Chapter 7

Willow’s POV

The 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 until I was already gone.

And I had nothing to pack.

I looked around the room. All that was here was a narrow dresser, a thin blanket on the bed, and two sets of clothes folded on the chair in the corner. They had been washed so many times the color had gone turned to grey.

I could leave all of it.

There was only one thing in that room that I could not leave without.

I reached under the bed and pulled out a small wooden box.

It was not pretty. It was slightly worn at the corners and the hinges had gone a little stiff from years of opening and closing. 

As I opened it, a sweet soft melody started playing.

I pressed it against my chest and closed my eyes.

I did not remember my mother’s face. I had tried over the years, but there was nothing clear.

The only thing I could remember was the song playing in this music box.

Someone had held me and carried me and played this song. That was the one thing I knew without question.

I did not know if that person was my mother. I had no one left to ask.

The music box was all I had from my old life before this one.

I sat there holding it until the melody finished and stopped.

Then I set it gently on the bed beside me and put my face in my hands and cried even more.

I cried until I had nothing left. Until my eyes burned and my body felt empty.

Another knock on the door startled me.

I straightened up, wiped my face and looked at the door.

For one terrible second I thought it might be Noah coming to talk.

“Come in,” I called out, my voice coming out flat and dull.

The door opened and Stacey Holt walked in like she owned the room.

She looked around with a sneer on her face, then her eyes landed on me and she smiled.

I looked at her. I had no energy or even anger in me. I was too tired.

“What do you want?” I asked quietly. “Come to gloat?”

Stacey’s smile widened. “Yes, actually. I have.” 

She took a few steps into the room, her eyes filled with glee.

“How does it feel?” she asked. “Knowing that everything you thought you had was never really yours? That he chose me? That he’s always going to choose me?”

I stayed quiet.

“You know the funny thing about you, Willow?” She tilted her head. “You actually believed it. For four years, you genuinely believed that you mattered to him. That’s almost sad.” She paused. “No, it is sad. It’s very sad.”

I kept my eyes on the wall behind her.

“You’re going to be forgotten,” she continued. “Give it a month after Noah and I are officially mated. Give it two months. No one in this pack is going to remember you were ever here. You’ll just be nothing.” she waved her hand, “Which is what you always were, but at least now it will be official.”

Still I said nothing. What was there to say? She was right. Even though she was cruel and she was enjoying herself, she was completely right.

So there was no use trying to argue back.

Then her eyes dropped.

She spotted the music box on the bed beside me.

“What is that?” She moved toward it before I could react. A small laugh escaped her. “Is this yours? This old junk?”

“Don’t.” I sat up straight. “Don’t touch it.”

“I’m just looking.” She picked it up.

I was on my feet immediately. “Put it down. Stacey, put it down right now.”

“Relax.” She turned it over in her hands, examining it with a gleam in her eyes. “Where did you even get this? It looks like it’s a hundred years old.” She opened the lid and the melody started. She made a face. “That’s it? That’s what it does?”

“Give it back.” My voice had gone sharp. The exhaustion was gone. Every part of me was focused on that box in her hands. “Give it back to me right now.”

“I’m just admiring it,” her voice was falsely sweet. “Isn’t that allowed?”

“Stacey —”

“Whoops.”

It happened fast. Her fingers loosened and the box fell.

The sound it made when it hit the floor went through me like a silver blade.

Rage flooded through me, and I gritted my teeth.