Chapter 1

The graduation trip was supposed to belong to Adrian and me.

We had grown up together. He was the heir to Cedar Ridge Pack’s Alpha, and I was the girl everyone assumed would one day exchange permanent mate marks with him and become his Luna.

Throughout our four years of college, I had followed him through national parks, canyons, deserts, and endless empty highways. Adrian chose every route.

Evan often came with us. He was Adrian’s most trusted friend and future Beta.

I researched the routes, booked the rooms, and secured clearance from the packs whose territories we would cross.

They drove and took pictures, then called us the perfect childhood team.

Before graduation, I tried for the first time to suggest something different.

“Adrian, let’s go to the coast. We could find a quiet seaside town, sleep as late as we want, eat local seafood, and walk along the beach. We wouldn’t have to race from one place to another every day.”

He agreed so easily that day.

“All right. We’ll do this graduation trip your way.”

I was excited for days.

I created three itineraries, reserved a hotel near an old lighthouse, and booked a restaurant serving the day’s local catch.

I even bought a white dress for graduation pictures by the ocean.

After graduation, we would return to Cedar Ridge Pack.

Adrian would begin his formal training to succeed his father as Alpha, while I would start learning how to carry the responsibilities of a future Luna.

I thought this would be our last carefree trip before we truly became mates.

But one week before we were supposed to leave, Sienna posted a route map in the group chat. It cut through Arizona and Utah, passing canyons, desert country, and Monument Valley.

Sienna had left the pack with her mother when she was a child.

Cedar Ridge had not found her again until six months ago.

The elders believed the pack owed her for all the years she had spent away, and Adrian and Evan indulged her at every turn, as if being endlessly attentive now could make up for everything she had lost.

[graduation trip should feel like a movie], Sienna wrote in the chat. [You can go to the beach anytime. Monument Valley doesn’t get perfect summer weather every year.]

Evan replied first.

[I can bring the drone. The desert footage will be incredible.]

Adrian answered immediately after him.

[This route looks amazing.]

I stared at my phone for a long time before slowly typing a response.

[But didn’t we already agree to go to the coast?]

Sienna replied almost at once.

[Nora, you’re not seriously trying to turn our graduation trip into a retirement vacation, are you? We’re in our early twenties. Don’t make life so boring.]

The group chat filled with laughing emojis.

Someone said the national parks would look more cinematic. Someone else called beaches ordinary. Another joked that the Alpha heir, his future Beta, and the beautiful wolf newly returned to the pack deserved their own road movie.

Adrian did not defend me.

He only sent me two private messages.

[Don’t ruin the mood.]

[Sienna has a point. I’ll take you to the coast by ourselves next time.]

Next time.

He always pushed the things he promised me into some distant future. Yet somehow, his next time never truly belonged to me.

I stared at his messages as a familiar ache tightened in my chest. In the end, I sent back one word.

[Okay.]

So I canceled the coastal hotel and restaurant. I researched national park routes, reserved an SUV and several Airbnbs, checked the weather and pack boundaries, created a budget, and purchased travel insurance.

Sienna sent one last message to the group.

[Nora really is the most reliable person for this kind of thing.]

She added a clapping emoji.

I looked at the screen, unable to decide whether it was praise or proof that they had grown accustomed to handing every inconvenience to me.

On the morning we left, Adrian picked me up in his 4Runner. Evan was in the back checking the drone equipment. Sienna was already in the front passenger seat.

As I approached with my suitcase, she looked at me through the window.

“You can sit in the back, Nora. I get carsick, and I’ll be more comfortable up front.”

I got carsick too. Adrian knew that.

Wolves had sharper senses than humans. In a closed car, gasoline, leather, and perfume could overwhelm me within minutes.

“I get carsick too,” I said. “Adrian, you know how bad it gets on mountain roads.”

He climbed out and opened the rear door.

“Bear with it for a while. Sienna was editing until three this morning. She barely slept.”

“That doesn’t make me any less likely to get sick.”

He glanced toward Sienna, who was already arranging her camera on her lap.

“There’s more room in the back. You can lie down.”

I stayed beside the open door.

“Then if I need you to stop, I need you to listen.”

“All right, Nora. We’ll stop.”

I remembered our first long drive during freshman year. When I became too carsick to speak, Adrian pulled over, moved me into the passenger seat, and opened the windows to clear everyone else’s scent.

Someone laughed and said I had a more delicate constitution than a human despite being a wolf.

Adrian had not cared.

“So what if my girlfriend is delicate? I like taking care of her.”

Back then, he had noticed when I went quiet and pale. I had never needed to convince him that I felt sick.

He put my suitcase in the trunk and closed the door.

“Seat belts on. Let’s go.”

Evan lifted his camera with a grin, while Sienna twisted around excitedly to speak to Adrian. I stood beside the car for several seconds before finally climbing into the back.

Only then did I realize, far too late, that Adrian had stopped putting me first a long time ago.