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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

ZURI

“Don’t hold back,” I said to Sina.

We stood in the backyard to her pack house with Maxine. I had told Stone that I wanted to have a girls’ day—which surprised him, but he hadn’t asked questions. Honestly, I wanted to get stronger for him.

After Stone had told me everything that had happened and why he had become the Stone that I knew today, I wanted to protect him. I hadn’t known him for that long—and had thought that I hated him for the time I did know him—but I felt like I knew him now.

We were the same. Both bullied by the people who were supposed to love us.

Except my packmates were dead, thanks to him. And his family was still alive.

Sina transformed into a half-werewolf, half-monster, throwing attacks my way that I could just barely dodge. Part of me believed that she was still holding back, but at least she was harder on me today than the other day.

There was no way that I would ever be as strong as Sina, Maxine, Carve, or even Stone. But I would try to become stronger and stronger to protect the pack of misfits and runaways. I was now their luna, the woman they looked up to.

In the middle of an attack, Maxine hurled a knife in my direction and caught me in the arm. I fell to the ground and yanked the blade from my flesh, the blood oozing out between my fingers. Maxine and Sina hurried over.

Sina pressed her hand to the wound in my upper arm, her eyes glowing and the wound instantly closing. I still wasn’t exactly sure what kind of creature Sina was, but she was more than the average werewolf.

“Thank you,” I said, dusting myself off. “Both of you.”

Maxine smiled softly. “Sorry for your arm. I didn’t mean?—”

“It’s okay,” I finished. “I want to get stronger.”

“I think that’s enough for today,” Sina said.

“Me too.”

“Do you wanna go to the Dead Candle Tavern with us?” Sina asked.

Maxine curled her arm around her best friend’s. “Olenna will be there.”

“Who’s Olenna?” I asked.

Maxine and Sina grinned at each other, and then Maxine turned back to me. “The girl we’re trying to set Carve up with. They were lovers in many, many, many past lives, but they’re enemies in this one. It’s kinda funny and cute.”

“She legit hates him. Carve acts like he hates her too.” Sina giggled. “But he doesn’t.”

“Yeah, Carve has the ability to refresh time,” Maxine said, pulling me down the path toward Durnbone. “Rumor has it—at least, this is what I heard from Xorgor—that Carve has refreshed time over a thousand times to find one life where Olenna doesn’t die.”

My eyes widened. “Holy crap. He can do that?”

“He is the strongest warlock to ever walk in this world,” Sina said, nodding.

“But he acts like a grumpy old man most days,” Maxine said. “Come on. She’s probably waiting for us.”

* * *

“There is no way,” I said, laughing when we stepped into the Dead Candle Tavern.

Olenna was the smallest, cutest, most innocent thing ever. I wanted to just squeeze her until she popped— hello, cute aggression . But I couldn’t even wrap my head around how someone like her would ever be with Carve, who was just as crazy as Stone.

She laughed softly. “What?”

“You like Carve?”

“What?!” Olenna fake gagged. “Who told you that?”

I glanced over at Sina and Maxine, who hid their smiles behind their glasses of ale. Olenna arched a brow at them, a hundred thousand emotions flooding through her system. Then, she finally sipped her drink and shook her head.

“I hate him now, and I will always hate him.”

“Suuuure,” Sina said, cheeks reddening from the alcohol.

“It’s true!” Olenna exclaimed. “He’s a terrible person.”

“He didn’t seem that bad,” I added. “Except for … his weird obsession with knives.”

“He has literally burned entire towns to the ground, has killed innocent people, and is desperate to make my life a living fucking hell,” she growled. “I have barely seen him throughout the years, but I still feel his eerie presence all around me.”

“Eerie presence?” Maxine asked, sniffing. “Smells like horniness to me.”

“Don’t use your demon abilities on me,” Olenna said. “And it is not horniness.”

Sina and Maxine shared another look, and I could tell another drawn-out suuuure was lingering on Sina’s lips. I bit back a laugh, not sure if this was how friend groups formed or even if I was part of their friend group yet.

I had never once been out to a bar with girls to have fun before.

Stone would be proud of me when I told him.

Suddenly, the entire tavern quieted down to a whisper.

“Oh,” Sina said. “I hope you don’t mind. I invited the guys.”

“The guys?”

I glanced over my shoulder to see four wolves, one demon, Stone, and the one and only Carve waltzing into the Dead Candle Tavern together, all serious-like, talking about—I assumed—war plans.

Olenna sipped her drink. “As long as Carve isn’t here, then I’m?—”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Carve growled, stopping halfway to our table.

Olenna snapped her head in his direction, her eyes blazing with hatred. “What is he doing here?” she said between gritted teeth, her fingers whitening on the tabletop and her human teeth bared to him.

Sina threw an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. “Oh, you know … they’re here to talk about war plans. Wanna stay?”

“No! I don’t want to stay,” Olenna said, snatching her belongings and hopping up.

She stormed toward the exit, passing Carve on the way, who then turned around and followed her right out of the tavern.

Maxine hummed, “Ah, to have lived a thousand lives and still be in love.”