slowly, his breathing heavy. “Does anyone else?”
“I swear on everything that is sacred in the world, I didn’t do any of it. I would never betray you guys.” I wiped my eyes.
Micah continued phasing. Ezra leaped toward him, but was pinned down by Nick and Aidan.
I tried to climb out of the hole and fell back again. I scrambled back to my feet, so scared and surprisingly, so angry. “Why did you do it, Naomi?”
Everyone froze.
“Why?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she snapped at me. “I’ve never done anything to you.”
“You hate Jules. I know. You hate that I know everything and she and I are best friends.” I kept talking. “And it sucks that Micah wants Jules and you’re alone, but this isn’t the way,”
“She doesn’t belong here!” Naomi shouted. “She ruined everything.”
“Which is why you said this.” Jules appeared at the hole, my recorder in hand and pushed a button.
I couldn’t hear anything except the wind blowing. The recording sounded like it was in a tunnel. I leaned closer and thought that I could hear something else, but the sound was too muffled.
But the entire pack was frozen in place, listening.
Superior hearing.
I heard the last bit. One word.
“Bitch.”
Summer, from the argument she’d had with Naomi. I’d taped that.
I let out a sigh of relief, loud in the quiet. I tried to see them, but clouds had covered the sun, darkening the clearing. I could only see the tops of heads.
“You didn’t do it.” Jules was talking to me.
I stumbled over to her. “I didn’t.” I wiped my eyes.
“I heard you. You never lied. You didn’t do any of it.” Her voice shook.
I reached for her hand.
“You stupid, nosy-ass human!” The voice was female, but rough. Naomi’s nose had stretched, and she was covered with fur. I blinked once, and she was a wolf.
I pressed my back against the side, pushing as if I could get any deeper. Naomi-wolf leaped into the hole, heading for me.
Chapter Seventeen
I couldn’t run with my ankle, and where could I go? I let out a strangled scream and put my hands out to fend off teeth and claws. But I didn’t close my eyes. Another body slammed into Naomi, knocking her off course. A white wolf. Jules.
She hit Naomi so hard that they went sprawling over to the far side of the hole. Jules found her feet first and bit Naomi’s neck.
I’d seen one wolf fight before this. But that had been sparring. This was not sparring. Front paws with claws extended slashed at furry bellies. Teeth dug into throats, and the pounding of large bodies colliding overshadowed the sound of the river.
Blood-stained fur.
They flipped and pinned each other down, their growls reverberating. They rolled around, coming closer. I pushed myself deeper into the dirt wall when I saw two hands in front of my face. I grabbed them and was pulled up so fast, I got lightheaded.
I landed on the ground, gasping, with Gil on one side and Ezra squatting next to me. His eyes met mine. Feral.
“Stay here.” He stood and as he pulled off his shirt, he shouted at Gil, “Stay with her!”
When I looked back to the hole, a golden wolf joined the fight. The rest of them had phased too. Six wolves. The guys were trying to get between Jules and Naomi. Micah, a large black wolf, was attempting to pin Jules down. Ezra grabbed Naomi’s scruff in his mouth and yanked her back. A chocolate-brown wolf—Aidan—and one that was fox-colored—Nick—weren’t doing much except getting in the way.
Naomi stopped struggling and just lay there. Micah had successfully pinned Jules, but she was growling.
I heard the bone-cracking sound. I unbuttoned my sweater and tossed it toward Jules, who put it on as she stood, her focus still on Naomi. Gil threw random articles of clothing into the hole, and I kept my eyes on the ground, shivering in my shirt as the pack dressed. Gil pushed the board in so they could climb out.
I scrambled away as they came out. I didn’t want to be anywhere nearby. Ezra had put on his jeans and given his T-shirt to Naomi, which hit her at midthigh. He grabbed his sister, dragging her along like she weighed nothing. My adrenaline left me, and I plunked down onto the ground.
Someone sat nearby, and I tensed. Did I still have to defend myself?
In my sweater and her jeans, Jules sat close beside me, her hair matted, with some stuck to her forehead. Exposed by the half-open cardigan, three parallel scratches bled on her chest. She looked wild. Everyone still breathed heavily. The atmosphere hadn’t settled one bit.