Chapter 2

I could never stop myself from wanting to join them, but whenever Asher saw me smile, his own expression would shut down. He would ask coldly, "Need something?"

Only that day was different. He handed me the plate of pasta, his voice gentle like it used to be. He said, "Eat."

So, like an idiot, I ate it without a second thought.

And I missed the most important scholarship interview of my life.

My eyes burned. I bit my lip until I tasted blood, then looked at Asher and forced myself to ask, "Is it true?"

He sat beside Serena, his face blank. "Does it matter? It's not like it can be changed now."

His tone was as casual as if we were talking about the weather for tomorrow's forest patrol. My words sank into him like stones into still water, leaving no ripple.

He did not care.

He did not care about the eighteen years we had grown up together on the same pack territory.

He did not care about the future we had once believed we would have.

My throat closed. Bitterness rose in my chest again and again. I bit the inside of my cheek and let the taste of blood hold back the breakdown pressing at my ribs.

Then I stood up and ran out.

Even after I had run far away, their laughter still followed me.

Someone shouted, "Elena! Don't go! Have a drink for your good buddy!"

Someone else sneered, "Is she actually crying? Let her go back to her dorm and cry, then. Asher never formed a mate bond with her. What's she so hurt about?"

I stood for a long time on the black stone road outside the academy while the northern night wind swept through the pines and dried the tears on my face.

My phone lit up. It was a message from Asher.

Where are you? Come back. Don't make this ugly.

I stared at those words, and suddenly I was seven again.

During a pup-training game, I missed the training ball, and all the other children laughed.

Asher grabbed a wooden stick and charged over, furious. "She missed the ball. What does that have to do with any of you?"

Back then, he was my shield against the whole world.

And now, he was telling me not to make things ugly.

Another message came in.

I just lost a bet. It was truth or dare, that's all. Come back. I'll explain.

Truth or dare.

My hand shook so badly I almost could not hold my phone.

When I was ten, I had a fever that would not break, and I could barely hold my wolf form. Asher climbed over the ironwood fence in my backyard to bring me moon-dew medicine, then got chased three blocks by the neighbor's guard dog.

When I was twelve, I lost the territory-wide rune-spelling competition. He threw his own first-place blue ribbon into the trash and said, "This stupid thing doesn't matter. Next time I'll help you win it back."

When I was fifteen, at the Moon Crown Ball, someone made a vulgar joke about my late first shift. Asher swung a fist. The skin above his brow split open, and the healer gave him three stitches. He still smiled at me and said, "Doesn't hurt at all."

Had he changed?

Or had he always been like this, and I had just refused to see it?

Had I been lying to myself from the very beginning?

I clenched my teeth and turned back. I pushed open the door to the underground training hall, still clinging to one ridiculous shred of hope.

The next second, a bucket of ice water poured down from above the doorframe.

The freezing water soaked my hair, blurred my vision, and drenched my clothes.

I stood there, shaking all over.

Wild laughter burst through the underground training hall.

"Holy shit! She really came back!"

"Serena, you called it perfectly. How did you know she'd definitely come back?"

"Asher, a bet is a bet! The necklace. Now!"

Serena leaned against Asher, laughing so hard she almost folded over. "I told you she'd come back."

She held out her hand. Her silver-white nails flashed coldly under the lights.

"Your number one backup mate, obviously. On call whenever you need her."