Chapter 3

I ended the call before I had to hear another word in Murphy's nauseating voice.

Outside the airport, I spotted Cyril and waved to him.

Then tires screamed. A car door slammed. Familiar footsteps pounded toward me.

It was Ethan.

I didn't want another fight. I sent Cyril a text telling him to meet me at the gate.

The flight to the Frostveil Tundra ran only once a week. If I missed it, I didn't know whether I would still be alive by the next departure.

Ethan tried to grab my arm but was a step too slow.

He settled for seizing my duffel bag instead.

The sudden force made me stumble. I had no choice but to turn and face him.

"Let go." I hauled on the bag, but after years confined to bed, I had no chance of overpowering an Alpha.

"Where are you going with Cyril?"

"That's none of your business."

"Jennifer, your health won't survive a long trip."

"Tell me where you want to go. I'll go for you."

"With Murphy?" A flicker of guilt crossed his face, then vanished.

"Murphy said she wants to do her part to help you keep going."

Do her part. She had done her part all the way into his bed. My face went cold.

"No need. I'll go myself."

"I knew it. You really are better. That relapse seven days ago was an act." I looked up in shock.

Right. We were mates, bound by the oldest bond the Moon Goddess bestowed upon our kind, a connection etched into the soul, impossible to sever.

When I was in pain, he felt an inexplicable ache too.

"Do you have any idea what I went through to rush back seven days ago..." Ethan touched his upper arm. His dark clothing hid the blood seeping through.

"Ethan, you promised to fulfill Jennifer's wishes." Murphy had appeared at Ethan's side without my noticing. Her fingers were bandaged, a mark left by her fake injury moments ago.

She wore a black jacket over her clothes, probably Ethan's, and a sliver of navy fabric peeked out from underneath.

"You can't go on a trip with your lover."

I pulled harder on my bag, but to an Alpha, it looked like deliberate provocation. He snatched the bag from me, using too much force. The bag tore open, and its contents spilled across the ground.

The glass vial of silver liquid hit the ground hard.

The crack of breaking glass went straight through my heart.

The painkiller that was supposed to carry me through this journey was gone.

In that moment, all I could hear was the dull thud of my own heartbeat echoing inside my skull, each beat a heavy blow that sent numbness tingling through my limbs.

I wanted to be sick, but even that was beyond my numb body.

I dropped to my knees and tried to blot up the spilled medicine with clothes from my duffel bag.

A hand reached down to help me. It was Cyril.

"Jennifer, don't cry." I touched my cheek. I hadn't even realized tears were streaming down my face.

"Jennifer, even without that medicine, you still have me."

"I'll stay with you."

My heart steadied, just a little.

"Mr. Anderson, Jennifer is still sick. Please stop hurting her."

The plea snapped something inside Ethan.

Ethan snatched the ticket from Cyril's hand.

"Sick?" His voice dripped with contempt.

"She's sick, but still well enough to come seduce you?"

He didn't even glance at it before tearing Cyril's ticket to shreds.

No. I tried to lunge forward and grab it.

But I crashed to the ground.

"Ethan, Jennifer hates being called on her lies. Let's go." Murphy soothed him and took the shredded ticket from his hand.

I reached for the pieces.

But just before handing them to me, Murphy stopped.

Her hand rose into the air, and the fragments of the ticket fluttered up, then drifted down, piece by piece, onto me as I lay on the ground.

"Murphy, you were right. Jennifer really did fake it so she could run away with Cyril."

Their lips were moving, but I could no longer hear what they were saying.

I tried to speak, but blood surged out first, soaking through the scraps of the ticket.

The words "Frostveil Tundra" vanished beneath a deep red stain.

Then I couldn't see them at all.