Chapter 205

The longer she stared up at me, the more I felt the need to squirm under her gaze. "Toya…"

"Holy fucking goddess." Toya jumped to her feet. "Are you serious? This makes so much sense." She turned in a circle, talking to herself. "The fact you are so powerful." She started to list things off. "That I felt drawn to you. Instantly, we had a connection." She whirled back to face me. "You said wolves. Does that mean you have a wolf, and a Lycan… Do you have two forms? Do you have actual powers, or does it just bump up your aura and power level?"

The questions poured out of her like vomit. She couldn’t stop.

I held up my hand, and she froze. "Come sit back down." She sat next to me, and I concentrated on my hand. A wisp the size of a tennis ball appeared, and she gasped, her eyes growing wide as she stared at me.

"You have power?" I laughed and nodded.

"Yes, I have power, actual power. That’s why we can always talk openly here and not have to worry about being overheard. I snap a shield in place so others can’t hear us." She looked at me and snapped her fingers.

"The first night here, when you came into the bedroom and we called our dads, I felt something shift. The room became echoey, even with all of us in there. I thought it was just my ears adjusting to the height of the penthouse, but it was you."

I nodded again. "I’m still new to all of this, but I’m slowly learning." I snuffed out the wisp and stood. I shifted, first into Nix’s form, waiting a minute, then shifting into Megan’s.

Toya’s hand flew up to her mouth. "Holy shit." I chuffed out a laugh and then shifted back. She pointed at me. "You keep your clothes? How is that fucking fair?" I threw my head back and laughed until my sides hurt.

"Toya…"

She waved her hands at me. "No! This is bullshit." She laughed. "I end up naked if I shift in my clothes, and you get to keep your modesty." I laughed again. She was taking this way better than I thought she would.

"I feel like I should say sorry, but I am thankful for it."

"I would be too." She flopped back down on the couch, and I slid next to her. "Fuck, you are so lucky." Toya turned to face me. "What? What did I miss?"

I rubbed my face. "You have taken everything I’ve said pretty well, but there is more. My line has a secret."

"Another one? How many do you fricken have?" I laughed, but I could tell she was invested.

"I actually don’t even know when this started, but the Moon Goddess blessed my line with a second chance."

"A second chance at what?" She leaned in. "Like a mate? We all have that…" But I quickly shook my head.

"At life." Her eyes bugged out of her head.

"You come back to life? Like a vampire… Are vampires real?"

I laughed again. "I don’t know about all that, but I know I’m not a vampire." I shook my head at her. "What I mean is, I have already lived until the age of twenty-four. I found my mate. I was a Luna, and I grew my pack."

"Holy shit."

"And then…" I took a breath and looked at my friend. "My mate betrayed me with my stepsister. He strapped me to a table and had our pack doctor cut our pup from my belly with silver." Her gasp said it all. "At least I got to hold him on my chest for a moment." I sniffled as my tears fell. "I can still smell him when I close my eyes. I hear his struggling breaths and his stuttering heartbeat when I close my eyes." I wiped at my face, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop my sobs.

"Army…" I tried to smile as I cried harder. My hand fell onto my stomach, and I had to shake myself back to now.

"He was perfect. And then he was ripped away from me, and his father killed him while I was strapped to the gurney bleeding out, as Shannon, my stepsister, came to me and taunted me about lying to him." I wiped my eyes. "But it was all a lie. She convinced my mate that she was pregnant with his pup, that ours was someone else’s, when in fact hers was the beta's because she was a whore. She slept with any ranked wolf she could."

Toya wiped a stray tear. "Who?" It was the only question she could ask. The only one that mattered. Who was the male that ruined me? "Who?" Her question more forceful. "Who do I have to kill?"