Chapter 4
He took a step forward that ate up the space between them and breathed her in deep. There was no denying it now; he would remember that delicate floral scent, breathing it in as he curved over her until he was in his grave.
Stella.
Wearing the guise of another person, same as he was, hidden by magic. Surely for some good cause and not just to torture him.
Surely.
Her eyes read the new knowledge in his. “Shhh. Please. People are watching.”
She was right, more guests had come in the interim, the room was filling up, and the orchestra was playing slightly louder to fight the ambient sound. Zach’s mouth went dry as he suddenly felt scared not of discovering her, but of losing her again. “Why on earth are you here?”
“Because.” She casually turned back toward the taxidermied beasts and he followed her example. “I need your help.”
“You lost my number and forgot where I lived?” Zach murmured. “How inconvenient.”
She flashed him a look. “Let me rephrase: I need your help here.
Tonight. And I can’t explain why, so don’t ask—it’s a pack thing.”
Stella was a member of the Starry Sky pack—the same pack that’d killed almost all the Wind Racers in existence, leaving just himself and his brother alive. As such, he should’ve hated her on instinct, as his brother did… but he couldn’t.
How could he hate her when he couldn’t get her out of his head?
His pride was still injured though. “You think you can ignore me for months—”
She softly sighed. “I only ignored the one text.” So she had gotten it, after all.
Her words felt like a punch in the stomach—because up until now he could pretend there was a chance that it’d gone astray somehow, or that she’d lost her phone—something, anything, as a reason to ignore him, rather than it being a deliberate choice.
He knew they weren’t mates, but...“I thought we were friends,” he said, and dared to look at her, catching her and closing her eyes, as if in pain.
“We were, for a time. In a way,” she whispered, before opening her eyes to look at him again. “But I can’t truly be your friend, Zach. It’s not in my nature.”
“I don’t believe that,” he said, with the Beast’s gruff voice.
“It doesn’t matter what you believe,” she said, turning slightly toward him again. “Because it’s the truth.”
Zach saw Austin approaching and wasn’t able to warn the other man away with his eyes. “It looked like you were blowing this, brother, so,” he whispered with a warm smile as he came up, angling in to introduce himself to Stella with his hand out. “Giancarlo.”
“Really?” Stella asked, knowing full well who he was. She didn’t take his hand, and he squinted at her. Zach watched Austin’s nostrils flare and put out a hand to hold his brother back.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Starry Sky? And why shouldn’t I fold you up like a paper airplane and toss you in there with the bison?” Austin demanded, leaning into Zach’s outstretched arm.
Stella pouted up at him. “Nice to see you again too, Austin.” “I thought we were done with her,” Austin hissed with emphasis.
“I helped save your friend—” she complained.
“Oh, don’t pretend it was ever altruistic. You just liked killing Hunters,” Austin whispered.
“Well, who doesn’t?” Stella said, laughing loud enough for it to carry, flipping her hair back and taking the final sip of her champagne.
Actions, Zach realized, that were not for him, nor his brother, but for the crowd.
She did have an agenda of her own here, after all.
He sank into himself and swallowed. “Exactly what is it that you need from me?”
Her attention focused back on him and for the briefest of moments, all of the rest of his concerns disappeared. They were no longer in a crowded room full of people he mostly hated, fighting because they didn’t know how else to talk. For one bright second, it was just him and her, and it didn’t matter that they were wearing magic, because they both knew the hearts that beat beneath it.
Her red lips twisted to the side, then frowned, breaking the bubble he wished they could stay in. “You’re not going to like it.” “Try me,” he suggested, encouraging her.