This all still feels like a dream. Did I once fantasize about what it would be like to be alone with the Trio? Yes, as had most of the females in our tribe, and I am sure countless other ones, too. But when they kept constantly tormenting me, I began to see their ugliness. I need to hear them say it, so I stop walking and turn to them, “Are you only being nice to me because you think that I am your mate?”

Conner looks at me with one of his eyes and one of Caleb’s, “Avery, I never ...