WAITING FOR HER REPLY

~DAMIEN~Morning doesn’t feel like morning.It feels like exposure.Like the night peeled something open inside me and daylight is here to examine it.I’m already dressed when the sun fully rises. I haven’t slept. Haven’t even tried. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Holly’s face in the car. The way her lips trembled when she tried to hold herself together. The way she nodded like she understood—even when she clearly didn’t.I walk past Ella’s room first.She’s still asleep.Her small wolf body is curled into itself, breathing steady now. Peaceful.She's still exhausted, but very soon she'll shift back to human form and this time around, I'll be there for her.Relief spreads through me—but it doesn’t erase the guilt. It just makes it quieter.Gabriel is in the kitchen when I walk downstairs.He’s leaning against the counter, coffee untouched in front of him. His eyes lift when he hears me.We look at each other.Too many things sit between us.I know he wants

HE DOESN'T WANT ME

~HOLLY~Morning feels so heavy.Like the air itself is pressing down on my chest.I’m sitting on my bed, my back against the headboard, my knees pulled tightly to my chest. The blanket is twisted around my legs, damp from the tears that won’t stop falling.My eyes sting from crying.My throat feels raw.And my chest… God, my chest feels like someone carved something out of it and left the hollow behind.I don’t even remember when I started crying.Maybe it was when I woke up and realized yesterday wasn’t a nightmare.Maybe it was when I checked my phone and saw nothing from him.Or maybe it’s because every time I close my eyes… I see Damien.His face in the car.The way his jaw tightened when he told me it couldn’t happen.The way he wouldn’t look at me.That part hurts the most.Because if he had looked at me… really looked… maybe he would have seen how badly I was breaking.A broken laugh slips out of me, shaky and miserable.“Of course it can’t,” I whisper t

PAINFUL LOVE

~DAMIEN~I shouldn’t still be here.The moment I sent the message telling her the car was outside, I should have driven away.That was the plan.Drop the car. Send the text. Leave before she ever knew I had been here.Simple, clean and necessary.But somehow… my hands never turned the steering wheel.I had convinced myself that I was just waiting for her reply. But shouldn't I be doing that at home since she's going to reply through texts?Instead, I’m still sitting here, outside her house.The engine is off now, the quiet inside the car thick and suffocating, broken only by the faint ticking sound of cooling metal from under the hood. The windshield is slightly fogged from the cold morning air, a thin layer of mist clinging to the glass, but I can still see her building clearly from where I’m parked farther down the street.Far enough that she wouldn’t notice me.Far enough that I can pretend I’m not the coward sitting here watching her life fall apart.The s

DON'T VISIT HER

~DAMIEN~The drive home feels longer than it should.Every road stretches endlessly in front of me, every turn heavier than the last. My hands stay tight around the steering wheel, but I barely notice the pressure anymore.All I can see… all I can hear…Is Holly.Her voice calling my name.The way she sank onto the pavement like the strength had drained from her bones.The way her shoulders shook when she cried.Goddess!My throat tightens painfully.I blink hard, trying to clear the sting in my eyes as the pack house finally appears through the tall trees ahead. The familiar iron gates slide open slowly as my car approaches, as it's been programmed to do so.Everything here looks the same.Nothing has changed.But somehow… everything inside me feels different.Broken.The car rolls to a stop in front of the house, and for a moment I just sit there with the engine running.I don't want to go inside yet.Because once I step through that door, I have to pretend a

MY BEST FRIEND PAYS A VISIT

~HOLLY~The cold pavement bites into my skin.But I barely feel it anymore.At some point the crying slows down, the violent sobs fading into quiet, exhausted breaths. My cheeks are sticky with dried tears, my eyes aching and swollen.I don’t know how long I sit there beside the car.Ten minutes?Thirty?Maybe longer.The morning slowly shifts into the afternoon around me—distant traffic humming somewhere far away, a dog barking down the street, the wind rustling faintly through the trees.Life is going on.While mine feels like it just stopped.Eventually the cold starts creeping through the thin fabric of my nightdress, forcing its way into my bones.I sniff quietly and wipe my face with the back of my hand.“Okay… Holly,” I whisper hoarsely to myself.My voice sounds small. Fragile.“Enough.”Because sitting here crying over a man who clearly doesn’t want me anymore won’t fix anything.Slowly, I push myself up from the pavement.My legs protest immediately, s

DOES GABRIEL LIKES ME??

~HOLLY~Gabriel's eyes longer on my lips for the briefest second.I notice it.The pause.The flicker of something in his expression before he quickly looks away like he didn’t mean to stare that long.I swallow slightly, pretending not to notice.For a strange moment the air between us feels heavier. Charged. Like something invisible just passed between us that neither of us is brave enough to acknowledge.I close the door slowly behind him, shrugging awkwardly.“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” I ask instead.Gabriel crosses his arms, his expression shifting into something frustrated.He doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, his eyes move over my face slowly, like he’s checking if I’m okay. If I’m hurt. If I’m hiding something.“Because you’ve been avoiding me,” he finally say.I blink at him. “What?”“You heard me.” He sighs heavily. “If I told you I was coming, you probably would’ve found an excuse not to be here.”“That’s not—”“Holly,” he interru