Chapter 3

I held Kane's eyes and let the warmth speak for me. "We've got a trove of good memories. You just can't remember them right now."

His amber eyes stayed on me, like a pup watching my lips for the next tale.

"Remember that night the storm blew in? You came home cut up after climbing the cliff to pluck the lone Moonlight Flower for me. You said its glow was mine and mine alone."

Sadly, Selena's tears cost me the Moonlight Flower. Kane placed the flower that should've been mine by her pillow, right before my eyes.

All I could do was smile and say, "I understand."

My words eased the confusion in Kane's eyes, bringing a faint warmth to them. He subconsciously reached out and touched the old scar on his shoulder.

I seized the moment and continued, "Remember when that giant bear lost its way and blundered into the forest? It came at me, and everyone else bolted. You were the only one who sprinted over and put yourself between us.

"I remember your roar, and the way blood speckled your face when the bear went down. You didn't even blink. You turned back to me and said that as long as you were around, nothing would hurt me."

However, Kane stayed with Selena for a month to calm her down. He told me to stay away so I wouldn't bring any more trouble her way.

He thought he was protecting me. In truth, it was confinement and humiliation by another name.

Kane's breath quickened. The Alpha instinct to shield and possess me flared back to life in his amber eyes.

"This dagger…" I said, resting my hand over his, the one now wrapping around an obsidian dagger.

His hand stiffened, but he didn't pull away.

"Once, when it was just us at Sacred Spring, you taught me to wield it. Your hand guided mine."

My fingertips traced the ridges of his knuckles, raised by the strength of his grip.

"Your palm was warm against the back of my hand. You said you were my Alpha, and I was your future Luna. Half the dagger's power was mine. It'd keep me safe forever, just as you'd always love me."

The last trace of wariness and confusion in Kane's eyes vanished. In its place rose devotion and compassion, lost and found again.

He turned his hand over and took mine. In a hoarse voice, he said, "Isla… I'm sorry. I forgot you."

He believed it. He believed all of it.

My gaze flicked to the obsidian dagger.

Kane had unsheathed it in front of me, not to teach me how to wield it, but because Selena had "accidentally" mentioned she'd seen me training alone in the woods and was afraid for my safety.

He found me and drove the dagger into the dirt at my feet.

Exasperated, he said, "Isla, you're my Luna. Stop doing what you're not supposed to! Keeping you safe is my job! All you have to do is stay behind me. Understand?"

Kane thought it was love. He had no idea he'd erased who I was in the name of love.

Fine. Let him sink into the sweetness I spun out of his own sins.

The deeper he fell for me, the rosier those memories would seem. And when the truth finally hit, it would hurt all the more.