Lost Girl (Wolf Girl Series Book 2)

It was back to classes as usual, and being normal felt great. After the first few days, people stopped staring and whispering about my “time away.” Upside: no attacks in the past eight days. Downside: was Sawyer ever going to fucking propose to me? Or was it like, assumed I was going to marry him? I mean we were living together. He was even turning his guest bedroom into a photography studio for me while we met with an architect to build us a house on ten acres of prime Wolf City land. It felt a little surreal to be honest.

I stepped out of my final class for the day and Eugene was waiting for me. Every day after school we had driving lessons. They were normal at first, and I had totally gotten the hang of it, but then they turned into psycho “defensive driving” lessons. Sometimes that meant that Sage sped up beside me on the highway and jerked into me while Eugene told me how to respond.

It was hell on my nerves, but apparently what I needed to learn to be the alpha’s wife.

“What are we doing today? Driving eighty while defusing a bomb?”

Eugene’s upper lip curled. “No. You’re going to do a sliding parallel park without stopping.”

I frowned. “A what?”

Eugene sighed as we walked across the quad. “You’ll be going forty and then jerk the wheel to pull into a spot, then get out and run into a police station or whatever safety lies beyond. All within seconds.”

My eyes bugged. “The hell I will.”

Eugene stopped and looked at me. “When Sawyer was taken, when he was little, he was with his mother. They think the woman is the weaker link when they try to kidnap.”

I growled, throaty and raw. “Eugene, I can catch bullets and go invisible. I dare them to come after my future children.”

He grinned, a slow and sly full white toothed smile. Was that pride in his gaze? I’d always liked him.

Before he could respond, music blared into the quad over the loudspeaker. It was soft and romantic and totally weird to be played out of the school speakers. People murmured behind me and I spun to take in the scene.

My heart stopped, literally stopped in my chest when I saw Sawyer walking toward me holding a microphone. It wasn’t him, or the mic, or the music that made me stop dead, it was the custom t-shirt he wore.

“Future Mr. Calloway-Hudson,” it read.

I burst into giggles, but then grew serious as I realized what was happening. Was he… proposing? Was this it? Eugene stepped back with a grin as the crowd opened up.

Sawyer placed the microphone to his lips. “I am of sound mind and body, with not a single love spell in my system,” he declared, and the entire student body erupted into laughter, including myself. “And I choose you, Demi Calloway. I choose you.” My laughter died in my throat as he dropped to one knee and pulled a giant shiny diamond ring out of the tiny pocket in his jeans. Sans box. “I publicly humiliated you in front of everyone, and so I think it’s only fair that I do the same to myself, wearing this ridiculous t-shirt.”

The crowd cheered and I grinned. I loved the shirt, I loved him, I loved it all.

Sawyer looked up at me from on his knee and I peered into those bright blue eyes. “I choose you, Demi. Now, if only you will choose me back, I would be the happiest man alive. Marry me?”

Tears leaked from my eyes. He was reversing the public shame he’d caused me, and it meant everything. Sawyer wasn’t afraid to look like a fool for those he loved, and it made him more perfect than ever before.

I tapped my chin, eyeing the diamond. “I’ll have to think about it.”

A few students snickered, and Sawyer responded with a growl before I burst into laughter, crying. I felt insane right now, going through so many emotions. “YES! It’s a huge yes from me, Mr. Calloway-Hudson.”

He dropped the mic on the ground as the students erupted into applause, and then he tackle-hugged me, his mouth on mine in an instant. We kissed each other hungrily before pulling away so that he could put the ring on my finger.

It was the size of a toaster.

“I know you don’t care about expensive shit, but I want everyone who meets you to know how much I love you and will take care of you.”

Fucking swoon.

“I love it. It’s like a little extra murder weapon.” I made a slashing motion through the air and he grinned. Reaching out, I tapped his shirt. “This is adorable, but you know the guy doesn’t hyphenate as well, right?”

His face fell. “They don’t?”

I burst into laughter, shaking my head. “Were you prepared to change your name?”

He nodded. “I was about to have the hospital renamed and everything.”

Lightness flooded through my body and I just wanted to stay in this moment forever. I grinned and he reached out and fireman lifted me, throwing me over his shoulder. “She said yes!” he screamed, and the entire school erupted into more cheers and applause.

I hated attention like this, but Sawyer thrived in this type of environment, so I was going to let him have his moment. I wanted to freeze time and stay in this perfect love bubble that Sawyer and I had created.

It wouldn’t last forever, not with war brewing… but I wanted it to. I wanted marrying Sawyer to be the only thing on anyone’s mind for a long time.

Sawyer carried me through campus over his shoulder the entire way, raising his fist to anyone who passed and screaming, “She said yes!”

It was adorable. Like baby kitten adorable. And I wouldn’t take this from him no matter how much his shoulder bone was digging into my ribcage. When we reached the doorway to our shared apartment, he set me down, sliding me along the length of his body.

Reaching out, he cradled my neck in his hands.

I stared at the ring, still in shock. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to propose.”

“The custom t-shirt got delayed or I would have sooner.”

“Seriously?”

That was the freaking hold up!

He nodded. “Seriously. Once your dad said yes, I was good to go.”

I furrowed my brow. “The solar panel chat?”

He grinned. “There are no solar panels on that house.”

I punched his shoulder and he laughed. “I knew it! You liars.”

He unlocked the door and pulled me inside. “Your mom and you were clearly digging for information, so we had to throw you off the trail.”

I shook my head incredulously, staring at his tight nipples as they cut through the custom shirt. Reaching out, I ran my fingers down his abs, passing over the t-shirt fabric. “This is incredibly sexy and you should wear it every Saturday when you make me pancakes in bed.”

When my fingers reached the waistband of his jeans, I let them keep going, slipping inside his pants.

He grinned. “I’m burning it tomorrow, it was a one-time thing.”

I yanked my hand from his pants and pouted.

“Yes dear, whatever you say,” he amended and I laughed, pouncing on him.

I leapt up into the air and he caught me, hands around my ass as his back slammed into the wall. With a growl he threw his head back. “Woman, you’ll be the death of me.”

“Hope not.” I licked a line down his neck. “I like you alive.”

He moaned, walking forward a few steps and setting my ass down onto the kitchen counter. I reached down and yanked my shirt off in one quick move and then he leaned forward to suck my nipple through my mesh bra. You know that fake, quick, rough sex they always have in movies that you know isn’t real?

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Sawyer slipped his hand up my denim skirt, tucking my panties aside, and plunged a finger inside of me, causing me to gasp out in pleasure. With the same quick movements, I reached for him, unbuttoning and yanking his pants down before grasping his hard length in my hands.

He growled in my ear, pulling a condom out of thin air. “I need you.”

Of all the things he could have said, that’s what I wanted to hear. I wanted to be needed. I liked that so much of Sawyer was wrapped up in so much of me. Without even taking off my skirt, I scooted forward on the counter and he kept my panties pulled to the side as he plunged inside of me in one quick thrust.

“Fuck,” I gasped, threading my fingers through his hair and pulling hard. He leaned forward, taking my bottom lip into his mouth as I propped myself up on the kitchen counter and moved in rhythm with his thrusts. Delicious pleasure radiated through my entire body, making heat and wetness throb between my legs.

“Sawyer,” I moaned.

His tongue trailed down my neck as he pumped harder and my body tightened just before the explosion.

“Don’t ever leave me again,” he gasped desperately against my neck.

“Never again,” I promised as an orgasm ripped through my body and I cried out, Sawyer’s mouth on mine swallowing my sound.

I loved him with every fiber of my being. Nothing would ever break us apart again.

I was in a deep sleep when a hand clamped around my mouth. I tried to scream. My eyelids flicked open and I came face to face with a familiar set of searing blue-teal eyes.

Arrow.

He put his finger to his lips and the scream died in my throat. Then he peeled his hand away from my mouth and nodded toward the living room.

What. The. Fuck?

My heart pounded in my throat at the sight of him. Arrow. A Paladin wolf. Here. In my room. Where I slept next to the future alpha werewolf! If Sawyer or Eugene found him, they would kill him first and ask questions later.

With one glance at Sawyer to make sure he was still deep asleep, I slipped out of bed, grateful I was clothed, and hugged my arms around my chest, shaking the last vestiges of sleep from my mind. I closed the door behind me and pulled Arrow into my photography studio.

“You didn’t tell me you were the future alpha’s wife,” he said, looking around my studio. I swallowed hard, about to answer when he spoke again. “Or a Paladin.”

I froze and he spun to face me, a fierceness in his gaze that frightened me. “I can smell it on you now. Why wasn’t it there before? You smell like Run, and alpha, and home.” There was desire in his voice but not of a sexual nature. It was… something else. Something that was hard to explain. Like with Astra, like pack, like family.

“I was still figuring it all out for myself,” I told him honestly. “And you held a gun to the back of my head.”

His cheeks reddened and I wondered if he didn’t smell the Paladin on me because when I met him I was wearing the cuffs. When I met Astra, who could smell it on me, I wasn’t.

“My mom—”

He nodded. “The white girl Run loved. We all know the story. She got him killed.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he was right. If my mom hadn’t been with Run that day in the barn… he would still be alive, but that didn’t mean it was her fault.

“Why are you here? In my home.”

He tapped the blade at his waist. “Sometimes I run errands for the vampires, do what I have to in order to keep our people fed.” Guilt layered thickly over me at that, especially when he said our people. “They gave me a bounty. For you.”

The breath caught in my throat as my wolf surged to the surface, going semitransparent, and leapt in front of me immediately, before solidifying and giving Arrow a low, warning growl.

He watched in interest, but not shock at what my wolf could do, which meant he’d seen it before. On that girl my mom spoke about? The one who survived the fire?

“Relax,” he said calmly. “If you think I’m murdering my people’s last chance to claim an alpha, you’re crazy.”

My wolf relaxed and Arrow dropped to one knee, putting out his hand to her. She tentatively crept forward, sniffing his palm, and he pet her between the ears like you would a dog. She started to wag her tail for full effect.

‘Traitor.’

‘He’s nice. Smells like us.’

I sighed. “You weren’t surprised by her. Have you seen a split shifter before? My mom says Run told her about one.’

He nodded. “We had one for a bit… we call them wolf angels.”

Wolf angel. That was… beautiful and so much better than demon.

He said they had one… for a bit.

All hope that I had that she was still alive, evaporated. “Did they… kill her?” I asked. Maybe the vampires got her too.

Sadness pulled at his features as he frowned. “She… killed herself. Being hunted your entire life can wear on you, ya know?”

I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.

She killed herself. She would rather die than continue to be hunted. It was… a sobering reality I had never thought of. How many years could I live like this? Being kidnapped and then breaking free? Going to war over it…?

‘Don’t think about that,’ my wolf snapped.

“Is it true you saved Astra? You met her?” Arrow asked, breaking my depressing inner monologue.

“Yes, but she saved my friend first.”

“Then what the snakebite are you doing here?” he asked with a hiss, and I tried not to grin at his choice of cussword. “Come home. Each day we bleed magic. We need a leader to anchor our people to the land lest we become human. Don’t you care?”

What? Human?

“I… don’t know what you are talking about.”

Arrow sighed. “Paladin alpha raised with city wolves. Perfect.” He rubbed his temples.

“Paladin alpha raised with humans actually,” I corrected. “I grew up a banished wolf in Spokane, Washington.”

He groaned. “That’s worse. We will lose our wolves, our magic, our pride. Everything. Demi, we are over ten thousand strong. If we die, that’s on you!”

What? They would lose their wolves? Ten thousand… that was a ton… way more than Sawyer or anyone knew about, I was sure.

“I’m getting…” I held up my left hand and showed him the ring. “Married.”

He frowned. “You don’t understand. We are the last true werewolves. Magic runs through our veins. We can turn other people into werewolves by biting them. We claim our pack with pack bonds. We’re… real. Not like these fake and weak watered-down shifter wolves.” He gestured to the door where Sawyer slept.

“Be careful how you talk about those that I love,” I growled.

He sighed, shaking his head. “And what of us?” he growled. “Don’t you love us? We’re your real family. Astra is your pack. If what she says is true, you’ve already claimed her. That means you’ve already taken on your position as alpha. You must come home and prove yourself before our magic bleeds into the sky and we become worthless humans!”

Holy shit. Was he serious?

“That’s a lot to… digest,” I said, wondering what the hell I was going to do about it.

“Demi!” Sawyer’s voice called frantically from the bedroom, and Arrow started for the window of my office.

“Come home. Make Run proud. We need you.” Arrow, his eyes wide, looked at me for the first time with vulnerability.

“In my studio!” I called to Sawyer so he didn’t have a heart attack and go on a rampage.

“I’ll think about it…” I told Arrow. He leapt out onto the open window ledge and looked back at me.

“That man that saved you from your fall, that was your grandfather. Please tell me he didn’t die saving someone that was too selfish to help her people in a time of need.” Then he leapt out the window and took off running the second his feet hit the ground.

His words cut right into my chest, making my soul bleed. It was my grandfather, just as I expected.

“What are you doing?” Sawyer called from the doorway, and I froze. He would be able to smell the male in the room and I didn’t want to lie to him. Starting a marriage on a lie was sure to turn into a shitshow of a life.

I spun around, a tear slipping free from my cheek. Sawyer looked at my tear, the open window, and then my wolf, and gripped his heart. “Who was here? Tell me you aren’t cheating on me, Demi.” The broken vulnerability in his voice killed me.

“Ohmygod no!” I rushed forward and then plopped down at his feet and patted the ground next to me. Sawyer took a seat, watching me with a pale complexion and untrusting gaze. I didn’t blame him.

“Sawyer… my real dad… wasn’t just a Paladin,” I breathed.

His entire body clenched and he sniffed the air, no doubt smelling a male Paladin wolf.

“He was also the alpha.” I dropped the bomb and waited.

The poor guy had no idea it was coming. His entire face fell, mouth going slack. I swallowed hard. “I met a Paladin wolf named Arrow on my journey through Troll Village. He just came by to ask me to—”

“He was here in our house!” Sawyer stood, bolting from the room.

“Sawyer, wait!” I took off after him, yanking his arm.

“Demi, there could be more. They could be about to attack!” His hand was on the front doorknob to alert whatever guard stood outside this door.

“Sawyer, listen to me. I’m trying to tell you something important. The Paladins are my people, they aren’t going to attack us!”

He froze, body going limp at my words and he spun from the closed front door to face me with the most hurt expression I’d ever seen. “Your people? What does that make us?”

Fuck. This was not a position I wanted to be in. “You’re my person and Sage and your people are my people too.” I threaded my fingers through his hair and he closed his eyes. “I just have… a lot of people … and I don’t want to be forced to belong to one group. It doesn’t feel right.”

“What did he want?” he growled.

I sighed. “For me to go to the Paladin lands and… I dunno, be their alpha I guess. He said they needed me or their magic would die out.”

He barked out a laugh, but my glare stopped him.

“I’m sorry, Demi, go live in trees and tents and be alpha of the wild savages? No thank you.” He chuckled.

I frowned. “Have you ever even been to their land? Did Astra seem like a wild savage to you?”

He quieted. “Well, she didn’t seem normal, and no I’ve obviously never been to the traitors land who cursed my entire family.”

Shit, I’d forgotten about that. I winced.

“Well, maybe they’ve changed. Maybe they don’t curse anymore…” I offered, knowing I was fighting a losing battle. It was totally horrible that a Paladin witch wolf, or whatever, had cursed his line and he’d had to live with the consequences.

Sawyer threaded his fingers through mine. “My darling, if you want to be an alpha, then you can lead here by my side. You say the word and you can be however involved in leadership as you want. You want to be on my war team? Granted. You want to start making the budget for next year? Done. But I need you here. With me. With your parents. Sage. Our people.”

He was right. This was a stupid weird midnight intrusion. What was I going to do, run off into the woods and leave my fiancé, my parents, my best friend? No way.

Arrow was trippin’ if he thought that, and why come in the middle of the night with a knife on his belt after he admitted to being sent by the vampires? Maybe he was dangerous to me…

But even though I wanted to think he might be an enemy and put his plight out of my mind, I knew that couldn’t be true. No… he would never hurt me. He’d gotten in my apartment where I slept with round-the-clock security. If he wanted to kill me, he would have.

“How did he get in here?” Sawyer went to the front door and pulled it open.

Our eyes fell to Walsh, passed out on the floor with some type of tranquilizer dart in his neck. Red and black feathers protruded from the end of the dart. It looked homemade.

“Savages,” Sawyer growled.

I ignored the insult. I knew he was just pissed Arrow got one up on his friend. We pulled the dart from his neck and then dragged Walsh into the living room, heaving him up onto the couch. Then Sawyer called in a replacement guard and we went back to bed.

What a night. Not how I wanted to tell Sawyer my deep dark secret. Not on the day after he proposed to me! We both lay there for an hour staring at the ceiling wide awake, that unsaid elephant hanging in the room.

I was a Paladin alpha.

Fuck.

The next few days, Sawyer and I tried to pretend Arrow never showed up and that I hadn’t dropped the alpha bomb on him. Instead we planned for our very public, very giant, engagement party. Wolves were invited from around the entire city. My parents were guests of honor, which was going to be awkward as fuck. The last time my mom and dad had to see Curt Hudson was after he banished them. Sawyer wanted everyone who attended to know that they were forgiven, and the guest of honor position did that politically… I guess. I was still learning to be a political sleuth. It didn’t suit me, but I knew it was my future.

“It has to be classy but sexy. Think of yourself like the first lady,” Sage said as we roamed the mall looking for an engagement dress for myself for tonight. Yes, I was waiting until the last minute. Walsh and Eugene trailed behind us at a ten-foot pace because Sage was off duty and on bestie detail.

“I will not! Gross,” I told her. “I’m the future alpha’s wife. No big deal.” I gulped.

She laughed and laughed some more until I elbowed her in the ribs.

As we stepped into another dress shop, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I suddenly had the strangest feeling I was being watched.

Glancing over my shoulder, I looked at Walsh and Eugene, and scanned the area around them. Nothing out of the ordinary. Hmm.

“I’m thinking black. It’s classic,” I told Sage.

She shrugged. “It’s also boring. What about deep blue? Oh, or red!” She ran to a floor-length red gown with see-through side panels and stroked her fingers over the fabric.

I shook my head. “Red says I’m a siren who has entrapped your future alpha and I intend to be a conniving bitch through his entire reign.”

Sage’s eyes bugged out. “Wow, tell me how you really feel.”

I grinned and stepped over to trail my fingers across a pale blue number. It was a muted color, but something about it reminded me of Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe; it was a classic color. I pulled it out and inspected the design. The upper bodice was a tight corset style, only belling out into a flare at the knees like a mermaid. From the knees down were tiny sewn in crystals.

“Oh, Dem, it’s gorgeous.” Sage ran her finger over the small satin bow under the bust.

I grinned. “I love it.” Pulling the tag out, I glanced at the price and my eyes fell out of my head.

“I hate it. Let’s go to another store.” I went to hang it back up.

Five grand, for an engagement dress. Were they insane?

Sage pulled the tag from my hands and looked at it, rolling her eyes. “My sweet sixteen dress was more than this. It’s totally fine.”

My mouth dropped open. “Sage, that’s obscene. That’s someone’s monthly salary.”

She pulled out her phone and hit a few buttons.

I panicked. “No. What are you doing?” Sage was a loose cannon; I never knew what she was going to do.

“Hey, Cuz,” Sage purred into the phone and my whole body went rigid. “Demi is scared to buy her dream dress for tonight because it’s five grand.”

I punched her in the arm, hard, and she winced before handing me the phone.

“You asshole,” I mouthed to her, but she simply held the dress over her body and began to spin around the room with it as she ignored me.

“Hello…” I gulped, pressing the phone to my ear.

“I love that you’re economical,” Sawyer said, “but I plan on only getting married once, so let’s go big or go home with this, okay, love?”

“I mean, I guess if there is any time to go big or go home, it’s with your wedding to a millionaire.” I laughed nervously into the phone. I hated talking about money. It felt weird when I stopped to think of all the stuff Sawyer bought me and how much it might cost.

“Billionaire. But yes, get the dress, okay? Can’t wait to see you in it.”

Billionaire. My eyes bugged and I mentally stumbled over his words. I mean I had seen Hudson on everything since I got here. Hudson hospital, Hudson laboratories, Hudson pharmaceuticals but… billionaire? I shook my head.

“Kay,” I squeaked into the phone and ended the call. “Low blow,” I called at Sage and chucked the phone at her. She caught it in mid-air and then laughed.

“Try it on.” She shoved the pretty dress at me and I conceded.

After slipping the dress on, it was like the fashion angels sang as I walked out to model for Sage. It fit like a glove and I felt so beautiful.

Sage’s mouth dropped open at the sight of me. “Holy shit. You have to wear heels with it.”

I shook my head. “Sawyer said yesterday not to get shoes, that he got some for me.”

Her face screwed up. “That’s dangerous. If they are hideous you will have to pretend you love them.”

I grinned, about to retort when I felt something… that weird feeling I was being watched again. It was a pull on my energy that I couldn’t explain, yet it felt familiar, so I was just left feeling confused.

“What’s wrong?” Sage must have noticed my face.

I swallowed hard. “Nothing.” I stepped into the dressing room and quickly changed, then paid for the dress with Sawyer’s credit card. I wanted to be happy. Tonight was my big night, but I felt this pit in my stomach, a sickening feeling that was mixed with loneliness. I felt fine before we got to the mall, but now my emotions were all weird and depressing.

What the hell?

I was about to question my sanity, when we stepped out of the store and Astra leaped into view. “Alpha.” Her voice shook as she sprang in front of me.

My heart jackknifed in my chest at the sight of the tiny Paladin wolf on Werewolf City land.

Eugene stepped forward, springing into action from across the mall, but Walsh stopped him, looking at me.

I shook my head, and then waved them off. “Sage, can you give us a moment?” I handed her my dress and she looked confusedly at Astra, nodding.

Why was she here?

The small wolf girl looked dirty, sick, confused. She had dark circles under her eyes and a network of red scars across her face; her skin was pale and covered with dirt. There were even a few twigs in her hair. A protective need surged up inside of me.

“What happened to you?” I grasped her shoulders and pulled her aside.

Had she tried to heal someone again and only taken on the illness herself?

That sick lonely feeling I’d felt in the dressing room fled me then and a resolute calm washed over me as she sighed in relief. It took me a moment to realize I hadn’t been feeling my own feelings, I’d been feeling hers!

“Alpha. I need you,” she whispered.

I frowned at her. She looked like she was in rough shape, and although she insisted on calling me that name that I hated, I didn’t want her to suffer.

“What happened? How can I help you? Do you need some food? Medical care?” I gestured to the food court. She looked skinnier since I’d last seen her if that were possible. It had only been a few weeks. Had someone been starving her? Anger surged within me at the thought.

Her bottom lip quivered. “Alpha. Come home. Please.”

Fuck. Not this again. My heart tightened in my chest until it felt like I couldn’t breathe. “Did Arrow send you?”

She swallowed hard. “Arrow is off trying to make money so we can trade for food and blankets and all the things we need.”

What the what did she just say? “You all need food?” Did all of the Paladins look like this? Had Arrow looked skinnier last time I’d seen him? I had been half asleep and hadn’t noticed, and he’d been clothed this time.

Astra placed one hand on each side of my face, and I saw Walsh, Eugene, and Sage press in closer to me, hands on their weapons.

“When will you understand? We. Need. You.” Her voice cracked and the spots where her fingers touched my face started to tingle. “The magic that makes our people special is tied to you. Come. Home. Now.” She growled the last word and I knew it was asking a lot of her. She was the most submissive wolf I’d ever met, and yet she stared into my eyes, holding eye contact, and it burned right through to my soul.

I swallowed hard, staring back as tears threatened to spill over, a thousand thoughts flashing through my mind. I had to help them. How could I not? I mean, they were people and they were suffering… but Sawyer… my love, my fiancé that I was marrying… I couldn’t just leave this whole world to go live in the fucking jungle with his sworn enemy.

She broke eye contact, looking away from me and at the surrounding mall. “You’re not coming.” There was disappointment in her voice, finality.

“I’m going to help you,” I assured her. “You remember that place we came through the Wild Lands wall into Werewolf City a few weeks ago?”

She nodded, but her shoulders drooped like she’d lost all hope.

“Go there with some of your people. Bring wheelbarrows or horses or whatever, because I’m going to have a bunch of food sent there.”

She frowned, looking utterly destroyed. “Okay, Alpha.”

Fuck. Why did the disappointment in her voice tear into my heart?

“Food is good. You need food, right? Oh, and blankets.” I snapped my fingers. “I’ll send both… okay?”

Her little mousy brown hair formed a curtain around her face. She nodded, making it shake, then her chin snapped up and her blue-eyed gaze held mine. “Arrow was right. The city has poisoned the heir of Running Spirit, granddaughter of Red Moon.” She spat the words at my face, and then burst into tears, running off through the mall.

“Astra!” I shouted, taking off after her and then stopping. What was the use?

How did I get to this point? A few months ago I was a banished wolf living in the human world, and now I had a giant rock on my finger, engaged to the alpha’s son.

“What was that about?” Sage asked.

I blew air through my teeth. “Can I borrow your phone? I need to call Sawyer.”

She nodded and handed me the phone. Sitting on the bench in front of the fancy dress store, I rang my future husband and prayed he would be kind to a people I knew deep down he’d grown up hating.

He picked up on the first ring. “My answer is yes. Buy that beautiful woman whatever she wants.” Sawyer obviously thought it was Sage calling.

“Hey…” My voice cracked. I could have used our bond for this, but that felt weird. I’d rather talk it out and not internally jump on him.

He picked up on my mood immediately. “What’s wrong?”

I sighed. “Remember the little healer Paladin that saved Walsh’s life?”

Yes, I was reminding him of that fact in the hopes it would butter him up.

“Don’t tell me she’s in my house too?” he growled.

I winced. “No… just your mall.”

“What now?” he asked.

“Sawyer, they’re starving. The Paladins. She looked… like skin and bones. Sick. They need food and blankets. Something about their alpha dying has sickened their land or something. I don’t know, but we can help them, right?”

He was silent for a long moment. Too long. So long that I had to pull the phone back and look at the screen to make sure the call hadn’t ended.

“The entire reason there is a mating year and you had to date me with fifty other women is because of the Paladin wolves, you understand that, right? They cursed my family so horribly that we are all at risk of death every time we choose a wife!” He growled the last word and I knew it wasn’t anger at me but at them.

I nodded. “I understand, and I’m… asking you to forgive them. Extend this olive branch. Send some rice and smoked meat and clothing and do the right thing.”

“How many people need to be fed?” His voice was laced with annoyance, but underneath it, I heard a small hint of compassion.

Arrow had said they had over ten thousand the other night, but I knew that figure would shock the shit out of Sawyer and also might make him fearful to keep them alive, because I was pretty sure he had no idea there were that many of them.

“A couple thousand,” is all I said.

Silence again. “You know this isn’t just up to me? I can do a lot without my father’s input, but sending thousands of pounds of food to our sworn enemy is not one of them.”

Shit. “But he hates them even more than you do. He’ll let them starve!” I yelled into the phone. After what my mom was caught doing with Run during Curt’s mating year, he would never throw the Paladins a kindness.

“This is asking a lot, Demi. When do they need the supplies by?”

I swallowed hard, thinking of how thin she looked. “Tonight. Now.”

He sighed. “I’ll call and ask my father and then call you right back.”

I didn’t want this to be a strain on our relationship, but I didn’t see how I could let an entire people starve and not ask my fiancé for help when I knew he could give it. “Thank you. Oh, and Sawyer.”

“Yes, Demi?”

“That Paladin wolf at the base of Waterfall Mountain who died trying to help me… that was the Paladin alpha, my grandfather. I’m here, right now, marrying you… because of him.”

I was going to layer this guilt trip really thick.

Sawyer sighed. “Got it. I’ll do my best to convince my father.”

“I love you,” I told him.

“I love you too, Demi, most of all your giant heart.” Then he hung up.

I sat there for ten minutes, telling Sage what Astra said and bopping my foot up and down waiting for Sawyer’s call.

“She did look ill,” Sage commented, frowning.

I nodded, wondering what I would do if Curt said no. Before I could think on it, the phone rang.

“Hey.” I picked up quickly.

“I’m sorry, Demi. He said no. But next year I’ll be alpha and then—”

“No?” I stood, shock rushing through me.

He breathed into the phone. “He hates them, Demi. He said they could starve to death and die for all he cared. I tried to explain that politically it would be good to do the Paladins a favor, but—”

“Let them starve?” My voice went into a high-pitched shrill range.

“Demi, our engagement party is in four hours. You need to focus on—”

“I’ll see you at the hotel.” I hung up and turned to Sage as anger at my future father-in-law rolled through me.

“Take me to the alpha.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“You heard me. I need to speak to my future father-in-law. Now.”

“Uhhh, I don’t know where he is. He could be in his office, or at a meeting, or—”

I sped across the mall to where Eugene and Walsh were watching me with concern. “Where is the alpha right now?” I asked Eugene. “I need to speak with him, and I know you have his schedule.”

His eyes narrowed. “He’s busy getting things ready for your engagement party.”

“Where? At the hotel, then?” I asked.

“Demi, what’s this about?” Eugene looked worried for me, and I hated that I had to play coy, but I wasn’t sure how many people I should drop the Paladin alpha bomb on.

I shifted my stance. “I just need a word with my future father-in-law. It’s a surprise for his son.”

He checked his phone, tapping something out. It dinged with a response.

“He’ll see you. Come on.” Eugene started to walk away out of the mall and into the parking lot where my Range Rover was parked, next to an identical one that Sage and Walsh drove.

So he texted him? And he said he would see me? Under the grounds that this was a surprise for Sawyer? Surely he wouldn’t have believed that after Sawyer just called him and made my request.

I guess I was about to find out.