Chapter 3

Back at the Ashton estate, I was confined to a wheelchair under close watch. The pack healers had strict orders: I was not to harm myself again.

Rena, meanwhile, was sprinting laps around the back courtyard in a pair of joggers, laughing as she went.

Dad was out there too, passing her the ball, grinning the way I hadn't seen him grin in years.

Caden filmed her on his phone. Mom watched from the edge of the terrace with the look she used to reserve for me.

I turned my wheelchair toward the garden path.

"Ow!"

Rena went down — a stumble, a sharp cry, grass-stained knees. All four of them surged to her side.

Rena twisted and pointed at something on the ground near my chair. A small metal locking pin — fallen from the wheel assembly long before this moment. Her eyes filled.

"Mara… I know you resent me for getting the transplant. I know you're still in pain." Her voice broke.

"But I finally get to run. I finally get to feel what other wolves feel. How could you try to take that from me?"

Mom crouched and examined Rena's reddened shin with gentle hands.

Dad looked at me with an expression like he'd bitten into something rotten. The vein at his temple pulsed.

"Mara. We did not raise you to be this. What happened to you?"

They looked at me the way wolves look at a rogue. Like I was something that needed to be dealt with.

"I didn't," I said, my voice hollow. "That pin has been loose for days—"

"Don't make excuses."

Dad raised his hand. It swung toward my face.

Caden caught his wrist.

"Mara's been through too much. Give her time."

Eli's gaze cooled as it landed on me. "Fine. Rena's been wanting to try that new private dining room downtown. We'll celebrate her recovery."

He glanced back, expressionless. "You stay here and think about what you've done."

Caden hesitated. He looked at me, then at Rena — who grabbed his hand and swung it like a child, tilting her face up at him.

"Come with us? You promised."

Caden patted my head. "Be good. I'll bring back the seafood chowder you like."

I woke at 3 a.m. The bed beside mine was untouched. Caden had not come home.

The whole estate was dark, except for one room — Rena's.

The door was slightly ajar. As I wheeled closer, a woman's muffled, breathless voice bled through the gap.

Caden's voice came next, low and cracked with want. "You got the transplant. So when are you going to leave her? When?"

"You're the one I love. But Mara saved my life once — I can't abandon her. And besides," Rena's voice softened, "if you have a rejection episode, we still need her blood."

"She can't carry pups now. She can't be a real mate. What does an Alpha heir need with a barren wolf?"

I leaned against the cold wall outside that room for the rest of the night.

Inside, they laughed. They whispered. They were tender with each other in a way I had believed was mine.

When morning light came and the estate began to stir, I waited.

I waited until all four of them passed through the hallway at the same moment.

Then I threw open Rena's door.

In front of every witness, I ripped the sheets back and raised my phone.