"I was the one who broke Kane Blackwood's heart. He was the Alpha heir, my boyfriend since we were kids, and I pushed him so hard that I drove him all the way to the Northern Stronghold. He stayed there for seven years. Now he was back. He had a new woman with him, and they were going to hold their bonding ceremony here, in our pack. That same week, the pack witch told me I had three months left to live. When my mother wheeled me outside to see him, Kane's mouth curled into that cruel, mocking smile I remembered too well. His dark eyes swept over me from head to toe, taking in the wheelchair, the thinness of my arms, the paleness of my face. ""Well, well,"" he said, his voice low and sharp. ""Seven years and you look like hell. Can't even walk anymore?"" I tugged my sleeve down, hiding the scars—the silver tracings left by years of failed treatments. I kept my voice steady. ""I fell. Broke something. It's nothing."" He let out a short, cold laugh. ""Right. Anyway, my bonding ceremony's coming up. You should be Vivra's maid of honor."" I smiled back at him. I had gotten good at smiling through pain over the years. ""Sorry, but I'm leaving soon. Somewhere far away."" Then I patted my mother's hand. She didn't say a word, just gripped the handles of the chair and pushed me back toward the house. I didn't look behind me. Chapter 1 My mother had just helped me into bed when Kane's mother showed up. I wasn't surprised. Ilsa had always had perfect timing – bad timing, depending on how you looked at it. She stood in my doorway with that same expression she'd worn seven years ago. Guilt and urgency mixed together, like she was about to ask for something she had no right to ask for, but she was going to ask anyway because she had already decided that her son's future mattered more than my life. ""Selene,"" she said, stepping inside. Her voice was soft, almost gentle. That was how she always started. ""I need a favor. A very difficult favor."" I watched her face turn red. She kept opening her mouth and closing it again, like a fish gasping for air. I didn't let her finish. I already knew why she was here. It was the same as seven years ago. Seven years ago, when I first got the diagnosis, she had rushed into my hospital room before the tears on my face had even dried. I was still trying to understand what silver poisoning meant – still trying to process the fact that I was dying at eighteen – when she knelt right there on the cold hospital floor. ""Selene, please. Don't drag Kane down. The Alpha King just picked him for a three-year training post in the Northern Stronghold. If he finds out you have silver poisoning, he will never go."" I remembered how her voice had cracked, how her eyes had glistened with tears. She looked so sincere. So desperate. ""You and Kane grew up together. You've been together all these years. I'm begging you – break up with him. He's going to be the pack Alpha someday, and you're dying. How can you hold him back?"" I didn't answer. I couldn't. My throat was too tight. She took my silence as permission to continue. ""I've already worked it out. I'll find a young wolf warrior – someone from a nearby pack, someone Kane doesn't know. You just have to pretend to kiss him under the old oak tree. Let Kane see. Then you pretend to cheat on him. Pretend to break up with him."" She said it like it was simple. Like breaking Kane's heart was no harder than changing clothes. And because I was eighteen and terrified and convinced that I was already as good as dead, I said yes. So instead of looking for a cure, instead of fighting for my life, I spent my first weeks of dying pretending to betray the only person I had ever loved. I forced him to hate me. I drove him north. Now, seven years later, Ilsa stood in my bedroom again. ""Selene, don't blame me. I have no choice."" She twisted her hands together. ""Kane's new partner, Vivra – she's the Alpha King's daughter. When Kane becomes Alpha, she'll be Luna. They're perfect together in every way. I'm begging you – just let them be happy."" She paused, and her voice dropped lower. ""You know how much Kane used to love you. He had you on his heart since you were both children. If he ever finds out the truth about what happened back then... I'm scared. I'm so scared of what he might do."" ""So please. Just stay away from him for a while. You're dying anyway. It's not like you should be going out, right?"" The moment that word left her mouth – dying – my mother slammed the bowl she was holding onto the floor. Porcelain shattered. Water splashed across the wooden boards. My mother's face was red. Her whole body trembled with fury. I knew she was about to explode, to say things that couldn't be taken back, to burn bridges that I wasn't ready to burn. So I grabbed her arm and shook it gently. A small, childish gesture. Please, Mom. Not yet. She looked down at me, and her anger crumpled into something softer, sadder. She bit her lip and stepped back. I turned to Ilsa. My voice came out calm – calmer than I felt. ""Luna, I can promise you one thing. I won't tell Kane what happened seven years ago. But I can't promise not to see him. I can't stay away."" Ilsa's face tightened. She opened her mouth to argue, but I kept going. ""You don't understand. I've spent seven years fighting this disease. Seven years of purification rituals and sleepless nights and pain that made me want to tear my own skin off. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of seeing him again."" My voice cracked a little. I steadied it. ""So no. I won't hide in this house until I die. I'm going to see him. Every chance I get. And if that makes things difficult for you and your perfect Vivra, then I'm sorry. But I'm not sorry enough to stop."" Ilsa stared at me. Her mouth opened and closed a few times. Then she nodded stiffly, turned, and walked out. My mother didn't say anything. She just sat on the edge of my bed and took my hand. I leaned my head against her shoulder and closed my eyes. The truth was, I hadn't been entirely honest with Ilsa. Yes, I wanted to see Kane. But not because I hoped to win him back. I knew that was impossible. He had a new mate now. A child on the way. A whole life that didn't include me. I just wanted to be near him a few more times before I died. That was all. Was that really too much to ask? Chapter 2 No sooner had Ilsa left than I heard Kane's voice coming from outside the house. I sat up a little straighter in bed, my heart suddenly pounding. I hadn't expected him to come here. Not after everything. Seven years ago, he had hated me so much that he couldn't even stand to breathe the same air. He had stood outside my door for three days straight, demanding answers. I could still hear his voice in my head – raw, hoarse, cracking with fury and heartbreak. ""Selene! Come out! Tell me why! Who is he? Who is the man you kissed under the old oak?"" I had watched him from my bedroom window. He didn't sleep. He didn't eat. He just stood there, waiting. On the third day, I finally went to the door. I didn't open it. I stood behind the wood and spoke through the crack. ""I don't love you anymore, Kane. It's over."" I heard him suck in a breath. Then silence. I thought he had left. But when I looked through the peephole, he was still there. His hands were balled into fists at his sides. His face was white. Then he punched the stone pillar at the entrance of the building. Once. Twice. Three times. The pillar split down the middle. I saw blood on his knuckles. He never laid a hand on me. He never threatened me. But after that day, the sight of me repulsed him. If he saw me in the forest, he turned around and walked the other way. If he passed by my house, his face would twist like he'd smelled something rotten. He stopped going to the Moon Spring – the place where we had spent every summer evening since we were children, lying on the grass and watching the stars. If someone mentioned my name in front of him, he shut them down cold. ""Why are we talking about Selene?"" he would say, his voice flat and hard. ""She makes me sick."" The day he left for the North, I stood in the pouring rain to see him off one last time. I didn't go close. I stayed at the edge of the crowd, hoping he wouldn't notice me. But he did. He looked right at me. His eyes were empty. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the matching couple's rings I had given him – silver bands engraved with our initials. He threw them at my feet. Then he took the photo album – the one filled with every picture we had ever taken together – and he smashed it on the ground. He smiled at me. A cold, cruel smile. Then he turned and walked away without looking back. So no. I hadn't expected him to come to my house ever again. But now, seven years later, he was standing outside. Through the crack in the door – my mother hadn't fully closed it after Ilsa left – I could see him. He was holding Vivra's hand. She was beautiful. Tall and golden, with the kind of effortless confidence that came from being an Alpha's daughter. ""Auntie,"" Kane was saying to my mother. His voice was different now – deeper, colder, more controlled. ""Are you still upset about what happened seven years ago? Is that why you won't let Selene help us pick the venue and the rings?"" He paused. ""Look, I don't have feelings for Selene anymore. I've moved on. We grew up together – if we can't be mates, we can at least be friends."" My mother didn't answer. Her face was stone. Vivra stepped forward, smiling brightly. ""Auntie, Kane has told me everything about him and Selene. Sure, Selene cheated on him back when they were young. But we were all young once, right? He's forgiven her. It's ancient history."" She laughed – a light, tinkling sound. ""Besides, I should thank her. If she hadn't betrayed Kane, I never would have found him. He's the best thing that ever happened to me."" ""So please, Auntie, don't hold a grudge. It was actually my idea to have Selene help us. We've been away from the pack for seven years. We don't know the territory anymore. And Selene's our age – I trust her taste. She'll pick something beautiful, I'm sure."" Seven years ago, all I had wanted was for Kane to forget me. To move on. To be happy. But now, hearing him talk about the betrayal so calmly – like it was just a thing that happened, like it didn't still burn – and hearing that he had told his new partner everything about us, every detail of our life together... my chest still ached. A dull, spreading pain. Like someone was pressing their thumb into a bruise. My mother's face went red. Her lips trembled. I knew she was about to say something she would regret. ""Get out,"" she finally said. Her voice shook. ""Both of you. Get out of my house."" Vivra's smile faltered. ""Auntie—"" ""I said get out."" Kane didn't move. He just stood there, looking past my mother, toward the hallway where my bedroom was. Like he was trying to see through the walls. I sat up in bed. My head spun for a moment. I took a breath, steadying myself. ""Mom,"" I called out. ""Come help me into the chair. I want to talk to them."" There was a long silence. Then I heard my mother's footsteps, heavy and reluctant, coming toward my room. She pushed the door open. Her eyes were wet. But she didn't argue. She just walked to the dresser, grabbed my lipstick and a wig, and put a little color on my face. She knew what this meant to me. ""Thank you, Mom,"" I whispered. She didn't answer. She just lifted me into the wheelchair and pushed me out the door. Chapter 3 When my mother wheeled me out the door, Kane's frown deepened. His eyes swept over me again – the wig, the lipstick, the way I sat slumped in the chair because my muscles couldn't hold me upright anymore. I saw something flicker across his face. Disgust, probably. Or pity. I couldn't tell which was worse. ""What's your problem?"" he said. ""You were spoiled as a kid, and you're still spoiled now. It's just a broken bone. It should have healed by now. And you're making your old mother push you around?"" I smiled at him – the calm, practiced smile I had perfected over seven years of lying to everyone I loved. ""The witch said it's a bad break,"" I said. ""I'm not supposed to walk on it for a while."" Vivra jumped in before Kane could respond. She looped her arm through his and leaned into his shoulder, staking her claim. ""Don't mind him, Selene. He's been in the North too long. He's cold to everyone except me."" My chest tightened. It was true that Kane was cold to everyone now. The boy I had known – the one who used to carry me on his back through the forest when my feet got tired, the one who whispered jokes in my ear during pack meetings to make me laugh – that boy was gone. But once, with me, he hadn't been cold. Once, I had been the only person he truly warmed to. I pushed the feeling down and looked at Vivra. ""Do you really want me to come with you? To help pick the venue and the rings?"" She nodded eagerly. ""Of course. Of course. Like I said – I trust your taste."" Kane said nothing. He just stared at me, his jaw tight. ""Okay,"" I said. ""I'll come."" We made small talk for a few more minutes. Vivra asked me how I had been – the kind of question no one actually wants an honest answer to – and I gave her the usual lies. Fine. Busy. You know how it is. Kane didn't speak again. He just stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking at everything except me. Then they left. That night, I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, when I felt it. Kane's mind-link brushed against mine. Light. Tentative. Like a knock on a door he wasn't sure would open. I held my breath. My heart started slamming against my ribs so hard I was sure my mother could hear it in the next room. Seven years ago, after I pretended to cheat on him, I had blocked his mind-link. I didn't want him to feel my emotions through the bond. I didn't want him to sense my guilt, my grief, my desperate love for him. It was easier to cut him off completely. I thought I would never feel his presence in my head again. I thought that door was sealed forever. But now it was open. Just a crack. He didn't speak at first. The connection just hung there, pulsing with something I couldn't name. I could feel everything churning behind it – anger, disgust, and something else. Something he was trying very hard to bury. Something that felt almost like... longing. No. That couldn't be right. Why would he long for me? He had Vivra now. He had a pup on the way. He had moved on. I waited. Finally, I whispered into the link. ""Kane?"" A long pause. So long I thought he had cut the connection. Then his voice came through – low and cold, like northern wind across a frozen plain. ""Tomorrow. The venue. I'll pick you up in the morning."" My throat tightened. I had missed the sound of his voice so much. Even now – even cold and distant and bitter – it wrapped around me like something familiar. Like something I had been searching for in the dark for seven years. ""Okay,"" I said. There was another pause. I could feel him hesitating. Like there was more he wanted to say but couldn't. Then a woman's voice drifted through the background of his end of the link. ""Kane, come help me dry my hair..."" Vivra. I swallowed hard. ""Goodnight, Kane,"" I said. He cut the link instantly. I buried my face in my pillow and let the tears come. I cried until my head ached and my eyes were swollen and the pillowcase was soaked through. I had prepared myself for this. I knew he belonged to someone else now. But feeling it – hearing her voice in the background, knowing she was in his room, in his bed, in his life – it still tore me apart. Chapter 4 I was so nervous the next morning that I couldn't eat. My mother tried to spoon some porridge into my mouth, but I turned my head away. ""You need to eat,"" she said. ""I'll eat later."" ""You always say that."" I managed a small smile. ""Mom. Please. Just help me get ready."" She sighed – that long, tired sigh that had become her signature over the past seven years – and went to get my things. I asked her to wheel me to the old oak tree before the sun was even fully up. The morning air was cold and damp, and the grass was wet with dew. The old oak stood at the edge of the forest, its branches spreading wide like arms reaching for the sky. This was the tree where Kane had first kissed me, when we were fifteen and too young to understand what mates really meant. This was the tree where Ilsa had told me to pretend to cheat, to break his heart so he could go north and become something great. This was the tree where I had waited for him a hundred times, a thousand times, over the years. I waited. The sun rose higher. The dew dried on the grass. Birds sang in the branches above me. Kane didn't come. Noon came. The sun was directly overhead now, and my mother was shifting from foot to foot, clearly impatient. ""He's not coming,"" she said. ""He said he would."" ""People say a lot of things."" I tried to mind-link him. Nothing. Just silence. A void where his presence should have been. Maybe he had blocked me again. Maybe he had changed his mind. Maybe Vivra had said something to him – whispered poison in his ear while he held her in bed. My mother told me to go home. I refused. ""This is costing you too much,"" she said. ""You're going to collapse."" ""Then let me collapse. At least I'll collapse here, under this tree, where I waited for him a hundred times before."" She didn't argue. She just sat down on the grass next to my wheelchair and held my hand. Finally, in the early afternoon, a message came through the link. Two words. On our way. My mother saw the look on my face and knew. She stood up, brushed the grass off her dress, and put on her bravest smile. She loved me too much to say no. When they pulled up, Vivra leaned out the passenger window with a lazy, satisfied smile. Her hair was messy, and she was wearing Kane's jacket over her shoulders. ""Sorry we're late, Selene,"" she said. ""Kane didn't let me get much sleep last night."" She said it like it was a compliment. Like she was showing off a trophy. I pressed my fingernails into my palms. The pain grounded me. Kane got out of the car. He folded up my wheelchair and put it in the trunk without looking at me. Then he got behind the wheel, and my mother helped me into the back seat. He glanced at me in the rearview mirror – just a flicker of his eyes – and said coldly to Vivra, ""Why are you explaining anything to her?"" Vivra shrugged. ""Just being friendly."" I looked down at my hands. They were shaking. Kane drove fast. Too fast. The car bounced over every bump and pothole in the road, and my body was too weak to brace itself. I slid across the back seat with every turn, my bones jarring against the door, the window, the seat belt digging into my chest. I remembered how he used to drive. Smooth. Gentle. He would reach over with his right hand and rest it on my knee, just to remind me he was there. He would slow down before every curve, accelerate slowly out of every stop. He knew I got carsick, and he never wanted me to feel uncomfortable. Now he took a sharp turn at full speed, and my body slammed against the passenger side door. A small sound escaped my throat – a whimper, barely audible over the engine. He heard it. He laughed. ""Did you really think I'd go easy on you?"" he said, his eyes still on the road. ""Those days are over."" I wiped my eyes before he could see. ""No,"" I said quietly. ""You should drive for Vivra now. She's your mate."" He laughed again – a harsh, bitter sound – and pressed the gas pedal even harder. The car lurched forward. My head cracked against the back seat. But I smiled anyway. At least he still hated me. At least I still took up some space in his heart, even if that space was filled with anger and disgust. That was enough. That had to be enough. Chapter 5 We reached the venue – a tavern on the edge of the pack territory, famous for its views of the mountain and its private dining rooms. It was the kind of place couples came to celebrate bondings and weddings and anniversaries. Kane parked the car and got out. He opened my door and lifted me from the back seat. For one dizzy second, I was in his arms again. Warm. Solid. Familiar. His scent hit me – pine and smoke and something else, something that had always been just him. I had dreamed about that smell for seven years. I had tried to imagine it during the long nights when the pain made me forget what comfort felt like. And now he was holding me. I almost lost it. My throat closed up. My eyes burned. But then he set me in the wheelchair quickly – too quickly – and turned to Vivra. ""Give me the wipes,"" he said. She handed him a packet of wet wipes from her bag. He unfolded one and scrubbed his hands. Then another. Then another. He scrubbed like he had touched something rotten. Like I had infected him. Vivra gave an awkward, tinkling laugh. ""Sorry, Selene. He's weird about cleanliness. He can't stand any other woman touching him. It's a Northern thing, I think."" I watched him scrub his hands until his knuckles were red, and I pretended not to notice. It wasn't about cleanliness. Seven years ago, when I touched him – when I held his hand, when I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind, when I fell asleep with my head on his chest – he never did anything like this. He never pulled away. He never flinched. This was different. This was deliberate. He was telling me, loud and clear, that every inch of skin I had ever touched now disgusted him. He was erasing me. We went inside the tavern. The owner – an old wolf with gray hair and a kind face – showed us to a private dining room overlooking the mountains. The view was stunning. Snow-capped peaks, green valleys, a river winding through the forest like a silver ribbon. Kane ordered for the table. He listed off seafood dishes – crab, lobster, oysters, shrimp. A whole spread. He never used to eat seafood. Neither did I. We had both hated it since we were children. But here he was, ordering it like it was his favorite thing in the world. Who was he ordering for? Vivra, obviously. Vivra, who was nodding along with a pleased smile, squeezing his arm under the table. I didn't want to make things hard on myself. I was already struggling to eat anything – my stomach couldn't handle much these days. So when the waiter came to me, I asked for a light vegetable soup. That was when Kane lost it. ""You're already skin and bones,"" he snapped. His voice was loud enough that the waiter took a step back. ""Now you're on a diet? What is wrong with you?"" My chest flooded with a bitter, aching warmth. He still noticed. He still noticed. I kept my voice calm. ""Harlan likes me thin."" Harlan. The fake boyfriend. The warrior Ilsa had hired seven years ago to pretend to kiss me under the old oak tree. I had seen him exactly once – for five minutes – and then he had disappeared from my life forever. I didn't even remember what he looked like. But the name still worked. It always worked. Kane's face went white. Then red. His jaw clenched so hard I could see the muscles jumping under his skin. He shoved his chair back. The legs scraped against the wooden floor with a sound that made everyone in the room flinch. ""I'm going outside,"" he said. And he walked out. Vivra waited. She waited exactly two seconds – long enough for the door to close behind him – and then she grabbed a glass of ice water and threw it in my face. The cold shocked me. I gasped. Water dripped down my cheeks, into my mouth, onto the front of my dress. ""You little bitch,"" Vivra said. Her voice was quiet and venomous, nothing like the sweet, airy tone she used in front of Kane. ""You think playing helpless is going to win him back? You think being pathetic and broken is going to make him forget about me and our pup?"" I didn't answer. I just sat there, dripping, my hands shaking in my lap. She leaned closer. ""Let me tell you something, Selene. Kane is mine. He has been mine for years, and he will be mine until the day we die. Don't think for one second that just because you were his first love, you can take him away from me."" I still didn't answer. She slapped me across the face. The sound echoed through the private dining room. My head snapped to the side. My cheek stung – hot and throbbing. The water I could take. I deserved that. I was being selfish, clinging to these last moments with Kane when I knew he belonged to someone else. But not the slap. She couldn't slap me. Without thinking, I pushed her away. It was barely a touch – my arms were so weak that I couldn't have knocked over a glass if I tried. My palm met her shoulder, and she stumbled back half a step. Then she fell. She fell to the floor like a sack of flour, and she screamed. ""My stomach! Help! Someone help me! She attacked me! I'm pregnant – I'm carrying Kane's pup – someone help!"" I stared at my hands. I stared at her writhing on the floor. I couldn't understand what was happening. I had barely touched her. I was so weak that I couldn't even lift a cup of water without my hands trembling. How could I have pushed her hard enough to fall? Kane came running. He burst through the door and saw Vivra on the ground. Her face was twisted in pain – fake pain, I realized, watching her eyes flick toward me for just a second, watching the corner of her mouth twitch into something almost like a smile. Then she saw Kane, and the fake pain became a mask of terror and agony. ""Kane,"" she sobbed. ""Kane, help me. She pushed me. She tried to kill our pup."" Kane turned to look at me. His face was stone. His eyes were cold. Cold and empty and full of something that looked like hatred. ""Selene,"" he said. His voice was low. Dangerous. ""What did you do?"" ""Kane, I didn't – she's lying – I barely touched her –"" ""You barely touched her? She's on the floor, Selene. She's pregnant. She's carrying my child."" ""I know, but –"" ""Seven years ago, you cheated on me. You broke my heart. You threw me away like I was nothing. And now, when I finally found someone new, when I finally moved on, you come back and you attack her?"" I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. What could I say? The truth? He wouldn't believe me. He never believed me. Kane walked toward me. His footsteps were heavy on the wooden floor. He stopped in front of my wheelchair. Then he kicked it. Once. Twice. The chair shuddered under me. My body jolted. Then he shoved it backward. The wheelchair rolled across the room, hit the edge of a table, and tipped over. I fell. My head slammed against the corner of the table. I heard a crack – the table leg, or my skull, I couldn't tell. Something warm ran down my face. Blood. I lay on the floor, surrounded by broken plates and spilled water and shards of glass. My ears rang. My vision blurred. Kane didn't look at me. He picked up Vivra. He cradled her in his arms like she was made of glass. He kissed her forehead. He whispered something in her ear – something soft and gentle, words I couldn't hear. Then he carried her out the door. He didn't look back. I lay there, staring at the ceiling. The tavern owner rushed in, then the staff, then pack warriors. Someone was shouting for a healer. Someone else was cleaning the blood off my face. I grabbed the Beta's sleeve – he had appeared out of nowhere, his face pale with shock. ""Tell my mother,"" I said. My voice was barely a whisper. ""Tell her not to blame him. Tell her this was my choice. My fault. Tell her... tell her I'm sorry. I can't stay with her anymore."" The Beta's face crumpled. He nodded. I closed my eyes. Seven years. Seven years of fighting. Seven years of hoping. Seven years of dreaming about seeing Kane Blackwood one more time. I had seen him. That was enough."
