ログインWillow’s POVThe training grounds helped too.Vincent was still trying to win back his gold chain.He had tried making different bets, but I only accepted the ones that I was sure of, and none of them had worked.I felt bad that I had offered to just give it back.“No,” he said immediately.“Vincent.” I had held it out to him. “Take it back.”“I don’t want it back.”“Then why do you keep trying to win it?”“Because winning it is the point.”I had given up and put it back in my pocket. I hadn’t worn it since I won it, but Vincent insisted on me keeping it because he wanted to win it fairly.Hela was a different story.On the days she was at the training grounds, she would stand beside me.We would watch the matches together, and sometimes she would ask what I saw, and I would tell her. Sometimes I was wrong. When I was, she would point it out flatly. When I was right, she said nothing, which I had learned to read as agreement.Whenever I predicted a move and it happened a second later,
Willow’s POVFive days.Mordecai had not come to the apothecary garden in five days.I found myself looking toward the gate whenever I heard footsteps. That realization annoyed me immediately.When I found plants I didn’t recognize, I would automatically look around, expecting a flat voice to identify them.It was strange how quickly I had gotten used to him appearing without making a sound. The short answers and all the questions he never answered. The way he would crouch beside a plant and point out something I had been staring at for twenty minutes without seeing.And now there was none of that.The garden felt strangely empty because of it.Even the feeling of being watched had stopped. I had gotten so used to it that its absence felt strange, like a sound that had always been in the background had suddenly stopped.I had not realized how much I had been relying on his short visits until they stopped.My work in the herb garden had slowed down to nothing because without him there
Willow’s POVAfter a quick shower, I decided to go to the training grounds.Anything was better than spending another evening thinking about pale blue eyes. It had been a while since I had gone there.Lately, most of my time had been spent in the two gardens. If I wasn’t working, I usually walked around the territory or sat near the playground watching the children.I hadn’t gone back to the training grounds since the punishment of those warriors.Part of me had been scared that if word got around about why those two men had been whipped, people would connect it to me.The staring after the punishment had been very bizarre, but it had calmed down a few days later. But I had still been hesitant.Until Diana told me the reason, when I finally worked up the nerve to ask her if she knew why they were punished.“Officially, it wasn’t just about you,” she had said. “They had been skimming from supply shipments for months. Apparently somebody finally found proof and brought it to the alpha.
Willow’s POVThe next few days settled into something close to a routine.I split my time between the two gardens. The first one was easy now. I knew every root, every plant, every flower, but the apothecary garden fought me at every step.Most of the plants there looked very alike. Some had identical leaves, with only a faint color difference or a different vein pattern to tell them apart. I spent entire mornings kneeling in the dirt, turning leaves over, comparing one to the next, trying to make the differences stick in my head.Progress was too slow. All I could do was clear out the dead plants to make the garden look less like a battlefield.Mordecai started showing up.He never announced himself. He simply appeared whenever he wanted to.Sometimes I looked up and found him standing a few feet away, watching. Other times I didn’t notice him at all until a flat voice answered a question I had been muttering to myself, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.He never stayed long. I woul
Willow’s POVThe next morning, a knock came at my door immediately after breakfast.Beta Robin was standing in the hallway when I opened it, his bright red hair making him very easy to recognize.“Ready?” he asked.I scowled as I grumbled. “Do I really have a choice?”To my surprise, he shrugged. “Actually, yes.”I blinked. “What?”“If you truly don’t want to do it, say so.” He stated.I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, but Robin looked completely serious.I folded my arms. “And Alpha Mordecai would be happy about that?”Robin’s mouth twitched. “Probably not”I raised an eyebrow. “So?”“But nothing would happen to you,” he added, “If you genuinely don’t want to do this, you can say so. I’ll tell him myself.”I wasn’t convinced one bit.This was Alpha Mordecai we were talking about, but Robin sounded genuine.I studied him for a moment before sighing. “Fine.”His expression relaxed slightly. “Good, because explaining that to the alpha sounds like a terrible experience.”I laughed in res
Willow’s POVI went to the garden early, before the sun had risen.I hadn’t slept properly. Every time I had drifted off during the night, those pale eyes came back, and I had woken up each time with my heart pounding too fast. By the third time it happened I had given up trying to sleep at all and just lay there staring at the ceiling until the sun started to rise.So I came to the garden tired, because I needed the routine more than usual.The garden was the only place that made sense in my head, so I went there before the rest of the pack fully woke up.I knelt and started checking the soil the way I always did to feel how much moisture was already there before adding more. The purple flowers closest to the entrance needed less water than the other plants. If given too much water, the roots rotted from the inside, until the whole plant collapsed without warning.I reached for the watering can to water it.“You’re overwatering that one.”A calm flat voice came from behind me.“No, I
Willow’s POVThe truth was that leaving would not be difficult.I sat on the edge of my bed and tried to think clearly. I had spent eleven years being invisible in this house. Pack members passed me in the hallways without even seeing me.Leaving would not be difficult, because no one would notice
Willow’s POV“Here is what will happen,” Alpha Kelvin stated. “You will carry the child to term. You will deliver a healthy heir for this pack, and then you will disappear from Noah’s life permanently.His eyes narrowed. “No contact, no communication, no trace of you left behind. Noah has a Luna no
Willow’s POVAlpha Kelvin clasped his hands behind his back and looked at me with the same flat expression he used in pack meetings. “I’m talking about Stacey Holt and Noah,” he continued. “Their child.” He paused. “From your current state, I assume you have heard already.”My mouth opened and clo
Willow’s POVI don’t know how long I sat there sobbing my heart out.My throat started to ache and my body ran out of the energy to cry. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them as I just sat there in my tiny room, staring at nothing.My room had been a storage room once, bu







