My Alpha Said I’d Crawl Back in Three Days

On the night of our eighth anniversary, I cooked everything Ethan loved.He didn't come home.I sat alone at the table until the food went cold.Then I did what I always did.I opened Selene's profile on the pack network.New post.One hour ago.A photo of Ethan, shirtless, building a fire in her den.Her hand on his shoulder.Her face turned toward the camera with a smile that showed too many teeth.The caption read:Grateful for old friends who drop everything when you need them. Even their marking anniversaries.I stared at it until my eyes burned.Then I liked it.Filed the bond-dissolution request.And started packing the trunk I'd kept ready for months.Ethan didn't believe it when he found out."She's throwing a fit," I heard he told his packmates."Give her three days.""I'll crook my finger and she'll come running back.""She always does."What he didn't understand was why I always came back.It was because I loved him.That was gone now....The Blood Moon rose at dusk.Elena

She didn't go to the gathering place in the lower valley to find them.She went because she was leaving in three weeks, and she'd wanted to go with Ethan for two years.Every time she'd suggested it, he'd had somewhere else to be.Now she went alone.She saw them the moment she walked in.They were sitting close, the way people sit when they've stopped being careful.The table between them was covered in dishes — everything spiced, everything she liked.He didn't eat spiced food.He'd always told her it affected his sense of smell for tracking.He was eating it now.Neither of them had seen her.Selene was laughing, and she picked up a piece of meat from her plate and held it to his mouth.He took it.She let her fingers brush his jaw when she pulled her hand back.He didn't flinch.He looked young.That was the thing she couldn't stop staring at.Ethan always looked controlled, self-contained, the Alpha's son who'd been raised to hold everything in.But sitting across from her, watchi

The silence woke him.Ethan opened his eyes to gray dawn.He was still in her room.He didn't remember sitting down.He didn't remember the night passing.He just remembered reaching for the bond.Again and again.Getting nothing.He'd run through the eastern woods until his paws bled.Shifted back at the territory line.Come straight to her room.Like she might be there.Like the bond going silent was a mistake.She wasn't there.It wasn't a mistake....Her bed was still made.Her closet still full.He stood in front of it for a long time.Dresses he'd bought her.Colors he'd chosen.He'd told himself at the time he was being thoughtful.Paying attention to what she liked.Now he looked at the colors.Lily white.Soft gray.The particular pale green Selene had always worn in summer.Not Elena's colors.Never Elena's colors.He'd been dressing her like a replacement for eight years and never once noticed.The silver chain was still in his pocket.He took it out.Held it.Still warm fr

He gave Selene one hour to leave.He put the file on the table between them.Witness statements.Bank records.The photograph of her, alive and unmarked, three months after her supposed death.He didn't shout.Didn't threaten.He just said: "You staged your death. You watched me search for you. You came back when you decided you wanted something."She tried the soft voice.The wounded eyes.The voice that had worked on him for years.He thought about Elena's blood on his hands.Nothing Selene did moved him anymore."The Alpine Pack has already been notified," he said."You have money. You have an hour."She left in forty minutes.He didn't watch her go.He sat in Elena's empty room and waited for something to feel better.Nothing did....Two months later, he went back to the River Pack.This time he asked properly.A formal request, through the right channels.A ranked Alpha requesting a meeting.They kept him waiting for two hours in a small room near the gate.He waited.He had nowh