Time To Battle

‘December 14th, 2017’

‘Lumen’

Eve

“That’s MY DRESS!” Anya thundered.

“It was mine first!” Reyna replied.

“WAS NOT! MOM GAVE IT TO ME!”

“YEAH! FROM MY CLOSET!”

I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut. Even with a closed door, I could hear Anya and Reyna’s screams at full volume.

If I had to endure the Equinox Assembly tonight—the massive town ball that would force me into a crowded ballroom with all of Lumen—I sure as hell didn’t want to endure this all afternoon.

“IT’S NOT LIKE YOU WANT TO WEAR IT!”

“THAT’S NOT THE POINT, REYNA!”

That was it. I flung my door open and marched into the hallway, ready to tear into some teenagers.

Anya and Reyna were holding different ends of an electric blue gown, each refusing to let go.

Anya had tears streaming down her face, and Reyna looked like she was about to pop a vein.

“Girls.” They both turned to me. “What’s the problem?”

“Reyna won’t let go of ~my dress.~”

I looked at Reyna.

“It’s ~my dress~,” she responded.

“Anya, are you wearing that dress tonight?” I asked.

Anya shook her head. “But it’s mine. Mom gave it to me. It was the last thing she gave to me.”

“But she gave it to you as a hand-me-down. From my closet. And I want to wear it tonight,” Reyna pleaded. I’d never seen Reyna plead before.

“Why do you even want it? It’s not black,” Anya snapped.

Even though it was bitchy, the girl had a point.

The one time I hadn’t seen Reyna in all black, she’d been wearing a white tank top. And now she was making a scene over a bright blue gown?

“I wore that dress to my ninth grade formal,” Reyna said softly. “That was the only dance I went to. Mom helped me get ready and… it was the only time I had fun at a dance. Okay? I just want to have fun tonight.”

I watched as Anya slowly released the satin from her fingers, looking at her sister like she couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.

To be honest, I couldn’t either.

That was a whole lot more emotion than I was used to from the older Morgan girl.

“Twenty-minute warning!” Martin bellowed from downstairs, and the girls scurried, disappearing back into their own rooms.

But Reyna’s explanation was still on my mind. It didn’t fit.

I walked back into my room and threw my leather jacket over my black tank top.

It might be the Equinox Assembly, but I was still in Lumen on work. I would not be dancing tonight. I would not be having fun.

And not just because Raphael would be there. I mean, of course he would be there.

He was the goddamn Alpha of all Alphas. He’d be the highlight of the ball.

But after the way we’d ended things last week, I had no interest in talking to him again. I had no interest in talking to him ever.

I’d said what I had to say. I was honest, and whether or not he understood why, it didn’t matter.

I hated him. Really and truly. And that would never change.

I laced up my combat boots and slung my purse over my shoulder.

Ever since Kimbringe had given me the glass vials, they’d been packaged safely inside my purse.

Kimbringe was a smart man and a good Deity. If he gave me a warning, or a piece of advice, I took it to heart. So these vials, they came with me. Wherever I went.

“Five minutes!” Martin shouted from downstairs.

I sighed, shooting a quick glance at the mirror on my wall.

My face was free of makeup, but still my skin glistened under the light.

My eyes were wide, their odd violet color striking, and my lips were pink and plump. I looked how I always looked.

I strode out into the hallway and down the stairs, just in time to see Anya walk down the staircase.

She looked breathtaking, her blonde hair falling in loose waves down her shoulders and her baby-pink minidress showing off her long bronzed legs.

But then I saw Reyna behind her. And Reyna… she looked like a queen.

The electric blue gown showed off just how long and lean her figure was, and her dark hair was piled on top of her head.

She looked radiant. Radiant and regal.

“My girls… you both… you look beautiful,” Martin choked out, looking from daughter to daughter.

“Okay, enough of the theatrics. Let’s go before every Morgan gets the chance to cry,” I instructed, opening the front door.

***

We pulled into the Pack House parking lot, and I saw hundreds of other Lumen townspeople climbing out of their cars.

The Equinox Assembly didn’t happen every year. In fact, most packs never really had one. The Yule Ball on Christmas Day and the Solstice Assembly in the Spring were the only two events that every pack had.

I wasn’t sure why Gabriel decided to host the assembly this year. It wasn’t like Lumen was going through any sort of crisis.

“Hurry up!” I heard Anya whine from a few feet away. She’d already started walking to the ballroom with the throngs of other people in formalwear.

Reyna started walking toward her sister, and when I looked back to the driver’s seat to check on Martin, I saw him hunched over against the steering wheel. I sighed, going over to his car door and knocking on the window.

He looked at me, and I saw the tears falling down his cheeks. He tried to wipe them away, but it was no use.

He rolled down the window.

“I’m not sure I can…” he began.

“You can. And you will,” I ordered.

“This is the first… the first Assembly. Without Elena,” he sobbed.

“Martin. I’m not your therapist, and I’m not your friend. But I will tell you that your girls are depending on you. You have to be strong. For them.”

My stern words seemed to get through to him.

He nodded, unbuckling his seat belt and opening the door. As he climbed out, I realized how good it was that I’d taken this mission. That I was here to protect the girls.

Because if it was just Martin protecting them, I wasn’t all that confident they’d last the week.

Reyna

The second I walked into the ballroom, I had this weird feeling wash over me. Like… people were looking at me.

And not because I was dressed in goth clothes or wearing too much eyeliner or listening to death metal too loudly.

No. It was like they were looking at me because I was beautiful. Or something.

“Anya!” Some blonde ditz squealed from a few yards away, and I watched as my Barbie-doll sister ran toward her. They hugged, and I thought I might vomit.

“There she goes,” I heard Dad say from behind me. I turned to look at him, and I swear he looked like he’d been crying.

He’d been so emotional lately, and I got it. Mom had only died three months ago. I was sad too.

But he was a middle-aged man. Shouldn’t he be the stoic one? I couldn’t take his sadness, especially not right now.

I looked good, I was wearing a dress I would never even think about wearing normally… and I knew Jed was going to be here.

Okay, fine. I thought he was cute.

I liked him more than I’d ever admit to anyone. It was like he got me. And no boy had ever gotten me.

I kept walking straight into the ballroom, trying to find him. I was just about to give up when I saw his thick shaggy hair by the bar.

I smiled immediately, unable to stop myself. As soon as he saw me, he held his arms out for a hug.

“Hey!” he exclaimed as I embraced him quickly. But even though it was quick, the contact made my skin break out in goosebumps.

I could feel my heart racing just by standing beside him.

“Hi,” I said, blushing.

“Wow. You look… incredible,” he said as his eyes traveled up and down my gown.

My blush got even more intense. There was no way he’d be able to miss my red cheeks now.

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” I responded, and then I chided myself.

How awkward did I sound? But then I looked at him and realized it was true. He did look good.

He wore a formal tux, like most of the other guys here, and the bow tie looked adorable on him.

His hair was still long and wild, and his freshly shaven face made him look like such a… boy. A cute boy. A boy that made me nervous.

“What are you looking at?” he asked, a smirk tugging on his lips.

“Nothing. You.”

~Ugh. Get it together, Reyna.~

A server walked by carrying champagne flutes, and Jed grabbed two off the tray. “For you, my lady,” he bowed, handing me one of the glasses.

I’d never had champagne before, but I couldn’t really refuse. He’d bowed and everything.

So I took the glass from his hand, and we clinked our glasses.

And then I drank.

Eve

I’d found a good place to keep watch of the ballroom, about five floors up. From where I was crouching, I could see everything going on downstairs.

I spotted Reyna immediately. She was by the bar, talking to a man. ~Who is that?~ I knew I recognized the shaggy hair… ~oh~, I thought, ~of course~.

Jed. Raphael’s Delta.

My eyes left the two of them and were scanning back through the crowd to check up on Anya when they fell on Raphael.

Immediately, I felt the heat between my legs. He was five flights down and still he got me wet. It just made me hate him more...and want him more.

~Fuck.~

I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

He was in a navy blue blazer and a crisp white shirt. It was effortlessly sexy, the way his tanned skin radiated against the white of his collar. I could see it from here.

His charm.

His charisma.

It was calling out to me.

~NO. Stop it, Eve.~

But then he tilted his head up, scanning his eyes around the building. It was like he sensed me.

I knew he wouldn’t be able to find me. I was hidden behind the wood railing, and he might have an unbelievably strong sense of smell, but his vision was average.

After a few seconds, he gave up looking.

I watched as he strode through the crowd, shaking hands and smiling like a goddamn politician.

But then he placed a hand on the shoulder of a pretty young blonde thing. And I watched her turn around, a shocked smile jutting across her face.

It was Anya. He held out his hand to her, inviting her to dance.

The motherfucker.

Using the teenage girl I had to protect against me, luring her in with his charm to what, make me jealous?

Of a high school sophomore?

Of a girl with cotton-candy lip gloss in her purse?

It wasn’t working.

It ~wasn’t.~

I watched as his hands held her hips, as they glided along the dance floor in tune to the music, and then I forced myself to stop.

~Stop watching. He wants you to look, so don’t.~

I turned my head a little and saw Reyna dancing with Jed.

They were gazing at each other, moving slower than everyone else. That was when I felt a weird sense hit me.

The sense that someone was here. Someone with magic, someone powerful.

I shot my eyes to the door of the ballroom.

That was when I saw a man. He looked to be about twenty, but I knew that didn’t mean anything. I looked like I was twenty too.

He had dark hair and was wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt.

Like me, he hadn’t come dressed for the Assembly.

He’d come dressed for battle.