Chapter One
Lila's POV
The house smelled expensive. Polished wood, fresh flowers, some citrus cleaner smell that hadn't fully faded yet. I had a box of old sketchbooks in my arms. My mother was a few steps ahead of me, and the whole time I kept thinking, this is not my house.
It never will be, no matter what she says.
"You'll get used to it, sweetheart." She set her purse down on a table that cost more than a year of our old rent, and smiled at me in that way she'd been doing all week-too wide, like if she smiled hard enough I'd believe her.
I just nodded. Didn't trust myself to say anything back.
My room alone was bigger than our whole old apartment. I stood in the doorway for a second just looking at it before I made myself walk in.
I only got through one box before dinner.
Victor was already at the head of the table when I came down, drink in hand, and next to him sat Ryker. I actually stopped walking. The guy from school- the one every girl in my year had a story about was my brother now. Nobody had warned me about that part.
He didn't stand up. Just tipped back in his chair, watching me find my seat like he had nowhere else to be.
"So," Victor said, cutting into his steak, not even looking at me. "Lila. Roseline tells me you're quiet. Gentle." The word came out like it disgusted him a little. "Rare, around here. Tends to get people eaten alive."
"Victor." My mother, quiet. Just his name, but it meant something.
"I'm only saying." He looked up at me for the first time all dinner. Whatever smile he gave me stopped somewhere below his eyes. "Ridgeview isn't kind to soft things."
Neither are you, I thought, and didn't say it. I pushed a piece of asparagus around my plate instead.
He moved right on, like he hadn't said anything at all. "There's a gathering tonight. Bonfire, east field. Half the pack, half the students from Aldric." His eyes went to Ryker. "Sarah Whitlock's coming. Good family. Old money."
I felt Ryker go still beside me before I even looked over.
He looked away first. Jaw tight. Something in my stomach twisted and I told myself not to think about why.
Not my business, I decided. Wasn't going to be my business.
Dinner ended. Victor went to his study, my mother trailing him like always. I got up to clear my plate and found Ryker already leaning in the hallway doorway, watching me do it.
"So," he said. "Stepsister."
"Don't." I walked past him.
He caught up anyway, easy, like it cost him nothing. "Don't what? I haven't even said anything yet."
"You don't have to. I know your reputation." I didn't slow down. "Breaks hearts before breakfast. I've heard enough."
"Ouch." A hand over his heart, grinning the whole time. "We met an hour ago."
"We're family now. In case you forgot."
Something moved across his face-I couldn't say what, exactly, just that it was there and then wasn't. "Trust me. I haven't forgotten anything."
My face went warm. My pulse picked up in a way I didn't like one bit. I told myself this was a bad idea, that he was off-limits, that my only job in that house was staying out of the way. My body wasn't listening to any of it.
"I have to get ready," I said, and left before he could say anything else.
***
The east field was already full by the time we got there. Fire going, music somewhere, that woodsmoke smell everywhere. I stood off to the side with my arms crossed, wishing I'd stayed home.
Ryker found me within five minutes.
"You look like you're about to run." He stood close enough that I could feel the warmth off him.
"I might."
"Don't." Quieter now. "Stay near me tonight."
I opened my mouth to argue and the fire jumped.
No wind. No one added wood. It just climbed-too high, too fast, too gold- and everyone around us went quiet at once.
My chest tightened up so hard I stumbled. Ryker grabbed my arm to steady me, and the second his hand closed around it, something in me shifted. Locked. I felt it happen and had no idea what it meant.
What is happening to me?
"Ryker." My own voice sounded far away.
He wasn't looking at the fire anymore. He was looking at me the way you look at something you've been searching for and finally found. "There you are," he said, quiet, mostly to himself.
Then he turned around and said it loud enough for the whole field to hear.
"She's my mate."
Nobody moved for a second. Then everyone did, all at once, the whole clearing breaking into noise. Victor's voice cut through it, closer than I expected.
"That bond ends tonight." He shoved through the crowd toward us, looking at Ryker, then me, then the space between us, like our standing together was some kind of insult to him personally. "Do you have any idea what you just did? She's your sister."
"Stepsister." Ryker didn't let go of my hand. "And I don't care."
"You will," Victor said, "once I've broken it myself."
Everyone was still staring. I couldn't get a full breath in.
I need to get out of here.
"Lila..." Ryker reached for me but I was already gone, cutting through the crowd, past people I didn't know, my eyes stinging from the smoke or something else, I couldn't tell which.
I ran until I couldn't hear him calling my name anymore. Until the fire was just a light behind the trees, and then not even that.
