Chapter 107

I’d told Asher that as a sign of trust, I would answer any question he had for me, but I hadn’t expected him to ask me how I was able to convince Brent to apologize to Aimee.

Now, I hesitated. To share that secret meant not only would I have to tell the truth about Lilith, but also about my projection ability.

Asher read my reluctance on my face. “Forget it,” he said and started for the door.

“Wait. Just, ask me something else,” I pleaded. “Anything else.”

“Forget it,” he said again, reaching for the door handle.

I knew that if he walked through that door, I would lose him forever. He would never trust me again. He might protect me, but he would always keep me at arm’s distance.

I couldn’t let that happen. What we’d shared these past weeks meant everything to me. I couldn’t lose it.

I couldn’t lose him.

So I wrapped both my arms around one of his, keeping him from the door.

“I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you, okay? So please, stop. Don’t leave.”

“You bring danger to us by sharing this secret,” Lilith warned in my head.

“No, we can trust him,” I assured her. “He’s the only one we can trust.”

“Please,” I said, tugging Asher’s arm. “Let’s talk.”

At my urging, he stepped away from the door and joined me, sitting on the foot of the bed. He watched me closely as I nervously weaved my fingers together in my lap. He stayed quiet, waiting for me to begin.

“I mentioned Lilith to you once,” I said.

He nodded. “The mysterious trainer for your cheerleading squad.”

I gave him a sad sort of smile. “That was a lie.”

He was stoic, expression stern, giving nothing away. But he didn’t move to leave again either, a good sign.

At least he intended on hearing me out, I reasoned.

“Lilith is my wolf.”

Asher straightened at once. “Your wolf? You are only eighteen.”

“She awakened early, to help protect my baby.”

Asher stood from the bed. “We have to get you to the hospital. It’s too early for you to have a wolf. It could be dangerous –“

“Asher…” I couldn’t go to the hospital. “Nancy knows. Everything is okay. Lilith is helping to protect me. She’s part of the reason I’m able to do so much.”

Asher looked at me. He blinked once, twice, in confusion, then sat back down.

“You should still go,” Asher said, after a moment. “I’d feel better if my doctors had you checked out.”

“I understand your concern, but I can’t.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “If they find out about me, they might send me to this research facility, and I… Please don’t make me go there, Asher.”

“What research facility?” he asked.

I shrunk my shoulders, pulling them inward. Now was the moment of truth. “It’s a place, government mandated, to study rare werewolf abilities.”

“You have an ability?”

I nodded. “You asked me how I was able to convince Brent to apologize to Aimee. This is how.”

His fingers gripped onto the edge of the mattress, crinkling my bedspread. “Explain.”

“It’d be easier to show you,” I said, studying Asher. The gentle slope of his nose. His beautiful blue eyes. The hard press of his mouth.

It was so easy to form an apparition of him, as easy as breathing. It glowed from where it stood near the door.

Asher lifted his gaze to it and stared at it for a long moment with wide eyes. “Cynthia… you are doing that?”

“Yes,” I whispered, terrified of his reaction.

One moment, he stood, facing the projection, studying it.

The next, he walked right through it, drew open the door, and disappeared into the hallway.

I vanished the apparition at once. “Asher?”

Rushing, I followed him into the hallway, but he’d already disappeared into the stairwell. By the time I reached the stairwell, he’d exited onto an unknown floor.

Asher was gone.

Rejection filled me, forcing the breath from my lungs. No, this couldn’t be. Asher could be trusted. He had to be. No one else protected me as he did. If he wouldn’t stand by me…

Was my projection ability a pill too large for him to swallow?

How could that be? Now? After everything we’d shared together?

Running back into my room, I threw myself onto my bed and let the tears fall.

Betrayal stung like a thousand tiny pinpricks all across my skin.

I sobbed into my pillow, disbelief shaking me in quiet little tremors. Surely Asher would walk back in through the door at any minute.

But one minute ticked by, and then another. And a third.

Asher never appeared.

I had to trust he would come back, even if in the morning. But each long minute left me feeling more and more bereft.

I wished I knew what he was thinking. Maybe making an apparition of him was too much. Should I have started smaller? With some kind of animal, maybe?

No. This thinking was leading me in circles. I had no way of knowing what upset him so much that he would have walked out on me. And staying here, sitting here uselessly, only made my anxious spiraling worse.

I needed out. I had to clear my head.

Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed Asher’s jacket, kicked on my sneakers, and went for a walk.

The world outside was quiet, with only the crickets for company. Some students lingered on the sidewalks, walking home from late night classes or dates.

I didn’t want to run into anyone, so I turned into the park. Somehow, my feet pulled me toward the back of the park to a familiar gazebo, where my encounter with Brent had come to a head. Here, at this spot, I had summoned the ghost baby for the final time and scared him into apologizing.

It was a bitter-sweet memory now, knowing all the trouble it had caused me. I didn’t regret helping Aimee, but since this moment, my life had added a certain level of fear that would never be undone.

I wondered what would happen next. Maybe Asher was afraid of me. Maybe he thought I was a freak. Maybe he’d demand I go to the research facility for everyone’s safety.

If he wanted me to go… maybe I would have to.

For Asher, I would do almost anything.

I hoped I wasn’t wrong about him though. He, out of anyone in my life, was worthy of my trust. This had to be a misunderstanding somehow. Soon, I’d go back to my dorm room and he’d be waiting there with an explanation.

Yes, that had to be it.

Eager to return and see if my premonition was correct, I left the gazebo behind. When I entered the next clearing, however, I heard a strange group of sounds.

Panting like a dog, the shifting of clothes, and… was that a gasp?

I looked to my right and froze.

A couple was on the park bench there, a girl laying on her back with a guy pressing between her thighs.

Surprise and shock had me witless a moment too long. The guy looked over at me and caught me watching.

It was Joseph.

Holding eye contact with me, he rolled his hips down into the girl’s soft body.

Then he smirked.