“It wasn’t good,” he answers grimly. “Cyrus is calling in favors left and right and getting angrier if those favors aren’t delivered at the moment he demands them. The Circle is decimated—the witches and dragons have aligned against the vampires and wolves.”

“I thought it’s always been like that.” The tensions were super high when they were here for the Ludares tournament and challenge. I just assumed it was normal.

“To a certain extent, it has. Our Circle definitely doesn’t work with the ease and cohesiveness some of the others do, but it’s never been this bad before. At least not in my lifetime. Cyrus is out for blood.”

“Yeah, I know. Mine.” I’m trying to lighten the mood, but the look Jaxon gives me tells me I didn’t succeed. As does the coldness that is back to rolling off him in waves.

“We’re not going to let that happen,” he says. “You and Hudson have already suffered enough. But one way or another, war is coming. We just need to make sure we’re ready for it.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” I ask. “I’m a little busy trying to graduate from high school and sort out a mating bond. I don’t have time to go to war.”

If his expression is anything to go by, my second joke fell as flat as my first. Then again, Jaxon’s never really found the topic of my safety to be very funny. I can’t blame him, considering I’ve always felt the same way about his.

“What are we going to do?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “I don’t know yet. But we’ll figure it out. I promise.”

“Wow. Is that optimism twice in one morning from Jaxon Vega? What will the universe think?”

“I won’t tell it if you don’t.”

I laugh, even though I’m not sure he’s joking. Still, I start to tease him a little more—anything to loosen up the bitter chill that is so much a part of him these days—but break off when I realize we’re at the steps of the castle.

He starts to go up them, but I stop him with a hand on his arm. “Thank you,” I whisper.

“For what?” The look he gives me is wary.

“For…everything,” I say, unable to get anything else out as my throat closes up just a little, sorrow for what we’ve lost mingling with hope over what we just might have a chance to regain—our friendship.

Impulsively, I hug him again, this time pulling his face down so that our cold cheeks are mashed together. At first he’s unyielding, but I don’t care. “I miss you,” I whisper to him as I hold on for an extra few seconds. There is no innuendo in the words, and I know he understands. The last thing I’d ever want to do is lead Jaxon on, but he deserves to know that his friendship means just as much as the mating bond did.

His arms tighten around me, but he doesn’t say it back. In fact, he doesn’t say anything at all. But he does hold me for several more seconds before he lets me go. I count that as a win—at least until I see his blank face and realize whatever gains I thought I made on the walk have been completely erased.

It’s frustrating, infuriating, and I really want to yell at him. To ask him why he’s doing this, why he’s treating me like this when I haven’t done anything to deserve it.

But he’s already gone, so far away from me that I know it doesn’t matter what I say. It won’t get through to him.

So instead of humbling myself anymore, I give him the same parting smile and wave to say goodbye that I gave him to say hello at the gazebo a little while ago, then head up the stairs, telling myself I have enough to do without worrying over what’s going on with a guy who has made it very obvious that he only wants me on an all-or-nothing basis—the “nothing” having won out.

But the moment I pull open Katmere Academy’s front door, I realize that we’ve got a bigger problem than what’s going on between Jaxon and me. Because every student in the entryway and common room is frozen in anticipation as three wolves move in on Hudson in an ever-tightening circle.

39

Not Every Dog

Has Its Day

“Stop!” I yell and start to wade into the fray, but Jaxon is right beside me again, and this time he’s holding my arm in an iron grip.

“Let me go!” I cry out as I try to shake him off.

“I can’t,” he tells me. “If you get in the middle of this, it’ll only make him look weak.”

“He is weak!” I growl. “His powers are grounded.” Which is beginning to look like a spectacularly bad idea on my uncle’s part…

“That is exactly why they’re pushing at him,” Jaxon tells me matter-of-factly. “They figure this is the best chance they’ve got. He needs to knock them back himself, or this shit will just keep happening.”

“What if he can’t?” I cry out as one of his attackers shifts so that he’s still mostly human but with a wolf’s head—and teeth. “What if they hurt him?”

Jaxon gives me the same insulted look Hudson gave me the other day in the library, like it’s sacrilege to imagine that a vampire can’t take on three wolves—and win—with just sheer badassery alone.

I don’t like the odds, though. Especially not when so many of the other students are crowding around, egging the wolves on even as Hudson doesn’t back down.

He’s not even ruffled, standing there in the middle of Marc (I should have destroyed the jerk on the Ludares field when I had the chance) and two other wolves I recognize from classes but whose names I don’t know.

No, Hudson looks amused, which might be reassuring if it wasn’t pissing the wolves off so badly. And if it seemed, even a little bit, like he took the threat of them seriously.

But it doesn’t appear that way at all, despite the fact that all three of them are within arm’s reach of Hudson now. I use every ounce of concentration I have to will him to end it now or to walk away, but he does neither. I think about trying to reach for him through the mating bond, to let him know that I’m here, but I’m afraid of distracting him.

I definitely don’t want to give them a reason to stop toying with him and go for the jugular. But that doesn’t mean I’m fine with being stuck way back here, out of range if he needs my help.

“You can let me go,” I tell Jaxon quietly. “I won’t try to get between them.”

Jaxon hesitates, but he must decide that I mean it, because his grip loosens significantly. Even as my unspoken yet hangs in the air between us. I won’t get between them yet.

With Jaxon’s grip more supportive than restraining, I start easing my way through the ever-widening crowd until I’m almost at the front row. But when I move to make the final shift, Jaxon right behind me, the group of wolves in front of me deliberately closes the gap.

Unless we want to pick a fight of our own, Jaxon and I are effectively cut off from the front lines.

“It’s fine,” he whispers to me, even as the guy with the wolf’s head leans in and snaps at Hudson, his teeth inches from my mate’s face.

I swallow a little shriek as Hudson dodges, then raises a sardonic brow and asks, “You don’t really think that’s going to impress me, do you? I’m pretty sure the fleas you’re carrying have a harsher bite.”

“Does he have to taunt them like that?” I moan. The last time Jaxon got in a fight with the wolves, he just walked in and kicked their asses. It was terrifying to watch, but this…this is so much worse. The tension of worrying about Hudson going up against them without his powers is killing me.

Jaxon just snorts. “I’m sorry. Have you met my brother?”

It’s a good point, but that doesn’t make this any easier to watch. Especially when the wolf lunges again—and gets so close that I swear Hudson could smell his breath before he manages to fade a few steps away.

This time, both brows are up as he glances down at his shoulder. “Does mange run in your family?” he asks as he brushes a tuft of wolf fur off his shoulder. “Because if it doesn’t, you might want to see someone about that.”

All three wolves growl this time, so loud that the sound reverberates through the room. My stomach is basically doing somersaults now, and not in the good way. I can feel my heartbeat speeding up, can feel a weight pressing down on my chest as panic wells inside me.

“He needs to just finish this,” I tell Jaxon, and my voice sounds thin even to my own ears.

“What he needs is to stop playing with his food and kick their sorry asses,” Jaxon snarls, which means all this tension is getting to him, too.

“Maybe he can’t,” I whisper as Hudson dodges another attack, still without lashing out. “Maybe he needs his powers—”

“That’s some serious faith you’ve got in your mate there, Grace.” I jump a little at the sound of Mekhi’s voice right over my shoulder.

“It’s not a lack of faith in him,” I shoot back without turning around. I’m terrified Hudson will be torn apart right in front of me if I so much as blink. “It’s a total lack of trust that the wolves have so much as one ounce of honor among them all.”

“Fair point,” Mekhi agrees, shifting until he’s on the other side of me, while Luca and Flint move in right behind me. I’m not sure if they’re trying to protect me or if they’re getting in a position to intervene if Hudson needs them. Either way, I’m grateful that they’re here—even if their ridiculously big bodies do take up all the air around me.