Chapter 1

After seven years away from my mate, I finally came home to Blackthorn Pack.

I had quit my job at the border for Adrian Blackthorne.

I thought I was coming back to our future.

Instead,I stood outside the main house and typed in the door code three times.

Wrong.

Wrong.

Wrong.

On the fourth try, the door opened from the inside.

But the person standing behind it was not Adrian.

It was my best friend, Lila Hart.

She was wearing Adrian’s white shirt, the hem barely covering her thighs. His scent was all over her, cold cedar and Alpha dominance clinging to her skin.

It was too intimate. Too obvious. Too humiliating.

"Selena, you're back?"

She smiled like she belonged there.

Like she was the woman of the house.

"I had a fight with my roommate," she said lightly. "So I've been staying with your fiance for a while."

For a while.

As if my mate's house were a spare bedroom she could borrow.

At the sound of her voice, Adrian came out of the bathroom.

A pale pink towel hung low around his waist. His hair was wet, water trailing down his shoulders.

"Don't block the doorway," he said.

His brows drew together as he looked at me.

"Lila's using the master bedroom. You can sleep in the guest room tonight."

He said it like it was normal.

Like I was the guest.

Then, through what was left of our mate bond, his thoughts slipped into my head. Soft. Panicked. Cowardly.

[Selena, after being apart this long, did you fall for another Alpha?]

[Say this is our home. Tell her she has no right to stay.]

[Get angry. Fight me. Show me you still care.]

He had always been like this.

If I replied to a text late, he took Lila to the pack bar.

If I missed one month with him, he let Lila sleep over at the main house.

Before, I would have asked questions. I would have cried. I would have broken down exactly the way his thoughts wanted me to.

But this time, I looked at the women's underwear hanging on the balcony.

The slippers outside the master bedroom that were not mine.

The Alpha scent wrapped around Lila so thickly it nearly drowned out her own.

And suddenly, I had nothing left to ask.

I took one step back and grabbed my suitcase.

A house that had room for three was never going to be my home.

...

Lila reached out and caught the handle of my suitcase.

"Selena, come on. It's just a changed password. Are you really mad?"

She blinked at me, wearing innocence like a mask.

"The old code was too complicated. I could never remember it, so Adrian changed it to my birthday."

Adrian gave a cold laugh.

"She's being dramatic. It's a password. Why can't I change it?"

His face was full of impatience.

But his thoughts grew more desperate by the second.

[Say it. Say that date was the day we became mates.]

[Tell me I wasn't allowed to change it.]

[Selena Vale, why aren't you reacting?]

I said nothing.

Lila leaned against the doorframe and yawned.

"Are you coming in or not? We're going to bed."

I took the key with the Blackthorn wolf crest from my pocket and placed it by the door.

Gently.

Like I was putting down the last piece of us.

"No."

"You two sleep."

Adrian went still.

Then his face hardened.

"If you're not coming in, then get lost."

He slammed the door.

The force of it made me stumble. My bag slipped off my shoulder, and a stack of old train tickets spilled across the floor.

The one on top was from seven years ago.

The day I was assigned to Silver Creek's border division, Adrian took me to the station.

The boarding announcement played three times before he finally let go of my hand.

"Go, Selena," he said.

"Don't look back."

He sounded so calm.

But that was the first time I heard his thoughts.

[Selena, I don't want to let you go.]

[But I can't hold you back.]

[I love you. Wait for me.]

My hand froze over my ticket.

My eyes burned. Then the tears came before I could stop them.

For the next seven years, I took that five-hour train again and again.

Even after patrols that ended past midnight, I would rush back to Blackthorn Pack just to see him.

Until the time I handled two nights of border riots in a row, collapsed at the division office, and missed the train back.

The moment I woke up in the infirmary, I called him.

He answered on the seventh try.

"I'm having dinner with Lila."

His voice was so cold he barely sounded like my mate.

"Why are you crying? You were busy. Am I not allowed to have someone else keep me company?"

"She's your best friend, isn't she? If she's watching me for you, what are you worried about?"

That night, Lila posted three updates.

Pack bar.

Shots.

A street at three in the morning.

And I spent the night alone in the infirmary, an IV in my arm and my phone silent beside me.

My tears fell onto the train ticket.

I tried to wipe them away.

But the stains would not come off.

The door opened again.

Adrian stood inside. When he saw my tears, his expression softened a little.

"If you can't bear to leave, then get in here."

"How many days are you staying this time?"

I did not tell him I had already resigned.

There was no point.

I had given up everything at the border because I wanted to end the distance between us and finally be with him.

But he and Lila had already been living together.

Lila came out of the bathroom with a towel and started drying his hair like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Adrian did not move away.

He even lowered his head for her.

His thoughts said he loved me.

But his body had already learned to lean toward another woman.

There was no space left for me in that house. Not in the bedroom. Not in his habits. Not in his life.

I did not pick up the tickets.

I turned and walked toward the elevator.

Behind me, Adrian laughed coldly.

"Selena, if you walk out today,we're over."

I pressed the elevator button without looking back.

His thoughts broke into panic.

[Selena, don't go.]

[I only wanted to make you jealous.]

[If you turn around, I'll comfort you.]

The elevator doors opened.

I stepped inside.

[Please. Don't go.]

I heard him.

This time, I let him beg.

And I did not stop.

The doors closed inch by inch, cutting off his face and his voice inside my head.

At that moment, my phone rang.

On the other end was Cassian Wolfe, a high-ranking Alpha from the Northern Council.

"Selena Vale," he said. "The position at Council headquarters is still open for you."

"Have you made up your mind?"

I wiped my tears and cleared my throat.

"Cassian."

"I'll report tomorrow."