Chapter 3

It was almost midnight when the celebration ended.

Adrian returned to the pack house with Noah and Selena. The moment he stepped through the front door, he called into the silent foyer, "Elena, come out. We need to talk."

Only his voice came back to him.

He called again, then a third time. With every unanswered attempt, the line between his brows deepened.

Noah lingered near the stairs. "Is Mommy still mad?"

"She probably went to her mother's," Selena said softly. "This is my fault. She must think you spent the whole night defending me."

Adrian took out his phone and called me.

My phone didn't ring inside the house. It was lying in a dark corner backstage, its case smeared with my blood.

The call went unanswered. Worry touched his face, but it lasted only a few seconds before familiar irritation pushed it aside.

"She's done this before," he said. "She disappears and waits for me to come running."

Selena studied him. "Maybe you should."

"No." Adrian put his phone away. "If she thinks walking out will force me to choose sides, she can come back on her own this time."

He summoned the house steward. "Move Elena's belongings to the east-wing guest suite. Lock her room on the Alpha floor for now, and remove the Luna nameplate from her place at the council table."

The steward stared at him. "Alpha, are you certain?"

"She wants space. Give it to her."

From the staircase, I watched the household staff enter the bedroom Adrian and I had shared for seven years.

They took my dresses from the closet and sealed them in garment bags. My silver hair comb, the amber diffuser in the bathroom, the blue glass lamp I had chosen for my bedside table--every familiar thing was carried to the east wing.

Nothing was thrown away.

Still, each item leaving the master suite made the same quiet announcement: a Luna could be removed, and a wife's place could be cleared for someone else.

At last, the steward unscrewed the wooden plaque bearing my name from the bedroom door.

Adrian watched from the end of the corridor without changing his mind.

He thought this was a struggle for power between mates.

He didn't know he didn't have to force me out of our room.

I would never come home again.

Noah refused to let Selena leave. He wrapped both arms around her leg and confessed that he was afraid Mommy would stay angry and never come back.

Adrian gave Selena the guest room on the second floor.

The next morning, she came to breakfast wearing a spare black shirt embroidered with the Blackwood crest. Then she sat in the chair reserved for the Luna at the Alpha's table and lifted my ceramic mug to her lips.

Adrian saw her. His gaze paused on the mug, then on the embroidered crest hanging loose around her shoulders. For a moment, I waited for him to tell her to move. That chair had belonged to every Luna of Mooncrest for generations. Even after our worst arguments, he had never allowed another wolf to sit there.

This time, he said nothing.

The doorbell rang.

Certainty flickered across his face. "She's finally decided to come back."

He headed for the door as though he had already prepared the apology he expected from me.

But I wasn't standing on the other side.

My mother was.

Mara Hart held a tin of freshly baked orange-cranberry scones. Snow dusted the shoulders of her coat, and worry sharpened every line of her face.