Iliana's Choice (Completed) SAMPLE ONLY!

4 - Delicious

Iliana

The last two weeks of school are a joke. Other than final exams, there isn't much else going on except for everyone making summer plans.

My summer plans are simple: keep growing stronger and healthier until I feel a little less like I'm dying every day. Too bad I can't share that with any of my friends.

"Hey, Iliana," Cinda comes up to me as I leave my last Geography class and tosses her arms around my shoulders. "What are you doing after school today?"

Well, I had awful nightmares last night, so I was hoping for a nap. I don't tell Cinda that, though. "Nothing much."

"Are you going to training later?" she asks me with a note of hesitation. I haven't trained in two years. My 'illness' has excused me from everything physical, even gym class, and most wolves take it for two periods a day.

"I wasn't planning on it," I say slowly.

"You can come watch, right? Teddy is entering the assessment competitions this evening, at like seven."

"Maybe," I hedge. I don't want to see Sean. At all.

We walk out of the school arm-in-arm, giggling at Mr. Tennison's holey pants. Now there's a male who needs a mate.

I feel his presence before I see him. Speak of the devil. He's here. Ugh. Did I not just say I don't want to see him? Silently, to myself, but geesh. And, no, my she-wolf did not just wag her tail at the intense look of concern and interest our ex-mate... no... our never-mate flashed toward us as we walked out of school.

"Isn't that Alpha Conner's luna?" Cinda grabs my arm excitedly.

What? I yank my gaze away from Sean's dark, hooded eyes to see the adorable human luna standing beside him, bouncing in place excitedly. I didn't even see her at first. I was too hung up on the male I swore I wouldn't think about anymore.

"It is," I reply belatedly, but Cinda is already dragging me across the Quad to the pickup truck parked in the pick-up lane.

"Luna," I greet her respectfully while disrespecting Sean by not even looking his way. Hopefully, the luna doesn't know any better. Sean, of course, understands the blatant disregard if the narrowing of his eyes is any indication.

"You're Cinda and Iliana right?" the luna bounces again, her curls bobbing with her. She looks like she was molded into this tiny, perfect figurine of a fifties pin-up girl. Gorgeous from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Her skin is absolutely flawless. She has a slight dusting of freckles on her smooth, unblemished face that actually makes her look just that much more unique and I am so jealous. Everything about me is bland and boring in comparison.

"Yes! You know us!" Cinda squeals next to me. "She knows our names!" Cinda whispers hoarsely in my ear in a tone that I instinctively know is audible even to human ears.

I wince a little. Luna Bailey is supposed to be wicked smart. A verifiable genius. Cinda and I were both featured at the mating celebration a week ago. It's safe to assume that Luna Bailey remembers us both.

Cinda is super-sweet, but not the brightest bulb in the box. It's too easy for other females to be cruel to Cinda. It's why I was so happy that she ended up mated to Teddy, who is one of the most mellow, laid-back males I've ever met.

My she-wolf and I are on-edge, waiting for our new, human luna to be disparaging or dismissive to our friend. The strain of loyalty between a friend or the female who is our alphason's saving grace might just rip my she-wolf and me in two.