Chapter 4

The shouting from the pack pressed in on all sides.

The crowd surrounded me, hurling every ugly word they had.

I was just about to leave when someone's hand shot out and grabbed my arm.

A man's voice, loud enough to rattle the walls.

"You're not going anywhere."

"If Luna Kate suffers any harm because of you, you will answer for it."

His words dropped a sudden quiet over the group. Then they all moved at once.

Someone wrenched my hair back. Someone else pinned my arms.

"How dare you go after Luna Kate."

"You're coming to the pack hospital right now."

"If anything happens to Luna Kate, you're not leaving."

By the time we reached the hospital, Kate was already in bed, looking fragile against the white sheets.

Cole was beside her, stroking her hair.

From a distance, they looked exactly like two people the Moon Goddess had meant for each other.

When Cole noticed me, every bit of softness left his face.

"Wendy! How do you have the nerve to show up here?"

"Do you have any idea how close she came to dying because of you?"

Kate was pale as paper in the hospital bed. The moment our eyes met, she pressed her hand to her chest and broke into violent coughing.

"Wendy... I'm sorry. This is all my fault for being difficult..."

I gave her a cold look, then turned it on Cole.

My gaze was enough to make Cole move in front of Kate by instinct.

The way he guarded her — that look he turned on me — hit somewhere I wasn't ready for, even now that I'd let go of him.

It was a buried kind of pain. Like drowning slowly. Like not being able to breathe.

I didn't understand what I had ever done wrong. I had been loyal. I had given everything. And this was what I got.

I took a slow breath and reined myself in.

"You don't need to apologize. Today is your ceremony day."

"I'm happy for you both. I hope you're happy."

The words had barely left my mouth before Cole was in front of me, Kate's coughing still in the background, his hand locked around my wrist.

His grip was brutal. I couldn't stop the sharp intake of breath.

His eyes were mean when he looked at me.

"Happy?"

"Are you here to torment us, Wendy?"

"Would she look like this right now if it weren't for you?"

His pack members piled on immediately.

"Luna Kate was perfectly healthy before you showed up."

"She ends up like this the moment you arrive, and you have the nerve to say you're here to wish them well?"

The voices kept rising.

From behind Cole, Kate's eyes were shining with satisfaction.

She watched with the look of someone who knew exactly what was coming.

Because once upon a time, my pride and my possessiveness had been common knowledge. I had gone after an entire pack over someone getting too close to Cole. I had publicly humiliated a girl just for talking to him.

My pride had never allowed anyone to touch what was mine — and a person was no different.

Everyone was waiting for me to snap. Cole looked as though he had already braced himself to restrain me.

But they were wrong. What I felt for Cole now was nothing but revulsion, all the way down.

I stood in the middle of the crowd and gave a small, quiet nod, my voice stripped of anything resembling emotion.

"You're right. I shouldn't have come. That's on me."

"So can I go now?"

Nobody had expected that.

Cole's hand, already raised to hold me back, froze in midair.

He stared at me.

"What did you just say?"

"I said I'm sorry for the disruption. I'm leaving."

"And I'll be taking my things with me."

There was a pause, Cole slow to catch up.

"What things?"

I reached into my bag, pulled out the aid ledger, and set it on the table in front of everyone.

"I provided everything here in my capacity as your future Luna. Since that's no longer what I am, I'll be taking it all back."

The first one to scream was Kate.

"No!"