Back inside the kitchen, I take a deep breath before risking a quick trip into the main room and the celebration of life. Things finally seem to be wrapping up and pack members are heading out. Of course, a lot of them will go to other places to hang out and drink some more, but I honestly do not care at all where they go. I just need this gathering to end so I have a reason to go home.

There are some smaller groups and pairs of pack members leaving together, and I’m sure some of them are planning on hooking up. Even the idea of that is enough to send my thoughts spinning once more, flickering through the burning memories of Ranveer, Leo, and Apollo.

A poof of wild blonde hair catches my eye and I realize Odette is one of the pack members who has paired off. She’s holding the hand of an older wolf I recognize. It’s Hector, one of the regular patrol wolves.

Odette catches my eye and gives me a sly grin. “Make sure to check the lights and lock the doors,” she says to me. “I’ll be home late.”

I roll my eyes, but Odette’s adventures are somehow enough to ground me once more. “Yes, yes,” I say. “Have fun but be safe.”

Odette laughs and leaves me behind.

The last few pack members are trickling out of the main house. I head back into the kitchen to grab my bag as well as the last potato croquette to cram into my mouth, and then finally, blessedly, I’m free of the house and outside. A short walk through the woods and I’ll be home.

I take a deep breath out front, expecting the crisp autumn air to do its best to clear whatever’s remaining of that ridiculous scent I picked up at the wake, the scent that apparently turned me into some sort of wild sexual…predator? No, that’s not right.

Well, you did practically lunge at Ranveer.

Fair. But not Leo and Apollo. They were the ones who started things with me in the pantry hall and out back of the kitchen.

A trio of pack members skirt around me and I step aside before pinching the bridge of my nose at all this ridiculousness. Because of course it doesn’t even matter who started what and who did what things. Things were done! That’s the base truth. And I don’t know how I could succumb like that.

Ranveer, Leo, and Apollo are literally the three worst people I know, and they’ve never once tried to treat me like I’m anybody. In fact, I’m pretty sure that our time in the pantry is the most that Leo has ever even looked at me before.

And yet some stupid instinctual awakening or coming-of-age or whatever the fuck takes over and all that animosity goes out the window.

I hate it.

Yeah. You sure did “hate” it…

I need to get out of here.

I stride away from the main house and toward the path that leads through the woods.

But it’s not enough. I need to get out of the pack. Away from the Tripdick and everyone else who treats me like I’m nothing. Maybe I can step up my exit plan, try to speed things along. The sooner I can get away from the Silvercrest pack, the better it is for everyone, not just me.

Behind me the chatter of the remaining wolves at the wake fade into the background and I’m finally free of it.

“Where we meeting up next?”

Ranveer’s voice calling out to the others in front of the house cuts through the quiet of the woods. I gasp, my hackles instantly rising, a learned response from being near any of the Tripdick. But as a bead of cold sweat trails down my spine, I shiver, and it’s not from the cold.

The sound of his voice rolls over my body and my skin reacts almost like I’ve touched a live wire. It wants to feel him again. I want to feel him again…

Get out of here, Margot. You can’t trust your body right now.

I pick up my pace. I just need to get home before any other disastrous choices are made on my behalf.

I turn a corner on the path and finally, finally, the last remaining sounds from the funeral fade completely away. I’m alone in the woods. This whole nightmare—not the right word—is over.

I smell him a second before he grabs my wrist, spinning me around to face him.

This time Ranveer’s hand on my skin doesn’t raise the same sort of alarm as before. Even though he’s sneering at me. Even though he’s looking at me the same way he always does: as if I’m below him, barely worth his notice.

“What?” he says, anger in his voice. “You thought you could just do that and then leave? What gives you the right?”

He grabs the back of my neck, and it’s not a loving gesture. His fingers grip my skin there almost painfully, but for some reason this feels good. Feels right. Instantly, I let him pull me closer.

He stares at me for a moment, anger in his eyes as they flick around my face. I get the feeling he’s looking for an answer, but I’m not even sure what the question is.

Then he pulls me roughly into a kiss.

The kiss before was hungry, yes, but new and confusing. This kiss is almost desperate and panicked. And too short, as he jerks his lips away almost immediately.

“If I knew kissing you was going to be like this, Solus… Fuck, I hate to admit that I would have done it a hell of a lot sooner.”

As if I would have let him…

But I snort internally. Who hasn’t Ranveer been with in the pack? He’s hooked up with pretty much anyone who’s willing, women and men. And, like him, if I knew kissing him could be like this…well. I think I would have agreed to almost anything.

Ranveer pulls me off the path, deeper under the trees. I know it’s because he doesn’t want anyone to see us, and for the tiniest moment a ping of anger, of shame, strikes me. But I push it away, and it’s easy because Ranveer is on me again, his mouth capturing mine.

He growls against my lips, grabbing the waistband of my pants and tugging my body into his until I’m crushed against him. Then he slides his hands behind me and rests them on my ass.

He squeezes, then pulls away, looking down at me. His eyes are dark and glassy. “What are you hiding beneath these clothes, Solus? Hmm?”

His own golden skin is once more visible in the gap at his shirt, and I lean forward, pressing my lips against him. I want to lick him. Kiss him. Devour him. I feel him shudder as my teeth graze the divot between his collarbone. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I mumble.

I don’t know where any of this is coming from. I’ve never done anything like this before with a pack member, and yet something is driving me. And it feels right, too. It feels good to let it take control.

Ranveer’s hands slide up from my ass and under my shirt. He caresses my bare back, then slides his fingertips along the bottom edge of my bra until he reaches my front once more.

“Damn, I can’t wait to get these clothes off you…” he murmurs, and I shiver, taking in every word. “You’ll beg me for so much.”

My wolf roars awake at this and I find myself plunging my hands into his thick, dark hair, tugging his mouth down to mine again so I can taste him once more.

Ranveer slides his fingers under the wire of my bra, brushing against the skin of my breasts.

I whimper, and before I even realize what I’m doing, my hips jut forward.

He breaks away from my mouth with a groan. “I always knew you were a slut.”

Everything in my body freezes, like I’ve been doused with a bucket of ice water. My wolf whines, then retreats. I look up at him and his feral grin with his white teeth.

I slap him across the face.

Ranveer is shocked. His smile vanishes as he raises a hand to his cheek. “What the fuck, Margot?!”

My whole body is shaking with the rage I feel. So dumb. I’m so dumb! What did I expect would happen? Did I really think that just because we shoved our tongues into each other’s mouths that Ranveer would suddenly treat me better?

“Don’t ever touch me again,” I growl at him.

Ranveer glares at me, not backing down. “I don’t know what your problem is, but stop being such a fucking tease.”

I turn around and stride back to the path, leaving him behind, tears on the edge of my vision.

And somehow, I manage not to look back at him even once.