Chapter 6

The day after we returned from the island, I began erasing every trace of myself.

I stopped making the calming serum for Kallum's wolf. Out on the greenhouse terrace, I let the alpine edelweiss he once gave me wither into dry dust.

That evening, Kallum pushed open the bedroom door and tossed his tie onto the couch. His eyes landed on the bare nightstand, his brow furrowing instantly. "My wolf has been restless for days. Where's my serum? And the flowers on the balcony—why haven't you watered them?"

I closed my lab notebook, my face completely blank. "The residual wolfsbane flared up in my shoulder. My arm was too weak to carry anything."

Hearing wolfsbane, a faint flicker of guilt crossed his eyes. He walked over, his voice softening. "Tomorrow is our four-year anniversary. I had Rowan charter a luxury yacht to Monaco. Let's take you out to sea to recover."

Monaco.

It sounded so romantic.

Yet my heart felt nothing. In less than forty-eight hours, our bond would be ripped apart forever.

"No need for all that," I looked up, meeting his piercing gaze. "I just want to go to the vinyl café near the university. Where we first met."

Kallum paused in surprise, then let out a low chuckle. "Why there all of a sudden? But if that's what you want, I'll take you. Tomorrow at six sharp. I'll pick you up downstairs. I won't be late."

He made the promise with total conviction.

I watched his confident face, a bitter, silent smile touching my lips.

In four years of marriage, he had broken his word to me nineteen times—always for Scarlett.

This was the twentieth time. And the last.

"Okay," I whispered.

He had no idea that café stood right where the old border forest used to be ten years ago.

Back then, his mother was executed for betraying the Blackbone Alpha. Treated like a traitor's bastard, young Kallum was beaten bloody and left to freeze to death in the blizzard.

I was the one who found him.

He was barely breathing, his wolf spirit fading fast. I knelt in the snow, sobbing, begging my father to adopt him. That gave him a second life. It paved his road all the way to becoming Alpha.

That patch of woods was the softest memory in my heart. Years later, I bought the land and built that café.

I picked him up here ten years ago.

Tonight, I would throw him right back into the world.

The next evening, I put on the old khaki trench coat from ten years ago. I grabbed a vintage film camera from the drawer and waited silently in the foyer.

At six sharp, the armored black sedan pulled up.

Kallum rolled down the driver's side window. His charcoal suit made him look strikingly handsome and cold.

He looked me up and down, a rare glimmer of warmth in his dark eyes. "You look beautiful in that coat. Just like back then."

I opened the passenger door and sat down.

Kallum hit the gas, merging smoothly into traffic.

"I still remember those punks cornering you near these woods," Kallum tapped the steering wheel, his voice rich with arrogant pride. "You had that same cold face. Your inner wolf was trembling with fear, but you still held up a scalpel ready to fight. If I hadn't jumped in and ripped them apart, they would've taken you."

He only remembered his glory in shedding blood for me.

He completely forgot those attackers were hunting him, not me. He forgot that without my tears begging my father, he would be nothing but a pile of bones buried in the snow.

I leaned against the window, fingers tracing the cold metal of the camera. "Yes. You bled a lot that night."

"I told you I'd protect you for life," Kallum glanced at me, his voice steady with conviction.

The car slowed to a stop outside the vinyl café.

Warm neon lights spilled through the glass, soft and peaceful.

Just as Kallum unbuckled his seatbelt—

The encrypted comm on his belt shrieked violently.

The harsh alarm shattered the quiet car.

Kallum answered, and Rowan's panicked voice blasted through the line: "Alpha! Blackbone remnants ambushed Scarlett's apartment! They cut the power grid and breached the perimeter! The guards can't hold them off!"

Kallum's calm shattered instantly. Pure, murderous rage flooded his scent.

He gripped the steering wheel, his eyes wide and frantic as he barked at me: "Sierra, Blackbone is trying to kill Scarlett! I have to go now!"

I sat frozen in the passenger seat, staring at him.

"Just thirty minutes," I said softly, my voice as thin as smoke. "Kallum, they close soon. Just have one cup of coffee with me. Thirty minutes. Please?"

It was the very last time in my life I would ever ask him for anything.

Kallum's knuckles turned white on the wheel, his face twisting with raw irritation. "Sierra, be reasonable! Blackbone is trying to kill her! A woman's life versus a cup of coffee—can't you tell which one matters?!"

Without waiting for my reply, he reached over, shoved my door open, and unlocked it.

"Get out! I'll rent out the whole damn street for you next time!"

Leaving that cold promise behind, he slammed my door shut and hit the gas. The black sedan shot into the dark, vanishing into the night traffic within seconds.

The icy autumn wind whipped dead leaves against my cheeks, stinging like tiny blades.

I stood alone on the empty curb.

I raised the vintage camera, pointed the lens at the warm, glowing café, and pressed the shutter.

The shutter snapped, crisp and final.

I stared at the empty street, pulled my coat tight against the cold, and turned in the opposite direction.

The twentieth broken promise.

Kallum, you will never know: I gave you your life on this very spot ten years ago.

And between us, there will never be a "next time."