Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Paxton nodded, his arms draped over his knees. His relaxed pose was at odds with the grave expression weighing heavy on his handsome face. “I guess this means you don’t want to do this anymore. Go on dates. Spend the evening with me.”
I swallowed hard. “That’s... exactly what it means,” I croaked, feeling the band squeeze tighter. “I’m sorry, Paxton, but if my time is running out, I don’t have a second of it to waste. I know what love is and what it’s supposed to feel like, and this just isn’t it. It’s better we don’t drag it out and accept reality now.”
“I understand.”
I hung on for him to say more, but nothing came. The silence stretched past comfortable.
“If you want to go,” I blurted, “spend however much time is left with your moms, I’d understand.”
“Nah.” Paxton got to his feet, dusting himself off. “I’m going to stick around here, if that’s cool. My moms were really proud of me for being the first omega to join the alpha track. I want to do the placement exams and get in on my own this time—proving I also belonged there.
“I want to die knowing I made them proud,” he whispered, staring up at the moon. “Much better than watching their failure of an only son die writhing and vomiting his way to death.”
“Paxton...”
Dropping his head, he smiled at me. “There’s no hard feelings, Daze. Honestly. You deserve better, and if I’d been better, we wouldn’t be here right now. I’m only sorry I’m taking you with me.”
Paxton turned to leave. A million pleas for him to stay, talk, forgive me sprung to my lips, but none of them came out.
I sat there long after he was gone—crying.
“Wow. That was brutal.”
I shot up, whipping around. I inhaled deep, scenting mud, blood, and forest creatures in the air. “Who is that? Who’s there?”
“Ouch, Volana. How can you not know who I am? You’re going to hurt my feelings.”
Every muscle in my body bound and tied in knots. That voice... I know that voice.
A dark, mud-covered figure broke through the trees. Mud, leaves, and twigs made for a terrible ensemble, but amazing camouflage.
Badr stepped through the shadows—his wide, chilling smirk flashing his beaming white teeth like the sun rising over a swamp.
What are you doing here? How did you get here? How long have you been listening to us? What do you want? All those questions and more rushed to my tongue and crowded to get out, but I asked none of them.
“Oh, Badr, is that you? I thought for a second it was a walking, talking piece of shit... and I was right.”
He chuckled. “I see you crawled out of your hole. Just like your best leech friend. You just don’t die.”
I breathed hard, straining to keep my calm. I felt exposed and vulnerable, and not just because I was standing there stark naked. The last time Badr and I were in these woods, I spilled my deepest secrets and heartache out to him, and he buried me alive.
I moved as Badr moved, keeping him in my sights at all times. He found my caution amusing if his widening smirk was anything to go by.
“What’s a wolf trap doing out here?”
I frowned, thrown by the off-topic question. Surely he wanted to shout, bitch, and moan about me ending his brother’s life, so he could justify giving me a slow, suffocating, agonizing death. “What?”
“What. Is. A. Wolf. Trap. Doing. Out. Here?” he repeated, saying it slow like he was speaking to a moron. “No wolf would ever put something like that out here. Which means we have an enemy.”
“I’ll look into it.”
“And if it was a wolf, there has to be a reason they’d make our own woods unsafe for the rest of us,” he continued. “Almost like they’re booby-trapping this area so that they can hide something.”
“I said I’d look into it.” My face gave no reaction. Booby-trapping the area to hide something was exactly why I had my metal wolf friend create a dozen of the vile things. I couldn’t have anyone stumbling over the alpha voice killer. It was my biggest advantage in the coming war, and if I couldn’t watch it all day, then I needed an alarm system to the tune of loud, ear-piercing screams.
If only I’d realized Paxton was getting so close.
“Are you sure?” Badr cocked his mud-covered head. “You’ve probably got too much on your plate, Headmistress. Let me just run and get Vice Headmistress Ash—”
“What the fuck is wrong with you!” I burst out. “You didn’t cover yourself in manure and perfectly time your entrance so that you can blather on to me about wolf traps! What are you doing here, Badr? Why the fuck did you come back?”
“Ah, good question.” He rocked back on his heels, dropping his shoulder against a tree trunk. “The truth is I wasn’t going to come back. After avenging my brother and getting rid of you for good, I went at the gate—ready to rip it apart with my fangs if that’s what it took to get out of here, but then”—he clicked his tongue—“it just swung open.”