Briar’s POV
I haven't smoked in years.
Haven't touched the goddamn thing, but since my life took a drastic change, I brought out the cigarette I’d just bought, my fingers shaking as I pulled it from the pack.
I stared at it for a long moment, my breathing uneven.
The weight of everything, the clinic, the elders, my kids, the Lycan Kings, was pressing on me, suffocating me from the inside out. I leaned forward against the kitchen island, tears stinging the back of my eyes.
I placed the unlit cigarette between my lips, not even bothering to grab a lighter. It wasn’t about smoking, not really. It was about holding something, distracting myself from the cracks forming in every part of my life.
My hands trembled as I placed the cigarette back down on the island, burying my face in my hands. My shoulders shook as the tears came, quiet at first, then harder, until I was sobbing uncontrollably into the silence of my room.
I didn’t even hear the door open.
“Mommy?”
My head snapped up, my face
