Chapter 158

YENA

My phone started going off, something I hardly even noticed at first. The little pinging sounds didn’t register as important, in the midst of everything that I was thinking and feeling. They just joined in with all the other miscellaneous noise out there on the tarmac.

But the notifications did not stop. They were persistent, coming in one after the other, and started forcing their way into the center of my attention.

And then I realized they weren’t just from my own phone, actually. All kinds of different electronic chimes and buzzes and rings were sounding out from all around me and Evan. Everyone’s phones were blowing up with calls and notifications.

I looked around. Every person in the crowd was now doing same thing—they had their phones out and were either holding them to their ears or staring, slack-jawed, at the screens.

And then, a few at a time, they all started looking at me expectantly.

Even my brother. He tore his worried attention away from me just long enough to retrieve his ringing phone from the pocket of his sweatshirt. He answered the call, listened for two seconds, then jerked his wide eyes back up to meet mine.

My phone was in the back pocket of my jeans. I pulled it out, looked down and unlocked the screen. I already knew it was going to be about Nolan.

There were missed calls and texts from Tina and Lucy.

And about a million news alerts, still arriving one after another, nonstop.

BREAKING NEWS: PRINCE NOLAN, LYCAN HEIR, SHOT AT WEREWOLF ORPHANAGE IN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT.

That was the first and only headline I managed to read before I dropped my phone.

It fell to the asphalt with a loud CRACK.

Evan was holding a hand over his mouth, his eyes still locked on mine. His phone was pressed to his ear. I could hear Tina’s voice, sounding squeaky and panicked, coming from the speaker, but not well enough to make out anything that she was saying.

“Mom, I’m gonna call you back,” Evan said quickly, then he hung up the call and brought his body closer to mine. He put a hand on my shoulder again. His eyes were unblinking and serious. “Okay, Mom’s watching the news right now. They’re saying Nolan was shot and poisoned. They’re taking him to the palace now, to a private hospital there. He’s in critical condition.”

A flush of tears arrived, blurring my eyes. But I didn’t have time to cry. I blinked the tears away and gritted my teeth, willing myself to focus, to be strong.

Because I knew that could save him. I could save Nolan with my blood if I could reach him in time. If I could get to him before he died.

I told Evan, “I need to go to him.” I heard the words as they came out of my mouth and realized they were the exact same words Lily had been saying to me all day.

“Of course, yeah. Alright, we’ll go right now. I’ll help you.” Evan fumbled for his phone again. In the moment, I could not imagine what possibly helpful thing he could have been doing with it. Later I realized he was thinking about getting me a ride to the palace.

But weaving back through the crowded airport, getting into a car and waiting for someone to drive us through traffic was not something that was about to happen. Thoughts of doing anything like that had not even crossed my mind.

I just needed to run. I needed to run to Nolan as fast as I could.

Lily’s voice was loud and clear. “I can get us to him,” she said. “Trust me. Just let me take the lead.”

I believed her.

“Stop it, Evan.” With more force than I had expected to use, I shoved his phone out of his hands, sending it to the ground with my own. Then I took both of his hands and held them with both of mine. “I can get there on my own. And… I’m sorry. I really am so sorry, Evan. About all of this.”

My body was buzzing with heat and energy. Lily was ready to go.

Evan stared at me for a second. Then he said, “Don’t, Yena. I know. I get it now. I know you belong with him.” He pulled his hands away and took several steps backward, making space between us. “Go,” he said. “Go to him.”

That was the last time I needed to be told to do that.

EVAN

Yena smiled, with a look of sad relief in her big blue eyes.

Evan had finally set her free. He was officially done waiting to see if maybe he could win her over someday. He was done hoping they could ever be together, now that he knew.

He knew when he saw what happened to Yena there on the tarmac, and when he heard his mother describe what happened to Nolan on the other side of town.

Yena had felt Nolan’s pain when he was shot in the chest. That wasn’t something that just happened to anyone.

Yena and Nolan were fated mates.

That was undeniable, after all that Evan had just witnessed. Undeniable, powerful, and rare.

The two of them were meant to be together, that was clear now. They needed each other. It would be wrong to stand in the way of something like that. To stand in the way of fate.

Until he said those words to Yena and saw how she reacted, he didn’t realize how much he’d been holding her back. Yena cared about Evan so much. She didn’t want to break his heart.

She had been needing to hear him say that he understood.

Yena turned and started running. She leapt forward and shifted in mid-air, landing on four feet as a lithe, beautiful golden wolf.

Everyone watching gasped all at once, like a chorus. The crowd parted swiftly to let her through. She flew by the onlookers in a blur of gold, sending a rush of wind behind her that knocked one man’s hat right off his head.

The golden wolf zoomed forward, running down the tarmac at an incredible speed. It looked like she knew where she was going. She was like a missile, steady on her course and picking up more speed every second, unstoppable.

The crowd was stunned into frozen silence until Yena disappeared around a corner, leaving the airport property. Then they all went wild, roaring with chatter and confused, scattered applause. The mass of bodies dissolved, the people scattering now in all directions.

Evan looked back at the jet he and Yena had just been about to board before this all went down.

A sigh of relief escaped his lips.

He had been terrified to take this trip. He would do absolutely anything for Yena, but that didn’t mean he was looking forward to it. He didn’t really want to live in the human world.

All he’d wanted was to be with her.

It felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest, really.

What Yena was going to do when she made it to Nolan, Evan had no idea. Tina had told him the people on the news were saying that Nolan had been poisoned with wolfsbane. It was a wonder that he was still alive. Usually that would kill a wolf on contact.

But although Nolan was alive, he was not in good shape. Evan could not imagine how the prince, how anyone could survive this.

But for Yena’s sake, he hoped against hope that he would.