‘Don’t follow me. I hate you.’
I turned my back on him, keeping my tail up in a clear show of dominance, and walked away.
Mate … my wolf practically whined to me in protest. The urge to go back to him, to lick his wound and nuzzle his neck, swelled as I ran. I couldn’t sprint fast enough to escape the bombardment of my instinct. But I refused to give in. Refused to be with a wolf who would hurt me and abandon me like he did.
As soon as I arrived at the edge of the woods behind the hovel I called home, I shifted back into my human form. The need for my mate waned though not nearly enough, and I quickly dressed and ran inside, sighing with relief to see everything as I’d left it—gross and dirty with a stack of textbooks on the table.
The next morning, I understood why Nolan had no energy for cleaning this place, but it needed to be done. I’d dust as much of this place as I could now and worry about the rest later. The blessed weekend had come, praise the mage.
It was just after 8 a.m., and Nolan was still sleeping because that’s the kind of lazy bum he was. I, however, was up on my tiptoes with a wet washrag in hand, wiping down all the cupboards in the kitchen. The murky black water of the bucket was disgusting, but it felt good to get this place cleaned up.
“Knock knock!” Kaja yelled from the entryway.
“In here!” I shouted back.
Kaja and Nell had asked me to the same beach party that Noble and the boys had been asking me about last night. But I’d told them I’d had housework to do. They were probably here to beg, but I was going to put my foot down. I couldn’t live in this dump any longer. It was depressing.
When they walked into the room and I looked up, emotion tightened my throat. Nell was carrying a mop and bucket while Kaja held a paint roller and a gallon of paint.
Kaja set the paint bucket down. “We thought you might need help.”
“You guys … you don’t have to.” They were heirs for mage’s sake. They’d been waited on hand and foot their whole lives. Living on Alpha Island as an heir meant you had a household staff and certain amenities. I’d bet my life Kaja had never painted a wall in her entire existence. And Nell wouldn’t know the first thing about mopping. But having them show up was so sweet I rapidly blinked to keep from crying.
Nell held up the mop. “Oh, honestly, how hard can this be?”
I grinned. “You guys just want me to go to the beach party tonight, huh?”
They both nodded, and Kaja said, “Yep.”
“The king sent word that the border around the island is secure again,” Nell added. “So the party is on.”
Laughter pealed out of me. “Well, whatever your motives, I’m grateful.”
The next eight hours were brutal. We cleaned, mopped, and painted my bedroom and the kitchen, covering the old stained walls with a fresh lemon yellow. By the time we were done, the place looked decent. The kitchen was spotless, entryway clean, and living room livable, and my room was perfect. The rest of the house would have to wait for another weekend because I was dead. Nell and Kaja had just left to go back to their house and get ready for the night. I was supposed to meet them in an hour. They’d finally worn me down about going to the party. After hours of helping me clean, I owed them big-time.
Chapter 11
“I don’t know why I agreed to this,” I muttered, following behind Nell, Rue, and Kaja as we made our way down the sloped trail. All of us wore bikinis under our shorts and t-shirts. I tugged on my tank-top, self-conscious of the wave-like mark on my solar plexus. I wouldn’t take my shirt off tonight, not after seeing the Harvest girls’ unmarred skin. I wasn’t about to reveal it to anyone else until I knew what it meant.
We stepped barefoot into the sand, me and the apparent supermodel Harvest girls. I would kill for those long lean legs. At least they’d pulled their red hair up into messy buns, mimicking mine. Loose strands fell around my face and neck, and for every single one I tucked up into the elastic, two more fell out.
Nell glanced over her shoulder at me and grinned.