Chapter 4

“No. I’m not apologizing. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

I looked Dad straight in the eye.

Mom looked from Bianca to me, then turned toward the elders.

“I’m sorry. Alice has had feelings for Alpha Rowan for years.” Her voice was painfully steady. “We never imagined she’d take it this far.”

I stared at her in disbelief.

She’d helped me choose invitations.

She’d cried when I tried on my first gown.

Now she couldn’t even look at me.

Cade stopped beside Rowan.

“Alice, stop embarrassing the family. Just apologize so we can go.”

Bianca trembled against Mom.

Rowan’s gaze moved to my cheek, then to Dad’s hand around my wrist.

“Let her go.”

Dad released me.

For one foolish second, I thought Rowan was going to put an end to it.

Instead, he turned to the elders.

“This is all a misunderstanding. Alice hasn’t done anything inappropriate. We’re just friends. Bianca is my only mate.”

My fingers went numb.

“Rowan.”

He looked at me.

I held the feather notebook out.

“Then tell them where this came from.”

His eyes dropped to the cover.

He recognized it.

Then Bianca made a small, broken sound.

Rowan’s jaw tightened.

“Alice.”

Just my name. Quiet. A warning.

The elder looked between us.

“Alpha Rowan, are you denying her claim?”

Rowan held my gaze.

“Yes.”

Something inside me stopped fighting.

Behind me, someone laughed.

“Imagine thinking he’d choose her.”

I lowered my head.

People crowded closer as Bianca began to cry harder.

A shoulder struck mine. Someone shoved past me, and my heel caught the edge of a step.

I fell.

My palm scraped across the stone. Pain shot through my wrist.

“Alice!”

Panic flashed across Rowan’s face as he rushed toward me.

Bianca grabbed his arm.

“My head.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Rowan, it hurts.”

He stopped short, then turned straight back to her.

I sat on the pavement, holding my bleeding hand against my skirt.

Mom was calling for a car. Cade hurried down the steps. Dad put a hand beneath Bianca’s elbow.

Rowan looked back once as they led her away.

A welfare officer helped me inside and cleaned my palm.

My phone buzzed.

Rowan.

I couldn’t contradict her in front of everyone. You know what a shock could do to her.

I’ve arranged a car. Please let them take you somewhere safe.

Another message followed.

Next time, call me before things get this far.

Next time.

I put the phone away.

There wouldn’t be one.

I submitted my release application downstairs.

The registrar looked up from my paperwork.

“Once this is finalized, you’ll no longer belong to Blackwood. Your pack link will be severed. Are you sure you want to go through with it?”

“Yes.”

I stopped at my parents’ house for the last box I wanted from the garage.

Everyone was still at the clinic.

My phone vibrated as I carried it to the car.

Bianca had sent a photograph.

She sat in a treatment room with a blanket over her knees. Rowan stood beside her bed, listening to the healer.

Mom’s purse rested on the spare chair. Dad and Cade were visible through the open doorway.

Still waiting for him to come after you?

I set the box down.

Another message appeared.

You heard me in the garden. You knew I never lost my memory.

But they believed me anyway.

My hand tightened around the phone.

I planned the rogue attack and I planned today, too. I knew exactly what they’d do when I showed them that notebook.

Bianca sent one last message.

They’re all here with me. You’re the only one missing.

I saved everything.

Then I picked up my box.

At the airport, I submitted a formal complaint to the district council.

I attached Bianca’s messages, the screenshots, and photographs of the notebook.

I included everything I’d overheard in the garden and requested an independent investigation into the attack and her supposed memory loss.

Another message came through as boarding began.

Alice, how’s your hand? Please tell me where you are. I want to come get you.

I read it once, then blocked the number.

I had nothing left to say.

As the plane climbed through the clouds, pain struck behind my eyes.

My wolf cried out.

The pack link was breaking.

One by one, the familiar presences faded: Mom, Dad, Cade.

Then Rowan.

I gripped the armrest until the pain passed.

My release had taken effect.

Below us, Blackwood Pack disappeared beneath a sheet of white.

For the first time in nine months, nobody could reach into my silence and ask me to give up something else.

I leaned back and let myself breathe.

I am leaving, for good.

***

Across town, Rowan checked his phone again, a bouquet of roses in his other hand.

Then a server passed with a platter of shrimp.

He suddenly remembered Bianca was the one who loved shrimp, and I was allergic to it.

“Take that away,” he said. “All the seafood. Have the kitchen prepare something else.”

He looked down at the roses and believed he could make tonight a good night.

But six o’clock passed.

I didn’t showed up. The whole family was waiting.

Then a phone call came in.

“Alpha Rowan. District Council Investigations. We have evidence that Bianca staged the rogue attack. Her memory loss was fabricated.”

Rowan went still.

Before he could said anything, pain split through his head.

The phone slipped from his hand. He caught the edge of the table as his wolf surged forward, frantic.

My presence was fading.

“No.” Rowan pressed harder, panic rising. “Alice! No!”