Chapter 2

The next day, I prepared to go to the pack office to begin the process of leaving the pack.

As I packed all the paperwork I'd prepared into a bag, a photo slipped out by accident. It was taken in the forest not long after Bryan and I became mates.

He used to love keeping it on him wherever he went, but at some point, he stopped carrying it. After that, he didn't even have time to take walks with me anymore. Or rather, he no longer wanted to make time for me.

I'd just put the photo away when my phone rang. It was Bryan calling, but the voice on the other end wasn't his. It was his Beta, Cade Wolcott.

There was a lot of noise in the background, and Cade kept his voice low. "Luna, the Alpha's lost control of his power!"

I looked at the documents I'd packed and waited for him to go on.

"He's in the council hall right now, and he threw all of us out." Cade sounded panicked. "Luna, can you come over? You're the only one who can calm him down."

I'd been hearing those same words for five years.

The time I remembered most clearly was when Bryan fell into a frenzy and nearly hurt one of the elders. When I found him, he was burning up and had lost almost all sense of himself, his body covered in wounds he'd clawed into his own skin.

When I rushed in and pulled him into my arms, he was still murmuring my name. I stayed up all night doing everything I could to calm him down. Once he came back to himself, he rested his head on my shoulder and told me I'd saved him, and that he'd spend the rest of his life protecting me.

"Luna?" Cade's voice came through again.

"Call a healer and have them go in and take care of him."

"But the Alpha won't let anyone in."

"What about Hazel?"

Cade hesitated. "She's here too."

"Then have her help calm him down."

With that, I hung up, turned around, and walked out of the house.

A few minutes later, my phone rang again.

"Where are you?" It was Bryan.

"I'm taking care of some work."

"I need you." He sounded like he was holding back the pain.

I looked out the window at the traffic. "The healer should be there by now. You have—"

Bryan cut me off. "Aurora, I said I'd make time for you, and I meant it. Can you just come here first?"

I didn't say anything. All he needed was for me to calm him down, to give him a massage, and to hold him tight so he wouldn't hurt himself. I'd been at his beck and call like that for five years.

I used to think that since the Moon Goddess had made us fated mates, we'd spend the rest of our lives happy together. Only now did I understand that we were together because of fate, not because of love.

"Bryan, I have important work to do too."

His voice dropped, as if he was fighting hard to hold something back. "Are you still mad about yesterday?"

"No."

"All I did was miss one dinner, and now you don't even care that I've lost control of my power?" He sounded impatient. "Aurora, didn't I already say I'd make it up to you with dinner and a movie?"

Just then, the car pulled up outside the Wolf Alliance Hall.

"I have to go," I said, and hung up.

That same day, the Nightfall pack's social media page posted that the Alpha had been injured. Hazel left a comment underneath.

"I'll guard Alpha Bryan with my life. I'll always be here to protect you!"

I took one look and closed the app.

When I got home that night, the first thing I did was pack everything I'd be taking with me when I left.