Fighting with Fire #2 ✔

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟗 - 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫

From that point on, the rest of the trip was brain-achingly dull.

The Western Heritage Center did not deserve a five-hour bus drive — ten there and back. It was probably the most boring museum I'd ever been to, but maybe that was because we only spent an afternoon there.

Theo and Ryder barely spoke to each other after that night in the motel, so I could only guess at how long they'd spent arguing about what/who I did or didn't want.

Maia, mercifully, stuck by my side throughout that period of them falling out.

By the time we got back to Missoula, late at night, it didn't really feel like we'd been gone for two days. Back at the ranch, Jason and Jade said that nothing had changed there and that they'd heard no word from Abi or Storm.

As soon as we were back at school the night after we returned from the trip, Chris took me to one side. I was thrilled to see that his black eye was healing and so was his split lip, meaning that he hadn't been beaten up again since the basketball game.

"Chris, are you okay?" I rushed. "I saw you at the game the other night, and I—"

"Not here," he told me and led me away from the corridor full of students.

I glanced back at the pack and Maia: Ryder nodded, but Theo was busy staring at his locker with a clenched jaw.

"Thank you for saving Jade," I thanked him when we were in a quiet corridor.

"It's the least I could do." He eyed me. "But my family knows that I gave you the cure, and now they won't trust me with anything else."

"I'm so sorry." I crossed my arms and gestured to his black eye. "Did they do... that to your face?"

"Yeah..." He looked away. "But that's not all they did."

"What else did they do?" I questioned incredulously; his family seemed ruthless, but I guess that hunters have to be.

Chris' eyes snapped back up to mine with desperation written across his face. "Ember, you have to trust me — they made me do it, I had no choice—"

"You fucking bastard!" I heard Jason yell down the corridor, before running over to us. "Ember, get the hell away from him right now."

"What did you do, Chris?" I turned to him, and I was now the desperate one.

"Jason, please, I know you're angry — but they made me do it," Chris begged, now backed against a wall by the Alpha.

I'd never seen Jason so infuriated before; it was strange seeing him so angry — something big must've happened for him to react like this.

"You tell me right now, you little backstabbing dick," Jason growled; his forearm pressed against Chris' throat.

"I had... no ch-ch-choice." Chris gasped for air, being strangled by Jason's powerful arm.

Theo, Ryder, Jade and Maia were now here, and a crowd of students was gathering around to see the fight.

"Jason, you have to stop," Theo hissed at his Alpha but didn't get too close.

Being squished by the gathering crowd, I ran over to the pack and questioned them, "What the hell is going on?"

"They found a body," Maia whispered.

"Not just a body, Sienna's body," Jade told me, eyes widened, "She was Jason's partner, his one, his Luna..."

His Luna? What the hell is a Luna?

Ryder stepped towards Jason. "Stop Jason; they'll kill you if you kill him."