Chapter 3

I had just put my phone away when my father called. "Did Bryce mark you?"

I pressed my lips together, and my voice came out muffled. "Not yet."

He went still for a beat, then his voice shot up. "Three years. Three times up on that altar, and he still hasn't marked you! For three years the Crimson Eye pack has been losing good grown wolves helping Bryce fight his uncle Vaughn, and he still won't mark you."

My father's voice was full of rage. "If you ask me, he wants to use the Crimson Eye pack for free. He never meant to mark you at all!"

Then he sighed. "If you'd married Vaughn instead of Bryce back then, the Crimson Eye pack and the Silverwolf pack would both be far stronger than they are now."

At that, my eyes stung. Three years ago I fell in love with Bryce at first sight and called off the arranged marriage with Vaughn, over my father's objections.

For three years, so that Bryce would mark me sooner and I could have the man I loved, my father had backed Bryce against Vaughn, and never once told me what it was costing our pack.

My throat closed up. "It'll be soon."

"Pack business isn't yours to worry about. You just..." He never got to finish. Bryce took the phone out of my hand. "Alpha Garrick, it's Bryce. Ivy got upset over something small and we missed the marking, but I'll never mark anyone but Ivy. You have my word."

My father said a few more things to him, and Bryce brushed them off with a couple of vague answers and hung up.

Nolan let out a mocking laugh. "The Crimson Eye Alpha handed over his whole pack for nothing, just to get Bryce to mark you. If the wolves who died in those fights knew they'd been serving someone who throws everything away for a man, they'd never rest easy in their graves."

Emily stared at him and objected under her breath. "Nolan, why would you say something that cruel?"

Nolan's eyes went cold on me. "I'm telling the truth. The Crimson Eye pack threw every other wolf's life away for Ivy's sake!"

My head came up and I slapped him across the face.

I dropped low, bared my teeth, and took a fighting stance. "Nolan. You and me. When you lose, you apologize to me and to the Crimson Eye pack."

Nolan touched his swelling cheek, tipped his head back, howled at the moon a few times, and took a fighting stance of his own.

Bryce got in front of me, his face ugly. "Ivy, are you done? You're going to fight my best friend over a few jokes?"

He thought what Nolan said was a joke? It was always like this. He always stood on the other side from me, defending his packmates, his friends, even the wolves who answered to him. I was the only one who ever had to swallow it.

I pulled my phone out of Bryce's hand, backed up a few steps, and slipped into the dark.

After tonight, Bryce would never get another chance to hurt me.