Junie should be here clapping bitterly beside me. She should have made it. Why didn’t I drag her?
Those are the thoughts plaguing Heidi. She can’t help but blame herself. Why on earth did she let Junie be foolish on her own? It’s not like any of that matters now anyway. Right now, Morgan and Grayson are the highlights of the day.
For a heartbeat, the courtyard goes still. The applause dies into a hush that splashes across the crowd like a wave of disbelief.
The headmaster, Halric, is the first to move. The man doesn’t even walk but barrels forward, jacket flaring behind him at the sight before him. His usually steady gait is ruined by sheer panic with a face that is streaked with sweat.
"Mr. And Mr. Bellamy!" he barks, though the bark comes out almost like a beg. "What—what were you doing in the labyrinth? How did you...?" He lowers his voice so quickly and sharply that it feels like the air bows with him. "How did you get in there?"
The frenzy that follows is almost laughable. It’s the frantic that drips with the kind of fear reserved not for the Moon Blessed bleeding out on the stones, but for two princelings who have no business stepping foot into the nightmare.
The crowd shifts as if a new axis of attention has been discovered. Suddenly, the fact that only sixteen Moon Blessed have returned out of one hundred is background noise. The tragedy of shredded bodies, of burned treehouses and unburied friends is muted. The real frenzy in the air now is about the Alpha’s sons—the Bellamy twins.
Heidi wants to vomit. Standing just a few paces away, she watches with hollow eyes. Oh, so now everyone cares. Forget the hundred kids we shoved in like meat into a grinder. Forget the bodies. The scandal of the day is that Daddy’s precious princes went on a field trip.
Teachers are whispering feverishly behind Halric, faces drawn and eyes are darting to one another as if searching for answers: What will the Alpha say?
How do we explain this?
The thought of the Alpha’s wrath makes their spines curl like they’re already preparing for a beating. Morgan, the bastard, has the gall to laugh.
"Relax," he says, flicking blood off his hand like it’s raindrops. His voice is careless and nonchalant. "We went in for fun. Didn’t get scratched. So it’s fine."
Gasps fly among the crowd. Someone mutters, "Fun? In the labyrinth?"
Another teacher swears under her breath.
Grayson doesn’t laugh except for an arrogant tilt of his chin and the feral gleam in his eyes that says the same thing: We’re untouchable. We’re gods among dogs.
Heidi digs her nails into her palms. Fun. FUN. Eighty-four of us died and these pricks call it fun.
Before the whispers can grow teeth, a new cold and commanding voice rises through the courtyard.
"It isn’t surprising."
Every head swivels to find Amias of all people taking the scene. Oh, look at him... The Alpha’s eldest son who stands tall, shadow stretching long in the afternoon light. His tone is deceptively mild, but it’s the kind of mild that sounds deadly.
His eyes are fixed on his younger brothers.
"It’s not surprising," he repeats, "that Morgan and Grayson could be careless enough to do something like this." His tone isn’t angry or shocked. It’s filled with the kind of disdain that irritation could only provoke. "But since they are safe..." he raises his chin, gaze shifting toward the courtyard full of broken wolves.
"...the focus should be where it belongs. On those who returned as heroes."
Heidi’s throat closes.
Heroes.
The word hits her like a weight she can’t bear. She wants to laugh at it. Heroes. She doesn’t feel like one. She feels like a butchered survivor of a slaughterhouse. And yet...
Her chest aches as her gaze locks onto him. Gods, Amias. She hadn’t realized until this moment how much she had missed him. Not his arrogance or his position. Him. The one who, before all this chaos, had looked her in the eye and told her what to expect in the labyrinth. Who gave her those first warnings, the ones that helped her survive even before the twins came crashing into the nightmare.
Her throat thickens. She almost smiles at him. Fuck it, she’s about to until she feels the burn of another gaze.
Darien.
He’s staring at her from across the courtyard, eyes narrowed, sharp like a blade trying to peel her open. Suspicion radiates off him in waves. He’s looking between her and Amias, as if he’s trying to catch an invisible pact binding them together.
Heidi swallows her almost-smile like a hot stone and yanks her gaze away. Amias was so mad when he learned of her intimacy with Darien. She doesn’t know how Darien would react to finding out about her and Amias or the days of unending threesome with the twins in the labyrinth.
Hell, she has not the least bit of idea how to handle the four brothers. Morgan and Grayson obviously don’t have an issue sharing her with each other, but with their brothers? She bet even they wouldn’t want that.
Now, as for the two other super scary brothers, Heidi knows they’d rather die than let any other have her other than each one of them. Amias clearly thinks less of her after finding out she fucked Darien.
If he finds out she fucked Morgan and Grayson and is now marked by them... what then?
Hell, why should she care? It’s not like any of them owns her!
"You’re wrong. They all own us. Morgan and Grayson are just the first to claim us officially." Her wolf corrects, forcing Heidi to gulp her down.
Focus on the main drama, Heidi. She repeatedly tells herself. Eyes forward because that’s all that matters right now. All that matters is getting through this day and having an alone time to process how to handle the sizzling pot of drama her life is about to become.
Oh, how does one handle four beasts simultaneously?