A beautiful new day dawned.

Darcy skipped into school without any escort, relishing in her freedom. She was so excited to be able to hang out with her friends again that she headed to their lockers before her own. They were only one hundred metres away when she began jogging. She couldn’t wait to catch up with Melody and Reece… and… Luca?

He stood easily a foot above them, but he was very much inserted into their huddle. The three of them stood in a semi-circle around Melody’s locker. A thick and awkward tension sat around them.

That afternoon by the buses flashed into her mind. Luca escorting her to the bus, and her mentioning her friends being driven away by him. She had pointed them out. Named them. He’d nodded to them. Darcy slapped a hand to her forehead, she had done this to herself.

She closed the last of the gap with stiff steps.

“Morning,” she said through gritted teeth. “What’s going on?”

“I’m catching up with my friends,” Luca announced.

“These are my friends,” Darcy corrected him.

“You don’t own them, Darcy.” Her name coated in his voice sent a mini shiver down her neck. “They can spend time with whoever they want.”

She looked to Melody and Reece with wide eyes, nodding them over to her.

“W-we have to stay with him,” Reece mumbled.

“Sorry, Darce,” Melody added.

So now her friends were probably being threatened or blackmailed. Fantastic. That sounded spot-on for how things had been going for Darcy lately. Luca had found a decent loophole, she could give him that. If he couldn’t stalk her, he could glue himself to her friends and then she would come to him. But there was no way in hell that was going to happen. Being free of him was her top priority, even if she had to pry him off with a crowbar.

She nodded slowly and turned away from the strange threesome. “Okay, I’ll talk to you guys later, then.”

Melody and Reece said sheepish goodbyes mingled with added apologies. Luca watched her leave with a frown. The petty part of Darcy relished in his disappointment. He thought he had caught her, but for once the ball was in Darcy’s court. His cockiness was almost criminal. And twice as infuriating that it made every one of his grins deliciously sexy. Once again, Darcy had to rein in her drool and the urge to bite him. She thankfully made it away from them without ruining her tiny victorious moment with any weird lusty behaviour.

She was in the library for a study period when their group chat suddenly came alive.

Melody: Sorry Darce :(

Reece: Seriously sorry. We really wanted to see you.

Melody: You said you had got rid of him??

Melody: Since when is he trying to get so involved in your life??? >:(

Reece: He came out of nowhere. So scary.

Melody: We can’t talk long, he’s nearby!!

Darcy: It’s okay, as long as he isn’t being mean to you?

There was a long pause with Melody’s avatar ‘typing’ the whole time.

Melody: We can hang out this weekend. There’s a nature reserve we heard about that’s running a scavenger hunt this Saturday. The whole area is wolves-only so we can shift, too. I’ll send the location.

The message was a little stale for Melody, usually she would use more emojis and exclamation marks. But making plans for the weekend was such a relief to Darcy, she didn’t care. She wanted to spend time with her friends without someone at their backs.

Darcy: That looks great! I can get a bus there and ask my mum to pick me up. It’s not far from our pack grounds at all.

Melody: We will meet there. Fifteen minutes before the scavenger hunt starts should be enough.

Darcy: Perfect :)

When Saturday arrived, Darcy hadn’t been able to get a text back from either of her friends for days. Which was strange, especially for Melody, who could talk the back legs off an alpha. Her mum had agreed to pick her up in the afternoon once the scavenger hunt had ended so she took a short bus in the morning.

Darcy had never heard of this nature reserve but had gone through all the details online beforehand and the hunt was by ticket only. When you reserved your ticket, it asked for a family name, which to werewolves meant pack name. That must have been how they ensured no humans bought tickets. Werewolves had surnames, and your bloodline was important. But when asked for your ‘family’ name, especially in a wolf-friendly environment, you were being asked for your pack.

When Darcy arrived, all she could see was walls and walls of tall wooden fence with tree tops poking out from behind. They were very careful about the wolves-only rule,then.

She collected her ticket at the entrance and spotted Melody and Reece hovering between the car park and the cluster of small wooden buildings that pre-empted the enormous woodland ahead. There were so many people milling around them, but strangely, it almost looked like one of the tall ones was talking to them.

A dirty blonde head turned and Darcy jolted to a halt a few feet from the three of them.

Something prickled in her chest. Betrayal. They could have warned her. A text. A call. Anything. But they let her walk into his trap, knowing exactly what she had been through with him since the first day of high school. They didn’t know they were soul-mates, but being her bully was more than enough reason for them to be wary of him. She pinched her lips and searched their faces for any kind of apology. They looked guilty, but not particularly sorry. If they were really her friends, they would hate his guts on her behalf.

“I heard you needed a fourth person, what with the scavenger hunt being made for pairs and all,” Luca called to her. His smug smile stoked the flame inside of her, she wanted to throw something at him.

On the website it had said you could group up in teams of 3 or less. That included playing alone. She didn’t feel like pairing with Melody or Reece, they had betrayed her and already ruined her day. But her pick-up wouldn’t be for a few hours and she had already bought the ticket. An encore of lonesome Darcy was her only option.

“I’m playing alone,” she said, nose in the air. She stomped past the three of them and took her ticket to the main building to get started. She was given a map, her first clue, and a wicker basket.

Luca was hot on her heels, but one of the event organisers stopped him to take his ticket and talk him through the event despite how evident Luca made it that he could not care less about the rules and only wanted to get through the gate. Darcy took her chance to slip away. She didn’t read the clue, but followed the steady stream of people wandering into the forest. Some were already stripping and shifting.

Once far enough in that she felt safe to detour, she dove down a bushy path, barely able to see more than a foot ahead of her. But that was what exactly what she needed, the leaves would cover her while she put some distance between herself and her traitorous friends… and her stubborn mate. She only had to find somewhere to hide for a few hours, maybe she would even find some hidden treasure along the way.

What was that saying about friends again?