NOLAN

Yena’s smell had faded from their bedroom, but Nolan could not bring himself to throw out any of her belongings, still. He’d just banished himself from going into her dressing room or studio.

His body was missing hers, and he couldn’t sleep.

His inner wolf was in pain. And needed some sort of release.

Nolan’s heart started beating faster as he retreated into his office after coming home from a long day of work and meetings.

Kent was feeling pent up… frustrated and confined.

So Nolan calmly went to his office and locked himself inside.

He almost went right to the library, but no… he stopped at the bar just to get a cool bottle of water out of the mini fridge. He stood there and drank the whole thing down.

The woods behind the palace were pretty secluded. He did start remembering the night he met Yena… when she saved his life, after he was ambushed.

Nolan shook his head.

He’d been foolish to go on his own that night, so far up the mountain, where he should have known there could be danger lying in wait.

He’d be safer, tonight. He’d stay closer to the palace grounds.

He just had to get out and howl at the moon. It had been a long time since Kent felt so much like he needed to. With Yena gone, now…

Nolan started taking off his tie and jacket and he headed into the library, tossing them aside on the little couch in there. He grimaced looking at it, remembering what a mess he’d been on Yena’s last night in the palace.

He activated the passageway and the bookcase swung open… and up he went to the top of the stairs, and down a dark pathway that took him out into a cold, narrow cave.

Feeling the cool, fresh mountain air on his face felt refreshing already.

Nolan stripped naked, leaving his clothes in a pile at the mouth of the cave.

He stepped out into the woods, enjoying the feeling of the damp earth beneath his feet. He took in a deep breath of piney air and shifted into his wolf… and took off running.

YENA

It was still dark when I woke up to the sound of a text message notification.

I rolled over and looked at the lock screen. And let out a sigh when I saw it was four a.m. and the text was from Adan.

I tossed the phone aside and closed my eyes.

Then it pinged again. I made a sound that was a mixture of UGHH and a sleepy, raspy growl.

I rubbed my tired eyes and kept them closed. But now, my curiosity wouldn’t let me fall back asleep without seeing what was so freaking important that Adan needed to torture me awake over it at this hour.

So I grabbed the phone and read the messages.

He was telling me that the human professor friend of his was eager to meet me, and he needed to know ASAP when I could be available, so she could set aside some time in her schedule.

That was easy – this was the biggest priority in my life right now.

Any time, I wrote him back.

He followed up saying he’d tell me soon when the professor confirmed.

I wanted to ask him why he need to text me so early. But I wanted to just go back to sleep even more.

I was just about to put my phone on silent and set it back down when it pinged again. I let out another frustrated sound, even louder this time.

The text said: One more thing. She is working on getting you the acceptance letter asap too. You’re all good to go!

That made me sit straight up in bed. I stared down at the screen in disbelief.

The fact that Adan had been able to get someone to just send me an acceptance letter… when Nolan still seemed to not be able to do that yet, even as the prince with all his power and resources…

I was so happy and grateful. But confused, too.

If Adan was for real, then that meant Nolan really was deceiving me about the school stuff.

A yellow glow appeared under my bedroom door. The hall light.

Then there was a soft knock on the door. I could tell it was Evan.

“Come in.”

He cracked the door a tiny bit and peeked in, then inched it open slowly and stepped inside.

“What you woofing about in here?” His voice was raspy, like he just woke up.

“Sorry, you heard that?” I wrapped myself in the sheet to keep some warmth around my shoulders.

Evan closed the door behind him and leaned his back up against it. Put his hands into the pockets on his heavy flannel pajama pants and shrugged.

“Walls are pretty thin.”

“I’m sorry I woke you up. It’s just… something really annoying going on…”

“Tell me.”

“Come here,” I said, patting the space beside me on the bed.

He walked over slowly and sat down.

“I’m sorry I’m always complaining about Nolan,” I started. “You’re probably sick of hearing it. But I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on with my school stuff and everything.”

“What’s Nolan got to do with school stuff?”

It was mostly dark in the room, but my eyes were adjusting to the dim and I could see Evan’s expression. He looked very concerned.

I caught him up on what was going on. My conversations with Nolan, and…

I hesitated. I didn’t want to tell him about Adan.

That wasn’t something I’d ever talked to Evan about before. My brief and scandalous history with Nolan’s ex-royal half-brother.

I chose to skip over that part. I just told Evan that someone else had been contacting me from the university. He didn’t ask who the person was.

“My god, Yena! Nolan’s totally trying to keep you from going to the human school!”

I sucked in some air. I hated hearing someone say that flat out. At least Adan was kind of subtle about the way he criticized Nolan.

“I don’t know,” I told Evan. “It’s confusing. What Nolan told me made sense, but then I’m hearing this other message…”

Suddenly Evan took my hand and squeezed it.

“Yena,” he said, looking me in the eye. “He is totally screwing you over.”

I shook my head back and forth like No, but the words that came out of my mouth were, “I think you’re right.”

I regretted it immediately though… it wasn’t fair.

Nolan had been very good to me.

My brain told me it just couldn’t be true, what Adan was saying. But my emotions latched onto it and with someone there that wanted to listen to me vent my feelings, it had all just come rushing out.

“I can’t believe he’d do this to me,” I said. “He promised he’d support my career. I really felt like he believed in my work and my dream…”

“I knew…” Evan started saying something but then stopped.

“You knew what?”

“Ugh. I don’t know if I should say this to you.”

“Tell me,” I said. My voice came out more stern than I expected.

Evan chuckled and said, “Alright, Your Highness. You want me to tell you what I’m thinking about right now? You’re not gonna like it.”

“Just spit it out, Evan!” I took a pillow and hit him with it.

He snatched it away from me.

“I knew that guy couldn’t be trusted,” he finally said. “I never liked him, Yena. I tried to be supportive, but I never wanted you to go off with him in the first place.”

I felt my cheeks flushing red. Probably Evan couldn’t see this in the dim light.

I took a breath… trying to figure out why hearing Evan say this made me feel so many things at once.

The way he said he didn’t want me to go off with Nolan. It sounded like there was real pain in Evan’s voice.

I didn’t realize that it hurt him when I left.

Or that Evan really hated Nolan like that.

“And Yena,” he continued. “I told you once that if he ever hurt you, I would kill that bastard. And I fucking meant it.”