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  For a while, at the beginning of the summer, Kayla had been interested in Mason—maybe as a potential boyfriend. Needless to say, her interest had come to a screeching halt when she discovered that in Mason’s eyes, she was the bait to trap Lucas. It was impossible to envision her with anyone other than Lucas now.

  Elder Wilde, Lucas’s grandfather, stood. “We will remain alert. Our lives are dependent upon the skills and cunning of our Dark Guardians. I have complete faith in your abilities to protect us. Now it is time to celebrate the summer solstice, as many of our kind have come here for that purpose.” He spread his arms as though he’d embrace us all. “Forget our troubles. Enjoy the night.”

  “He’s kidding, right?” Brittany asked beneath her breath.

  “Elder Wilde hasn’t met Mason and his dad. He doesn’t understand how truly dangerous or obsessed they are,” I responded.

  “Do you really think it can be done? The creation of a serum that will cause lycanthropy?”

  “I don’t know. But it’s not like there’s a virus running through our blood. It’s genetic. You either have the gene or you don’t.”

  “Yeah,” Brittany mumbled. “Tough on those who don’t.”

  “At least we don’t have to worry about that. Soon we’ll be shifting along with the best of them.” I stood up and stepped away from her as Kayla approached, smiling brightly, her pale blue eyes radiating excitement.

  “So what were you two gossiping about over here? I was feeling totally left out.”

  “Nothing important,” I told her.

  “See, that just proves my point,” Brittany said.

  Her point being that I hadn’t given enough thought to selecting my mate. I was starting to get annoyed with this line of thought. She really needed to change her tune. Maybe if she wasn’t so obsessed with my choice, she’d find a guy of her own.

  “What point?” Connor asked as he came to stand beside me. I stiffened, wondering how he’d react to Brittany’s accusations that we were forced together by our parents.

  But she just said, “It’s nothing.”

  I relaxed. She wasn’t going to reveal her opinion that my feelings toward Connor weren’t sincere. I didn’t want him to doubt my affections, because I did care about him—no matter what Brittany thought. Connor and I had always known we belonged together.

  Lucas came up behind Kayla, put his arm around her, and drew her up against his side as though he couldn’t stand not touching her. Why didn’t Connor and I possess this crazy urge to snuggle all the time?

  Self-consciously, I did a quick search around the room and discovered that Rafe had already left. I wasn’t surprised. Unless we were all working, partying, or protecting the pack together, he was a loner.

  “So are we ready to hit the party?” Lucas asked.

  “Are you kidding? This is my first summer solstice celebration. I want to dress up a little,” Kayla said.

  His gaze swept over her. “I think you look good now.”

  “Has he ever got the boyfriend moves down,” Brittany said, with teasing in her voice.

  I turned my attention to Connor. “I’m going to change clothes, too.”

  “Okay. I’ll find you.”

  How different his tone was from Lucas’s! I told myself it was because Lucas and Kayla had only just discovered each other, while Connor and I had been together forever. Even so, I couldn’t help but believe we should still feel that spark of excitement when we were near each other.

  “I can’t get over how immense this place is,” Kayla said as we walked down the hallway toward the foyer, having left the guys in the counsel room. Everything I took for granted was new to her. It made me view things through fresh eyes.

  All the walls were paneled in dark wood. The stone floor was worn and scratched in places where claws had traveled over it. Portraits of our ancestors, in both human and wolf forms, lined the walls.

  “The whole clan used to live here,” Brittany said. She enjoyed our history, while usually I could take it or leave it. “We were self-sufficient. Then industrialization began to take hold, and we realized how much we’d miss out on if we continued to isolate ourselves.”

  “So out into the big, bad world we went,” I interjected.

  “It’s not that bad,” Brittany said.

  “Then why do we have to keep our existence a secret?” I asked.

  “Because when we tried to reveal ourselves, we were tortured and burned as witches or demons,” Brittany answered.

  “I know that happened a long time ago,” Kayla said. “But don’t you think people are more enlightened these days?”

  “What was your gut reaction when you learned that we existed?” I asked.

  She blushed so deeply that the light smattering of freckles across her cheeks disappeared. “Astounded. And I hate to admit it, but I was horrified when I discovered I was one of you. But now that I understand we’re not rabid werewolves with evil intentions, I think it’s pretty cool. That’s all I’m saying. If people were given a chance to understand what we truly are, they might accept us.”

  “Or they might want to capture and study us. Like Bio-Chrome.”

  “But if people knew about us, the government would protect us.”

  “We protect ourselves,” Brittany said vehemently. “We always have. We always will.”

  “I just think that having some help isn’t such a bad idea.”

  “It’s not our decision to make,” I said as we neared the grand, sweeping staircase that would take us up to the room we were sharing. “Besides, we have way more important decisions to face—like what we’re going to wear tonight.”

  TWO

  Unlike Kayla, I had attended many summer solstice celebrations. They were characterized by an abundance of food and out-of-date music that our parents would dance to—and that we wouldn’t be caught dead even listening to. Those around my age would gather mostly in small groups to talk, while avoiding the older members who were prone to pinching our cheeks and reminding us how cute we used to be.

  “So how do I dress for this thing?” Kayla asked as she scrounged through her small duffle bag.

  “Sexy,” I said as I pulled a red spaghetti-strap tank out of my bag. The nights grow cool this far north, so I planned to wear a white denim jacket over it.

  I walked into the bathroom where, at the long counter, Brittany was already straightening her black hair with a flat iron. When we were hiking through the woods, we usually wore our hair pulled back or braided—anything to minimize tangles. Tonight, though, I was going to leave my white-blond hair flowing around my shoulders.

  I leaned toward the mirror and applied mascara. My skin had a healthy glow from all the time I spent outdoors. Anticipation of the evening had turned my hazel eyes a little greener.

  “Do weird activities go on during this summer solstice thing? Do I need to be prepared for anything? I mean, the guys don’t all strip down and transform do they?” Kayla asked as she came into the bathroom wearing a denim skirt and a cute, lacy pink top.

  “I wish,” Brittany mumbled. “I think they look best when they’re in wolf form.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yeah, don’t you?”

  I thought about it for a moment. What she’d said seemed momentous somehow, but I couldn’t figure out why. It was as though she viewed us somehow differently than most Shifters viewed ourselves. “No, they look the same to me, in whichever form they’re in. What do you think, Kayla?”

  “I don’t really prefer one over the other, I guess. Lucas is Lucas, no matter what. It’s just a shape.”

  “Exactly,” I said.

  “Maybe you two just don’t appreciate the wolf as much as you should,” Brittany said with a hint of tartness in her voice. “I’m outta here.”

  She strode out of the room. Kayla raised an eyebrow at me. I shrugged. “She’s in a strange mood.”

  Kayla wrinkled her brow. “Do you ever get the sense that she’s…” Her voice trailed