EVAN

Tina was bustling around in the kitchen when Evan got back home.

“Where’ve you been?” she asked casually.

“I dropped Yena off to do her volunteer thing,” he answered.

“Ah. Well, you’re just in time.”

She threw an apron at Evan and he caught it in one hand.

“Put that on,” she said. “You’re gonna learn to cook at least one thing before you leave!”

Evan tossed the apron on the kitchen counter. “Fine, Mom, but I’ll be right back, okay?”

After a stop at the bathroom, Evan went into his room to change clothes again. He’d bundled up for the trip outside, and now was dressed too warm to be in Tina’s hot kitchen.

Pulling his sweatshirt over his head, Evan winced.

His arms were dead tired and insanely sore.

He’d really gone too hard with the weights this morning. Pushed himself way too far. It was because his mind was elsewhere (thinking about Yena, of course), and he lost track of time…

Lost track of reps… lost track of how much weight he was pressing, too.

And now it was an hour later and his muscles were still bulging, red, and hot with pain.

He grabbed a bottle of water off his nightstand and chugged it while walking back downstairs.

“Now, just follow me and I’m going to talk through every single thing I do, okay?” Tina had a very serious look in her eye and was using her teacher voice.

Evan listened as best he could and did what she said.

But he’d always been a bad student.

A lot of the cooking talk was like a foreign language to him, too. He nodded at Tina a lot, pretending to understand. And started watching the clock, hoping that any minute now, he’d get a text from Yena asking him to come pick her up.

LUCY

“It’s just too risky for me,” Adan was saying. “I can’t afford to lose my job.”

Lucy wasn’t looking at him.

It was hard to take seriously any of the things he was saying, when she knew the real reason he was dumping her.

“I could be fired if anyone found out about us,” Adan continued. “And I’ve so loved the time we’ve spent together, Luce. But when the new semester starts, I’m afraid… it’ll be too difficult to keep hiding the secret.”

“That was all true before, though, also,” Lucy said quietly. “What’s different now?”

Adan sighed. “I guess… I’ve just had more time to think about it. And consider what I’m putting on the line.”

Lucy wanted to say: “You’ve had time to think about how much you really like me… or don’t like me. That’s what’s different!”

But instead, she just said, “Okay.”

Her emotions were all over the place.

She was relieved – that was real. Because her and Adan’s secret relationship had become so tense lately and she knew it wasn’t going anyplace good.

And because she knew that he didn’t love her, and never would.

But despite all that…

She still adored Adan.

She still loved him.

And even though she wanted to be free from him, he was still dashing her heart to pieces right now.

“Can I just ask you one thing?” Lucy said.

“Of course.”

“It’s because of Yena, isn’t it? You’re in love with her. Aren’t you?”

Adan’s eyes narrowed to slits.

It was a kind of glare that Lucy hadn’t seen before. The cold look in his eyes sent a chill right down her spine.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Adan said. “Of course not.”

Lucy looked away, her eyes hot with tears.

The way he’d said it, and the overly defensive anger in his eyes… she knew he was lying.

“You’re not thinking of telling her about us again, are you?” Adan asked slowly.

“No!” Lucy shouted. “No, of course not.”

“Good.”

He still looked angry. And it seemed like he was deliberately trying to adjust his tone of voice, too, to mask his real feelings.

“Because,” he continued, “that would be a mistake. You know that, don’t you, Lucy?”

The words alone were enough to make Lucy’s blood run cold.

But then she turned back to Adan. And she saw in his eyes a truly menacing look.

He was threatening her.

“Yeah,” she said, “I know. And I swear to you, I’ll never say a word to anyone, Adan. I promise.”

NOLAN

The prince was pacing in his office with his arms folded across his chest.

Things had changed since the last time this trade issue was up for a vote.

Now, there was an even bigger divide in Parliament than there had been a few weeks ago. Because the delay had given Kerr and his allies the extra time that they needed to sway a few other politicians onto their side.

So Nolan’s speech was going to be more important than ever.

He had started, tonight, by looking at the script he’d written for the last time.

None of it sounded any good anymore. He ripped the pages in half and threw them into the roaring yellow blaze in his fireplace.

Now, he was walking up and down the length of his office, searching his brain, trying to come up with a new angle. A new way to convince a bunch of stoic politicians to spend millions of dollars on something they were not convinced was necessary.

Nolan paused at the window.

The sun was setting outside, glowing orange at the horizon line and casting big, golden sunrays in all directions.

It made him think of Yena.

The glimpse of her golden hair that first let him know she was there by his side, out of nowhere…

He still couldn’t believe he’d run into her this afternoon. Or that she’d invited him over to Tina’s house tomorrow.

Nolan found himself wandering absently over to the closet.

Next thing he knew, he was holding the jacket that he’d told Yena about. The one she was going to try to tailor for him.

He fingered the shoulder seams, feeling for how much fabric was inside the hem.

It didn’t seem like it was going to be possible to make the shoulders any broader.

But Nolan had seen Yena do some remarkable things with clothes, before. Fixing mistakes. Making modifications.

Taking something old and making it new again.

She was a true artist.

Nolan shook his head, trying to re-focus.

This speech was so important. But now that he had plans to see Yena tomorrow, he was badly distracted.

Nolan forced himself to put the jacket away.

At his desk, he picked up the notepad he’d been writing notes on. Pulled a gold pen out of his pocket and pressed the tip to the page…

But he just could not come up with anything to write.

He dragged the pen across the page in a long, squiggly line. Then tossed both the notepad and pen down onto the desk.

If he couldn’t make this speech convincing enough, the vote would go the wrong way. That was for sure. Everything was riding on the prince and his oratory skills.

If he failed…

The trade deal that he had been negotiating with the humans for years would be scrapped.

Parliament would be going back to square one to draw up a whole new agreement, and then there’d be another year or more of arguments back and forth.

And the humans… well, they wouldn’t be happy.

To say the least.

The relationship between the human and werewolf worlds was already a tense and delicate one. Losing Parliament’s backing for the trade deal would show the humans bad faith.

And things would be worse than ever.