Chapter 3

Audrey’s POV

At seven the next morning, I returned to Blood Moon’s academy to collect the last of my graduation records.

I had barely entered the records building when laughter sounded behind me.

“Well, if it isn’t Audrey. Top of the class.”

A group of girls blocked the stairs.

The one in front was a friend Chloe had recently made.

She looked me up and down, then grabbed the camera hanging from my neck.

“Is this the camera with all your precious childhood memories?”

My father had given it to me for my tenth birthday.

It had recorded our first shift together, our first trip into the forest, and every birthday afterward. The footage on Cole’s hard drive had been copied from it.

I caught her wrist.

“Let go.”

“Why so hostile?”

She raised her voice, making sure everyone on the floor could hear.

“You grew up with the four heirs. So what? Did you really think that made you Blood Moon’s future Luna?”

The others laughed.

“Too bad they’ve chosen Chloe.”

“She only got Logan to agree to date her yesterday, and he’s already dumped her. I’d be too embarrassed to stay in the pack.”

More people gathered around us.

I looked toward the other end of the hallway.

Blake was holding Chloe’s records. Owen was checking her Mooncrest registration paperwork. Cole carried her breakfast.

Logan stood among them.

One word from our future Alpha would have sent these girls scattering.

But he didn’t come over.

Once, someone had spread a rumor that I owed all my academic achievements to the four heirs. Logan had made them apologize in front of the entire academy.

He’d promised he would never let anyone humiliate me.

Now he stood there and watched.

Chloe hurried over.

“Please don’t. Audrey’s just still angry with me.”

The girl gripping my camera scoffed.

“You’re too nice. Cole asked her to edit one video, and she accused you of stealing her past.”

Chloe’s eyes filled with tears.

Logan finally approached, but only to put himself between us, shielding her.

“Audrey, if you have a problem, take it up with us.”

“Don’t take it out on Chloe.”

I hadn’t even said a word to her.

I wasn’t going to explain myself again.

In a few hours, I would be leaving Blood Moon for good. I wasn’t wasting my last morning on a disciplinary hearing presided over by our future Alpha.

Logan glanced at me.

“Go home and change. Stop causing trouble at the academy.”

I took my camera and left.

Half an hour later, I had just finished changing when someone pounded on the front door.

The moment I opened it, Logan and the others pushed inside with Chloe.

“Where’s the moonstone pendant?” Blake demanded.

“Chloe noticed it was missing after she left the academy.”

I blocked the hallway.

“This is my home. You don’t get to search it without my permission.”

Cole gave me a cold look.

“She lost it after that argument with you. Who else would have taken it?”

“Get out.”

No one listened.

Cole walked straight into my bedroom and pulled open a drawer. The others began searching my wardrobe and desk.

For a werewolf, a bedroom was the most private part of their territory.

For eighteen years, they had walked into mine without knocking. I used to think it meant we were close.

Now I understood. They had simply never thought my refusal deserved respect.

Blake opened the wardrobe and found only a few clothes hanging inside.

“Why have you packed everything?”

Owen glanced at the suitcase by the wall and answered for me.

“She wants us to think she’s really leaving.”

Cole scoffed.

“Audrey, you’re an adult. Aren’t you a little old to be running away from home?”

Logan noticed the cover of my Northwatch early-entry agreement.

“Northwatch doesn’t start classes until the fall.”

“What, you think you can disappear from Blood Moon today?”

Then I saw Chloe slip the moonstone pendant out of her sleeve and tuck it between the desk and the wall.

A second later, she bent down.

“Found it.”

She held up the pendant and looked at me, her eyes reddening.

“Audrey, if you didn’t want to give it to me, you could have said so. I would have returned it. You didn’t have to steal it back and make everyone look for it.”

“You just put it there.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks.

Logan immediately stepped in front of her. Apparently, he had no intention of checking whether I was telling the truth.

I was about to order them out again when Chloe looked past his shoulder at my computer screen.

Cole’s hard drive was still connected. On the screen were eighteen years of footage from our lives together.

“Could we use these in my birthday video?”

“No.” I closed the laptop.

Blake blocked my way.

“Cole already gave you the drive.”

Chloe lowered her eyes.

“Forget it. I don’t want you fighting because of me again.”

She turned to leave.

Logan’s expression hardened. He opened the laptop and grabbed the mouse.

“If you don’t want to be in it, cut yourself out.”

“Don’t touch my things.”

He ignored me, selected every clip I appeared in, and clicked Delete.

I reached to stop him.

Cole seized my arm.

“It’s just a few videos. Don’t make us use force.”

“From now on, you won’t appear in any of Blood Moon’s commemorative videos,” Logan said.

He unplugged the drive and tossed it onto the desk in front of me.

“Finish editing the rest tonight.”

Then he led Chloe out of my room.

He thought the threat of being erased would frighten me.

In another hour, it would be a fact.

After they left, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

[Northwatch transport will arrive in one hour.]

I zipped my suitcase shut.

The four people who thought they knew me best had walked out without realizing I was saying goodbye.