A beautiful new day dawned.

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

He stood easily a foot above them, but the beta 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 Darcy’s mind. Luca escorting him to the bus, and Darcy mentioning his friends being driven away by him. He had pointed them out to Luca. Named them. Luca had nodded to them. Darcy slapped a hand to his forehead, he had done this to himself.

He closed the last of the gap with stiff steps.

“Morning,” he 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.” His name coated in his soul-mate’s voice sent a mini shiver down his neck. “They can spend time with whoever they want.”

He looked to Melody and Reece with wide eyes, nodding them over to him.

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

“Sorry, Darce,” Melody added.

So now his 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, he could give him that. If he couldn’t stalk him, he could glue himself to his friends and then Darcy would come to him. But there was no way in hell that was going to happen. Being free of Luca was his top priority, even if he had to pry him off with a crowbar.

He 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 apologies. Luca watched him leave with a frown. The petty part of Darcy relished in his disappointment. He thought he had caught Darcy in his trap, but for once the ball was in Darcy’s court. Luca’s 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 his drool and the urge to bite him. Thankfully, Darcy made it away from them without ruining his tiny victorious moment with any weird lusty behaviour.

He 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, he didn’t care. He wanted to spend time with his 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 his friends for days. Which was strange, especially for Melody, who could talk the back legs off an alpha. His mum had agreed to pick him up in the afternoon once the scavenger hunt had ended, so he 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 he 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.

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

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

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

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

Luca was hot on his 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 his chance to slip away. He 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 he felt safe to detour, he dove down a bushy path, barely able to see more than a foot ahead of him. But that was exactly what he needed, the leaves would cover him while he put some distance between himself and his traitorous friends… and his stubborn mate. He only had to find somewhere to hide for a few hours, maybe he would even find some hidden treasure along the way.

What was that saying about friends again?