With the Yule Ball just a couple days away, I was stuck working late at the pack house again.
My only consolation was that it looked like there wouldn’t be any surprise guests. The Alpha of the Millennium was staying on the West Coast for this year’s festivities.
Sienna had texted me that she was going to a therapy session and then heading to the gallery, which at least made me feel less guilty. But I didn’t want this to be our lives—both working late on opposite sides of the city.
What Josh said to me earlier was still weighing on me too. It was jarring to see my normally carefree friend so burdened, and though I didn’t want to admit it, a lot of what he’d said made sense.
There was a bad energy in the air. It had been there the past few weeks, but I’d been too buried in work to notice.
It wasn’t something I could scent or see, but I could feel it in my bones.
And it was affecting everyone I cared about.
Maybe the Yule Ball would be just the thing to snap everyone out of their stupor. Or maybe it would be an even bigger disaster than last year’s.
One thing was sure at least: Sienna was going to look beautiful.
I pulled out a dress box from under my desk. Selene had designed this exclusively for Sienna’s Yule Ball debut as my mate.
I didn’t know a damned thing about dresses, but Selene had assured me she’d love it.
As I clicked the lights off in my office, I remembered that Sienna had run out of here in a rush earlier.
I’d better check to see if she left anything behind.
***
As I approached Sienna’s office, I noticed the door was ajar despite the lights being turned off.
There was someone inside, having a conversation, but I could only hear one voice, and it wasn’t Sienna’s.
“I need more time…”
I drew my claws and crept silently to the edge of the door to listen.
“That wasn’t part of the deal… Do your own dirty work… Please, there must be another way… No, I understand.”
Well, that was as clear as mud. It was time to end this.
I burst through the door and found Nina standing in the middle of the room, alone.
“What the hell are you doing in my mate’s office, omega wolf?”
Startled, she wheeled around. “I…I must’ve been sleepwalking,” she sputtered.
“Who were you talking to? Who else is here?” I sniffed the air, but the only fresh scent in the room was Nina’s.
She started to shake. “I swear! I don’t know how I got here.”
“Bullshit,” I spat, circling her. “You’re a thief. So what did you come here to steal?”
“I made mistakes in my life, but that’s not who I am,” she said, crying.
I didn’t believe those crocodile tears for a fucking second.
“What pack were you exiled from?”
“The Colombia Pack,” she divulged. “You don’t know what it was like there. I only stole to keep myself alive.”
I doubted that it was a coincidence that she’d picked one of the farthest, most remote packs possible. It would take a week to verify her story.
“Go back to your quarters,” I growled. “But don’t get comfortable. You won’t be here much longer.”
As she hobbled out of Sienna’s office, she paused to look back. “I’m sorry to be an inconvenience, my alpha.”
“I’m not your alpha,” I spat. “You might have Jocelyn fooled, but I can see right through you.”
Once again, I found myself sitting across from Konstantin, even though I’d vowed never to come back here.
He knew my deepest fears.
My deepest regrets.
My deepest desires.
It was an uneven playing field, and I’d never felt more vulnerable than when I was in his sessions, but if what he’d told me was true, I would finally find out who my parents were.
“Are you ready to enter your memories?” he asked.
“No, but let’s do this before I change my mind.” I took a deep breath and let it out. “If I give you access to my memories, this will be the last time.”
“Yes, I can promise you that. I know how taxing this must be for you.”
Konstantin leaned in and took my hands. “All right, let’s discover the truth…”
I started to drift out of consciousness.
~“…together.”~
***
An Italian opera house this time—a Colosseum-sized theater.
I was in a box seat overlooking the spectacle onstage. A hunter in a wintry landscape was standing over his prize, bellowing out a flurry of melodic words I didn’t understand.
The symbolism, however, was painfully clear.
That hunter’s prize?
A dead wolf, bleeding from its side.
Apparently my brain wasn’t subtle.
My inner wolf started to burn inside me. It had saved me the last time I got lost in my own head; maybe it would protect me this time too.
I used my mini binoculars to scan the crowd for Aiden and spotted him toward the front row. He was heading backstage.
Lifting the skirt of my magnificent ball gown, I raced down the stairs, the hem trailing behind me. But the closer I got to the stage, the more I started to feel the haze.
~Power through it, Sienna. Remember, this isn’t real.~
I tried to convince myself it was just my imagination, but the overwhelming pleasure swelling in my sex insisted otherwise.
I needed to be touched—now.
Once backstage, I ran past rows of intricate costumes and props as I searched frantically for Aiden. Finally, he appeared from behind a curtain, wearing a gold half-mask.
“Your mind always brings you to me,” he said smoothly. “Time and time again. You know what it is that you want, what has to be done.”
Aiden snapped his fingers, and the giant velvet curtain opened, leaving us exposed onstage in front of thousands of people.
The actors were gone; it was just us.
My inner wolf tried to howl, like it wanted to warn me of something, but the orchestra started playing and my wolf was drowned out.
Aiden extended his hand, and I took it, and the two of us began dancing as snow fell from the ceiling and covered the stage.
I was in a trance, not in control of my own body, but it felt like a lovely lullaby. I didn’t want it to end, and before I knew what was happening…we kissed.
Under the lights…in the snow…with thousands of eyes on us.
It was magical.
Aiden laid me gently on some dark furs in the middle of the stage. I ran my fingers through their softness as he stood over me.
“You’re truly beautiful, Sienna. Now let me into that beautiful mind.”
“Is this real?” I asked, drifting deeper into my subconscious. “It feels like a dream.”
“Yes, my dear, it’s just a dream,” he murmured, unbuttoning his pants and crawling on top of me.
He started kissing my neck, but suddenly something felt…~wrong~.
“Let me in,” he whispered against my skin.
~No.~ I didn’t want this.
He didn’t feel like Aiden. His touch was foreign.
These couldn’t possibly be my desires, hazed or otherwise.
I turned my head away to avoid his kisses and—
~Oh my God.~
I was lying on a wolf pelt.
~Aiden’s~ wolf!
His tongue was hanging grotesquely out of his mouth, and his dead eyes stared at me, empty.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, and when I turned back to Aiden, my blood ran cold and my heart sank deep into the endless black hole my stomach had become.
Because it was no longer Aiden lying on top of me.
It was Konstantin.
His eyes were glowing red and his fangs were extended as he moved toward my neck.
“Give me what I want,” he hissed in a terrifying tone.
I struggled underneath him, but he pinned me down.
“Stop it! Why are you doing this?”
“Just let me in, and this will all be over!”
“Get the hell away from me!”
I shifted and pounced on Konstantin, sinking my teeth into his shoulder.
As he screamed, we weren’t just ripped off our feet, we were thrown into what felt like a hurricane.
***
As soon as I came to, I drew my claws and swiped them across Konstantin’s face.
“You bitch!” he shouted, jumping to his feet.
I should’ve aimed lower—right between his legs!
“This whole time, it was you,” I said, my voice shaking as I rose. “My mind never created Aiden as my guide—it was always ~you~.”
I’d never felt such a deep and damning betrayal.
My head was spinning. I wanted to vomit.
“You were just ~using~ me.”
Konstantin took a step toward me, and I immediately stepped back.
“Why?” I asked, tears misting my eyes.
“Because you have something I want,” he replied, his gray eyes somehow both burning and cold. “Deep within your mind.”
I wasn’t safe here.
I wheeled around and ran for the elevator.
“You don’t know what you’re doing!” he called as he came after me.
“That’s because you’ve been messing around in my head, manipulating me!” I yelled back, partially shifting.
The seams of my dress began to split, and as Konstantin strode toward me, I let out a roar so powerful that it knocked him off-balance.
~How the hell did I do THAT?~ I’d never seen even Aiden knock someone off their feet before.
“Don’t ever come near me again,” I said, tears rolling down my cheeks as I stepped into the elevator.
As the door slid closed, Konstantin’s normally smooth, handsome face contorted into an ugly scowl.
~Finally!~
I was about to fall asleep in the hotel lobby when I saw Sienna running out of the elevator.
Wait, why was she running?
And was she ~crying~?
She rushed right past, without even noticing that I was there.
Then a handsome, distinguished-looking man ran out of an elevator immediately after, wiping blood from his mouth and looking around the lobby, a wild rage in his eyes.
~What the fuck?~
It wasn’t difficult to put two and two together.
I didn’t care what problems I was having with Sienna. This man had done something to my best friend—and he was going to regret it.
I marched over to him, claws drawn, ready for a fight.
But he just looked me up and down with an arrogant smirk. “And who might you be?”
“What the hell did you do to Sienna?” I growled.
“Why do you care?” he asked, amused.
“That’s my best friend, dickwad. Now tell me why you made her cry, or you’ll be the one crying.”
He smiled calmly, then dug his fingernails into my shoulder and gazed hypnotically into my eyes. His own eyes flared red.
“Why don’t I ~show~ you instead?”