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Luna swallowed the fresh sting of betrayal and smiled back at her.

“I can go,” she said. “Just… don’t be surprised if he throws me out.”

Ben snorted. “You can hold your own. If he yells?—”

“Yell back. I know. I’m good at that.” Luna shot them all another smile, this one more strained. Then she turned and headed down the hall, only pausing to grab another two chocolates from Ben’s paper bag.

Luna knocked on the door.

No response.

“Typical,” she sighed. She knew he couldn’t hear her through the soundproofed door, but she was nervous. She wasn’t the girl you sent to talk about something serious. She was the girl you sent when you needed to liven up a party. What was she evendoinghere?

She knocked again. Nothing.

Luna sighed. Then she started drumming the beat to Shakira’sShe-Wolf, which she had spent a good thirty minutes singing on the hike this morning, only stopping after the fifth time he threatened to drop her.

The door flew open. Oliver stood behind it, teeth bared in a snarl.

Luna held up the chocolates. “Last chance. They’re going fast.”

Oliver’s face twisted. He started to close the door.

Luna threw herself in the way. “Come on! I promise not to talk about anything you don’t want to. I just got sent down to make sure you’re not eating the curtains.”

“The curtains are fine,” he said dully. “Get out.”

“I still need to check.” She batted her eyes at him. She even propped herself provocatively againstthe door, which would be more effective if he wasn’t still half-heartedly trying to close it.

For a moment, she thought he would tell her to get out again. Then he sighed, the pressure of the door easing.

“I’m fine,” he said. “You can tell them I?—”

Luna swanned in and plopped herself on the bed, dropping the chocolates on the bed beside her.

“So,” she said briskly. “How about that snow?”

He stared down at her. He still looked raw, like he had out in the hallway. Luna had never carried a secret that huge for that long.That kind of secret would eat my soul, she thought. She didn’t know how he had coped.

“Luna,” he said flatly. “Could you just…notdo this?”

“Do what?” She struck her cutest pose, the one that made Hector smirk and forgo whatever they were disagreeing on to kiss her. But like all her other cuteness attacks, it didn’t work on Oliver. Even with the bond burning inside of him, tempting him closer, he stayed away.

“I heard what you said on the phone,” he said. “Alright? You don’t have to pretend that you care.”

Luna’s smile froze. Shit. She knew he’d heard through her stupid, non-soundproof room.

“You heard what I said to myfiancé? About the guy I’msleepingwith?” She tossed her hair dismissively, letting it fall over her face in that hot and appealing way she’d practiced in the mirror. “He’s not a jealous guy but come on. Guy’s gonna feel alittleinsecure if he hears we’re actually getting along.”

His hands twitched at his side. There were little spots of red in his palm from where his claws had dug in. Luna had seen them pop out while he was yelling in the hall. The skin would be healed by now, she reassured herself before she could do something dumb, like reach for them.

She laughed awkwardly. “It hasn’t beenthatbad, right? Being stuck together?”

He just stood there, staring down at her. His shoulders were hunched.

Luna tried to think of a joke. Something sweet or ironic to get that guarded look off his face. But the longer the silence stretched, the emptier her mind got.

She sighed, picking up one of the chocolates she’d dropped on the bed next to her.