I blinked my eyes open.
Before I could ask, he pointed to the guy riding shotgun. “This is my brother Justice.” Then he pointed to the dude on my left. “And Honor.”
Yeah, I’d caught the names before, but I’d play along for nicety sake.
I turned to Rage. “Is your name really Rage?” Unsurprisingly, he curled his lip in a non-answer, so I glanced back to Honor. “Is it?”
Because if their mom named three of them after virtues and one after a vice—
“His name is Courage, but…” Noble faced forward and put the car in gear before merging back onto the road.
Shaking my head, I snorted and then muttered, “But clearly, Rage suits him better.”
Noble and Honor chuckled, and Justice grunted, but it wasn’t lost on me that none of them bothered to contradict me.
I continued playing nice. “I’m Nai.”
They all just nodded but stayed silent.
Awesome.
The next hour crawled.
The strain between me and three of the Virtue brothers waned—a little. At least enough for me to ask a few questions and listen in on their good-natured teasing. The other one, Rage, just sat next to me like a tightly-coiled snake ready to strike. I’d learned they’d been raised on the island and pried for more info.
“Do all three clans live on the island or just Midnight?” I asked. The magic lands were as big as the United States and host to all types of shifters and mages. But Alpha Island, where the school was, held the royal heirs of each line while they went through school. Yet, I wondered where the rest of the packs resided. I heard Midnight Pack held over a thousand wolves. Could they all live on one island? If so, how big was it?
Justice flattened his lips and shook his head. “Seriously, you don’t know this?”
“All of the wolf packs live on Alpha Island—except those from Crescent Clan and the rogues,” Noble interjected before his brother and I could start a fight.
I knew my father’s pack had been excommunicated for some reason, but I didn’t know whether our pack lived in the magic lands or on actual Alpha Island prior to being kicked out and forced to live among humans.
“Do any other shifters live there?” I heard a long time ago they all did.
“Alpha Island is for werewolves only,” Justice growled.
I frowned. “Yeah?”
From what my father was able to tell me, I’d learned the island, in the past, was for all royals whose magic allowed them to shapeshift. Not just werewolves.
“When did that happen again? That it became werewolves only?” I asked, pressing my luck.
“Do you always talk this much?” Rage growled, plugging his ears.
I ignored the idiot on my right, but when no one answered my previous question, I decided to try another vein.
“So, can you tell me anything about what happens at the school?” I tried to shift the conversation to different waters.
“Alpha Academy is guarded by high mage magic,” Honor said.
“And that magic binds you so you can’t reveal what happens while you’re there,” Noble said, wagging his brows at me in the rearview mirror. “It’s very secretive.”
“I knew about the binding.” Everyone did, but I was hoping maybe these dudes could give me a tiny bread crumb.
“If you knew, then why are you asking?” Justice groaned from the front seat.
Ugh, these douchebags were rude!
The hulking mass on my right moved, and the seat dipped, making me bump him.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
Sorry not sorry, jerk.
Tugging at the frayed hem of my cutoffs, I tried to pinpoint why I was feeling so irritated. Being a dominant female close to such dominant males from a rival clan … it had my wolf so riled I felt like crawling out of my skin.
I was done playing nice. New goal: ask as many annoying questions as possible, and see how long it would take to set Rage off again.
“My cousin didn’t get four Midnight Clan escorts. What gives?” Last year when Nolan left, they’d sent one skinny dude to pick him up. Was I seen as that much of a threat? Because if so, that was badass.
Rage muttered under his breath, unintelligible except for the explicative and the undercut strike punctuating his sentiment.
Noble, the peacemaker, shook his head and growled, “Rein it in, Rage.”
Justice suddenly turned in his seat to face me, meeting my eyes with his green gaze, identical to Rage’s. “We’re not the usual heir collection team. We received a summons to go pick up the heir from Crescent Clan today, and we follow orders without question, understand?”
Huh. Why would someone from the academy want the A-team picking me up?
“Sure, I understand English just fine. Thanks for asking.” I ignored his huff and laid on another question. “Who sent the summons?”
That adage about curiosity killing the cat had no bearing on wolves. I was as curious as they came and not afraid of death.
Rage grabbed his ears. “Holy mage, woman, do you ever stop talking?”
What a baby! The last time I’d covered my ears like that was when I was five. Maybe he had issues; like eating paint chips as a kid or wasn’t loved by his mother enough. Whatever it was, it wasn’t my problem. With the sweetest smile I could muster, I pried one of his meaty fists away from his head.
“Nope.” I popped the “p” and let go of his hand. Every single wolf in the car grinned—well, almost everyone.
“I like her,” Noble declared.
Justice spoke up from the front seat: “Well, don’t. She’s not in our pack.”
I crossed my arms, secretly grateful for the reminder. I couldn’t let my guard down. “Damn straight, and I’ll never forget Midnight’s betrayal.”
All four of their eyebrows furrowed. “OUR betrayal?”
Rage grinned for the first time, and holy-mage-of-everything-beautiful, he just got hotter.
Bastard.
“She’s been lied to.” Rage shook his head, and his voice held a bit of pity.
My vision turned crimson, and I gasped. “Have not! The king ordered your clan to attack. They murdered half of my pack, including my uncle, before casting the rest of us out—and for what? No solid reason was ever given!”
My wolf pounded against my skin, demanding to be freed. Whose bright idea was it to put us all together in one small space? And why was my wolf so anxious to come out here and now? Maybe someone was trying to get me killed.
“Nai.” Honor patted my thigh tenderly as he spoke, and Rage’s gaze flicked to his hand, nostrils flaring. “Your uncle was convicted of a high crime by the High Mage Council. Our alpha was merely following orders from them.”
Shock ripped through me, and my mind blanked. High crime? There’s no way anyone in my pack would deliberately offend the high mages…
Dad never told me what his brother had done, just that it had brought trouble to our pack. He would’ve told me if it was a high crime though … right? The five high mages ruled everything, both in the mortal realm as well as that of the magic one. Most of the time, they left our kind, werewolves, alone to be governed by the alpha king. Even so, we all knew no one, including the alpha king, could refuse an order from the high mages.
The fact that my uncle committed a high crime couldn’t be true. They had to be lying—of course they were lying. This was Midnight clan. I wouldn’t let them drive a wedge between me and my dad, let alone my clan.