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Grace and I can’t help but join in.

“Shay, you’re torturing the boy,” Grace says, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her toward our bunks.

“I know!” she says, sighing happily. “Ugh, I can’t help it. They’re just socutewhen they’re madly in love with me. Itismy favorite characteristic in a man.” She flips her hair over her shoulder and flounces off toward our beds.

I sigh and follow, though I can’t help but admire her moxy. Shayne truly has a verve for life that I don’t think any of us truly match.

The next few days are utterly grueling. Shayne, Grace, and I work each of our long shifts with our teeth gritted, ignoring the insults that come from the male Children of Solace wolves who clearly have no respect for us at all. After a few sharp words and warnings from my father and the other wolves amongst us – theonlypeople they respect – the Children of Solace wolves let us perform our duties.

But it is very clear by their sneers, their low growls, their mumbled insults of “trash” and “slut” and “whore,” that they believe us to be undeserving of respect they’d pay even to an animal.

At the end of each day, I watch Shayne’s usually shining expression fall lower and sadder. For some reason, she’s getting the brunt of it. We’ve all been doing our best to keep her spirits up – and honestly, Greg and Tommy have been a big part of that. But still, I can tell the daily harassment from the Children of Solace wolves is taking its toll.

And always,alwaysshe gets bizarre comments about her hair.

“Any news?” I snap, walking up to Cole’s side outside the nursing tent, my arms crossed. “On what the hell it is they have against redheads?”

He takes a deep breath in through his nose, looking down at me, worried. “Shayne’s still dealing with that?”

He’s been less social with us in the past few days, though I don’t think it’s personal. He’s just been attending a lot of meetings with dad and taking guard posts outside while we’re worked off our feet in the nursing tent, taking most of our meals in between patients. This is, I think, the first time I’ve talked to Cole in about forty-eight hours.

But no time for pleasantries when I’ve got a bone to pick.

“Yup,” I say, the word clipped and impatient. I hate seeing my friend suffer, and I hate even more that I don’t understand the reasons behind it.

“Yeah, I asked Jude’s contact what’s up with that,” Cole murmurs, looking away into the night, his jaw clenched. “Apparently, there’s some kind of legend, or lore, about a red-headed human girl who gets too much power and lures all these men away to their deaths. They’ve been taught since birth that she’s both dangerousandworthy of contempt. It’s a stupid superstition but…I hate that they’re taking it out on Shay.”

I scoff, turning to glare back into the tent, hating themall.

“I guess this isn’t doing much to improve your opinion of wolf culture,” Cole says, his words laced with a sigh.

I whip my face back to him. “You expect me to be bright and hopeful about an entire culture of misogynistic men who are sexually harassing and insulting my friend just because she hasred hair?”

He sighs and shakes his head. “Not all –“

“God damn it, Cole,” I snarl, whipping a finger up to point at his face. “If you say ‘not all wolves are like that,’ I’m going to smack you. Becauseevery wolfin that tent is.”

He exhales slowly, clearly frustrated but seeing my point. “All right,” he says.

“Are you sure it’s evensafefor Shay here?”

Cole looks into the tent as well, his eyes moving over Shay as she checks in on a patient who we’ve been working with for days whorefusesto look at her, his teeth bared as he determinedly stares at the tent’s ceiling.

“We’ll protect her,” he murmurs. “I can keep them in line.”

“And if you weren’t here?”

He shifts his eyes to me, frowning. “But I am here.”

I open my mouth to protest further, to truly lay into him for the fact that his father’s regime has let this anti-human and anti-woman sentiment fester down here in the south for atleasttwenty years, but my harangue is interrupted by headlights flashing through the darkened camp. Both Cole and I lookimmediately toward the light, and I frown at the small jeep that pulls to the middle of our clearing. Its only occupant is the driver, and it’s an unusually small vehicle - only large transports have been coming in here these days.

“What’s going on?” I murmur. “More patients?”

“No,” Cole says, shaking his head. Then he sighs as he turns to me fully. “Listen, I’m going to step out of camp for a little bit, but Tommy –“

My mouth falls open, appalled. “But you justsaidthat everything would be fine becauseyouare here to protect Shayne!”

“A task for which Tommy is very capable,” Cole says, being all patient. Which just pisses me off even more.