Chapter 53

The blurred voices around me stab through the darkness. At first, they’re muffled and I can only make out a few words around garbled yelling. I tried to protest. I didn’t trust any of those people in that house. I tried to pull out of whoever’s grasp I was in. My hands were covered and set back in my lap.

There’s another flash and then the voices were louder, more clear. But my vision was still dark as night, keeping me shrouded away.

“You asked me to invite her so you could show her a good time. Tell me this is not what you meant?!”

Alessia. She was angry. Screaming, actually.

“I didn’t know this was his plan!” Another voice. Deeper and still familiar yet not one I’d spoken with myself. “He literally just asked me to make sure you invited her. Said it was important.”

“Gods fucking damn it, Petyr!” Alessia again. Petyr must have been the lower voice. “Trying to fucking assault her is not showing her a good time. You should be ashamed!”

“I am!” Petyr snapped back. “This is disgusting behavior. In my own bathroom too!”

“Fuck your bathroom!” Alessia shrieked. “This is about more than your fucking bathroom! You’re lucky I’m not going to the Headmaster.”

There was a pause. The air in the room felt thick with tension and something else. Sweat? Terror?

“You should,” Petyr finally said. His voice was softer, almost a whisper. “He was out of line. I don’t want him in my house anymore. Let alone my fucking school. He’s a disgrace to wolves everywhere.”

Alessia scoffed. “Something we finally fucking agree on.”

I slipped into the darkness once again. A few muffled voices surrounded me. One was definitely Loren’s, shrieking with panic. The words faded in and out of focus. I tried blinking but was met with only darkness. I was vaguely aware of hands up my back and legs. Someone was carrying me.

“—will it wear off? This is horrible,” Loren’s voice faded in. “I can’t believe I let her go somewhere alone. I’m a terrible friend. This is insane. I—”

“Moonbeam,” A lower voice. Maximus? He sounded deadly calm. “Panicking about it now isn’t going to help. We got her. She just needs to sleep it off.”

“So it will wear off?” I could hear the nervousness in her voice. “I’ve only heard of people using wolfsbane on prisoners. You never hear what happens to them after.”

Wolfsbane.

That’s what had made me feel so loopy. I wasn’t drunk; I was drugged.

I knew nothing about wolfsbane other than that it was deadly to humans. I couldn’t imagine what kind of damage it would do to a wolf. I started to panic and stirred in Maximus’s arms. I tried to force words out of my mouth but they came out garbled and slurred.

“Shh,” Maximus adjusted me in his arms. “I’ve got you, love. You’ll be okay.”

It was the last thing I heard before I slipped back into the darkness again.

I felt light piercing my eyelids. I slowly opened my eyes then slammed them back shut when I was blinded by what appeared to be sunlight. I hissed and curled into myself. There was a soft fabric under my head. I burrowed into it. I groaned deeply, trying to remember what happened.

All I remembered was getting drinks with Loren at the party. Then, everything seemed to be a far-off memory. Like a dream I’d forgotten. I groaned again as I felt the pounding sensation in my skull. Was I hungover?

“Easy,” a voice said, softly. “I’ll close the curtains. Your eyes still may be sensitive.”

“ ‘Are,” I mumbled into the pillow I’d burrowed myself into. The bright light faded significantly, and I tried to open my eyes again. My lids felt like lead weights over them.

Very, very slowly, my vision came back to me. It started with a mess of shapes, blurred around the edges then melted into colors and shapes I could recognize. I was in a dorm room. A man’s at that, judging by the lack of décor.

There was only one bed, presumably the one I was in, and a dresser. I groaned again as I swept the room. My head continued to throb. There was a person sitting at the desk in the room. Their outline was the only thing I could discern at that point. It was familiar yet still blurry.

“What ‘appened?” I mumbled.

A pause.

“There was an incident,” the voice said. Masculine. Incredibly familiar too. “You’re okay now. You’re safe.”

“Max?” I mumbled. My voice sounded foreign to my ears.

The figure nodded. Slowly, Maximus came into focus. He sat hunched in his desk chair. His face was pale, deep purple bags under his eyes. He looked utterly exhausted. His usually short, cropped hair had grown out a bit. Half of it was sticking up on end as if he had been dragging his hand through it. He gave me a half smile that was laced with nothing but happiness.

“Hi,”

“Hi,” I rasped out. I pushed myself to sit up then groaned as my head started throbbing again. I threw it into my hands. “I feel like I got run over by a bus.”

Maximus didn’t laugh. I turned my head to look at him. His smile was completely gone. Suddenly, there was nothing funny about my hangover. I lifted my head and blinked at him.

“What happened?” I asked quietly.

“You were drugged,” Max choked out. “Wolfsbane. While it didn’t kill you, it inebriated you enough that you seemed severely drunk.”

I blinked again. “Oh,” I couldn’t wrap my head around what was happening. “Then what happened?”

Maximus shifted uncomfortably. His jaw was set, teeth grinding together in rage. I could almost hear the noise from across the room.

“We found you in Petyr’s bathroom,” he grit out. “With Stefan Jackell. A second-year alpha.”

I blushed. I was suddenly embarrassed, for some reason. Not that I had any recollection of the moment. But then, it dawned on me. I had no recollection. I had no idea I’d been with him. My heart started beating erratically.

“What did he do to me?” I choked out.

“Nothing,” Maximus said quickly. “I stopped him before anything happened. Jackell was trying to get back at you for Kairos. For some reason, he seemed to think Kairos would approve of such an assault.”

I’d never felt that small in my life. I curled in on myself in my bed. Suddenly, Kairos’s threats of death seemed like a better fate than whatever it was that the other Alpha was planning to do to me.

I felt helpless, laying in Maximus’s bed. Tears pricked my eyes, but I fought them back. I wouldn’t show weakness. I couldn’t. They already saw me as weak enough to – do whatever it is they were going to do. I drew in a shakey breath.

Maximus immediately jumped up and rushed over to me. He knelt next to the bed and tried to grab my hand in his. I yanked it away.

“Don’t,” I snapped.

Max looked like I’d shot him. “Zora—”

“No!” I yelled back at him. “This is all yours and Kairos’s fault! You both saw me as weak and told the others to capitalize on it. This is all your doing and now you’re trying to comfort me as if it wasn’t!”

Maximus’s frown turned into a snarl. “I didn’t do shit,” he snapped. “I didn’t set the hunt on you. Kairos did. I didn’t send people out to attack you. Kairos did that too. I tried to help you, if you remember.”

He reared back from me, utterly livid. “Furthermore, I would never condone the assault of a woman,” he hissed. “Nor would Kairos, if you were wondering. What Jackell did was of his own regard trying to get in with Kairos’s good graces. I saved you from that dickwad, not let him continue having his way.”

I flinched at the thought. Maximus’s face fell back into a neutral expression. He slowly reached out and grabbed my hand. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.

“Thank you,” I bit out. “For saving me. For everything else, the jury is still out.”

Max looked like he was about to say something. He was cut off by a sharp rap on the door. Neither of us moved. I glanced towards the door then back at Max. He held my gaze.

“Fuck off,” he grunted.

The door slammed open and into the wall behind it. I flinched in Max’s bed, grabbing the blankets to cover myself. My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I saw who’d barged in.

Valentin Lunerly, headmaster of Alpha Academy, was seeing me in Maximus’s bed.