  &quot;Has his father said anything more about Carmen?&quot; I ask outright, afraid to have these conversations with her as they always leave me feeling worse, but she s the only person I have had to talk to, and I know she s on my side in this. 
  &quot;Only that Colton needs to think of the future of his people. Honestly, I don t even know why Juan is rooting for Carmen. She wasn t good enough a month ago when he was constantly telling him he needed to get serious and find a better mate. I don t get it.&quot; Meadow shrugs, rolling on her side to perch herself up on one elbow, picking out some daisies and twirls them between those talons she calls nails.
  &quot;Wait, what? I thought Juan was invested in her as the best femme for Luna? He s sure as hell fighting her corner hard enough!&quot; I blanch, my head spinning to her fully as rage ignites inside me, pushing self-pity down.
  &

  I pick at my tray of food in the mess hall, pushing my salad around, completely distracted. Counting down the minutes before I can head upstairs, already on edge, unable to think about anything else despite telling myself I m only making it worse. My nerves are already shot.
  Meadow is keeping her distance, sat down at the far end of the long table because she knows she won t be able to hold it in if we sit close. She isn t doing a great job of acting naturally either, and I can almost taste her tension waving this way. I catch her eyes on me a couple of times, but she looks away quickly, as though we ve had some sort of lover s tiff and I wish she would stop before someone picks up on it. I think she s the reason I m on such high alert, because she s adding to my stress levels. 
  The rest of the sub pack is dotted around me, although still grouped in an obvious unit. I m stuck betwe

  It s been a few days since Colton told me about his mom, and I swear she keeps plaguing my thoughts. It s like a tiny itch in my brain I can t shake, and I keep coming back to it repeatedly for no obvious reason. I even dreamed of her last night, and it was the weirdest, most confusing thing ever. It came after I finally located a memory of her in this shared library of thoughts and couldn t shake her soft face from my visuals. I must have tried too hard and implanted her in my brain to mess with me, it s the only explanation.
  I vaguely remember her without Colton s influence, only in my memories, she s faceless because I couldn t remember her all that well, so it s nice to apply features to her. She has Colton s flawless beauty, his black hair, darkest chocolate eyes, and sallow skin, with a soft ambience that s less masculine than his.
  She used to come to the library near our far

&quot;Has his father said anything more about Carmen?&quot; I ask outright, afraid to have these conversations with her as they always leave me feeling worse, but she s the only person I have had to talk to, and I know she s on my side in this. 
  &quot;Only that Colton needs to think of the future of his people. Honestly, I don t even know why Juan is rooting for Carmen. She wasn t good enough a month ago when he was constantly telling him he needed to get serious and find a better mate. I don t get it.&quot; Meadow shrugs, rolling on her side to perch herself up on one elbow, picking out some daisies and twirls them between those talons she calls nails.
  &quot;Wait, what? I thought Juan was invested in her as the best femme for Luna? He s sure as hell fighting her corner hard enough!&quot; I blanch, my head spinning to her fully as rage ignites inside me, pushing self-pity down.
  &quot;Nah, you got that all wrong. Juan has never warmed to her. He only seemed to take any kind of 

chapter 26