LOGINThe four of us grew up in the same pack with one rule: whenever we chose something, we had to choose blind. We always picked the same restaurants, campsites, and moonlit trails. Until Mia returned. When applications opened for the four elite heir-training camps, I asked where they were going. Lucas, our pack’s Alpha heir and my fated mate, smiled. “Guess. Autumn in the South is beautiful.” I applied to the Southern Camp. Then Mia posted a ski resort photo. Lucas liked it. I switched to the North. When Caleb shared an eastern sunrise, I changed again. Five applications in forty-eight hours. All because I wanted to stay with the people I’d loved for twenty years. One hour before the deadline, I found their private group chat. Four members. I wasn’t one of them. Mia: *You’re really all coming West with me?* Lucas: *We applied ages ago.* Jace: *What about Erin?* Lucas: *When she sees the final list, she’ll find a way to follow.* Jace: *And if she doesn’t?* Lucas: *I’m her fated mate. Where else would she go?* They had agreed on an answer. Only I was still guessing. I removed my mate ring and accepted the Royal Court’s standing invitation to its commander-training program. Lucas had never marked me. I could still reject our bond. For twenty years, I’d chosen wherever they were. This time, I chose somewhere they couldn’t follow. They could spend the rest of their lives guessing where.
View MoreOne year later, I was formally appointed to the Royal Court Command Center.My new quarters were not large, but they had a window facing south.I adopted a cat—a calico I found outside the base wall.Ethan said her temperament resembled mine. Most of the time she was quiet, but if someone pushed her too far, one swipe could draw blood.I named her Clover.I no longer needed a perfect ending.A little luck that belonged entirely to me was enough.Caleb and Jace emailed me later. They had completed their first year at the Western Camp. Caleb had learned to manage accounts and schedules. Jace no longer waited for someone else to remind him about examinations for his old injury.They did not ask me to return.At the end of the email, they wrote only one sentence.We were bastards for treating everything you did as something we were entitled to.I did not reply.But I no longer hated them.Lucas suspended his Alpha-heir training for six months. His mother said he spent most of his time in t
After the ceremony, Lucas’s mother waited outside the reception room.She held the moonstone bracelet in both hands, her smile strained.“Erin, I made a foolish decision. Mia returned the bracelet. It was always meant for you.”She reached for my wrist.I stepped back. “I don’t want it.”“You’re still angry?” She sighed. “You have always taken things too deeply. Lucas knows he was wrong. Give him a chance. You cannot discard more than twenty years as if they meant nothing.”I looked at the bracelet.As a child, I had dreamed about it more than once. I imagined her fastening it around my wrist and smiling as she called me her future Luna.Only after it had rested on Mia’s arm did I understand that I had never wanted a piece of jewelry.I wanted someone to stand before the entire pack and say, without hesitation, that my place belonged only to me.Lucas’s mother could not give me that certainty.Neither could Lucas.“Keep it,” I said. “Whoever you give it to next has nothing to do with m
When the six-month closed-training period ended, my former pack invited me back for its annual commendation ceremony.The project I had joined remained classified. My public introduction contained only one line.Member of the Royal Court Direct Commander Program.Ethan and two other Court officers accompanied me.At the entrance to the council hall, the elder responsible for academy affairs came out to welcome us personally.“Erin, we have finally managed to bring you home.”“There’s no need to be so formal, Elder.”“There certainly is.” He lowered his voice. “The border emergency system your team designed has passed final inspection. You brought great honor to the pack.”As he finished speaking, I saw Lucas.He stood below the steps and looked thinner than before. Caleb and Jace were beside him.The three of them watched me in silence.At last, Caleb forced a crooked smile. “You’re impressive now, Erin.”I nodded. “I’m doing all right.”Jace held out a document envelope. “It contains
Without me, Lucas, Caleb, Jace, and Mia still went to the Western Camp.Life there was not as easy as they had expected.No one consolidated their housing paperwork, so the quiet cottage they wanted was reserved by another team. The four of them had to stay in a hotel outside camp and commute almost two hours every day.For the first time, Caleb prepared his own registration forms. At two in the morning, after discovering that he had omitted two equipment certificates, he pushed his laptop away.“How did Erin finish all this?”Jace was checking the documents for his old injury and did not look up. “Stop talking about her.”“I said one thing.”“You’ve said her name eight times today.”Lucas sat on the balcony, calling me again.No answer.Since the mate bond broke, he often woke abruptly in the middle of the night. No matter how far apart we had once been, he could sense that I existed somewhere in the world.Now there was only emptiness.Mia placed a glass of water beside him. “Lucas,






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