people not liking me, I guess.”
Nathan groans. “Sorry, Kinsey. I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m shocked is all. I’m sure your mate is an asshole.”
“Aren’t they all?” Mia muses.
“Yep,” Nathan sighs, popping the p. “Perfect, hot assholes with an ass that just, mmm,” he bites down on his knuckle while his eyes seem so far away. “I could sink my teeth into it.”
I guess his response answers one of the questions I woke up with. Judging by the looks of longing on Mia’s and Nathan’s faces, it doesn’t get any easier to think about your fated mate. “This isn’t fair,” I grumble.
“Aww, you already figured out Greystone’s true motto.”
The corner of Nathan’s lip curves up and then flattens. “The fucked-up part is, if she walked through those doors right now, I’d be on my knees in front of her, begging.”
His words cast a somber feeling over the whole table. Eventually, he demolishes the rest of his food and gets up. He doesn’t even utter a goodbye, but both Mia and I watch him leave. My heart feels like an anchor in my chest as he walks past the crying girl at a table all by herself, grabs strawberries from the buffet, and drops them next to her. She peeks up at him gratefully, and all he does is smile and nod before leaving the room.
“He goes through mood swings,” Mia informs me. “We all do. One day we’ll want to rip their throats out and roll around in their blood. The next, we just want to jump them.”
I spin back toward her. “Is there anything you guys can do about your situation?”
Mia heaves a sigh. “We’ve tried, but nothing yet. We’re the ones who ended up here, so we’re supposedly the less trustworthy ones. We literally have no sway here. No rights. We’re at the mercy of our mate. I hear that’s a thing that happens now. Newly fated wolves write up a Mate Rejection Slip so the other can’t do it to them first. Then, they sort everything out during the initial meet and greet.”
“You’re kidding.”
Mia shakes her head. “Happens a lot in families who’ve had a sibling end up here. Think about it, your brother or sister is banished to Greystone and then goes home to tell you how awful it is. To save your ass, you fill out the form so it can’t be done to you.”
Fear trickles in. Rejected mates is a much bigger problem than I ever expected. “It can’t be that hard for someone to watch your two mates back at Daybreak and figure out the truth, though.”
Mia’s face falls. “You’re forgetting the other part to the bond, Kinsey. If we do that to them, and they’re cast out, made to go Feral, what will that do to us? Sure, we might be leaving here, but only to face a life without the one thing that’s supposed to hold us together.” She shivers.
I blink at her. I never thought of that. We really are fucked here.
Mia lets out a breath. “I know. Heavy shit. It’s always heavy shit. I hope you brought Xanax.”
We eat in silence until a woman in a business suit approaches our table. Mia gazes up first, and when the woman clears her throat, I peer up, too. “Miss Walker, Ms. Ebon would like to see you in her office when you’re done with breakfast.”
My heart sinks. “Thank you,” I tell the woman.
Her friendly smile unnerves me. I watch her leave, and Mia informs me it’s the academy’s secretary. She works for all eight advisors, and of course, the head of Greystone.
“Who’s the head of the academy?” I ask, kicking myself for falling asleep instead of reading the manual.
“Sister to your alpha.” Her lips thin. “She hates all of us.”
My stomach plummets, and everything I just ate threatens to come right back up. That would be Lydia Greystone—the worst accuser of my parents’ relationship.
That’s fantastic. The woman is already predisposed to hate me, so this should end well.
6
Deflated and annoyed, I trudge to Ms. Ebon’s office after breakfast. Mia has to give me directions, but there are handy signs on some of the walls, so I should learn my way around sooner rather than later and not have to ask where I’m going all the time.
I knock heavily on the gigantic, wooden door. “Come in,” she calls.
The door creaks as I swing it open. Ms. Ebon stays behind her desk and gestures toward the chair across from her. I take