Chapter 3

Kyle didn't come back the whole day.

At dusk, Freya showed up at my door instead. No knock. Just walked right in.

She settled across from me, one hand resting on her slightly rounded belly, a sweet smile on her face.

"I heard you told Kyle to come keep me company."

I didn't look up. Just kept sorting through the old letters on my desk.

Freya's smile thinned when I ignored her. She reached up and swept her hair aside, showing off the dark red bite mark on the back of her neck.

"See this?"

"I see it."

"Kyle gave it to me."

"I know."

"Doesn't it bother you?"

She leaned forward, a little desperate now. The scent of her temporary mark washed over me.

The blood marks on my wrist burned.

Pain shot through my chest out of nowhere. The letters scattered from my hands.

Freya's smile crept back.

"So it does hurt."

She let out more of that temporary mate scent on purpose.

My wolf whimpered deep inside me. My ribs felt like they were being pried apart by claws. Every breath came with the taste of blood.

I gripped the edge of the table. My nail snapped clean off.

"Shut off your scent."

"Why?"

Freya tilted her head, all innocence.

"Kyle said your wolf is strong. Can't handle a little stimulation?"

I gasped, and suddenly it clicked.

She wasn't sick at all. No one this weak could control their pheromones so precisely.

I looked up at her.

"You lied to Kyle."

Her face flickered. Then she smiled again.

"So what if I did?"

"And the pup?"

"Kyle's, of course."

"No, it's not."

I pressed down on the burning marks on my wrist.

"You really think I didn't know anything while I was under that spell?"

"The witch's magic sealed my eyes and froze my body—but it sharpened my hearing instead."

"I heard the healer coming to check on your pregnancy. I heard you throwing up in the middle of the night."

"That was way before you and Kyle ever mated."

Panic flickered in Freya's eyes.

I knew I'd hit it.

"Whose pup are you carrying?"

"Shut up!"

Freya lunged for the copper bell on my desk. One ring and the guards would come running.

I dodged and grabbed her wrist. But she threw herself to the floor, slamming her forehead into the corner of the table. Blood poured down her face.

The door burst open.

Kyle stood in the doorway.

Freya curled over her belly, shaking and sobbing.

"Don't blame Sylvie. It's my fault—I shouldn't have come here to tell her… that you held me all night."

Kyle's eyes landed on my hand gripping her wrist. His face went cold.

"Let her go."

I released her.

"Kyle. She's lying to you. Her pup—"

"That's enough."

His face hardened completely.

"I mated with Freya to grant her dying wish. That's all."

"Sylvie, I thought you'd grown up. But look at what you've done."

"Even if you're upset, you don't get to make up lies to slander Freya!"

I tried to speak again, but Freya started screaming.

"Kyle—my stomach! It hurts so bad!"

Kyle scooped her up immediately.

As he passed me, he paused. Disappointment in his eyes.

"I thought a year of sleep would calm you down."

Another stab of pain hit my chest. But I laughed.

"So you put me to sleep for a year to teach me to behave?"

Kyle stiffened.

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

He opened his mouth. Freya moaned in his arms.

And he walked away without answering.

The healer came and said Freya was just shaken up, the pup was fine. Kyle stayed by her bed anyway.

He didn't come to find me until late that night.

By then, I'd already burned most of the old letters on my desk. Crumpled black pages curled in the fire—all the letters Kyle had written me over the years.

He stood in the doorway, watching the flames for a long time.

"Why are you burning them?"

"They're useless now."

"You're just saying that."

Kyle walked over and pulled the last letter from my hand. It was the one he'd written at sixteen, on his first hunt with the pack. The edges were worn soft from me folding and unfolding it.

"After the Winter Hunt, I'll have Freya move out of the main house."

"The master bedroom, the Luna badge, everything you had before—I'll give it all back."

Give it back. Like I was the one who'd thrown them away in a tantrum, instead of him handing them to another woman.

When I didn't respond, he bent down and picked up a charred scrap near his foot, pinching out the ember with his fingers.

"Just hold on a few more days. Be reasonable. Don't make more trouble."

"After the Winter Hunt, everything will go back to normal."

His eyes were hazy with exhaustion when he said it. I couldn't tell if he was saying it for me or for himself.

But it didn't matter anymore.

Tomorrow night, when the moon rises, the Winter Hunt horn will sound. Every guard will head to the Moon Valley.

And that's when I'll leave.

Kyle. We have twenty-four hours left.