Chapter 2

Audrey’s POV

Before I left Blood Moon, I was going to return everything that belonged to them.

Blake had won his first junior combat tournament when he was twelve. He’d pressed the medal into my hands and asked me to keep it safe. A future Beta, he’d said, couldn’t lose the first medal he’d ever earned.

When I brought it to the training hall, he was assembling a bed frame for Chloe’s dorm room. A new mattress, a lamp, blankets, and more than a dozen unopened boxes were piled nearby.

He smiled when he saw me, as though he’d been expecting this.

“I knew we wouldn’t fall out over something so small.”

I held out the medal.

“This is yours.”

He paused.

“Why are you giving it back? Just keep it at your place.”

“I’m leaving Blood Moon tomorrow. I might not get another chance to return it.”

He tossed it into a box of spare parts.

“You’re going to Northwatch early, not leaving forever. Stop acting like this is goodbye.”

He pointed to the luggage by the door.

“While you’re here, help carry those boxes upstairs for Chloe.”

“No.”

His expression froze for a moment. Apparently, he hadn’t expected me to refuse.

Chloe immediately spoke up.

“It’s fine. I’ll do it myself. Audrey’s still angry with us.”

“This has nothing to do with being angry.”

I looked at Blake.

“You packed her things. You can carry them.”

I turned and left.

Behind me, Blake complained, “Since when is she unwilling to do even a small favor?”

That afternoon, I found Owen at the pack archives and set his tactical competition notes on the desk. He’d been keeping them at my house.

He didn’t pick them up.

“Blake said you gave his medal back.”

“Yes.”

“And now you’re returning these.” He studied me. “Audrey, what are you doing?”

“Clearing out things that aren’t mine.”

His brow slowly furrowed, as though he’d finally noticed something was wrong.

Then Chloe approached with her Mooncrest registration packet.

“Owen, could you check my course schedule? I’m worried I’ve picked the wrong classes.”

His attention shifted to her immediately.

“Let me see.”

Chloe sat beside him. Before opening the packet, he glanced at me again.

“Stop making these pointless gestures just to show us you’re upset. We’ll talk when you’ve calmed down.”

He could see I was saying goodbye.

He just preferred to believe I was putting on a show.

Cole stopped me outside the packhouse.

Our future Delta had always been direct.

“Good timing.”

He tossed an external hard drive into my arms.

“These are the videos we’ve taken over the years. Edit them into a growing-up montage for Chloe’s eighteenth birthday.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“You’re the best at this.”

“That doesn’t mean you can volunteer me.”

His patience wore thin.

“Cut out the parts you’re in and add a few photos of Chloe. How hard can it be?”

“She wasn’t part of our childhood.”

“That’s why she needs the videos.”

They wanted to keep everything from the past eighteen years.

They just didn’t care whether I was still in it.

I held the drive out to him.

“Let her make her own memories.”

Cole didn’t take it.

“Keep the drive for now. Have it finished by tomorrow.”

He walked away as though my refusal didn’t count.

That evening, Logan asked me to meet him at our usual restaurant. He said he wanted to make up for everything by taking me on our first proper date.

I went because I had one last thing to return.

He kept his head down, answering Chloe’s messages.

I slipped off the obsidian ring I’d worn for two years and placed it in front of him.

He’d given it to me when I was sixteen, after passing his Alpha heir trials. He’d promised to replace it with a Luna’s signet ring someday.

“This is yours.”

Logan finally put down his phone. His expression shifted.

“Audrey, we had an argument. You don’t need to give it back.”

“I’m leaving Blood Moon tomorrow.”

“For Northwatch? Early?”

“Yes.”

He put the ring away, apparently unconcerned.

“That’s probably for the best. I’ll put it back on you when you come home.”

After a pause, he added, “Once we’ve finished registering at Mooncrest, the five of us will come north to visit.”

He meant himself, Blake, Owen, Cole, and Chloe.

I didn’t correct him.

I left before the food arrived.

At home, I connected Cole’s hard drive to my computer and backed up all the footage to my cloud storage.

I didn’t alter a single file.

Tomorrow, I would return the drive exactly as he’d given it to me.

I didn’t owe Chloe a childhood.

And I wasn’t going to erase myself from my own past to give her one.