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I give her a quick shake of my head. “No, unfortunately, he’s too smart for that.” She raises her brows, and I groan. “You know what I mean.”
Taking out her cell, she gives me an apologetic look. “Jonah wouldn’t let me come here unless I kept in contact.” She hits an icon on her screen, and it turns her phone into a security camera. She types into a message box that sits aside a live feed of us. Here. We’re fine.
His response is immediate. Good. Stay safe.
“I’m surprised you’re here,” I tell her. And for a few different reasons: One, I’m shocked Sean let her. Two, I’m also astonished that Jonah would be okay with her being near someone like this maniac.
“We figured Sean wouldn’t try anything because he would be implicated if something happened to you so soon after the near misses. Your alpha’s guards are still outside. Plus, with this added security measure, we’re in business.”
She scoops the dresses from the floor and lays them on the bed. Then she takes off the messenger bag around her shoulder. Patting it briefly, she opens the flap to reveal a bunch of makeup.
“We’re really going to the ball?” I ask her. “With everything that’s going on?”
“Of course we are,” she smirks, a devilish gleam in her eye. She moves in closer, lowering her voice so only the two of us can hear in case there are any ears listening. “But you’re only going for a short time. Jonah spoke to Twilight Security last night. They confirmed there is a rumored Feral Pack outside their lands that’s not within any other territory. This is just hearsay,” she cautions, “but it’s a way out. You and Nathan leave tonight when everyone is distracted by the ball.”
I suck in a breath. Feral. The thing I’ve dreaded the entire time I was at Greystone. Can I really do that? Even with the rumored pack that was able to survive? It’s not like they would be anything akin to what we’re used to. They won’t have the same pack dynamics. This would be upending my whole world. “You want me to go Feral?”
“No,” she grinds out. “Listen, Jonah and I are helping you. We can make it so you’re safe. If you stay here, you’re going Feral in a few days, whether Sean rejects you or not. That’s if you make it that long when all these accidents keep happening.”
I shake my head. “I just can’t believe that this place actually exists. Kinsey, you saw the same footage I did. Feral means certain death.”
“But what if it doesn’t?” Kinsey asks, eyes gleaming. She looks like a schoolgirl with big dreams. The idea is intriguing. Our packs practically disowned us when we needed them the most. The months after shifting for the first time are the hardest, and yet, some of us are sent away from the only world we’ve ever known—all with a broken piece of ourselves.
“You think it might be true?”
“Just imagine,” Kinsey says. “A group of banished wolves would have one thing in common, a bond that might make them stick it out together—a hatred for the system that cast them out.”
“But they wouldn’t have any of the dynamics that we have. A pack togetherness. A system to make us safe. Mate bonds and all the abilities that come with them.”
Kinsey takes my shoulders. “Sometimes other bonds are bigger than pack or fate. Look at you and Nathan,” she whispers. “You’re not supposed to be. He shouldn’t get all possessive, yet he does. Just like a fated mate would, Mia. When need arrives, sometimes we all just have to find a way.”
It sounds like false hope.
I don’t know if I ever imagined this would be the way I escaped my situation. I always guessed Sean would come to his senses one day. But then Nathan happened. And then the stupid deadline on my life. With every reason to live clicking into place, steel forms a tight band around my shoulders and up my spine. Kinsey is right. Why should that stop me from trying to make the best of what I have?
Nathan is mine. We’re not giving each other up. I’d rather go Feral with him—even if that meant death—than stay here. This idea of a place that accepts Feral wolves could be a kindling for hope if I just let myself believe.
“You’ll have to tell me everything,” I say to her.
She grins as she makes me sit on the bed. Keeping up with our charade about getting ready for the ball, she does my makeup while she explains that she and Jonah have hidden a car with supplies. With any luck, Nathan and I will be able to get out of Daybreak territory before we’re missed. Obviously, we don’t want to get punished like Robbie did. Who knows what sort of heinous discipline they deemed necessary before throwing him out?
Nerves take over my stomach. “What if we can’t find the pack? Or if they actually don’t exist, Kinsey?”
She stops applying my foundation and stares at me. “I won’t let you die out there, Mia. There’s a phone in the supplies. You pick it up, find a place with service, and call me.”
I already know I won’t do that to her. I love that she’d face certain death for harboring a Feral wolf, but I would never put her and Jonah in a position where their life together could be compromised.
I move her hand out of the way and stand, holding her. I never would’ve guessed that I would find such a good friend at the academy. Even someone who, relatively speaking, was there for a short amount of time.
“It’s not fair,” Kinsey says. “Nothing about the rejected mate business is fair, and there are so many things that don’t add up. It’s like the pack councils have made up this façade around us so we adhere to their rules.” She clears her throat. “I’m not sure I believe in the system that much anymore.”
“But you have Jonah....” I pull away, really looking at her. I’ve been stuck in my own head, so it’s possible I’ve missed something going on with her.
“I love Jonah,” she says, eyes glossing over. “But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the things they tell us, Mia. Not all of it is true. You know for yourself. If what they told us about fated mates was true, why would you even be interested in Nathan? What if our whole world is false? Set upon lies to keep us conformed.”
I never pegged my friend as a conspiracy theorist, but I see it in her eyes. Being at the academy must have affected her more than I thought. I imagined that after she left, she would’ve fallen into perfect unity with Jonah and never dwelled on what happened to her.
She takes my shoulders and moves me back to the bed. “You probably think I’m crazy.”