More Than Instinct

I should have never jumped in that lake.

In my defense, it was Mia’s idea. Maybe not in the technical sense, considering I was the one who actually kicked off my shoes and jumped, but she’d known me long enough to understand that challenging me was usually a terrible idea. Especially when I was already bored, it was ridiculously nice outside, and we’d been standing beside the lake with almost an hour to kill before we had to be back at the pack house.

She’d said, “I bet the water is still freezing,” and I’d answered, “Probably,” while staring across the sparkling surface like it was a slice of triple chocolate cake begging me to eat it. Something restless inside me had already been itching to move after an afternoon of doing absolutely nothing.

Then Mia had looked directly at me and made the fatal mistake of saying, “I know that look. You wouldn’t dare. We have to be at the pack house soon for dinner.”

All I heard was you wouldn’t dare, and three minutes later, I was in the lake.

Naturally, things escalated from there, which was why Mia and I were now running barefoot through the woods with our shoes clutched in one hand and wet hair slapping against our backs. The sprint felt better than it should have. Cool earth, pine, damp leaves, the rush of air across my wet skin. My wolf liked speed, liked the woods, liked anything that felt even vaguely like freedom. The human half of me was less enthusiastic about the sticks stabbing into my feet.

“You said we had time!” Mia yelled from somewhere behind me.

I ducked beneath a low branch without slowing. “We do have time.”

“We’re supposed to be there in fifteen minutes, and it takes ten just to get back!”

That was admittedly less convenient. I glanced over my shoulder long enough to see her several yards behind me, struggling to run in soaked jean shorts and looking considerably less amused than she had when she’d finally followed me into the water. “Then you should probably run faster.”

“I hate you,” she shouted, but her voice was getting farther away, which seemed like a problem she could solve by following my excellent advice.

I laughed and picked up my pace.

This was not how I’d planned to spend my afternoon. I’d actually planned to be responsible. Painfully responsible, even. Dad had reminded me three separate times that tonight’s dinner mattered, which meant I was expected downstairs by five thirty, clean, appropriately dressed, and prepared to sit through several hours of pack leadership discussing territory budgets, patrol schedules, and whatever other thrilling topics adults liked to pair with roast chicken.

Normally, I wouldn’t have been included. My final year of Beta training had apparently unlocked a brand-new level of adulthood called sitting quietly while important people talked. Dad called it observing council relations. I called it being held hostage with dinner.

Still, I knew why he wanted me there. Someday his position would be mine, and he’d spent years making sure I understood that being Beta meant more than getting perfect marks in pack law or putting someone on their ass during combat training. Tonight was one of the first times he was trusting me to sit in on something that actually mattered.

Which meant showing up late after he’d specifically told me not to would be bad.

Not yelling bad. Dad rarely needed to yell.

Disappointed look bad.

Much worse.

I picked up my pace again.

The Wilder pack house sat near the center of our territory, three stories of stone and dark wood surrounded by enough land that Mia and I had spent most of our childhood disappearing into it. The Alpha and his family lived there, but it had never felt like an ordinary home. Pack members came and went constantly for meetings, training, meals, or whatever crisis required Alpha Wilder’s attention that day. Half the time, the first floor felt more like the center of a small government than somebody’s house.

I’d been coming here since before I could remember. Mia’s mother had pictures of me missing my front teeth, I had clothes permanently occupying one of Mia’s drawers, and my favorite cereal had somehow become a regular pantry item despite the fact that I didn’t actually live there.

Unfortunately, all that history came with one significant downside: Cole Wilder.

Mia’s older brother. Future Alpha. The living equivalent of stepping barefoot in something wet while wearing socks.

Cole was five years older than us and had spent most of those five additional years developing an impressive talent for getting on my last fucking nerve. He thought I was reckless. I thought he was controlling. He thought I had a problem with authority, which wasn’t technically true.

I had a problem with his authority.

The worst part was that Cole knew exactly how much he annoyed me. He’d known me since I was little enough to follow Mia around the pack house in mismatched socks, which meant he knew exactly which look, tone, or single word would make me bristle. Over the last few years, he’d also started perfecting that calm future-Alpha voice that made something inside me want to dig in my heels on principle.

Someday he would become Alpha, I would take my father’s place as Beta, and the two of us would somehow be expected to work together without committing a felony.

Personally, I thought the pack should start developing a contingency plan.

Mia caught up with me as we reached the back patio, and I stopped long enough to look down at myself. My shirt was soaked through, my shorts were dripping onto the stone beneath my bare feet, and there was something green stuck to my knee that I wasn’t particularly interested in identifying.

Council members would already be arriving.

Mia followed my gaze toward the house. “Front door?”

“No.”

She groaned immediately. “Cassie, there is a back door.”

“And someone could see us there too.” I looked toward the kitchen window instead.

Mia stared at me. “We are way too old to be climbing through windows.”

“I’m seventeen until tomorrow,” I reminded her as I pushed it open. “Completely different set of legal and moral standards.”

“That makes this worse.”

“Probably.”

She muttered something under her breath but followed me anyway.

I leaned forward and looked inside. The kitchen was empty, the hallway beyond it clear, and there wasn’t a council member in sight. I breathed in automatically, sorting through the familiar mix of food, wood polish, and pack scents drifting through the opening. Nothing close enough to set off any alarm bells.

“Clear.”

“One day, I’m going to stop following you.”

“No, you won’t.”

Mia sighed. “Unfortunately, I know.”

I grabbed the sill and hoisted myself up. Getting through would have been significantly easier if my clothes weren’t wet, but after a brief and deeply undignified struggle, I managed to swing one leg over.

“Graceful,” Mia whispered behind me.

“You want to go first?”

Her eyes dropped to my ass hanging halfway out the window, and she grinned. “Absolutely not.”

“Bitch.”

I finally dropped onto the kitchen floor and brushed my hands together like I’d accomplished something impressive instead of climbing through a perfectly usable window while soaking wet. “There. Easy.”

I turned toward the stairs, already calculating how quickly I could get upstairs and into the shower, when the pantry door opened behind me.

Of course somebody had been standing in the one part of the kitchen I couldn’t see from the window, and because apparently the universe had decided I’d been enjoying myself for far too long, that somebody was Cole.

He stepped out with a bottle of water in one hand and stopped when he saw me standing in the middle of his kitchen. His gaze traveled from my bare, dirty feet to the puddle spreading beneath them, then over my soaked clothes before landing on my dripping hair. His brows drew together, and for a second he just looked at me.

I knew that look. He was deciding exactly how much shit he could give me before I started yelling.

I held up one hand. “Don’t.”

One eyebrow lifted. “I haven’t said anything.”

“Your face did.”

His attention dropped toward the water gathering around my feet. Then his nose twitched. He drew in a slow breath, sorting through the scents clinging to me, and his expression shifted with recognition.

“The lake?”

I frowned. “How do you know?”

“Cassie, I can smell it on you.”

I glanced down at myself. “Right.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Strong future Beta instincts.”

“Shut up.”

He took a drink of water, visibly pleased with himself, while I considered whether throwing one of my shoes would be worth the lecture.

Before I could decide, Mia called from outside, “Is someone in there?”

I closed my eyes. “Unfortunately.”

There was a brief pause. “Cole?”

“Yep.”

“Fuck.”

Cole looked toward the window, amusement lingering around his mouth. “Get in here, Mia.”

She climbed through a second later and landed beside me, pushing wet hair out of her face. One look at her brother’s expression had her immediately pointing at me. “Before you ask, this is mostly her fault.”

“Traitor.”

Cole’s gaze settled on me. “Let me guess. She said you wouldn’t do it.”

I narrowed my eyes. “That proves nothing.”

“It proves I’ve known you too long.”

Mia looked far too satisfied with that answer, but before either of them could continue ganging up on me, Cole glanced toward the clock on the wall.

The amusement disappeared.

“You two realize dinner starts in five minutes.”

My stomach dropped. I looked toward the clock and immediately regretted it. “Shit.”

“You’re supposed to be downstairs with the council.” There was no teasing in his voice now. His gaze moved over my wet clothes before returning to my face. “Your dad got you into that meeting, Cassie.”

That landed harder than the reminder about the time.

“I know.”

Cole watched me for another second, then stepped out of the doorway. “Go. Mia can explain the lake if anyone asks.”

Mia’s head snapped toward him. “Excuse me?”

He ignored her.

For once, I didn’t argue either.

I took two steps toward the hall before his voice followed me. “Four minutes.”

There it was.

I glanced back. “You almost managed to be helpful.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

I clipped his shoulder with mine as I passed. “Asshole.”

He laughed, and I headed for the stairs before the conversation could turn into another argument.

Mia caught up behind me just as I grabbed the banister. “For someone who was very confident fifteen minutes was plenty of time, you’re moving awfully fast.”

“This is how efficient people move.”

“This is how people who are late move.”

“I’m not late yet.”

She checked her phone.

I pointed at her without slowing. “Don’t.”

Her grin widened, but she kept her mouth shut.

I reached her bedroom and immediately started peeling my wet shirt away from my stomach. “I’ll be ready. I’ll go downstairs, eat my chicken, listen to adults argue about patrols, and impress everyone with my exceptional maturity.”

“You just climbed through a window.”

“They don’t know that.”

“Cole does.”

I paused with my shirt halfway over my head.

“That could become a problem.”

Mia laughed, but the teasing faded when she looked at me again. “You will be fine, you know.”

There was enough sincerity in her voice that I stopped moving for a second.

Mia knew how much this mattered to me even when I pretended it didn’t. She’d watched me spend years training beside Dad, memorizing pack law, learning territory maps, sitting through evaluations, and trying not to look too pleased whenever he trusted me with something new.

“I know,” I said, quieter this time. Then I pointed toward the bathroom. “But if Dad asks, we spent the entire afternoon studying.”

Mia stared at my dripping clothes. “Convincing.”

“Work with me.”

She shook her head. “Go shower.”

Eight minutes and forty-three seconds later, I came flying back out clean, mostly dry, and dressed. My damp hair had been dragged into a ponytail, and I’d managed mascara in a moving mirror, which should have earned me some kind of award.

Mia looked up from where she sat on the bed and raised her eyebrows. “Holy shit.”

I spread my arms. Black pants. Dark green blouse. Boots. No visible lake water. “Tell me I’m amazing.”

“You missed a button.”

I looked down and found the offending gap. “Shit.”

I fixed it, and Mia stood before reaching into my hair and pulling out a tiny leaf. She held it between two fingers while I stared at it.

“That could’ve happened anywhere.”

“Of course.”

She tossed it into the trash.

I turned toward the mirror and checked myself one last time. Not bad. Actually, pretty damn good considering I’d been submerged in a lake less than half an hour ago. If nobody looked too closely at my still-damp hair, I could almost pass for someone who’d spent the afternoon preparing responsibly instead of throwing herself into a body of water because her best friend questioned her courage.

When I caught Mia watching me in the reflection, I frowned. “What?”

She leaned her hip against the dresser. “Tomorrow.”

It took me a second before I understood.

My birthday.

Eighteen.

The number landed differently now that it was less than a day away. “Don’t remind me.”

Mia smiled. “Nervous?”

“No.”

Her expression made it obvious she didn’t believe me.

I sighed. “Maybe a little.”

Turning eighteen wasn’t just another birthday for wolves. It meant adulthood officially, not the version adults liked to dangle in front of us whenever they wanted us to behave. I’d known my wolf for years, had learned her moods and impulses almost as naturally as my own, but eighteen changed the expectations around both of us.

Soon I’d finish school, complete my final evaluations, and start working more directly beneath Dad. The future everyone had spent years preparing me for suddenly didn’t feel all that far away.

I wanted it.

That was what made the knot in my stomach so annoying.

Mia must have seen something on my face because her expression softened. “You’re going to be fine.”

“You said that already.”

“Because you’re still making that face.”

“What face?”

“The one where you think so hard you forget how your eyebrows work.”

I looked at myself in the mirror. “My eyebrows are fine.”

“Sure.”

I reached for my earrings and felt the tension ease slightly. “You’re going to be a terrible emotional support person.”

“And you’re going to be a terrifying adult.”

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“I’ve chosen to receive it as one.”

She laughed just as someone knocked against the open bedroom door.

Cole stood in the hallway.

“Please tell me you didn’t come upstairs just to announce how late I am,” I said.

“I considered it.” His gaze shifted to Mia. “Mom sent me. They’re waiting.”

Then his attention came back to me.

For a moment, he didn’t say anything.

His eyes moved over the clothes I’d changed into before returning to my face, lingering just long enough for me to catch it. Something in his expression shifted, subtle enough that I couldn’t name it before it disappeared.

The small instinctive part of me that noticed changes in other wolves noticed that too.

I folded my arms. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“That was definitely something.”

Cole’s mouth twitched. “You clean up better than expected.”

I stared at him. “Was that supposed to be a compliment?”

“Don’t get excited.”

There he was.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my things from the dresser. “You were almost pleasant for half a second. Must’ve hurt.”

He stepped out of the doorway to let us pass, but as I went by, he glanced at my still-damp ponytail and sniffed once.

“Your father is going to know.”

I stopped. “He is not.”

Cole tapped the side of his nose.

Of course.

Mia made a choking sound behind me as she tried not to laugh.

“You say one word to him,” I warned.

Cole raised both hands. “Not my problem.”

I stared at him suspiciously, but he only gestured toward the stairs.

That was somehow worse than if he’d threatened me with it.

I started walking, and Cole fell into step beside me while Mia trailed behind. The teasing eased as we reached the top of the stairs, and after a few quiet steps, he glanced over.

“You nervous about tomorrow?”

The question surprised me enough that I looked at him. His expression had changed again, the amusement gone.

“A little,” I admitted.

Cole nodded once. “You’ll be fine.”

I studied him for half a second, suspicious purely out of habit. “Was that encouragement?”

His expression flattened. “Never mind.”

A smile pulled at my mouth. “Too late. I heard it.”

Mia groaned behind us, but I was already heading down the stairs before Cole could take it back.

Tomorrow I turned eighteen. Someday Cole would be Alpha, I’d be his Beta, and as far as I was concerned, the biggest complication in my future was figuring out how the two of us were supposed to run an entire pack without killing each other.

Poor bastard had no idea what was coming.