34

The other pack leaders who attended gave me some cursory goodbyes, but their bored expressions and listless words told me they didn’t give a damn that I was leaving. It made me wonder what they’d do if I told them exactly why I was leaving the pack lands. Would they change their tune and beam at me with pride? Or would they simply look at me with sadness and start consoling my parents on the death of their daughter? A death they’d be sure was coming.

“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered to Zoe as we walked away from the house.

Zoe’s eyes flicked to the tree line. “We can, but you’ve got company.”

Following her eyes, I saw the familiar form of my brother Kolton’s wolf sprinting out of the forest toward us. He shifted as he drew upon us, a heavy backpack slung over his shoulders.

“Hang on, buttface,” he said. “You aren’t going anywhere without me.”

I gaped at him, then looked at Zoe. She had a guilty look on her face and refused to meet my eyes.

Gritting my teeth, I snarled at her. “You knew he was gonna do this?”

Zoe, still unable to look me in the eyes, shrugged. “He’s your brother.”

Whirling on Kolton, I shook my head. “No. Not happening.”

He was already walking toward Zoe’s car. “Too bad you think that because yes, it is.”

Before I could say anything else or grab him by the hair and drag him away, he’d already tossed his backpack in the trunk and climbed into the back seat.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I hissed.

Zoe walked toward the driver’s side door and waved me to come along. “Look on the bright side. Now you have a stylist and a bodyguard. Cool, huh?”

I had too much to worry about to drain my patience or energy arguing with Kolton. Who, other than me or Wyatt, was the most stubborn person I’d ever met. I opened the trunk, tossed my two bags in, and slammed it shut.

When I was in the passenger side, I turned to point a finger at Kolton. “I don’t need to hear you complaining about the show or trying to talk me out of it, got it? I’ve already signed a shit-ton of legal documents, so it’s set in stone. Copy that?”

He sighed as he buckled his seatbelt. “Yeah, yeah. Got it. You know my stance. I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know.”

Content for the moment, I turned around and buckled my seatbelt.

Zoe smiled at both of us. “Road trip!”

Her smile faded when she saw that neither I nor my brother seemed excited about the drive.

She pouted. “Fine, then. Be that way,” she grumbled and pulled away.

The chaos only got worse when I arrived in Fangmore City. No sooner had I arrived at the penthouse hotel room they’d reserved for me than I was called to the studio headquarters for a short interview that would air on the show’s premiere. After that, I was sent to a company-owned clinic where I was subjected to every physical you could think of. The last time I’d been poked and prodded this much had been the night I’d spent with Wyatt. No matter how hard I tried to get that night out of my mind, it kept popping up.

All through the physical tests, my mind drifted back to him. I remembered his green eyes, filled with fire as he pleasured me. His muscles as our limbs twined together. It was all that occupied my thoughts as I did endurance tests, strength tests, lung capacity tests, and a multitude of others. It was like his eyes were following me through the entire process. It drove me crazy and made it hard to focus on what I was supposed to be doing.

“Kira? Kira? Hey?” Zoe called out.

I blinked myself back to reality. I was sitting in the luxurious hotel room, totally zoned out. I tried my best to stop thinking of Wyatt, of his tongue and the way it had felt between my legs.

“What?” I asked peevishly.

“Kolton has to leave.”

Snapping fully back to reality, I twisted around. “Huh? Why?”

She tilted her head to the door. Glancing over, I saw two massive fallen angels standing there, gazing at me with emotionless eyes as Kolton cursed and stuffed his things into his backpack.

“Why does he need to go?” I asked as I stood.

The largest of the two stepped forward. “Only the contestant and her stylist are allowed in the room from here on out, Miss Durst. He’ll get the chance to give you a final goodbye before the show starts.”

“It’s fine, Kira,” Kolton called over the shoulder of the silent disgraced angel. “I’ll see you soon.”

A few seconds later, Zoe and I were alone. My shoulders sagged. As much as I hadn’t wanted Kolton to come, I’d grown used to him being here the last week. Now that he was gone, it was like the one final strand connecting me to the pack had been severed.

“Well, this sucks,” I said.

“Yeah. I kinda wondered when it would happen, though. I knew it would only be a matter of time,” Zoe said.

My friend was still her usual chipper self. Now that it was set in stone that I was going on the show, she’d resigned herself to being my official stylist. It made me nervous that she’d be so entwined with the show.

“Aren’t you worried, Zoe? You could be in danger, too,” I said.

She made a dismissive gesture. “Hardly. In thirty years, no stylist, staff member, or host has ever been harmed. I’ll be totally fine. You’re the one I’m worried about. Is your head in this? You’ve been in a bit of a daze since we got here.”

Not wanting to get into the subject of Wyatt, I shied away from the question. “Worried is all. It’s really happening, isn’t it?”

“Sure is. Can we get started on your wardrobe? I had the studio send over a bunch of fabrics to try out.”

“Why not?”