Chapter 3

The next few days were calmer than I expected.

Bella occasionally sent me news about Vivian. Sometimes it was Vivian in a couture gown for an interview. Sometimes it was another close shot of the pink diamond. In a few photos, Aaron stood beside her, close enough for every entertainment account to invent a romance.

In the past, I would have enlarged every picture, studying their hands, their eyes, the space between them, searching for proof that Aaron still cared about me. Now, I looked once and turned the phone over.

Vivian wanted attention, and Aaron was willing to stand beside her. What the outside world wrote no longer had much to do with me.

In a few days, I would leave Blackridge.

Aaron called while I was checking the details of the place I would stay after leaving. His name lit the screen, and for the first time, I felt no urge to answer at once. I let it ring until the sound was nearly gone before picking up.

"Claire?"

His voice was low, with a hesitation he did not quite hide.

"Yes."

He paused.

"You sound... well."

I smiled faintly.

"Is that a problem?"

The line went quiet. Every other time our bond had been dissolved, I called him again and again, crying, begging, needing him to promise he would come back. He used to say I was exhausting, that I made things harder for Vivian. Now that I was quiet, he seemed less sure of himself.

"I thought you would be upset," he said.

"People change."

Silence settled between us again.

After a while, Aaron said, "Come to Celestia for dinner on the nineteenth."

"No."

His voice softened.

"Claire, the nineteenth is our anniversary."

"We have dissolved and renewed our mate bond so many times that I no longer know which day is supposed to count."

His breathing stilled for a second.

"It is the day we first met," he said. "Five years ago, at Celestia."

My fingers paused.

Five years ago, I had gone to Celestia for a friend's birthday. Someone pushed me from behind, and I stumbled straight into the man at the next table, still holding a cake knife covered in cream.

Aaron had just become Alpha then. His guards moved at once, but he raised a hand and stopped them. He looked down at me with eyes that were cold at first, judging whether I was a threat, before my flustered apology softened them.

I remembered the cream on his suit. I remembered the brief curve of his mouth. For years, I used that single moment of gentleness to convince myself that Aaron was not incapable of loving me.

Now I understood that the easiest prison to enter was the one I built for myself.

Aaron's voice pulled me back.

"Claire, come see me once. Let us talk properly."

I looked at the flight itinerary on the table. The nineteenth was my last night before leaving. The story had begun at Celestia, and it could end there too.

"All right," I said. "See you on the nineteenth."

His relief was almost audible, but before I could hang up, Vivian's voice drifted through the line.

"Aaron... I do not feel well."

Her voice was soft, low enough to pretend she did not want me to hear, but clear enough that I did.

Then she called his name again, even softer.

I ended the call.

A few minutes later, an entertainment alert appeared.

Vivian had been drunk outside a club late at night, and Aaron had carried her out himself. In the photo, her face was buried against his chest, her fingers clutching his shirt, while he looked down at her with the tense concern of a man afraid she might break.

The captions told the rest of the story for them.

Some said Blackridge's Alpha no longer bothered hiding his preference for the Hollywood she-wolf. Others said that after Vivian appeared with the pink diamond, the Luna position was all but decided.

I looked at the photos, and my chest still hurt a little.

Not loving someone was not something the heart learned overnight.

But this time, I did not call Aaron to question him. I did not send a message.

I only set the phone aside, turned off the light, and let the room fall quiet again.

Celestia would be the end.

I would tell Aaron myself that this time, there would be no day when we renewed our mate bond.