Chapter 2

Their linked hands sprang apart as if they'd been shocked, and Daisy's eyes reddened in an instant.

“Seraphina, how could you think that of me?”

“Julian and I grew up together. Everyone in the pack knows we're as close as brother and sister.”

“I truly don’t have any inappropriate feelings for Julian at all.”

At that, Julian's face closed off too.

“Seraphina Hale, why are you always going after Daisy?”

“People in our pack actually care about one another, not like your pack, where it's every wolf for himself.”

“We've been mated all this time, and your father hasn't given us a scrap of help.”

“If it really bothers you, then we'll break the mark, and don't come kneeling and begging me to take you back when you do.”

I looked at his face, and all at once he seemed like a stranger.

Our two packs had never gotten along.

Yet he was the one who had knelt outside my family's door for three days and three nights, begging to marry me no matter the cost, until my father was so furious he swore he'd disown me.

Now he had turned it all around and was blaming my pack for being cold.

Ignoring how humiliated I looked, Julian took Daisy's hand and walked out the door, leaving me standing there alone, awkward and exposed, every stubborn thing I'd ever held on to turned into a joke.

That night was a blood moon, and the whole pack rode out to hunt. A wolf carrying the wolfsbane has no need to join a hunt.

But the new Alpha was about to be crowned, and I didn't want to be the reason anyone spoke ill of him.

An Alpha needed a strong Luna at his side, so I went out anyway.

But when the time for the hunt came, there was no sign of Julian.

So his promise to stay home with me had been nothing but a lie.

It was a long while before he finally showed up, late and in no hurry at all, with Daisy trailing beside him.

He let out a howl and shifted into his wolf, and the others watched him with envy on their faces.

“Julian, look at you, showing off, bringing a little fangirl along on a hunt. Married all these years and you've still got it.”

“Not like me. Twenty years old, and I still haven't found my mate.”

Julian threw back his head and howled again, as if he agreed.

“Don't be ridiculous. Daisy's just my little sister.”

“You have no idea. Lately I've had nothing but headaches.”

“Seraphina Hale gets jealous and picks a fight over the smallest thing. She won't give me a moment's peace.”

He called her Daisy and me Seraphina Hale. They were the ones stepping over every line, and yet all the blame got piled on my head.

Theo let out a sheepish laugh.

“That's beautiful women for you. Always the jealous type.”

“I told you ages ago, Daisy knows you through and through. You'd have been so much better off bonding with her.”

Daisy didn't argue. She kept her head down, her ears as red as if they were bleeding.

“Theo, I'm just not as blessed as Seraphina.”

“In this life I can only ever be Julian's sister.”

That soft, put-on tone of Daisy's turned my stomach.

I was about to rush out and confront them when I heard Julian's easy, hearty laugh.

“Daisy is the most blessed girl in the world.”

“A brother and a sister, that's the steadiest bond there is.”

“Not like me and Seraphina. However much we loved each other, look at us now, fighting to sever the bond.”

“Still, Daisy, better keep out of Seraphina's sight for a while. Soothing her over wears me out.”

Right. We were about to sever the bond anyway.

Even if I'd wrung a promise out of Julian, what would it have changed?

I stepped back into the pack, and I caught it, the flicker of resentment that crossed Daisy's face.

Julian always assumed that if he coaxed me a little, I'd take the way out he offered and forgive him.

But I never would again.