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  "Stuff happens. I'll tell you the horrible details of what I did to get bitten," I say.

  "Please do," Callie says. "Later."

  "They're in the field," Abigail peeks through the back door.

  Callie scrambles to get her pants back on, only to realize there's still blood in a line, as well as a tear where the Wolf's claw went through. "What size are you?" I ask.

  "An eight?"

  "I'm a six. You'll just have to deal," I say, rushing to my room to grab a pair of paints. By the time I return, Alex, Everly, and Remo have crossed half the field. I hold up my finger to quiet everyone.

  Callie squeezes into the pants, which thankfully are the same shade as hers. "It's a good thing your jacket protected you," I say, a bit loud, hoping that Everly hears. Alex will ask her what we're saying.

  "I'm sure everyone gets nervous during their first fight," Aunt May adds, getting my drift.

  Callie pulls her leather coat on, smiling. We still have to discuss the possibility that she's infected—even a ten percent chance is higher than anyone would like—but we can't do it now. I take a breath as Cayden joins me. He mouths, one thing at a time. And as he does, sadness fills his hazel eyes. He never wanted me to have to deal with this.

  Ever.

  Callie gets to work in the kitchen, brewing tea in a kettle as Alex walks onto the back deck. I smell his metallic nerves and glance to make sure Aunt May's hidden the makeup. At least he can't smell that. Alex knocks politely but shifts leg to leg.

  I let him in. He nods. "Is Callie okay?"

  "She's fine. She just had to calm down a bit," I say.

  "Hey, Uncle Alex," she says as if the world is all rainbows. "I'm making tea, now that I'm not about to die."

  Alex furrows his brows. "You're not hurt, are you?"

  I roll my eyes. "Sheesh."

  He levels a glare at me. "I have to make sure."

  Alex yells with so much force I backpedal. "Okay. I get it. I asked her myself and she's fine. Trust me, we don't want anyone infected, either. It's not pretty. We've dealt with it."

  "I believe you. Callie told me you had an infected student at your school dance." Alex marches to Callie and nods to her.

  She sighs, acting like an annoyed teenager. It comes across funny because Callie's at least five years my senior. "Can't we have a woman look at me? Otherwise, it's gross. Or better yet, my husband?"

  Alex nods. "I'll call Earl right now."

  We have to let Alex check her over. As if sensing my thoughts, Cayden leans on my shoulder and rests his head there. "We need to back off," he whispers.

  We can't look concerned. My heart races as I pray my makeup job does the trick. All we can do now is wait.

  Alex glares at me for a second. Like he expects fellow women to keep secrets, and he's not wrong.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I'm fine.

  I breathe the biggest sigh of relief when Callie's text comes through the next morning as I'm walking through the doors to school.

  "Is that her?" Cayden asks.

  "That's her," I say, holding up the phone. We're blocking the door, but I don't care.

  Another text comes in. You're a great makeup artist.

  Cayden nods at it. "Good. I was wondering after she and Alex left, and she never said anything after that. Couldn't focus on trying to decipher Brett's book. His handwriting is horrible."

  "I agree. I'm just relieved about Callie. Well, she probably couldn't text with Alex looking over her shoulder yesterday," I say, sidestepping into the school. A flow of students walks in behind us, and I wait for people to clear before I speak again. "He knows we get along and would keep things from him."

  "Well, he's a middle-aged dude and you're young women. Guys feel like you're ganging up on us. You know, Everly and Leonora are getting that way."

  I look to where Cayden's pointing. True to his word, Everly's standing at the corner of the hallway, talking to Leonora. I listen. And they're talking about boys.

  "You know, Remo shares my fifth period," Everly says. "If you want me to slip him a note—"

  I slap my hand to my mouth and turn away before Everly can see. Cayden puts his hand on my back and guides me away. "Hurry. She'll kill us if she knows we heard that. And I want to look at that book again."

  The decision's easy. Cayden and I walk towards our first class, and I'm looking forward to seeing Noah and even Olivia. I've figured we can have Noah help us look through Brett's book, and be among the first to see it, as a sort of apology. I know how much it sucks to get left out of the interesting stuff.

  But then I smell a strong, musky scent sprinkled with salt.

  Lawrence.

  I stop. Cayden questions me with his gaze.

  "Batman boy. He's mad," I say. "The former alpha. You left and he followed us. And now he's standing somewhere outside the school. If we don't confront him now, he's going to hang around all day and people are going to report him." Lawrence isn't exactly nonthreatening, being such a big guy.

  "Great. I've been trying to talk him down," Cayden says.

  Cayden and I go outside and find him standing in an alcove between the gym entrance and the Foods room. "Lawrence," I say. "What are you doing here?"

  He raises his gaze from the muddy ground. "We're all the same pack now, so this is my territory, too."

  I don't have time for this. "Yes. You're right. It is. But an adult hanging around a school really looks bad in this day and age. People are paranoid all the time, and well—"

  Lawrence laughs. "You should be glad I'm here, alpha. And glad that tree branch fell."

  "Shut up," I order, tensing my muscles. "Are you here to challenge me again?"

  He squares off with me. "No. I don't think I'll have to. You're not alpha material. I heard about yesterday and how you went into Savage territory without the pack. That's really smart."

  "You wouldn't have done that at all. And you're not my advisor. Heck, I don't even know what you are," I say.

  "Leave her alone," Cayden says, glowering at him. He balls his fists like he wants to start swinging. Cayden might be strong and amazing, but Lawrence is a borderline bodybuilder and will beat my boyfriend to a pulp. "You're trying to make things difficult at a bad time. We're closer to stopping a lot of things and you're not going to ruin it."

  "Cayden. We don't need to fight," I say.

  "You agreed to stay in Colling," Lawrence tells him.

  So this is how it works. If Lawrence is miserable, everyone else has to be, too. "Lawrence, it was an emergency. We'll talk about this later. Get out of here. And that's an order." Arms at my sides, I force myself to march up to him. Strength flows through my limbs.

  And Lawrence flinches as if slapped. He might be bigger than me and a Guardian Wolf, but I'm still the Royal.

  "Your aunt wouldn't have been this way," Lawrence snaps before turning away.

  "Get out of here!" Cayden yells.

  Lawrence turns his back on us and marches away. Rage-induced sweat stains his shirt. He gives off more of that strong musky odor than ever. I wait until he leaves the school grounds to speak. "His ego needs to deflate."

  "I tried talking to the guy when you left Colling. Since, well, I'm a dude and I know what it's like to want to take care of everything. He's not going to come around. He's Batman, all right. Has to avenge his parents and take the burden on himself. Guy doesn't know how to deal with this."

  "He's really that unreachable."

  "Lawrence still has to work things out." Cayden pats my arm. "Let's get in. I hope he can get better."

  "So do I." I hike up my backpack. The leather of Brett's book brushes against the others. I've learned to recognize the distinct sound. "I don't want to cast him out. It wouldn't be fair. And it wasn't fair that the branch fell on him."

  "Totally agree." Cayden opens the door for me and bows, letting me in.

  "Maybe we should re-do the fight," I say.

  Cayden follows and rubs his chin. "Once a challenge is d
one, it's done. Stop questioning it."

  "I'm still alpha, right?"

  "You feel that power when you boss us around?" Cayden asks.

  "Yes. But Lawrence isn't really listening. But I'm a Royal so there's a reason." I look up and down the clearing hall to make sure no one unusual has showed up. I smell Alex nowhere.

  "Well, Lawrence isn't far behind you. His family are Guardian Wolves and among the oldest Noble Wolf lines, if Abigail's right."

  "You're supposed to make me feel better, Cayden."

  He kisses me on the forehead. "That better?"

  "Much."

  * * * * *

  I still don't get a chance to tell Cayden about casting out Romulus. Class sucks with Mrs. Connors breathing down our backs. But Alex and Callie don't show up at lunch, and I don't smell either of them hanging around the school. At least Lawrence doesn't come back, but as we go through our classes, I can't get my mind off him. And not for good reasons, either.

  “What's up?” Noah asks as he leans toward me in first period. The tendons in his shoulder pop painfully, almost as if he's shifting, but I know that's not possible. Though he tries to keep his face neutral, a wince gets through. “Or shall I say, what's down?”

  “Your shoulder's really hurting today,” I say. The spicy smell hits me. Inflammation. I should become a doctor.

  “I know, I know. I decided to take this stupid brace off last night and sleep normally for once. And well, I'm paying.” Though he's trying to hide it, I catch the undertone of sheer frustration in his words. Noah's been living with constant pain for over a month now. Yikes.

  “Noah, you can't do that. My mom keeps complaining about you not keeping that brace on,” Olivia says on the other side of him.

  “It's taking forever to heal,” he says. "This sucks."

  I know what he's asking and he wants me to infect him. “Noah, there are worse things than a shattered shoulder. Trust me.”

  “Or are there? Imagine your nerves screaming twenty-four seven. I guess your armpit is full of them. I mean, it's a little better than it was, but it feels like it's never going to go away. Oh, and don't get me started on my therapy sessions. It is not a spa like I expected.”

  I bite my lip and grind my teeth. “You can get back to normal, Noah.”

  “She's right. You can,” Cayden whispers on the other side of me. “Brie and I wish we could get back to normal, too. Say, we might need your help looking at something."

  "Brett's book," I say, slapping it on the table.

  Cayden's in my corner. I wink at Cayden, even though he was never a regular human. Noah is asking us to do to him what we had to do to Mr. Saffron. And to him, it's not fair. The drama teacher gets turned while he remains just plain Noah.

  My best friend sighs. He can't hide it from me. "I'll take a look at this." Noah opens the book and flips through the lined pages in silence. Cayden's right about Brett's handwriting being awful.

  "I've seen doctors who write better than that," Olivia says. "And my mother's handwriting is bad, believe me."

  "I bet Brett made it this way on purpose," Cayden says.

  "So this is Brett's spellbook?" Noah asks. "Revenge?" He turns his mouth up in a smile.

  "Who knows? Maybe there's something in it that can heal your shoulder," Cayden says.

  "But this doesn't look like the book of a good warlock," Noah says, tapping a symbol that looks like a demon with horns. "Man, I can't read this very well. The...summon...what's that word? I doubt there's anything here that can heal me." He seethes again. "Turn me. Please. I know pain's making me crazy—"

  “Don't you look forward to going to college?” I ask.

  “Yeah. I do. But this pain is getting in the way of me applying. I've only got a few months left.”

  “You'll get there,” Olivia says, running her hand down his good arm. “Your shoulder will get better in no time. You just have to let it heal and let them stretch it out.”

  Noah says nothing to us for the rest of lunch. Olivia helps Noah write down the answers to his homework questions. It's cute, and she's been nothing but good to him since he got hurt by that falling beam, but Noah keeps his shoulders hiked with the bottled-up tension. Cayden probably has some words about that, too.

  Lunch passes without incident, and the tension remains high at my normal table across the room. Ellie, though she's starting to warm up to me again, still isn't talking to me a whole lot. My senses tell me the anger she has won't cool for another month or so. Or until she finds another boyfriend. I take back Brett's book once Noah is finished and Cayden and I take our trays over to Everly and Remo's table.

  Cayden and I push our chairs together so our hips are touching. We draw stares from some of the girls, but I don't mind them anymore. Our bond is so strong I don't see anything tearing us apart.

  With one possible exception, but he might be gone. I might have defeated him. And that makes this moment so much better.

  “So far, Lawrence hasn't come back,” I say, sniffing the air. The familiar scent of students and the lunches they're eating fills the space.

  “That guy needs to get a life,” Everly says.

  Cayden's jaw drops. “You're the one saying that?”

  I'm not in the mood to joke. I spot Leonora coming out of the lunch line, and she heads over to our table with a tray in hand. For once, she's eating cafeteria food instead of the organic stuff her parents used to force her to bring. I wave her over, because I want to talk about Callie, regardless of whether Remo's sitting here.

  With a glance at Everly (did she pass the note?) Leonora sits down. “So, how is Callie?”

  “So far, I've heard that she's still fine,” I say. “Makeup came to the rescue. And I'll cut right to it. I overheard you and Remo talking about a cure for being a werewolf a long time ago. I didn't mean to do it, but you know how my hearing is.”

  Cayden snaps his gaze from me to Leonora. “A cure?”

  I hate to put her on the spot, but Callie might need our help. Both Remo and Leonora blush. They make such a great couple.

  “Really. I didn't mean to intrude.”

  “It's okay,” Remo says. “I'm adjusting to this. Finally. Things are better than they used to be. I hated being a Wolf at first because of a lot of other things. Moving away. Losing my family. All that stuff. But now that things have settled down—”

  “It's fine, man,” Cayden says, gripping the table. “I'm glad things are working out for you.”

  I sense Leonora is a big reason Remo's happier than he used to be. He scoots closer to her.

  “Are you sure?” Cayden asks.

  “If you hadn't bit me,” Remo says, “I would have died in that car. There wouldn't be a chance at all of me going to uni.”

  I swallow. We still haven't worked out a way he can ever get relieved of pack duties and be free to go to college. But a girlfriend is a good step.

  Cayden drops his shoulders in relief. “Glad to hear it.”

  I beam until I remember Callie. “Okay. Callie has a ten percent chance of infection. Well, according to the Hunters' guides I haven't seen yet. I'm sure she's read everything cover to cover.” Callie's even more eager than Noah and on the same level as Wyatt. “Is there a way we can help her? Leonora? Those spirits your family is working on?”

  “Uncle Edwin says they're just meant to hold back the dark spirits,” she says. “An infection is different. I was looking up magical ways to remove one before, for Remo, and all I could find was some old guides on herbs to cure regular sicknesses.”

  I grab the table. Callie might be okay, might—but a ten percent risk is too much. The fierce protectiveness rises in me again, and not just for the pack, but for everyone in town and even in Colling. Callie could become dangerous. "We have two weeks to figure it out.”

  I can't kill her. I just can't. But it's my decision on what we're going to do about her. That makes me want to throw my tray at the wall, but I sigh and hold it together. This is what Cayden had to do while al
pha, when we thought Olivia might be in danger.

  “We have two weeks,” Cayden repeats. “Callie will understand that we'll need to keep an eye on her.”

  “How deep was the scratch? If it's still open, I can try a few things,” Leonora says. “But I'm not sure if they'll work.”

  “Like what?” I ask.

  “Wolfsbane would be dangerous to put in her wound. It was used to tip arrows and take down bears. All that would do is poison her. Other herbs might do the same thing. And I don't think it would cure anyone, anyway.”

  “Then what could? Plain old hydrogen peroxide? We did that already.”

  “Healing herbs, maybe.” Leonora pushes her food around her tray like she doesn't know what to do with it. “Remo and I talked about using some of those to fix him, but we were really just grasping at nothing. It would take very advanced magic to fix Callie, if it would even work at all. And not the type that Uncle Edwin and the rest of the family use. A witch would have to work for a whole lifetime to come up with something that could even remotely help.”

  “Did you ask your Uncle Edwin?” I ask.

  “I did. He told me not to let my imagination get away with me. I really don't like the guy. He still treats my parents like they're second-class family members. They made a mistake years ago. Sheesh.”

  “He's incredibly stuck up. That was a stupid reason for the Noble Order to break apart.”

  “Well, to be fair, everyone thought all the Nobles were dead,” Leonora says. She takes a bite of the mystery meat, which smells like pork.

  “True.” Cayden wraps his arm around me and pulls me close. I rest against his perfect body and listen to his breaths. My heart races and I know what I want to do with him again, if only we could steal some privacy for once. It's a hot commodity I'd pay for, but with Romulus gone, I'm willing to find a way to bribe the whole pack. If they could just go away for a whole night—

  “Wait,” Remo says. “Your family has been trying to summon the spirit of Remus. So the cult attached Romulus to Brie for a while, and even though she got rid of him, we know it can work. Maybe Remus could protect Callie?”