Page 101 of Luna Trials

I held Opal’s hand as the EMTs finished strapping her to the gurney. She was so pale. Her skin was a sickly shade of gray and her eyelids fluttered open weakly, revealing blown pupils.

“Aspen.” She tried to grasp my fingers.

“I’m right here.” I put my other hand on top of hers, feeling how deathly cold it was. Shifters didn’t get this cold. Even touching her feltwrong.I ignored my repulsion, walking alongside the gurney as the medical team angled it out into the lobby, and didn’t let go of her hand.

“What happened to her?” I asked.

The medics wouldn’t look at me and the rest of the contestants refused to meet my eyes.

“Cupcakes,” Opal whispered.

“What?”

Her hand slipped from mine as the EMTs carried the gurney outside. I stayed with them, intending to go with her to the hospital. This was insane. Shifters didn’t fall ill with normal diseases, but Opal was an Omega and might have had a different immune system than the rest of us.

My mind was reeling, trying to understand what was happening, as they loaded the gurney into the back of the ambulance. I wasn’t sure where theywere taking her or if I was even allowed in the vehicle, but she’d asked for me and I wasn’t about to leave her side.

A security guard grabbed my arm as I tried to follow the medics into the ambulance and I growled, looking up into the face of a bald wolf shifter with a scar across his cheek.

“Let go of me.”

He immediately released his grip.

But the medics were already closing the doors.

“Hey!” I pounded on the metal. “What hospital are you taking her to?”

One of the medics took pity on me, cracking the door open an inch. “She’ll be okay, but we need to get her out of here.”

With that, the doors closed and the ambulance sirens blared as the vehicle pulled away.

I was left standing in the dust as I spun on the other contestants who were crowding on the front porch of the resort. “Can we get a driver? I need to make sure she’s okay.”

The other Luna candidates still wouldn’t look at me as they stepped to the side, making room for Molly and the team of cameras who followed her.

“You need to come with me,” Molly said.

I nodded with tears burning my eyes and my wolf howling protectively inside me. “Which car are we taking?”

Molly didn’t walk to the vans. She turned and went back in the lobby, leaving the security guards to escort me back inside. The cameras were still rolling,zooming in on me as tears streamed down my cheeks and the ambulance rumbled down the gravel driveway.

*

The security team walked me to the conference room. I hadn’t been in this part of the basement since the first night here when I signed my soul away.

Molly was already seated at the head of the table with a few of the lawyers we’d met that night. Back when Stefanie was the worst of my worries. The doors shut, keeping the camera crew outside, and the guard with the scarred face followed me to the table.

“Can someone tell me what’s going on?”

Molly frowned. “We were hoping you could tell us. Why was Opal carrying a delivery of cupcakes for you?”

“Cupcakes?” I shook my head. I didn’t even like cupcakes. “She said there was something for me at the front desk and I assumed it was more letters. She offered to bring it up.”

Molly’s gaze went to the shifter beside me as he sniffed the air and I stood there with my arms at my sides, letting him smell the truth. He nodded.

“Take a seat.” Molly sighed.

I pulled out the chair and sat. “What happened to her? How did she get sick?”