Chapter 5

I repacked the suitcase. I searched every corner of the house. The reports were gone.

It had started raining outside. Wind cut through the windows. I pulled my shawl tighter, but the cold was bone-deep.

The bruise on my stomach was darkening. I found ointment and rubbed it in, gritting my teeth.

A tear hit the back of my hand.

It's fine, I told myself. It's fine.

There were backups at the office. I could reprint everything.

Ten years of work. I wasn't leaving them behind.

I went to the door. The second I opened it, I came face to face with Adrian.

He'd brought Vanessa home.

His eyes flicked away from mine. I didn't bother. I walked past them and left.

"Adrian, I told you I'm fine. Why did you have to walk me all the way home?"

Vanessa's voice rose, deliberately, so I'd hear it.

Adrian's gaze drifted. He glanced back, watching me go. His face was unreadable.

He knew he'd been too harsh the night before. He'd been planning to find me, ask me what had really happened. But every time he looked at me, the words died.

Vanessa noticed exactly where his eyes had gone. Her jaw locked.

She caught his hand. Her voice went soft and sweet. "Want to come inside for a bit?"

But his head was somewhere else. "I have to get to work." He left without looking back.

The second he was out of sight, Vanessa's face changed. She grabbed a photo of me off the table, threw it on the floor, and ground it under her heel.

"Why? Who do you think you are, going up against me?"

When she'd gotten it out of her system, she opened a mind-link to someone else. "What I asked you to do. Where are we?"

I walked into the office. Every head in the room turned at once. I felt my skin crawl.

Then Adrian's assistant cried out. "It's her. She's the one who stole the pack documents! She was going to leak them to a rival pack."

What followed was a public lynching without blood. The whispers came at me from every direction:

"I never would've guessed. Selene seemed so quiet, and she pulls something like this."

"Leaking pack secrets is grounds for exile."

"I heard she's been sleeping with the Alpha too. Maybe she crawled into his bed and cut some kind of deal."

It got worse and worse. Suddenly every eye in the company was on me.

I tried to fight back. "I didn't steal anything. Those reports are mine—"

"Search my things. If you find any proof I leaked pack documents, I'll take whatever you give me."

It didn't matter what I said. No one was going to believe me.

Once a rumor sets in, the verdict is already written.

"Quiet."

A deep voice cut through the room. The whole office fell silent.

I looked up. Adrian.

He came toward me. He took in the state of me. Shaking, cornered. And his face went cold.

"Hand over what you stole. If you do, I'll let this go. That's the most leniency I can give you."

The assistant pushed in. "Alpha, leaking pack secrets gets you exiled. We can't just let her go."

One look from Adrian shut him up.

Adrian seized my hand. His voice was ice. "You got close to me on purpose. You wanted to steal pack intelligence. After everything."

He stopped. He let out a slow breath, disappointed. "Last chance. If you don't come clean now, even I can't save you."

I stared at him. Got close to him on purpose?

Hadn't twenty years of my last life been enough?