Unfortunately, that night when I go into the dream state, Luca isn’t there.


    Anxiety whirs in me as I turn around in the birch forest, looking for him, but it’s…definitely just me by


    myself. I frown, trying to feel him…is he just…not asleep?


    And there’s..certainly something there. It’s almost like I can…feel him sleeping down the bond. There’s


    a deep rest there, and a stillness, but…


    I don’t know. It’s almost like he’s not dreaming, not at all.


    I sigh, working very hard not to take it personally, and then I will the dream to end. I wake up for a


    moment in my little nook, frowning, wondering ridiculously if I should just…go downstairs and knock on


    his door, make sure that he’s okay.


    But no – Rafe was really upset when he came back to the room. And not just pissed that I didn’t follow


    the n to the letter, but genuinely worried for me. His shoulders had been trembling when I hade


    out of the shower and he had wrapped me in a big hug, scolding me but holding me close nheless.


    He’d heard about Wright attacking me in the hall, of course, and of Luca punching him out and pulling


    me into his room where I’d be safe. Jesse exaggerated how quickly he got there, suggesting it had only


    been minutester. Rafe, thank god, hadn’t been suspicious.


    Because I don’t really need to answer my big brother’s questions, right now, about why I’m making out


    with Luca Grant while my mate, Jackson McClintock, lives only a few doors down.


    I sigh now, looking towards Rafe’s big bed where I can hear him snoring softly, wishing he didn’t take


    my safety so personally. He just loves me, I know, and I love him right back but it’s not his life’s duty to


    keep me safe like this.


    –


    Regardless, as tempting as the idea to go down to knock on my mate’s door is, I’m not risking Rafe


    waking up to find me alone. So instead I turn over and close my eyes, letting myself drift off into a nice,


    restful sleep. I have the other dream again the one that I had before, of running along the moonlit


    cliffside in my wolf form, another wolf at my heels. It fills me with a great deal of peace and joy, running


    in the night.


    –


    I’m happy when I wake up, stretching my arms over my head as my brother and my cousin call their


    morning greetings to me. But there’s anxiety alongside it because where had Luca been? Why hadn’t


    hee?


    He’s not still mad at me, is he? I thought we left that all behind…


    –


    I’m distracted from the issue, though, by the insanely rigorous workout that Jesse and Rafe put me


    through. Saturdays, apparently, have brunch instead of breakfast in order to allow cadets to rest and


    catch up on some reading. But Jesse and Rafe, because they are athletic maniacs, use the opportunity


    to make me run five miles and then do so many sets of pull- ups that my arms feel like jelly.


    “Why do you….hate me….” I gasp as I pull my chin up over the bar.


    “Incorrect, Shrimpito,” Jesse says, sitting on the floor next to the bar and flipping through a textbook,


    taking notes. “It is love that makes us give you pain.”


    “This is what they say in abusive rtionships,” I say, dropping from the bar and panting with my hands


    on my knees while Rafe pats my back.


    “Your upper body’s your weak point,” Rafe says. “We’re just getting you strong for the Examination.


    What if they ask you to climb something.”


    “I’ll just melt it,” I mutter, making Jesseugh. “With my mind.”


    Rafe smirks too but ps his hands together. “Two more sets, baby touble! Let’s go!”


    Rafe carries my backpack to brunch because it aches when I set it on my shoulders, though he carries


    it as lightly as any of mom’s purses. I scowl at him, jealous of the passive ease with which he does


    hard things, but my scowl is instantly wiped from my face when we walk into the Hall and I nce


    towards our table.


    I burst into a grin because instantly, instantly I have an answer to why Luca didn’te to the dream


    statest night.


    Both Luca and Ben are sitting at our table with full tes of food in front of them, their faces green. Ben


    rests his head against his folded arm and gives up halfway through giving us a wave of greeting. Luca


    just sits with his eyes closed, massaging his temples and looking like he’s going to vomit at any minute.


    But his eyes fly open when Ben murmurs his hellos.


    Luca is instantly on his feet, passing Rafe and moving directly for me. Before I can stop him, he takes


    my face in his hands, looking down into my eyes with such sorrow and regret that my mouth falls open.


    “I am so sorry,” he murmurs. “We‘


    “Would you cut it out!?” Jesse hisses, hitting Luca hard on the forearm and knocking his hands away.


    Luca jumps a little and steps back, looking guiltily towards Jesse and then to Rafe, who thankfully had


    his back turned.


    –


    But my heart goes out to Luca, whose emotions I can feel down the bond such guilt, and worry, and the


    idea that he let me down


    I just shake my head at him, smiling, passing feelings of calm and content down the bond. Because I


    get it – it was a mistake. He and Ben got caught up drinking it’s really not a big deal.


    –


    “Wow,” Rafe says,ughing as he looks first at Ben and then at Luca as we all take our seats, me by


    Luca’s side as usual. “You two…you look like


    crap.”


    “Thank you,” Ben says, smiling half–heartedly at Rafe, “for your kind words. I am far from crap. I aspire


    to be crap. I am…much much worse.”


    “What the hell were you drinking?” Jesse asks, helping himself to the full carafe of coffee on the table


    and pouring me and Rafe a cup as well.


    “Vodka,” Luca sighs, as if the very word pains him. “At least, they said it was vodka. One of the older


    cadets probably made it in their bathtub that’s what it tasted like.”


    –


    “Ew,” I say, grabbing a blueberry muffin from the basket on the table.


    “Will you eat one of those for me?” Luca asks, longing at the muffin longingly. “They look so good, and


    I’m so hungry, but even the idea of food…” He exhales sharply, his cheeks puffing out as he shakes his


    head.


    “Poor baby,” I murmur, taking a big bite and chewing with relish. “It’s your own fault, rule breaker.”


    “Oh please, little miss sanctimonious,” he murmurs, low enough to get away with the


    Content property of N?velDra/ma.Org.


    feminine address but making me sit up sharply anyway.


    “What?!” I ask,ughing.


    “Don’t try to pretend you weren’t drinking red winest night.”


    I gasp, sitting up straight, because…how did he know!?


    “Ari was what?” Rafe asks, frowning between Luca and I.


    “Drinking,” Luca says, pointing at me with an usatory finger and ratting me out. I gasp again at the


    betrayal. “Wherever he was before I found him in the hallway about to get murdered? He had wine.”


    Rafe narrows his eyes a me. “Seriously, Ari? Wine, with Daphne? You’re risking it all for a ss of


    wine?”


    “No one was ever going to know!”


    “Who’s Daphne?” Luca asks, suddenly desperately interested.


    “My girlfriend,” I snap, ring at him, which makes him burst intoughter.


    “Don’t y with fire, Ari,” Rafe says, still disappointed in me, and I sigh and nod, silently making a


    sibling promise between him and I that I won’t do it again.


    But then I re at Luca, who justughs at me, teasing. I just shake my head, wondering how the hell


    he knew that…


    But then words echo in my head, clear as day, in Luca’s voice: I could taste it on you, he murmurs, a


    caress in my mind.


    And I gasp despite myself, delighted and a little scandalized at once.


    Mind–to–mind!? We can speak mind–to–mind!?


    I grin at my mate, and he smiles back with a wink. But then he flinches like even that hurt him in his


    hungover state, and Iugh, thinking that he deserves it for telling on me.