Chapter 364 The sight In the stall

“I was actually looking forward to riding a horse. Viola and I were heading to the stables, I noticed the Alpha’s daughters take their horses from there. I promised to teach her how to ride, though I think it shouldn’t be too hard since she must have ridden on her husband’s back before.” Tess said.

“That’s a cool idea. So how are you adjusting to our world?” Laila asked, and when Tess gave a sad shake of her head to indicate she wasn’t adjusting well at all, Laila said,

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it eventually. Our people find it hard to embrace strangers, especially in the Luna position. We always want someone familiar. You will face many challenges, and you have to be brave about them, just like Viola has been. You won’t believe she defeated me in a competition to win the Supreme Luna position.” Laila said with amusement, which wouldn’t have been funny had it been a month ago.

The conversation and attention swung back to Viola, and Tess began asking her questions while Laila painted her as some kind of brave, remarkable figure, which only made Viola feel self-conscious because she genuinely didn’t feel she had done enough to deserve any of it, especially when those words were coming from a she-wolf who had once been her rival.

She was relieved when, as they stepped out of the shade of the building and headed toward the stables, they spotted Zoe squinting through the harsh sun with her hand over her eyes, clearly looking for someone. The moment her eyes found Viola, they lit up and she came bouncing over.

“Vee!” She threw her arms around Viola and jumped happily. “Oh, Vee, I have missed you so much!”

Viola grinned, being made to jump along with her, which immediately made her feel dizzy and slightly nauseated, an annoying sensation she had been experiencing since last night.

“I missed you too. When did you arrive?” She pulled back to look at Zoe’s flushed cheeks, her skin clearly unhappy with the harsh sun here, silver hair plastered against her sweaty forehead.

“Not long ago. I ran into my brother and he told me you were out with the Grim pack Luna-to-be.” Saying that, Zoe’s eyes moved to the two she-wolves flanking her friend, the brunette she figured was Tess, and then Laila, at whom she couldn’t help but give a look that silently asked what she was doing here.

“You must be Tess.” Zoe said.

“And you must be Zoe Kade.” Tess’s eyes went soft and delighted. “You are such a talented designer, every one of my werewolf friends has wanted to wear something you’ve made, but we don’t have access to this part of the world.”

Viola watched them fall into easy conversation, Zoe promising to give Tess a free tour of her fashion house and send a few of her top designs as a wedding gift, both of them hugging and laughing like they had known each other for years.

Many werewolves living in the human world were either descendants of banished wolves or packless wolves who had built new lives among humans. Even so, they still followed the werewolf world’s trends through its private social media. Since they had no legitimate access to the werewolf network from the human world, most relied on hacked connections, underground VPNs, or illegal software to get back into it.

“Hi, Zoe.” Laila greeted.

“Hi.” Zoe returned, with considerably less enthusiasm than she had given everyone else.

Before long, Zoe had fallen into step beside Viola, and as they walked she leaned in and whispered, “What are you doing with her? Laila, I mean?”

Viola hadn’t told Zoe about the recent situation with Laila because it was tied directly to Gilbert, and she wasn’t about to unpack all of that right now. “She had a man problem and I helped her with it. It’s a long story.” She said carefully.

“So does that mean we are cool with her now?” Zoe asked, pursing her lips, fully aware that Laila’s sharp hearing was likely catching every word and not particularly caring either way. As long as Vee didn’t have a problem with the she-wolf, Zoe could work with it.

“We should be.” Viola said.

“So when you say man problem, are you talking about my brother? Please don’t tell me you are giving her pointers on how to court your own husband.”

“I am no longer interested in your brother, Zoe.” Laila answered flatly, rolling her eyes. “The moon goddess has sent me mine my way, and your brother is old news to me.”

“Oh, praise the moon goddess! Finally, my brother is free from one less DP she-wolf!” Zoe exclaimed, DP meaning desperate she-wolf, and Laila shot her a sharp glare.

“Don’t rejoice too fast. I haven’t been claimed by my mate yet. He and I still have some things to settle before the claiming. He is taking his time deciding whether I should move into his place or he into mine. Men these days are so incredibly slow.” Laila tutted, and everyone around her nodded in some form of agreement, except Viola.

“Not my man, at least.” Viola mused warmly, thinking of how, that very morning, he had run her a bath and helped her into the tub when she told him she didn’t feel like leaving the bed and wanted to sleep a little longer. After they had stayed up until past midnight, she had wanted nothing more than to keep sleeping, but his affection had made her get up. “He knows what I want before I even know it myself.”

“Mine too.” Tess agreed with a soft smile. “He’s just the best.”

“Well, not mine.” Zoe said, with a sigh that carried more weight than she intended. “You two are the lucky ones. I haven’t gotten mine to understand me anywhere near that level yet.”

She couldn’t help the quiet envy that settled in her chest, the wish that Gilbert would treat her even a fraction of the way her brother treated Vee. Not that she wanted a husband who acted like her brother, he was her brother and he drove her absolutely mad sometimes with his overprotectiveness, but absent-minded and distant was somehow worse than overbearing. The memory of the dry date crept back in and she pushed it away before it could fully ruin her mood with sadness.

“I think we need to take the lead ourselves and make them step up, Zoe.” Laila said, drifting closer to her side as though she had found a kindred spirit, because in a way, she had. Gilbert had blocked her number and she had been unable to reach him since, which was a large part of why she was even here at all. If she had someone to commiserate with, at least she wasn’t suffering alone.

“How are we going to achieve that?” Zoe asked curiously. Even though she had never been particularly fond of Laila in the past, she liked this new version of her.

Laila began talking about strategies for making their men chase them the way these two taken women beside them seemed to have mastered, not knowing for a single second that both of them were talking about the exact same man.

Meanwhile Viola, who knew the full picture, felt the guilt creeping in quietly. She knew she should say something. But she looked around at this little circle she had somehow found herself in, friends, actual friends, talking about men and laughing about irrelevant things, and she couldn’t bring herself to shatter it.

She hadn’t had something like this in a very long time. And even with everything pressing down on her, the uncertain future, the alliance she had sworn to secure before this ceremony ended, the half-breed secret she carried everywhere, being here, walking in the sun and talking like a normal shewolf, felt like something she needed to protect a little while longer.

Getting close to Tess was also part of the plan. Tess was still too new to this world to sway Kenny directly, but Viola intended to win over more than just him before this ceremony was done. She had made a promise to herself and to her pack, and she intended to keep it.

They reached the large stables, where healthy horses were shifting and neighing in their stalls, the smell of hay and leather thick in the warm air.

Tess led them through confidently, pointing out the stronger horses from the gentler ones. Laila chose hers, then Viola chose hers, then Zoe, and they were making their way toward the far end of the stalls to collect the keys when all four of them stopped dead at what they found in the last stall.

“Holy moly!” Zoe exclaimed.

“Oh my!” Viola said.

“What the…” Said Tess.

“Fucking hell.” Laila’s eyes went wide.