A wave of nervous warmth flooded Rem. She glanced over to see that Ronan had not relinquished his gaze. Her feelings for Hugo had been one thing, but Ronan revved her body in consuming ways.
She looked back at Loral. Breathlessly, she said, "So, he seems to be.”
Loral narrowed her eyes, her lips gently smiling. "Does he like you, too?"
"He doesn't speak English, so I don't really know.”
"Icelandic is easy to learn, so I wouldn't worry about that. They’re very body language oriented, so that might also help.”
The two of them chatted briefly about their experiences with pack life as Loral fidgeted fiercely with her fingers, but it wasn't for long as the king and queen rose from their seats and gave an approving nod towards the Silvers, their crystal crowns glinting with fire and moonlight. They had been speaking with the Elders for most of the night, sometimes in a heated debate. With their leave, a few others ended their celebration, although most remained to enjoy the night.
The Elders stood and nodded towards the Silvers. Rem glanced at Ronan one last time when he stood, his sheer mass catching her attention, the familiar tingling energy stirring in her chest.
Once again, that unreadable glare directed right at Rem made her desperate to know what on Earth that he was thinking.
* * *
The next morningcame and went; the girls were fed a meal of bacon and eggs. Today, they would begin their process in becoming a shifter.
They had been taken back to the townhome and slept there for the night—Rem didn’t even get to see Nia. She hoped this separation from Warden was temporary, but the Elders refused to speak on the matter. It was all Rem could do not to panic, as she had absolutely no idea how this would affect her deal with the Callons.
The Silvers wore the same outfit from the night before, save their skin was cleaned from the paint. Rem’s shoulders were tired from the heavy chainmail.
Her eyes watered as she yawned, and she pulled at her face when her muscles gently spasmed in the wake of a stretch. She received no sleep the previous night, suffering from nightmares of Oliver being left behind in the orphanage, with Rem trying to speak to anyone that would listen, only to lose her voice.
I need to remember I will be a she-wolf soon. At the worst, I will just go to Jackson and Fiona myself and use my own claws. Fiona said killing her would release me…
Those festering thoughts of vengeance were her only true source of sanity. Especially as today, because the Silvers were taking their first step towards becoming a she-wolf. Rem wasn’t sure where it would take place, but apparently, they had to drink a serum to open up their veins to the magic of the moon.
She wanted to get it over with. The sooner they started the destruction of her humanity, the sooner she could move on; the sooner she’d be harder to subdue.
"I am not going," a Silver protested as they stood and waited for their orders, judgmentally glancing at the others. The protestor was the one who refused to remove her dress from the day before. She unbraided her long, straight silver hair in an act of defiance.
"Oh, not this again," another Silver whined as she crossed her arms.
"I am a human, not a hairy beast," the former said with her head upturned.
"Your hair is silver, in case you haven’t looked in the mirror lately. You’re one of the wolves, whether or not you like it," another said.
Rem caught her name as Shia. Her skin was the same caramel color of the queen’s, but her facial features were softer, her nose bulky and her lips thinner.
"And my entire family is human, so why should I care,Shia?" the difficult one asked.
"Where else are you going to go,Josie?" Shia retorted.
Rem raised her brows and pursed her lips as she chewed on her nails once again in a bad habit that seemed to only worsen as of late.
"Home," Josie replied matter-of-factly.
Shia snorted. "Who ruled your home?"
"Witches.”
"They'll just give you to the hunters then, who will use you like dogs.”
"No, they won't. Emerie loved me," Josie replied with little care as she looked at her nails, picking at the dirt underneath one of them. “Plus, why would they do that? Emerie gave me to these creatures because shethoughtit was my best interest. I can always go back and dye my hair, tell her how uncivilized these beasts can be. She’ll understand.”
A tall, skinny, dark-skinned Silver interjected, her voice low and smooth. “My witch sent me here when she learned the hunters were coming for us. We can controlwargs, Josie. That means that the hunters can control wargs if they get ahold of us, so they’d use us all the same. Your witch would send you right back. They traded us with the shifters for a reason, and you know that witches play the long game. This is a plan of theirs or else they wouldn’t letallof us go in similar manners.”
