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“You’re such a girl,” he says, smirking. “Your mind only heard one thing, didn’t it?”
“Fuck off,” I tell him.
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on,” he says, sliding his hand through my hair to cup the back of my neck. “But we have to fight. Before, we said we couldn’t ever turn them in if they were doing something because their demise would ruin us. I’m well past that. I don’t have loyalty to Gayle anymore. My loyalty is to you. Do you understand?”
I reach my hand up, touching the area between my breasts where I still feel the connection to Sean. “You don’t feel it anymore?”
He looks away, jaw tensing. “I didn’t say that. But it doesn’t matter. If they can play their game, we can play one, too. If necessary,” he tacks on.
If we’re to believe all the shifter tales about fated mates, Sean and Gayle should be dying to be at our sides. When we walk into Daybreak, everything could change. Or they could stay the course. One thing is for sure, I don’t know how I feel about giving Nathan up for the guy who’s abandoned me for over a year.
I don’t know how anyone expects me to get my mate to accept me when I’ve spent over a year trying, but Nathan is right. It’s life or death time. Which means, all bets are off.
“Go to Ms. Ebon,” Nathan orders. “Tell her you’ll attend the Winter Solstice festivities. If we can all go, I’ll help you.”
I lift my hand to grab his wrist. “What about you though?”
“I’ll do the same.” He moves forward, bending low to whisper in my ear. “But I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to forget how you taste.”
I slowly melt into a pool of lava.
This is my best friend we’re talking about here, and still, shivers wrack my body. I lift onto my toes and say a very un-friend-like thing. “I hope you never do.”
With that, I pull away and jog toward the door. I swing it open and sprint toward the front entrance of the academy. Determined. Sheets of rain coat my exposed skin, steeling my strength.
As soon as I make it inside, I head right for Ms. Ebon’s office. I knock twice and let myself in. She casually spins in her chair, as if she’s used to students barging into her office. She takes in my drowned state, my academy shirt clinging to me. “If Daybreak will let us go back, I’m in.”
Ms. Ebon nods once. “Excellent choice, Mia.”
I want to roll my eyes. “It’s not as if I had one.”
“Not true,” she says as she reaches into a drawer to her right, pulls out a piece of paper, and shuts the drawer again. She flicks her gaze to me. “You had the choice to accept what you’ve been given. I’m glad to see you’ve decided to fight.” She licks her fingers and spreads out three sheets in front of her. “Be ready to leave within forty-eight hours.”
She returns her focus back to the paperwork without another word. I turn on my heel and walk away, slapping wet shoes up the stairs and all the way back to my room. When I get there, I text my mother and tell her the good news, almost laughing when it takes her forever to get back to me. That’s great, dear.
Oh, I’m sure it is. She’s most likely wondering right now how I’m going to ruin her parties, but I won’t even be paying attention to her. I have my own wars to win.
6
I prowl the hallway between classes, my skirt swishing against my mid-thigh as I dart my eyes around the corridor. When I spot the door I’m looking for, I stop next to it like I’m just loitering, waiting for a friend.
It’s the door to the academy’s salon. Something I wasn’t aware they even had until Kinsey got a makeover. My advisor must really be a piece of shit. Not that I’m all caught up in my looks or anything, but a spa day would’ve been nice in a place like this.
Casually, I reach out and try the knob. It spins easily in my hand, and a mixture of surprise and happiness rings through me. Add a little bit of saltiness and that’s pretty much my whole emotional state right now.
The wooden door opens to a relatively small room. Unlike the rest of this beast of a building, this space is all white. A wall full of mirrors greets me, showing off my brown hair. I haven’t cut it since I got here, so it’s tickling past my shoulders. My purple and yellow plaid skirt jumps out in all this white as I close the door behind me.
Just like Kinsey said, to the right are drawers of makeup, each labeled with varying tools and supplies—foundation, eyeshadow, contouring brushes.
I stayed up all night working on a plan for Daybreak. Lately, I hadn’t thought much about going back there again. When I first arrived, I did. But as the months dragged on and Sean started showing up less and less, I disassociated myself with my pack.
Well, since I’m stepping foot back on Daybreak Pack property again, I need a change to feel more like myself. For my first shift, my mother begged me to strip my hair to its natural brown color. I appeased her, mainly because I was so nervous about shifting and the reality that I might actually find my mate that night. If she thought the best thing to do was to go back to my roots—literally—I was going to do it.
Now, though, I realize plain brown hair is so unlike me. I want something more. I tiptoe toward the mirrors, spying a line of cabinets underneath them. The faces are also labeled, and I want to kiss the person who put this place together. I find the hair dye cabinet and mentally cross my fingers that they’ll have what I want.
It takes me a minute to sift through them all. Just when I’m about to give up, I’m rewarded by finding a stock of fun colors underneath some normal ones. A squeak of surprise passes my lips when I spot the purple. I do a little dance, then clutch the box in my hands and hold up the picture to my brown locks. I frown. What I had in mind won’t work with my hair’s current color. I dive back in, grab the bleaching kit, and spot a true black. I pull that out, too, holding it up next to the box of purple and smile.
Turning, I see Ms. Ebon is standing in the doorway and nearly jump out of my skin. I bobble the boxes and clutch them to my chest before they have the chance of dropping to the floor. While my heart races at breakneck speed, I stick my nose in the air. I’m not about to apologize for being here—something I should’ve had the luxury of to begin with.