One Bite

Chapter 4-8

"S-Solomon escaped?" I sputtered a name so close to my heart that it pinched. And yet, my brother's name was so unfamiliar on my lips that my voice didn't sound like my own. "But I've always been told that he's... dead?"

"He might be," was the response I didn't appreciate from Meredith, who tapped her nails on the table. "We don't know. We haven't seen him for six months now after he... escaped."

Her words fluttered my eyes closed. My brain felt thick and processed thoughts slowly. I had trouble getting past a previous piece of information, reflected in my muttered words, "My brother is... alive!?"

"As of six months ago, yes," was her impatient response, accompanied with harder nail taps.

Her porcelain-masked face, perfect sculpted black eyebrows, pale skin relaxed over her high cheekbones, and pale, heart-shaped lips, looked at me quizzically, as if I had information on his whereabouts. My sole response that expended what little strength I had for a silent head shake.

Six months... my brother was alive. And here.

Three months before the start of this crazy mate selection tour that's entirely fake.

"My brother..." I thought carefully about the words I chose. "Did he stay here... freely?"

"As freely as someone put under a medical coma, yes." Simon's expression hardened. "Due to a mistake with his medicine dosage, he woke up and escaped. Rumors are that he went rogue but no one has seen a single sighting of him, not in this territory at least."

The weight of his words 'he woke up and escaped' slumped me over in my seat. My eyes widened as a million thoughts swirled in my head, but one in particular came into focus.

He was trapped. Held here like a prisoner, by their pack.

My heart strings grasped at the positive aspect, pushing more tears over my cheeks and filling my nose with congestion.

He's alive though.

In conflicting reactions, my heart swelled inside my chest.

My brother's alive. Or, he was.

Instantly, the mental image I saw when buzzing out of my brain resurfaced. The tall, lean-framed man with light-blonde hair, pale skin marred with white scars, and clear, aquamarine eyes.

My eyes.

Waves and waves of Lumi's emotions flowed through her normal block. A warming sensation spread through my body like wildfire.

'Still alive.'

Squeezing my eyes closed, my damp lashes fell onto my cheeks.

Can you... feel his wolf?

My heart lurched when she was quiet for a moment. I felt her reach, extending herself by casting an invisible search. A deep-rooted sense of a longing, a reason not to hide in the shadows, fueled her intentions. The quiet intensity she exerted gripped my own heart.

We shared the same reaction, an explosion of warmth and relief, with her response.

'Faint.'

A weighted sensation filled my stomach as my eyes opened to the silent room. Suspicion crawled up the back of my throat. Hardening my gaze, I looked from Meredith to Simon.

Even their reactions will provide clues if they're telling the truth or not.

The risk that both took, even speaking with me, wasn't lost in my mind. It was only rivaled by the greater risk I'd placed myself in under the same circumstances. The room in the air thickened.