He Left Me in a War Zone for His Coworker

A little after three in the afternoon, the pack issued an emergency alert. A rival pack was attacking, and the evacuation had started.

All public transportation shut down. Everyone had to get to the safe zone on their own.

My coworkers paired up. Anyone who didn't have a car rode with someone who did.

Someone offered me a ride, and I smiled and turned it down.

"Thanks, but I'm okay. Ethan's coming to get me."

By five, I could hear the fighting.

I called Ethan. No answer.

An hour earlier, I'd asked where he was. He'd said he was almost here.

Now an hour had passed, and he still wasn't here.

The safe zone was almost an hour away by car. It was already too late to get there on foot.

I was the only one left in the building, and the fighting was getting worse.

I texted Ethan again. Nothing. After a few more calls, someone finally answered.

I blurted out, "Ethan, where are you?"

A woman answered, sounding confused. "Sienna?"

I froze.

"Where's Ethan? Why do you have his phone?"

Maya Reed laughed as she spoke. "Ethan's driving. He's taking me to the safe zone. The roads are bad, so he can't pick up.

"You know it wouldn't be safe for me to go by myself, so I asked him to take me.

"Eth isn't coming back tonight either. With another pack invading, it'd be way too dangerous for him to drive back.

"Oh, you're probably almost at the safe zone by now, right? He said he texted you and told you to get there on your own."

The air smelled like gunpowder and blood. Everyone else on the street had fled to the safe zone. I stood there like an idiot, still imagining Ethan coming back for me.

My heart ached.

For the past two years, I'd worked at the company believing Ethan and I would soon seal our mate bond. Once we did, I thought even my parents might finally stop fighting our relationship so hard.

But for those two years, he'd given all that tenderness to a new coworker instead. Now I finally saw him for who he was, and whatever I'd felt for him was gone.

The silence stretched out before she spoke again. "Bad signal? Hello? Are you still there?"

"I'll be there soon," I told her.

There was a soft laugh on the other end.

"Just make sure you get to the safe zone. Eth and I are almost at ours too."

In the background, I could just make out Ethan's voice. "Put on my jacket so you don't get cold."

Maya laughed. "It's still summer, Eth. It's not that cold."

I hung up without saying anything.

It was summer, and I was freezing. I couldn't stop shaking.

I went back through our messages to be sure. There was nothing telling me to go on my own. Maybe the fighting outside the walls had knocked out the signal, and his message hadn't come through.

That meant he'd sent one message and never checked his phone again. He hadn't thought about me at all.

It hadn't always been like this. I was the daughter of the Red Hill pack's Alpha, and Ethan and I had met by chance when his family came to our territory on business.

Those three years had been happy ones. He took care of me. When we were together, he could barely take his eyes off me. When we were apart, he was always on his phone, texting me and replying the second I messaged him.

Ethan used to say he couldn't bear to keep me waiting, even for a second. Now Maya was the one he couldn't bear to keep waiting.

I could've been living a life of comfort and luxury. Instead, I'd given it all up to come to the Goldstone pack and be with him. I never imagined this was how things would end.

I looked at the smoke rising nearby and regretted all of it.