Chapter 4

The moment I heard James's voice, I hung up on reflex.

Then I took several deep breaths before I could steady myself. "Someone's having a bonding ceremony. I'm going. What, you want to come with me?"

I really was going to a bonding ceremony. It wasn't a lie. It was just that the one bonding was me.

"I'm not going. Go by yourself. I've got business to deal with." His voice was cold and hard. With that, he went upstairs, face dark.

I knew it. He was still angry about what happened earlier. He didn't even notice the bandage wrapped around my foot. He'd forgotten that in the Blackwood Pack, all my time revolved around him. I didn't even have friends of my own.

Then he turned back, face still stiff, and added, "You're going to be my Luna someday. You should learn to be more gracious. What happened today was your fault. You should go apologize to her."

"You haven't forgotten she saved your life once, have you?"

With that, he strode into the room and slammed the door shut.

I let out a bitter laugh and shook my head. I didn't bother arguing.

Once, when I had a bad episode, Emily brought me an herb that eased it.

After that, she constantly went on about how many injuries she'd gotten searching for that herb, and asked me for my most treasured things.

At the time, I was so grateful, and I really did think of her as a sister. Whatever she wanted, I gave her.

But later I found out the medicine had been sent by my family.

They'd sent a whole crate. Emily gave me one single plant and kept and sold all the rest.

It was the best herb there was. One plant alone was worth ten thousand dollars. Ninety-nine of them. Nine hundred ninety thousand dollars.

She gambled it all away in a single day.

That was when I finally saw her for what she was.

But when I told James all of it, he didn't believe a word. He said I'd misunderstood Emily.

From then on, we fought more and more. And he defended Emily harder and harder.

Now, I was done.

If James was always going to believe her, then there was no point in explaining anything.

We'd be strangers soon enough anyway.

The next morning, I was woken up by a pungent smell.

I fought back the nausea, forced myself up, and stumbled out.

A diffuser sat in the room, and it reeked of soulweed.

With my illness, I absolutely could not breathe that in.

I clutched my chest as it stabbed with pain, gasping for air. I walked over, grabbed the diffuser, and threw it out with everything I had.

"What the hell are you doing?!" James's roar rang out.

"Medicine..." I pointed at the medicine kit, desperate to make him understand, to save me.

But James didn't even look at me. He shifted into his wolf form and leaped out the window, all to go find that diffuser.

In his wolf form, he was massive. He accidentally slammed into me on his way out.

"Ah!"

I was already unsteady from the episode. I crashed down, my stomach hitting the sharp corner of the cabinet. The pain screwed my face up tight.

But I couldn't afford to care about the pain. I scrambled, staggering, toward the medicine kit.

I finally reached it, but my trembling hands couldn't get it open.

When I finally forced my hands steady and opened the box, it was empty.

Ever since the first time James saw me have an episode, he'd always kept the house stocked with medicine to ease them, and he replaced the expired ones on schedule.

But now, the box that used to be full was empty.

I broke down, screaming for James.

But he was out looking for that diffuser. My cries were barely more than gasps of air. Nothing came back.

My consciousness started slipping. Just when I thought I was going to die, a voice rose inside me.

"I'm here."

It was my Wolf.

Facing death, my Wolf had finally awakened.

The next second, I felt the illness that had tortured me for nearly twenty years slowly fading.

My body was going through a massive transformation.

I felt immense power surging through me, the link between my wolf and me growing clearer and clearer.

Finally, when I slowly opened my eyes, I saw myself in the mirror, shifted into my wolf form—a white wolf.

My wolf had never awakened before, so I could never shift. I'd never known what my wolf looked like.

Now I knew.