Chapter 2

"You bought the wrong thing. You lost the receipt. And I'm not even allowed to dislike it?"

Charles came closer and stroked my hair. "Of course you are. If you wanted the stars, I'd pull them down for you. Come on, don't be angry, okay?"

When he leaned in I caught the smell of perfume. It was the one my mother used to wear before she died.

My head swam. My legs gave out under me and I went over backward.

Charles caught me at once, carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, his eyes full of worry. "Are you all right, Zoe? Are you feeling ill again?"

I kept my eyes shut. My mind was blank and I didn't want to look at him. "Probably."

I turned over and gave him my back.

Even without seeing his face, I heard the small irritated click of his tongue.

He went on rubbing my back anyway. "You should still see Dr. Merrick tomorrow."

The next morning he wasn't there when I woke up.

When I went downstairs, Charles was setting a cup of coffee on the dining table.

He gave me an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Zoe. Something came up, a lunch I can't get out of, so I can't take you to Dr. Merrick. Have the housekeeper go with you. I made breakfast: your coffee, fried eggs, and croissants. Does that sound all right?"

I touched the cup. Exactly the right temperature. He never missed a detail. "Fine."

Maybe because I wasn't angry, he seemed thrown. "I'm not in that much of a hurry. I'll have breakfast with you before I go."

So the two of us ate in silence, and then he kissed my cheek and left.

I left the housekeeper behind, saying I wanted some air, and drove out of the pack alone, with a different destination in mind.

Instead of going to Dr. Merrick's, I headed for the place I used to call home: Star Moon Pack.

I drove up to the house I had grown up in. After my father, the Alpha, died, my mother had lived there by herself.

After she faked her death, Charles never let me come back, and fear and guilt kept me from setting foot in the place.

I went inside. Every piece of furniture stood exactly where it always had.

A pair of cream-colored heels sat by the door. They weren't my mother's. They were Vivian's.

As I went farther inside, I smelled seafood soup.

I stopped in the kitchen doorway. Vivian was stirring the pot and humming to herself. When she turned to reach for something she saw me, and the spoon dropped straight out of her hand. "Zoe? What are you doing here?"

She snatched the spoon up and wiped her hands nervously on her apron.

"This is my house. Am I not supposed to come back?" The question stopped her for a beat, and then she gave me a demure smile. "Of course you are. It's just that you haven't been back since Mom died, so it surprised me."

She turned off the burner and eagerly poured me a glass of water. "Charles said you haven't been well lately, so I didn't dare come see you, I—"

"Call him your brother-in-law." I cut her off, my voice flat. "Vivian, we're not blood, and my mother never filed the adoption papers. But if you're going to call yourself my sister, then Charles is your brother-in-law."

Vivian flushed, embarrassed, and then pouted as if she were the injured party. "Yes. I mean, my brother-in-law. I missed Mom, that's all, so I wanted to come back and see the house."

As she spoke, a flash of blue at her throat caught my eye, and I knew exactly what I was looking at.

It was the sapphire necklace my mother had told Charles to buy for Vivian at the store.

"Nobody lives here anymore. You cooked a whole pot of seafood soup. Can you finish all that by yourself? Or maybe... it isn't just for you?" Vivian went white. She opened her mouth to explain, and then the front door opened.

Charles walked in fast. When he saw me his steps stopped dead, and he swallowed hard.

"Zoe, weren't you supposed to be at Dr. Merrick's? What are you doing all the way out here?"

I looked at him. He had told me he had a lunch he couldn't move, that he couldn't take me to my appointment, and here he was.

Seafood soup happened to be his favorite dish.

Vivian hadn't come here because she missed my mother. This was the meeting place Marlene had arranged so the two of them could be together.

Charles crossed the room and put himself in front of Vivian. A first reaction never lies. He cared more about her than about me.

The thought hit and my chest hurt so much I couldn't breathe. "I thought you had a lunch. How did you end up here too?"

I put weight on the word "too," and the panic in his eyes got worse. "The lunch is nearby. I stopped in on my way past."

I laughed. "Charles, this is Star Moon Pack. Your lunch is in another Alpha's territory? And this is a residential area. There isn't a restaurant for miles."

"Zoe." Before Charles could answer, Vivian peeked out from behind him.

"Charles... He probably misses Mom too. He was just passing by and came to look in."

Charles pressed his lips together and looked at Vivian with a flash of tenderness, as if I were bullying her. When his eyes came back to me there was blame in them.

"That's enough, Zoe. Let's go." He came over and put an arm around my shoulders. I stepped back and pointed at Vivian.

"Charles, that bracelet you gave me was a freebie. The real piece is around her neck."