chapter 1

Rosalie's POV

“Good luck with the game,” I said, leaning in. My lips brushed his cheek, warm against the chilly air coming off the rink.

He leaned down and kissed me back, “Thank you.”

He started to turn, his skates cutting a little line in the ice, but then he stopped and looked back at me, his eyes all serious and heavy.

“After the game…we need to talk, okay?”

My heart did this weird drop, like when you miss a step on the stairs and your stomach floats up into your throat for a second. I forced myself to nod, keeping my face totally still, just playing it cool so he wouldn't see.

“Yeah, sure.”

Then he skated away and the crowd went absolutely crazy, screaming and banging on the glass as he joined the rest of the team. I just stood there, watching the back of his jersey move through the bright lights.

Two years. We have been together for two whole years and I still get this terrifying feeling whenever he says we need to have an adult conversation. It is ridiculous.

I let out a breathless laugh at myself, shaking my head.

It is probably just something about his schedule, or his family, or literally anything else. I shouldn't worry myself over nothing.

But my mind wouldn't just let it off because why did he sound like that? He never uses that specific tone unless something is really, really wrong.

Did I do something? I try to think back to this morning, or yesterday, or last week, searching my brain for any little mistake I made. Oh god, what if he's already tired of me?

The ice looks so big and bright and my eyes are starting to blur a little bit because I am getting too worked up. I blink fast, trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

He hasn't even said anything bad yet and here I am, practically planning our breakup in my head while a thousand people are cheering for him.

The house felt way too quiet when I got back. Easton had gone off with the boys to celebrate the win, so I just sat there in the silence, waiting and when he finally walked through the door later that night, the air in the room instantly went thick with tension.

He didn't spare me a glance and there was this awkward silence stretching between us, pressing down on my chest until I couldn't take it anymore.

“How'd it go?”

“Good,” he replied flatly.

Oh…uh well guess he's tired, might as well change the topic.

“Our twenty-first birthdays are coming up soon,” I said, my voice sounding a little too desperate to break the quiet. “I am just so excited about it. Aren't you?”

But he didn't reply this time, he just worked around the room, looking at literally everything else but me. It was so incredibly awkward, but I couldn't stop myself. I kept pushing, hoping he would break.

“Finally, we won't just be boyfriend and girlfriend anymore,” I went on, my hands squeezing together. “We will be mates. We can have pups, and life is going to be so—”

“I’m tired,” he cut me off, “I need to rest, can we talk about this tomorrow?”

My heart felt like it actually broke right there in my chest. He didn't even acknowledge what I said, it was like I was talking to a wall.

The pain of it made my throat go tight as tears stung the backs of my eyes.

He turned around to leave the room, his back to me, and panic flared up through the heartbreak. “Easton,” I called out, my voice cracking a little. “You said before the game... you said we needed to talk?”

He paused right at the threshold of the door with his shoulders tense, his whole body stiffening as if he was physically holding himself back from saying whatever was really on his mind.

“I need you to run an errand for me,” he said finally, “Towards the northern boards.”

I froze. My entire body went numb with fear.

The northern boards, everyone knew about that place. It was notorious, dangerous, a place where people went and didn't come back.

“Why?” I whispered, my voice shaking so badly. “You could just send the guards? Or Owen? He is your beta, he handles stuff like this.”

“Because I need someone I can trust to hold the information that is going to be given to you,” he said.

He finally turned around to face me and I couldn't look him in the eyes. I started fiddling with the fabric of my dress, my fingers twisting the material over and over as my eyes darted all around the room, anywhere but at him.

“But it is so dangerous out there,” I rambled, my thoughts beginning to spiral all over again. “The rogues, the terrain, what if something happens? It isn't safe for me, Easton, you know what people say about the northern—”

“The guards will accompany you,” he cut me off again, shutting down my panic like it was nothing. “They will make sure you return safely.”

His tone was… final, like there was no room for arguments, no space for me to say no. He was my future alpha, my boyfriend of two years, and he was just looking at me with those cold eyes. I swallowed the giant lump in my throat and slowly nodded my head.

The road out there was so long, it would take me three whole days, maybe even more, just to go back and forth through that terrifying territory.

My chest hurt so much from the way he was acting, but he said he needed someone he could trust and he trusted me. If he needed me to do this for him, for us, then I would do it. I had to.

×××

The next morning, everything was already packed and ready by the door before I even fully woke up, which felt weirdly fast, like he was rushing me out.

The journey was miserable, the road was freezing and deserted, just endless trees and gray skies that made everything look scary and shadowed.

My mind kept playing tricks on me because of the quiet. It felt like days and days had passed, like I had been traveling for a lifetime, but when I looked at the sky it had only been a few hours.

Suddenly, a guard screamed from behind us. “It's an attack!”

Everything happened too fast and before my brain could even process the words or understand what was happening, something hit us hard.

I was knocked clean off my ride, flying through the air before slamming hard onto the frozen ground. The wind was completely knocked out of me as I scrambled to sit up, gasping for air, my eyes went wide as I watched my guards instantly shifting and fighting off a whole pack of wild, vicious wolves.

My breathing grew so erratic. I wanted to help, I wanted to jump in and fight for my life, but I was just sitting there in the dirt… useless. I couldn't channel my wolf, no matter how hard I screamed inside my own head for her to wake up, nothing happened.

Tears started streaming down my cheeks…this was it. I was going to die out here in the freezing cold, and Easton wouldn't even be here. I squeezed my eyes shut as the snarling got closer, believing this was my absolute end.

But then, suddenly, the snarling and snapping sounds stopped, and everything went quiet. I forced my eyes open, and my stomach completely flipped as I saw all my guards laying there, lifeless on the ground.

The attacking wolves began to shift back into their human forms. They walked over and towered right above me, blocking out the sky. I shrunk back into the dirt, shaking so hard my teeth were clicking together, and started begging.

“Please,” I sobbed, the tears burning my face. “Don't kill me…”

One of the men looked down at me with this awful smirk. “Oh a lady? Why don't we just have our way with her first,” he muttered to the others, his eyes moving over me.

My heart stopped, I couldn't even breathe. But before he could step closer, the man standing in the middle slapped a hand against his chest, stopping him.

“No,” the leader said, “We need her to pass the information.”

The leader slowly knelt down in front of me, “it's her lucky day.”

I was vibrating with terror, trying to pull away, but he reached out and gently brushed a stray piece of hair away from my face. His hands were freezing. He gave me this smile that made my blood run cold.

“Tell your dear alpha Easton,” he whispered, his eyes locked onto mine, “that we are coming for him.”

×××

Before I even knew what was happening, the wolves vanished into the trees, leaving me behind in the snow. Only one of my guards had somehow survived the attack, and together, we dragged ourselves all the way back home.

By the time we finally made it through the pack gates, it was already the middle of the night. My body was aching, my clothes were ruined, and my mind was racing at a million miles an hour.

All I could think about on the long, freezing walk back was Easton. I had to warn him, to tell him that these monsters were coming for him, and I needed to tell him how I almost died out there. I needed him to hold me and tell me I was safe.

I hurried up the stairs, my breath catching in my throat, but as I reached our bedroom door, a sound made me freeze.

It was a giggle, a soft, high-pitched female giggle drifting right out from the slightly opened door.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I actually shook my head, thinking my brain was just playing tricks on me. It had to be a mistake…it had to be.

I took a slow step closer, my eyes wide as I leaned in to look through the tiny gap in the door.

My lungs emptied as I saw Easton tangled up in the sheets with a woman.

A woman I had never seen before in my entire life…a woman that…wasn't me.

My heart didn't just break this time, it completely stopped beating and the world started tilting sideways. I took a sharp step back, my boots heavy against the floorboards, and I clutched my hands over my chest because the pain was so physical I thought I was going to throw up.

“No,” I breathed out, the word barely a whisper, “No, no, no.”

And then, like a lightning strike, the realization hit me so hard it made me dizzy.

The northern boards, the notorious, deadly territory.

He knew exactly what was out there.

So this is why he sent me away.

He didn't send me to get information, he didn't send me because he trusted me…he sent me out there to die.

He sent me to be killed off so he could be with her.