Six years.
That's how long Sophia and I had been caught up in this thing.
Once upon a time, I was a college pup in Belmor Town, still a little shaky in my own skin. My roommate and I had gone out into the woods and gotten lost.
No signal, nothing but woods.
The only sound was my pulse beating wildly in my ears.
Running down a hill, slipping on all the rocks, and for just an instant I thought I was going to land, head first on the rocks, when something pulled me around. Sophia.
Her eyes were as cold as the mountain lake, bright enough to part the fear in my heart out, the voice sharp like the frost.
"You all right?"
I couldn't speak. My heart was beating so great, from the fall and from the scent that swirled all around me, warm. Wild.
The thing was, I think that my bones recognized it for all that. I was gone.
My ankle turned, so that she led me down the hill.
Took me in to the pack's healer.
I wanted to know her name. I wanted the number anyhow so I could thank her.
No, she sent me away.
I went right on. I was after her like a wolf trail bound from the hunting grounds. Showing myself at her tennis matches, now giving so large an appreciation to my own jokes at the cause they were dully good jokes, tried to melt the ice about her. Nothing. I found that the harder I ran after her, the more she pulled away from m.
Two years of that, and I was ready to let go. I was graduating, heading back to my pack, done chasing a she-wolf who didn't want me. Then, out of nowhere, she showed up outside my dorm. "Wanna form a sacred bond with me?" she asked.
Fireworks exploded in my chest. I said yes before she could blink, thinking she'd just been shy, that she felt something after all.
I was wrong.
After we bound ourselves, she wouldn't touch me.
I figured it was her germ thing, that she'd warm up eventually.
I tried everything-gifts, surprises, patience-hoping she'd let me in. Instead, she dodged me like I was a rabid beast.
Seeing her with that statue of Daniel, her body pressed against it, her voice thick with want? That was the final blow. She didn't just not love me-she loved someone else.
When I got home, eyes red and raw, I found her back from the old house, rifling through our safe.
She glanced at me.
"Where's that belt my mom gave you?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat, dug out the million-dollar from the bottom of the safe, and handed it over. It was a gift from her mom, Catherine, when we set our binding date.
"What's it for?" I asked.
She inspected it. "Daniel's got a fancy dinner tonight. Needs something sharp. You don't wear it anyway, so it'll look good on him."
My stomach twisted. "But your mom gave it to me."
It wasn't about the watch. I didn't wear it because it was too precious, not because I didn't care. And it was part of a couple's set-her and Daniel wearing them together? That'd raise eyebrows.
Her eyes flashed with annoyance.
"It's a Lewis pack heirloom. Daniel's bound to our pack through my sister. It should've been his. Mom shouldn't have given it to you."
I went quiet. The Lewis pack and my Johnson pack are equals, and Catherine had approved of me, gifting us that with a smile. Daniel, though? He's a lowborn wolf who lucked into the Lewis pack through Sophia's sister.
Catherine never liked him.
Sophia grabbed the watch and strode out, tossing over her shoulder, "Don't make a thing of it. I'll get you another watch at the auction in a couple days to make up for it."
Before, I'd have been over the moon at the thought of her taking me to an auction, picking out a gift. Now? I just clenched my fists, bitterness flooding my chest.
Whatever. We were breaking the bond soon.
