# Chapter 5: The Note

"He's your *what*?"

Tessa Moreno dropped the box she was holding. Old shoes rolled out all over my bedroom floor.

"My stepbrother," I said. "Well, almost. In a few weeks."

"Not that part." She pushed her big glasses up her nose and stared at me. "The *other* part. The part where you said he's your *mate*."

"Shhh!" I grabbed her arm and looked at the door. Mom was in the kitchen, packing plates. "Not so loud."

Tessa lowered her voice to a sharp whisper. "Sienna Vale. You have been my best friend since we were six years old. You tell me *everything*. You told me when you got your first period. You told me when you kissed Danny Miller behind the school and he tasted like hot dogs. And you're telling me now, three days late, that the Alpha of this whole pack is your *fated mate*?"

"Two days late," I said. "And it's not real."

"Not real?"

"I don't have a wolf, Tess. Hollow girls don't get mates. It has to be some kind of mistake."

Tessa looked at me for a long moment. Then she sat down on my bed, right on top of a pile of my clean T-shirts.

"Okay," she said. "Tell me what you felt. When your blood touched his wound."

I sat down next to her. I looked at my hands.

"Like lightning," I said quietly. "Like the whole world stopped and there was only him. I could hear his heart, Tess. I could actually hear it beating. And something inside me said…"

"Said what?"

"*Mine.*"

Tessa was quiet. She works for the pack healer, so she knows things about wolves that most people don't. She's read all the old books in the healer's office, even the boring ones.

"That's not a mistake," she said softly. "That's exactly how the books describe it."

"Then the books are wrong."

"Sienna."

"He's engaged, Tess. To Margot Hale. They're getting married in the spring." My voice cracked a little, and I hated it. "And in a few weeks, his father is marrying my mother. So even if it's real, it doesn't matter. It can't ever happen."

Tessa didn't say anything. She just put her arm around me and pulled me close. She smelled like soap and the strange green herbs from the healer's office. For a minute, we sat there together in my small, messy bedroom, surrounded by half-packed boxes, and I let myself feel sad.

Just for a minute.

Then I wiped my face and stood up.

"Come on," I said. "Help me pack. Rhys said Garrett's car is coming at four."

"Rhys?" Tessa's eyebrows went up. "The Beta? The cute blond one?"

"He's not cute. He's annoying."

"He can be both," she said with a grin, and she started picking up the shoes.

---

We packed my whole life into six boxes. That's all I had. Some clothes, my old books, a few photos of me and Mom, a jar of shells from the one time we went to a lake when I was ten. It's funny how small your life looks when you put it in boxes.

When we were done, Mom called from the kitchen.

"Sienna, honey! Can you pack the things in my closet? My hands are full."

"Sure!"

Mom's bedroom was even smaller than mine. One bed, one chair, one tiny window. Her closet had three dresses, two pairs of shoes, and her winter coat with the broken zipper.

And on the floor in the back, there was an old wooden trunk.

I had seen it before, my whole life, but I had never seen it open. When I was little, I asked her what was inside. She told me it was "just old papers." Then she put a lock on it.

Today, the lock was open, hanging loose on the latch. She must have been packing it and forgot.

I knew I shouldn't look. I knew it.

I looked anyway.

Inside the trunk were old blankets that smelled like dust and lavender. Under the blankets were some baby clothes. They were tiny white ones, soft and yellow with age. My baby clothes. I touched them and smiled.

Then my fingers hit something hard and cold.

I pulled it out. It was a silver locket on a long silver chain. It was old and a little bit dirty, but when I rubbed it with my thumb, it began to shine.

On the front of the locket, someone had carved a wolf. It was a beautiful wolf, standing on a rock under a big round moon.

The wolf's eyes were made of two tiny silver stones. They sparkled when the light from the window hit them.

My heart started to beat faster. I didn't know why.

I found a small clasp on the side of the locket and pushed it with my nail. The locket clicked open.

Inside was a tiny photo, old and faded. A young woman with long brown hair was laughing at the camera. It took me a second to know her.

It was my mom, maybe twenty years old. I had never seen her laugh like that. Never.

On the other side of the locket, there was a second photo.

Someone had scratched it out. Badly. Again and again with something sharp, until there was nothing left but white lines. All I could see was a man's shoulder, and a bit of dark hair.

"Sienna?"

I jumped so hard I almost dropped it.

Mom was standing in the doorway. She was looking at the locket in my hand. All the color was gone from her face.

"Mom, I'm sorry, the trunk was open, and I—"

She crossed the room in three steps and took the locket out of my hand. Not roughly, but fast. She closed it with a hard little *click* and held it against her chest.

"Who's in the other photo?" I asked quietly.

"Nobody."

"Mom. Is it my dad?"

She closed her eyes. For a second, I thought she was going to tell me. Her lips moved, like the words were right there, right on the edge.

Then she opened her eyes, and they were hard.

"Your father is dead, Sienna. You know that. Leave it alone."

She put the locket in her pocket, shut the trunk, locked it, and walked out of the room.

I stood there alone, my heart pounding.

My whole life, she had told me the same thing. *Your father is dead.* Nothing else. No name. No photos. No stories.

But why scratch out a dead man's face?

---

Garrett's big black car came at four o'clock sharp.

Tessa hugged me at the door and whispered in my ear, "Call me tonight. I want every detail. *Every* detail."

"There won't be any details."

"There's always details," she said, and winked.

The ride up the hill was quiet. Mom sat with her hands folded in her lap. I could see the shape of the locket in her pocket.

The Thorne house looked even bigger in the daylight. A woman in a black uniform met us at the door and said her name was Mrs. Holt, the housekeeper. She had a tight face and tight gray hair, and she looked at me like I was a stain on her nice clean floor.

"Mr. Thorne is at a meeting," she said. "I'll show you to your rooms."

Mom's room was on the second floor, next to Garrett's. It was big and beautiful, with a huge bed and a window that looked over the whole valley. Mom walked in slowly and touched the soft white blanket like she was afraid it would bite her.

"Oh," she whispered. "Oh my."

Then Mrs. Holt took me up to the third floor.

The hallway was long and quiet. The walls were dark wood. At the very end, there were two doors, side by side.

"This one is yours," Mrs. Holt said, pointing to the door on the left.

"And the other one?"

She looked at me with her tight face.

"That is the Alpha's room."

She opened my door and left without another word.

My new bedroom was bigger than our whole old house. There was a big bed with soft gray sheets, a desk by the window, and a closet I could walk inside. There was even a little couch. I put down my six small boxes, and they looked silly and lost on the shiny floor.

On the right side of the room, there was another door.

I walked over slowly. I opened it.

A bathroom. A huge, white bathroom with a big tub and a glass shower and two sinks.

And on the other side of the bathroom was another door, one that led straight into Kael's room.

I stared at it. There was a lock on my side. I checked. There was a lock on his side, too.

*Two doors,* I told myself. *Two locks. You'll be fine.*

On the sink, there was a black razor and a bottle of men's soap. I picked up the soap without thinking and smelled it.

Pine trees. Cold rain. Something warm underneath.

It smelled like *him*.

I put it down so fast I almost knocked it into the sink. My face was burning.

*Stop it, Sienna. Stop it right now.*

I went back to my room and shut the bathroom door and locked it. Then I sat on my bed and pressed my hands over my face.

---

That night, I couldn't sleep again.

The big house made strange noises. The old wood creaked. The wind moaned against the window. Somewhere far below, a clock was ticking.

And through the wall, I could hear voices.

Kael's low voice. And then a woman's laugh, soft and sweet, like honey.

Margot.

She was in his room. At midnight.

I turned over and pulled the pillow over my head. I didn't want to hear. I didn't want to know. I told myself I didn't care, over and over, until I almost believed it.

After a long time, the voices stopped. A door closed somewhere. Footsteps walked away down the hall.

Then everything was quiet.

I took the pillow off my head and lay there in the dark, staring at the ceiling, feeling like the smallest and stupidest girl in the whole world.

Then I heard something else.

It was a soft sound right by my bedroom door, a little *swish*, like paper sliding across a wooden floor.

I sat up fast.

There was something white lying on the floor, just inside my door. Someone had pushed it underneath.

I got out of bed. My bare feet were cold on the floor. My heart was pounding as I walked over and picked it up.

It was a folded note, written in red ink, in neat, pretty handwriting.

I unfolded it with shaking hands.

**Stay away from him, Hollow. Or you'll end up like the last girl.**

I stared at the words. My blood went cold.

*The last girl?*

What last girl?

I threw open my door and looked out into the long, dark hallway.

It was empty.

But at the very end of the hall, near the stairs, I saw something on the floor. It was lying there in the moonlight from the window.

I walked slowly toward it. Closer. Closer.

Then I stopped, and my hand flew to my mouth.

It was a woman's hair ribbon, pale blue silk, soaked and stained with what looked like dried blood.

And on the end of the ribbon, stitched in tiny white letters, was a name.

*Lily.*