Chapter 2

I woke up with a start in the middle of the night and reached for the other side of the bed out of habit. It was cold.

Then I remembered. Garrett and Lena had already moved out.

A broken sob escaped me. It felt like a piece of my heart had been torn out.

It hurt so badly.

After a long time, I picked up my phone and saw that Lena had texted me three hours earlier.

“You know your stomach acts up when you skip dinner. I left some grilled meat outside your door. Eat something if you’re still awake.”

My hand stilled briefly on the phone.

Back then, whenever I got home too late for dinner, Lena would sneak me out to a hill behind the pack grounds and grill some meat for me.

Her grilled meat was the best. Medium rare, just how I loved it.

My stomach growled.

I got up and opened the door. Sure enough, there was a box of grilled meat on the step.

I leaned wearily against the door and let myself slide slowly to the ground.

I opened the box and put a piece of meat in my mouth.

A bitter taste spread through my mouth.

I’d never known cold grilled meat could be so hard to swallow.

The next day, I went to the infirmary to sort herbs as usual.

But I ran right into Garrett and Lena.

They were cuddled up together like nobody else was around.

The werewolves around us whispered about whether Garrett and I were breaking our mate bond because of Lena.

Lena’s eyes were red, and she opened her mouth like she wanted to explain.

But Garrett let his dominance flare, scaring off the gossiping wolves.

Then he gave me a conflicted look.

“Elise, you’ve been through so much pain because of me. I’ll ask the Alpha to give you a few more days off.”

I shook my head.

“I don’t need that.”

Garrett was the Alpha’s younger brother and the pack’s Beta, second only to the Alpha.

When my wolf awakened at 18, the Moon Goddess revealed that Garrett was my fated mate.

We fell in love soon after we met, then marked each other and sealed the bond.

I thought we’d go on loving each other like that forever. I never imagined...

After Lena broke her mate bond, I spent a long time helping her through it. I wanted her to have a job in the pack like I did, but she didn’t seem to know how to do anything.

To keep her from moping, I had Garrett find her a spot on the patrol team. It was the first favor I’d ever asked him for.

I never dreamed it would give them the chance to betray me.

I was about to leave when Lena softly called my name and held out the moonvein she’d been clutching.

“Elise, you have to keep taking it if you want the pain to ease.

“Don’t worry, I picked a lot. As long as you need it, I’ll keep getting more for you.”

Moonvein was incredibly difficult to gather, yet she made it sound so easy.

I clenched my fists at my sides and thought back to our childhood. Lena hadn’t known much back then, but she’d risk anything for me.

Lena and I had both lost our parents in battle when we were very young.

Before my wolf awakened, I was weak and sickly, and we had no money for medicine.

Lena would risk her life going up the mountain to pick herbs for me. Several times, she pulled me back from the brink of death.

When she moved in with her mate, she teared up and made Garrett promise to look after me. “The herbs from the mountain work best when she’s sick. Pick some extra and keep them on hand. You’d better take good care of Elise while I’m gone.”

Garrett held my hand tight and said solemnly, “I promise I’ll take good care of her.”

And now the two people who’d promised to protect me were the ones who’d hurt me the most.

I looked at the two of them standing side by side and laughed bitterly at myself. Then I turned and walked into the infirmary.

I didn’t need either of them anymore.