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“What do you mean our dad is forcing you to get married?” My question came out louder than I’d meant for it to, my voice echoing all around us. I only hoped it wasn’t loud enough for the wolves that had been chasing after me to overhear. The last thing we needed was for them to drop down into the hole with us.
“Happy wedding day to me?” Zoe let out a nervous laugh and motioned to the white dress she was wearing.
It was the first time I’d noticed it since I’d fallen into the hole with her. It was hard to make it out clearly in the dark, but it didn’t appear to be anything fancy or frilly – just a plain dress that fell just above her ankles. It didn’t exactly scream “wedding,” aside from the fact that it was ivory in color.
“How could you keep this a secret from me?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her and putting my hands on my hips.
Zoe bit down on her lower lip. “I didn’t want to keep it a secret from you. I even tried not to. Remember when I called you when I was at camp and told you I had to talk to you?”
“Yeah, how could I forget? You never called me back.” I shot dagger eyes in her direction, unable to hide my annoyance with her. I was going to be pissed if she tried to pin this on me and make it seem like it was my fault for not answering the phone, the one and only time she’d actually tried to contact me.
“Yeah, well... the reason I didn’t call you back isn’t because I didn’t want to. It’s because I couldn’t. Demetrius threatened me.” She paused, her chin shaking as she swallowed hard. “He told me if I told you what was going on, he would hurt Mom. I couldn’t risk her life just to tell you.”
I probably should’ve known Demetrius would threaten her with something like that. I barely knew the man, but I could already tell it was his style. “How did he even get in touch with you in the first place?”
“He found me while I was away at camp.”
“How did he find you there?” Of course, he’d found me pretty easily, but it wasn’t like I’d made it too hard for him. I hadn’t even left Cedar Falls.
Not that it should’ve been surprising that he’d found Zoe, too. He was a powerful Alpha. He probably had connections all over the place, connections that would lead him right to us, no matter where we were. How many pairs of eyes had he had on us? How long had they been watching? It was a scary thing to think about.
“I have no idea how he found me. All I know is that he did. I was out in the woods hanging out with a few kids from camp one night. We were drinking and—”
My eyebrows shot up. “You were drinking? Since when do you drink?”
It may have been irrelevant, but drinking was really out of character for my sister. This was the girl who had spent her entire life battling for the highest GPA in her class. She’d gone away to a camp that was supposed to be preparing her for pre-med school and suddenly she drank for possibly the first time in her life?
Then again, maybe I didn’t really know my sister as well as I thought I did. We’d always been really close. Our whole lives, we’d told each other everything... until lately. I never would’ve thought she could be capable of keeping a secret as big as a wedding from me, even if Demetrius had threatened our mom. It was something I would’ve expected her to tell me and our mom.
“I may have had a beer or two.” Zoe shrugged. “That’s really not the important part right now. I was out in the woods with my friends and this guy who I’d never seen before in my life comes up to me and tells me he’s our dad.”
“And you just believed him?” I eyed her curiously. It wasn’t like my sister to just take someone’s word without putting them through some sort of interrogation. She lived for interrogations.
“How could I not? He looks just like me.”
Well, I couldn’t deny that. “Yeah, he has your eyes.”
“Yeah, it’s like looking at them in a mirror.” She paused and then added, “It’s not like he really wanted to talk to me, anyway. He told me you were the one he was really looking for.”
“He was looking for me?” I wasn’t sure why, but that really surprised me. Why would he have wanted to talk to me?
“Yes, for you,” Zoe replied exasperatedly, her eyes meeting mine. “There’s something I need to tell you about me, Camryn. I know it’s going to be really hard for you to believe this, but I swear it’s true.” She swallowed hard and glanced away, the same way she always did when she was guilty of something. “I’m a werewolf.”
“How do you know?” I was unable to hide the curiosity from my voice. Ever since I’d learned the truth about my bloodline, I’d been wondering if I was a werewolf, too. But I wasn’t really sure how I would be able to tell.
“It becomes pretty clear when you change into a wolf in the middle of the night.”
There was a sarcastic edge to her voice that made me cringe a little. It was almost like she thought the answer should’ve been obvious, but how was I supposed to know? It wasn’t like I’d turned into a werewolf lately. I didn’t have that sort of luck.
“How long have you been keeping this secret from me?” I asked.
“I changed for the first time during my first week away at camp. It was the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me, and I was so far away from home.” Her green eyes glossed over with tears, which she quickly blinked away. “I wanted to call you and tell you, but... I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me. This whole thing just sounds so crazy. If it hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t have believed me.” She glanced over at me as a realization seemed to hit her. “Wait...Why do you believe me?”
“Because Jax is a werewolf, too,” I replied with a shrug. As I said his name, it felt like someone had just pushed a shard of glass through my heart.
See, Jax was my mate... sort of. Our bodies had begun the soul-binding process, and as a result, we both felt an intense physical pain any time we were separated from one another. The last time we’d been apart, it felt like I had the worst flu of my life. But this time was different.
My heart hurt... literally.
I needed Jax.
How foolish had I been to think I could just leave him behind at the compound? There was no way my body would’ve been able to handle that sort of separation. I wasn’t sure how much separation it would take to kill me, but I fully believed it was possible.
“I knew something about that guy wasn’t right.” My sister shook her head frustratedly.
“You do realize that you’re both werewolves, which means that you’re just like him, right?” I glared at her. Seriously, who was she to judge Jax for being the same exact thing she was? It wasn’t even fair of her. I’d never known my sister to be such a hypocrite.
“No, we’re different, Camryn,” Zoe insisted quietly. “I’m a good werewolf.”
“Yeah, and so is Jax.”
“How can you say that when you barely even know the guy?” She glanced over at me sharply. “The last time we spoke, you couldn’t even tell me his last name.”
“Well, I know his last name now. It’s Sherwood, in case you’re wondering,” I replied through gritted teeth, trying not to let my anger take over. The last thing I needed right now was to be trapped inside a hole with my werewolf sister, who apparently wanted to smack talk my mate. Not that she knew he was my mate, or that just being away from him felt like it was enough to kill me, but still. She knew that I liked him and that we’d been spending a lot of time together, so it was really nervy of her. “You can say whatever you want about him, but I know that he’s a good guy.”
“Don’t forget that there’s a chance he could still be the one who killed Isaac,” Zoe pointed out.
“He didn’t kill him.” He’d only buried the body.
Of course, I was going to keep that last part to myself. If my sister knew, she would never let me hear the end of it. I wasn’t about to give her that sort of satisfaction, especially when I knew Jax’s intentions had been good. Isaac deserved a proper burial.
“Okay, whatever. I’m not going to argue with you right now – not while we’re stuck inside this booby trap.”
“At least we can agree on something,” I muttered under my breath.
Ignoring my comment, Zoe motioned to the dirt walls around us. “Who do you think even dug this hole, anyway?”
“Someone who wants to make sure no one roams the grounds of the compounds, I guess.” I shrugged. “My bet is on Demetrious. It seems like something he would do. He’s really shady.”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Zoe muttered under her breath. “Though I doubt Demetrius did it himself. He wouldn’t want to get his hands dirty. He probably had one of his minions do it.”
“True story. Why was he looking for me when he found you at camp, anyway?” I asked, realizing that she hadn’t mentioned the reason.
“So, there’s this guy, Salvatore LaTorre—”
“The guy whose name is on the wedding invitation,” I recalled.
“Yes. Well, he’s one of the guys in our father’s pack. He comes from a really powerful line of wolves, so as you can imagine, everyone thinks he’s going to be really powerful, too. So, since we come from the most powerful line of wolves, Demetrius promised him one of his daughters’ hands in marriage.” She met my gaze. “But you were the one who was actually promised.”
“Me? Why me?” I stared at her in awe, wondering why anyone would choose to marry me off instead of my sister.
It wasn’t like I had anything to offer over her. She was smart, well-rounded, and driven, and me? Well, I was just me. I was just average – the type of girl who no one ever looked at twice.
Well, except for Jax. And, really, he was the only one who mattered.
Zoe shrugged. “Demetrius showed Salvatore a picture of both of us. He said he wanted to marry you.”
“Well, this guy must be blind then. You’re prettier than me.”
“That’s not true,” my sister insisted.
“Whatever,” I mumbled, deciding not to argue again. And then I realized what we were arguing about was ridiculous. “In any case, if he wanted to marry me, then why are you the one who’s wearing the wedding dress right now?”
“Because I made a sacrifice for you, Camryn.” She rolled her eyes. “I told Demetrius I would marry Salvatore so you wouldn’t have to.”
“And this Salvatore guy just went along with that?” I stared at her, wide-eyed.
“He wasn’t exactly happy about it, but he was agreeable. I guess he felt like any Evans bride is better than no Evans bride.” She shrugged her small shoulders.
“Why would you do something like that for me?” I just stared at her, unable to make sense of it. She was supposed to be off at pre-med camp, preparing to become a neurosurgeon. She wasn’t supposed to be marrying some potentially deranged werewolf so that her little sister wouldn’t have to. The whole thing was entirely out of character for her.
Apparently, when my sister started having a beer or two at camp, all of her common sense went straight out the window.
“Because I couldn’t let you do it,” Zoe insisted. “You’re not even eighteen yet.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just because you are doesn’t mean you’re actually an adult.”
“Yeah, well it doesn’t matter,” she replied, “because I have a plan.”
“What type of plan?” I raised my eyebrows at her doubtfully.
“A plan to get us both out of this mess.” She opened her mouth to say something else when a stream of dirt began to pour down around us.
“Oh, shit,” a voice yelped from above us.
I held my breath as I watched a dark figure fall into the hole with us.