Chapter 3

That evening, Sienna added me to a group chat called [How Long Will the Luna Wannabe Last?] Every member was one of Adrian’s friends.

[I give her till midnight.]

[As if she’d really walk away from the alpha and the Silverpine Pack.]

[Loser buys dinner for a week.]

Sienna sent a voice note: [She wants everyone to know her feelings were hurt so Adrian will come running. If she meant to leave, she wouldn’t have canceled the ceremony where he could see it.]

Someone asked how she could be so sure. She replied in another voice note: [I’ve seen plenty of status chasers. You think a woman that close to becoming Luna would throw it away? Come on.]

Adrian was in the chat. He didn’t say a word, and he didn’t stop them. I left. Seconds later, Sienna added me again.

[Don’t go yet. Tell us when you plan to beg him to take you back.]

I left a second time and blocked invitations from strangers.

Half an hour later, an unknown number called. “Am I speaking to Mr. Blackwood’s partner? He was exposed to wolfsbane on patrol. The emergency department is trying to save him.”

My thumb froze above the screen. Sienna had tried something much like this two years ago.

I’d been taking the qualifying exam for an overseas project. At the call, I left the final section blank and drove to the clinic. I pushed open the observation room door to find them crowded around takeout containers and drinks. Adrian was in the middle of it. When he saw me struggling to catch my breath, he laughed along with the others.

“Look at her,” Sienna had said. “One scare about the alpha and she forgets her whole career. Afraid your shot at Luna might disappear, Evelyn?”

The year after that, my mother was in the hospital with acute gallbladder inflammation. She needed surgery the next morning. They claimed Adrian had gone missing in the woods. I asked a neighbor to stay with Mom and drove five hours back, only to discover another “test.”

I’d told Adrian it wasn’t funny. He’d held me and promised he wouldn’t let Sienna pull another stunt. I’d believed him.

“His family and the pack doctor are there, aren’t they?” I said into the phone. “If someone needs to authorize treatment, call them. We’re no longer together.”

For a second, nobody spoke. Then Sienna’s laughter came down the line. “Oh, you figured us out. Pretending you don’t care isn’t going to scare Adrian into chasing you.”

I ended the call. I texted Mom that I’d be working in Canada for a few years and would call when I landed. She sent back a hugging emoji and told me to take care of myself.

For a moment, I stared at our messages from the night before her surgery. She had told me to go home and rest. She’d found out afterward why I’d left instead, and she’d been furious—not because she needed me at her bedside every second, but because someone who knew she was sick had used it to make me run. I’d defended Adrian then. I said he hadn’t known what Sienna had told me. Mom had asked whether he believed me once I explained. I had no answer.

Now I typed [I’ll call you when I land. I love you.] and put the phone away before I could talk myself into another explanation for him.

At the airport the next morning, a coworker messaged me as I approached security. Adrian’s assistant had called to ask if I’d really resigned. Sienna, standing beside him, had said I was trying to force an earlier mate ceremony. He’d hung up before my coworker could answer.

My flight was called. I glanced back toward the entrance. Adrian wasn’t there.

Then Sienna sent me a video of him sitting in the same restaurant as last night, his friends waiting for me to crawl back.

What he didn’t know was that I wasn’t coming back.