Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“You just made a laughing stock out of me, Wilde. And I'm done. We're done.”
“Rayne-- “ He reaches for me.
I shake him off. “We're done, Wilde. Touch me again, and I'll tell your dad you forced yourself on me. Then you'll be out of this pack for good.”
Wilde’s eyes round in shock, and I'm instantly sick that I even said such a thing. But I don't take it back because I need him to give me space. I need him to give me space, or I will never follow through with this breakup.
And I have to break up with him. He’s my stepbrother, which means this was always going to end in heartbreak for me. I might as well have it on my own terms.
As it is, I don't know how I'll ever recover.
I take off running, away from Wilde and the school stadium.
“Rayne! Let me drive you home,” Wilde calls.
“Go back to your game, Wilde. I'll call my mom,” I lie for the second time that night.
I hear the huff of Wilde’s exhale. His muttered curse.
But I don't look back. I just keep running because I will fall down and bawl if I don’t.
I run so hard I don't notice the car pull over in front of me. I barely register the guy getting out of it. I'm dashing past him when I feel the sharp prick of a needle jabbing into my neck and then his rough hands yanking me toward the car.
I try to fight, but my muscles go limp and stop working completely. The last thing I remember is collapsing into the back seat of a small, dirty car.
Wilde
Fuck!
I want to follow Rayne.
I want everything she said to be untrue, but the fact is, on some level she's right.
I did want to change her. I wanted her to better herself. To rise up. To shift. To claim a higher status in the family, in the pack, and especially at school.
She's also probably right that my misguided Homecoming royalty coup didn’t help. I don't believe anyone is laughing at her. They would know I would slaughter them for it. But, I can see that telling someone to vote for her as Homecoming queen is not the same as her earning respect or rising through the ranks. It won't make real change for her.
The need to fix this nearly drives me mad.
An inhuman snarl issues from my lips, and I punch a stop sign, busting a clean hole through the metal. The blood that runs from my knuckles looks bright under the light of the full moon. I look up at her, to see if she offers any guidance, but her pale light just feels like judgment. Like I’ve let her down. Fucked with fate.
The urge to shift and follow Rayne in wolf form brings another snarl to my lips. But Coach Jamison and the team will be looking for me. I'm supposed to be calling all the plays tonight.
I trudge back to the stadium. Every step I take feels like I'm dragging my feet through concrete. Feels like I'm making the biggest mistake of my life. My wolf thrashes within me, frantic to get back to Rayne.
But she made it clear to stay away. Threatened me with banishment, even though I know her too well to believe she would follow through. I could see how she horrified herself when she said it.
I wish I knew how to fix this.
Hearing the whistle blow for the first play, I jog back to the field where Coach Jamison gives me a condemning frown.
I stand beside him. “I’m sorry.”
For some reason, it feels important to own what just happened. To speak Rayne’s name to Jamison and honor her that way. “Rayne didn’t appreciate my interference in the Homecoming royalty,” I offer, even though he didn’t ask.
It takes Jamison a moment. He drags his focus from the field to my face.
“I hurt her. I didn’t mean to, but I did.”
He studies me with interest. “You catching feelings Wilde?”
“Caught.”
I sense my entire being wobble on its axis when I admit it. Like I’ve been dropped into a vast ocean with no land in sight.
What does it even mean? That I care about Rayne regardless of whether she’s my mate?
That was the main reason I was trying to get her to shift. Yes, I also wanted to fix her. But mostly I wanted permission to claim her.
And the only reason I would want to claim a female who doesn’t trigger my mating instinct would be… for love.
Something we wolves think very little of. We discount the human notion of love and marriage. There are love matches all around us, even within our own community, but we only revere fated mates.
Would I still want Rayne if she wasn’t my fated mate?
If you’d asked me an hour ago, I would’ve denied it.