Chapter 4

"Don't burn it!"

I lunged for the chest, but two guards held me back.

Inside were the little white wolf doll my mother had sewn for me, the family photo my father took himself, and the present they'd gotten ready for my 14th birthday before they left for the war.

I clutched desperately at the hem of Kane's shirt.

"I had nothing to do with what happened at the hospital. If you want me to apologize to Vivian, I'll go right now. Just don't burn my parents' things."

Kane didn't look at me. He only told Brody, "Do it."

Flames caught at the bottom of the chest.

I tore free of the guards and shifted into my wolf form right there, throwing myself at the fire.

The heat rolled over me in waves, and my silver-white fur was soon streaked with soot.

I clawed at my mother's doll. The flames scorched the pads of my paws, and the pain had me shaking all over.

Kane rushed over and dragged me out of the fire.

"Sandra, have you lost your mind?"

I shifted back, grabbed a rock off the ground, and raised it over my own shin.

"Vivian broke one leg. I'll break mine and pay her back. Will that satisfy you?!"

Kane yanked the rock away and clamped down on my wrist.

I fought to get back to the fire. I couldn't stop crying.

"Alpha, please... Spare the things my mom and dad left me."

In that moment, I was 13 again. The Kane who'd promised to protect me in my parents' place was destroying the last bit of shelter they'd left me, and he was doing it himself.

I'd only ever called him Uncle Kane.

When I wanted to annoy him, I'd call him old man on purpose.

When he heard me call him "Alpha," his grip tightened for a second.

But a moment later, he still turned to Brody. "Keep going."

The flames climbed higher.

One of the doll's ears blackened first, then the little dress my mother had made me. The photo my father took slid off the edge of the chest and dropped into the flames before I even had a chance to reach for it.

I stopped fighting. I just stared as the photo burned to ash.

Everything blurred in the firelight, but I couldn't even cry anymore.

Kane let go of me. His voice was ice-cold.

"Now that you know you were wrong, stay home and think about what you did."

Then he left.

The floating text kept popping up.

[Kane's doing this to protect you. Somebody spread the story about Vivian losing her job and breaking her leg all over the Alliance, and tons of people are trashing you. He needs the cameras to catch you being punished so he can shut the gossip down.]

[But this time he really went too far. Those were her parents' things...]

[He told the guard to burn a box of old junk that didn't matter! The guard must have grabbed the wrong one.]

I looked up at the security camera on the courtyard wall.

It was pointed right at the fire.

I went back to my room and dug out every gift Kane had given me over the years.

There was the moonflower Kane brought back from the border on my 14th birthday. I'd pressed it in a picture frame, and its petals had long since dried out.

There was the hunting knife and the jacket he gave me, and the birthday boxes I'd never had the heart to open.

Right in front of the camera, I dumped them all into the fire.

The moonflower burned fastest.

This time I just stood there and watched until it was gone.

Half an hour later, I walked out the door pulling my suitcase.

Mae ran out after me and handed me a photo.

"It all happened so fast. This was the only one I managed to grab."

In the photo, my father and mother were hugging me from either side. I was laughing so hard my white wolf ears had popped out.

"Luna Eleanor asked me to tell you not to hate Kane," Mae said quietly. "He's only trying to repay a debt."

"I know."

I put the photo away and got into the car that had come to pick me up.

I didn't hate him anymore.

As the car pulled out of the Alpha estate, I checked my phone and saw Vivian's latest Instagram post.

Nine pictures, all screenshots of her texts with Kane.

She was worried her leg would scar, so Kane found her the best healer in the North.

She ran a fever after surgery, and he sat by her bed all night.

She hadn't been left without a job in the Alliance, either. Kane had funded a charity hospital and made her its spokesperson. She didn't have to work herself ragged as a nurse, and she still got everyone's admiration.

Kane remembered she loved honey chestnut cakes from the South. He knew she was scared of thunder.

When she texted that her leg hurt, he walked out halfway through a major deal and rushed back to be with her.

All these years, I'd thought that kind of care belonged only to me. Now he was giving it to someone else too.

So in my last life and in this one, he'd fallen for Vivian without even realizing it.

In my last life, I'd been too stupid to see it, and I'd tried to wreck what they had.

In the comments, all of Kane's friends were congratulating them.

Those same friends had always looked down on me as a little girl chasing after the Alpha. Now every one of them was gushing about how gentle Vivian was, saying she was exactly the kind of Luna Moonbridge needed.

It took me seven years to fit in with them. It took Vivian a few days.

The congratulations on the screen slowly blurred behind my tears.

I blinked them away, liked the post anyway, and locked my phone.

Alpha, in this life, I'm setting you free.