“Ryan and Finn were way too cool for us.” Jackie took a long sip of her coffee. “But evidently, they aren’t anymore.”
“We were never too cool for them. We just had different friends.” I didn’t want to seem like a total jerk. But maybe I was. It didn’t matter anymore anyway.
“Sure. That’s what it was.” Jackie leaned back in her chair. “Whatever Ryan Grayson says. He is god after all.”
“Don’t.” Nadia glared at Jackie.
“What? You hang out with Grayson once, and now all is forgiven?”
“What is there to forgive?” I looked at Jackie. “Maybe I wasn’t the friendliest to you guys before, but did I ever do anything to piss you off?”
“It’s more how you move through life. You act as though you’re above everything and everyone else.”
“I do not.” Anger surged through me.
“It kind of is.” Finn shrugged. “No offense.”
Jackie laughed. “Wow, Finn. I didn’t expect that.”
“Why not?” Finn appeared legitimately perplexed by her response. “I usually say it how it is.”
“I picked an interesting table to sit at.” Justine leaned an elbow on the table.
“Oh, it’s about to get more interesting,” Nadia mumbled.
I followed her gaze to see Dameon and North walking over. They took seats next to Justine.
“Hi, I’m Dameon.” He held out his hand to her. “I don’t believe we had the chance to meet yesterday.”
“Hi. Justine.”
“How’d you end up with this lot?” North asked. “I’m North by the way. Nadia’s brother.”
“They’re twins,” Dameon supplied.
“Twins?” Justine looked between us. “Wow. That’s rar—”
Nadia cut her off. “Rare. Yes. We know.”
“Sorry.” Justine gave a sheepish smile. “I guess you hear that a lot?”
“All the time. It’s fine.” North shrugged.
“And what’s your secret, Justine?” Dameon picked up a slice of bacon and took a bite.
“My secret?” Justine put a hand to her chest. “I don’t have any secrets.”
“Everyone has a secret. Usually way more than one. The question is, what kind it is.”
“I don’t have any secrets.” Justine spread jam on a bagel. “But maybe the rest of you do.”
“They do.” Dameon leaned back in his chair.
“Is that so?” I sipped my coffee. “And I’m sure you have secrets too.”
“Of course.” Dameon’s eyes seemed to twinkle. “I already told you; everyone has secrets.”
“So what are your secrets?” Nadia pushed her food around her plate. “Since you were so eager for Justine to spill hers.”
“I’ll share my secrets if you show up where I asked you to last night.” Dameon smiled at her.
I tried to catch Nadia’s eye, but she looked away. There was no way she was going anywhere alone with Dameon. It was bad enough she’d had to go into that guy’s room alone—when he was in his damn underwear.
Jackie clapped her hands. “This is almost too much. First, you’re buddy-buddy with Ryan Grayson. Now, you’ve got secret meetings with this guy. Nadia, you little minx, you.”
Nadia shot Jackie the evil eye. “Are you done?”
“Just saying it like it is. I’m sure North agrees.” Jackie nodded toward North.
North frowned. “I’m more concerned with Grayson’s newfound interest in my sister.”
“With me?” He had to be kidding. “You’re really going to sit here and say you’re more worried about me than him?” I pointed at Dameon. “That’s preposterous.”
“Why?” Dameon turned his seat slightly so he was looking in my direction. “How am I any more dangerous than you are? In fact, she was alone with me in my room for quite some time last night and emerged unscathed.”
“You were what?” Jackie’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you mention those details?”
“Why do you think I didn’t?” Nadia’s entire body was tense. “Because of this. Who wants to sit here and listen to this?” Nadia gripped her tray.
“I’m just kidding.” Jackie laughed. “You seem way higher strung than normal.”
High strung? Her best friend was putting her through the meat grinder. I really didn’t remember Jackie being this mean. But then again, I hadn’t spent much time around her before now. “I think Nadia is behaving perfectly fine.”
Nadia rewarded me with the barest hint of a smile. “I need to get ready for class.”
“I’ll come with you. I have Moon Phases first. What about you?” Maybe I’d get lucky and we’d have a few classes together.
Lucky? Classes together?
I really was losing it. It was because we needed to figure out who Dameon was. Nope. That was bullshit, and I knew it.
“I’m in that class as well.” Nadia stood up and grabbed her tray.
I did the same. “See you guys later.” I ignored the look I was getting from Finn. I needed to talk to Nadia, and I planned to do it any way I could.
“You okay?” I waited until we were outside the dining hall to ask her. Wolves had good hearing.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?” She pushed her hands into the front pockets of her skirt.
“Because your best friend is a bitch.” Might as well call it what it was.
“Wow.” Her eyes roamed my face, as if searching for a joke. “That’s pretty harsh.”
“Really?” I thought my assessment was a good one. “You’re disagreeing?”
“She’s not usually like that.”
“So, it’s not just my hazy memory. Something is off.” From what I could tell, something major was off with Jackie, but maybe she just had a crappy summer.
“Maybe.” Nadia shrugged. “Or maybe I'm more sensitive. I don’t know.”
“This has nothing to do with being sensitive. Don’t even go there.” I didn’t know why it was so damn important to me that she not shrug this off. I guess I felt protective of her. Which was insane. Why was I feeling protective of Nadia Hazel?
“Okay…” Nadia seemed just as confused by my behavior as I was.
“So, what was that about meeting Dameon again?” We needed to make a plan. I wanted to be pissed I hadn’t heard about this from her, but I’d barely seen her that morning.
“He claims he has something to show me.”
“I got that much from the conversation, but when and where? And you know you aren’t doing it yourself.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Oh, I’m not, am I? Because you can tell me what to do now?”
Yes, yes, I could. Because I couldn’t sit back and let her do something stupid. But that wasn’t the kind of thing she wanted to hear. “I’m just trying to make sure you don’t wind up dead. That okay with you?”
“How about I worry about keeping myself alive, and you worry about how to make sure I don’t get caught shifting again when I go.”
“Oh, is that it? You’ll use my help for something like that, but I’m not supposed to worry about you?”
“Why do you care what happens to me anyway?” Nadia stopped a few feet from the door to the dorms. “I mean I get you wanting answers last night. I get you not wanting me to get caught so I can’t squeal on you. But apart from all that, why do you care in the slightest?”
“Like I should know?” I had no idea how to answer her. I wished I did. “But does it really matter? I don’t want you dying. Is that a bad thing?”
“It’s not a bad thing, but it’s an unnecessary thing.” She slipped a finger through a belt loop on her skirt.
“It’s unnecessary that you don’t die?” I didn’t let my thoughts go to how much I wanted to slip my hand underneath her skirt. “That’s a bit harsh.”
“You know what I mean. I can take care of myself.”
“And I don’t doubt that—most of the time—but we don't know who Dameon really is, or what he wants.”
“Do we ever re
ally know who anyone is, or what they want?” She eyed a group of girls walking toward us. She stepped off to the side to give them space to pass.
“No.” I waited until the girls disappeared inside to answer. “No, we don’t. But there are some people we can trust.”
“Until you can’t.” There was a hollowness to her voice, a sadness I wished I could make disappear.
“Are you talking about Jackie or North?” I assumed she meant them. “Or both?”
“I’m not talking about anyone or anything in particular. I’m just talking. We should go get ready for class.”
“We don’t want to be late for Moon Phases.” I grinned. “Very serious material.”
She smiled. “It might be interesting.”
“Even though I am positive you already know everything the professor is going to teach.” Maybe I hadn’t taken the time to really get to know Nadia before, but I did know she was smart. Seriously smart.
“Not true.”
“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow. “Is there a single thing about the phases of the moon that you don’t already know?”
“It’s impossible to know everything there is to know about a topic.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“But you can know a lot.”
“And you know a lot about moon phases too.” She gave me a knowing look. “So, don’t pretend otherwise.”
“Am I pretending?”
“You tend to pretend a lot. It’s like you don’t want people to know you’re smart.” Her gaze was pointed.
“For a girl that’s never gone to school with me, you’re inferring a lot.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. You’re just going to have to wait and see.”
“I’m not falling for that.”
“Falling for what?”
“The teasing.” She headed toward the door. “I couldn’t care less about it. I’m not into you.”
“You are into me. I smelled your—”
She stopped short and spun back to look at me. “Yes, I got turned on by a naked man. Is that all that shocking for an eighteen-year-old girl? We all know you’re quite the physical specimen. It was only natural for me to feel that way, but does that mean I am into you? No. I had the exact same reaction to seeing Dameon in his underwear.”
My wolf growled. “But nothing happened.”
“Would it matter if it did? You don’t seem to understand that what I do, say, or feel is none of your business.”
“We’re in this together now, so it’s most definitely my business.” It went far beyond figuring out who Dameon was, but I wasn’t admitting that.
“How can we be in anything together if we don’t know what it is?” she shot back.
“Because we know it’s something, and that’s all that matters.”
“That doesn't make logical sense.”
“Not everything is logical.” I walked past her. “Come on. Aren’t you the one worried we’ll be late for class?”
Nadia
I waited at the edge of the woods, silently cursing myself for getting involved in this stupidity in the first place. What was the point? If North wanted to get himself into a mess, that was his right. Just because I was his sister, it didn’t mean it was my job to keep him out of trouble. Just like it wasn’t his job to worry about what boys I got involved with. Not that I planned to get involved with any boys. Especially not Ryan Grayson. I certainly didn’t want to go there. He ate girls like me for breakfast. It didn’t take going to school with him to know his reputation—or that of his brothers. They were all notorious playboys, and Ryan was no exception.
It was not that I hated Ryan; it was more that we existed on different planes. Neither better nor worse than the other, but certainly not meant to orbit the same path.
But this was no time to think about Ryan. This was the time to stay focused and figure out exactly what Dameon was doing.
Yet, I couldn’t shake my worry about North. It’s not that we’d been close for years, but at least when we lived at home we’d talked. We barely communicated now. I’d gone back and forth all week over whether to go or not. I’d been so focused on the decision I’d barely listened to my lectures. Ultimately I’d known I had to show up.
It was still hot out even though it was after nine. That was typical of early September in the deep south. Yet I still wished there was some sort of breeze. I was hot in my t-shirt and shorts. I’d long since changed out of my uniform, but I didn’t want to shift too early. For all I knew, Dameon was trying to get me in trouble. So instead, I waited. I knew Ryan was watching from somewhere. I’d convinced him to keep his distance, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t close. He probably hadn’t listened to me. I’d seen the reservation in his eyes. I tried not to let it bother me that his eyes were locked on me somehow, watching. That was nothing compared to everything else.
Footsteps sounded, and I tensed. A familiar scent floated to my nose. My muscles loosened as North walked toward me. I flashed him a look. “What? You knew I wasn’t letting you go alone.”
He was right, but I thought he’d try to hide it better. It wasn’t his style to come right out and show me where he was. Usually, he’d drive me insane by making me find him.
“What happened to trusting Dameon?” I asked.
“I do trust him, in theory. That doesn't mean I want you running alone with him.”
I didn’t want to admit it, but I was glad North was here. I didn’t trust Dameon either. “Okay.”
“You could say thank you.” North rolled up the cuffs of his shirt. He hadn’t changed out of his uniform. That wasn’t surprising either. North liked to keep things formal. The uniform was probably his favorite part of Lunar Academy.
“And why would I say that?”
“Because you didn’t want to do this alone, and you knew you couldn’t bring Ryan. I’m surprised you didn’t bring Jackie though.”
“I haven’t seen her since lunch.” I thought for a brief moment at how odd that was. Granted, we didn’t have any classes together, but I still hadn’t even seen her in passing. That had largely been how things had worked for us since the semester started. I hoped that would eventually change.
“What happened to her this summer?” North once again made me think of a conversation with Ryan. Were the two more alike than I thought, or was my life really that narrowly focused?
“What do you mean?” Did North know something I didn’t, or was he fishing for information? My brother wasn’t the type to bring stuff up unless it was for a reason. He didn’t like wasting words.
“Come on. Something is up. She’s even more of a bitch than normal.”
“She’s usually not a bitch.” Okay. This was essentially the same conversation I’d had with Ryan. I already knew something was off with her, but then again, she thought something was off with me since I was spending my time with Ryan and Dameon.
“Yet, she is right now. See? Even you admit it.”
“She’s been bitchy.” Thankfully that first breakfast was the worst of it though when she’d Implied I was sleeping around. I couldn’t even rationalize that one away. “I readily admit to that.”
“Something is up, and you’ve known Jackie forever. Shouldn't this concern you more?”
“Since when do you care about Jackie? It’s not like she’s your friend.” I wouldn’t have used the term enemies to describe them, but there was definitely a heavy dose of friction between them. It was probably normal. Most people didn’t love their sibling’s best friends.
“But she’s your friend, which means I have a vested interest in making sure she doesn't go off the deep end and take you with her.”
“I won’t go off the deep end.” I had my flaws—we all did—but my mental health was strong.
“Yet, you’re hanging out with Ryan Grayson.”
“So? And Jackie has nothing to do with that.” Not to mention that Ryan wasn’t dangerous or any part of the issue at hand. “Quit trying to pull Ryan
into everything.” Yes, a few days before, I wouldn’t have believed I’d be spending time with him, but that didn’t mean it was a bad thing.
“You have to admit it’s weird.” North glanced around us. “Really weird.”
“Why?” I lifted my long hair off my back to cool off. “Why is it weird that I’m spending a little bit of time with Ryan?”
“A little bit of time?” He raised an eyebrow. “Who have you spent the most time with since you arrived?”
“No one in particular. We’ve been here less than a month,” I pointed out. It’s not like I’d been shacking up with him for years. “Where is Dameon? He better show up.”
“He’ll show up.”
“How are you so sure?” North was rarely sure about things when they involved other people. He never doubted himself though.
“Because I am.”
“Oh, really good explanation.”
“He wants you to see this. I’d rather keep you out of it. To protect you. But we need your brain.” His forehead furrowed. He was nervous. I didn’t like that he was nervous. But, there was something else about his words that jumped out more.
“Wait.” I felt a small smile spread across my face. “You’re admitting to needing me for something?” This was a first. I didn’t think he had the ability to admit something like that. He hadn’t asked me for help since the second grade, even though there were plenty of times where my help could have been rather useful. Lucky for him, I had no problem offering him help regardless if he asked. Hence why I was in the woods, waiting for Dameon.
“Yes. This isn’t what you’re expecting. I can tell you that.”
“Then tell me.”
“It would be much easier to show you.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Then show me.” I was tired of waiting.
North shook his head. “We need Dameon.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows how to find what we need to find.”
I put my hands in my back pockets. “Well, he better get here fast. I really don’t want to get caught.” The first night had been enough of a close call.
“Ryan likes you. He won’t let you get expelled.” North turned his head slightly, and I knew he was stretching his hearing. I knew each and every one of his mannerisms.
Wolf Born: Lunar Academy, Year One Page 5
