Chapter 3
The air down south was always warm and soft against my skin.
When my boat pulled into Willowcreek, it was early spring and the whole city smelled of blooming flowers.
I bought a small den by the water and settled there after being accepted into the local pack.
The place wasn't big, but it had a nice little garden and a quiet kind of beauty that soothed my wolf.
I gave myself a new name, Sarah Summers.
No one knew who I really was or which pack I had run from.
The wolves in Willowcreek only knew that a quiet, lone she-wolf named Sarah Summers had settled on the south side of city with some money and kept to herself.
I let most of the servants go and kept only an old mute she-wolf to help me around the den.
About six months after I left Blackwood, May tracked me down after a long search.
She sold her den in Blackwood and wouldn't let me push her away.
I couldn't say no to her loyalty, so I let her stay.
Life in Willowcreek was quiet and peaceful.
I used the money I had brought with me to buy a few shops and started trading in silk and coffee.
My father had taught me how to run a business before he died.
All those years living in the pack household had softened me a little, but my wolf never forgot who she really was.
My business took off fast. Within a few years, I'd made a name for myself in Willowcreek as someone who mattered.
I wasn't that Luna anymore, the one who had to bow to an Alpha to get by.
I was Sarah Summers, a woman finally living for herself.
Sometimes I thought about Edward, especially late at night when everything went quiet.
I wondered how tall he'd gotten, whether he could talk or walk yet, and if Richard was treating him right.
But those thoughts never stuck around for long.
I knew there was no going back. Going back would mean getting hunted down.
Richard's pride would never let a woman who rejected him go on living like nothing had happened.
I had to survive for myself.
Still, bits of news about Richard found their way to me every now and then.
The wolves in my trading crew traveled everywhere, and they always brought back gossip from Blackwood.
They said that after his Luna supposedly died of an illness, Richard never took another mate.
He poured everything he had into raising his two pups.
His daughter Lily was the one he adored the most, like she was the only thing in the world that mattered to him.
For her sake, Richard turned down a mate that the Alpha King had arranged for him.
As for his only son Edward, Richard never really seemed to care much about him.
People said Richard barely hugged him and almost never spoke to him.
So Edward grew up quiet and withdrawn, keeping to himself most of the time like an omega without a pack.
Every time I heard things like that, my wolf whimpered inside me, but there was nothing I could do.
I made this choice, so I had to live with whatever came next, even if it tore my wolf apart.
May tried to convince me more than once. She would say, "Miss, let's go back and check on Edward. One quick look, and the Alpha would never catch our scent."
I shook my head every time.
Blackwood was a place I couldn't go back to. I would never survive crossing that border again.
*****
Then, seven years after I left Blackwood, someone I never expected showed up right in front of me.
I was in my shop going over the ledgers when a man walked in. He wore a dark, expensive coat, and his face was cold and unreadable.
He looked like he was barely past thirty, but his eyes held a tired, sharp look that didn't belong to someone his age.
A small pup, maybe seven or eight years old, followed close behind him.
He had a delicate, almost doll-like face, and the way his features were arranged made him look exactly like Richard.
But that small face was all cold distance and sharp wariness, with none of the easy innocence a pup his age should have.
My heart stopped for a second.
The pen slipped from my fingers and clattered onto the floor.
The man didn't look at me. His eyes went straight to a bolt of fine silk lying on the counter.
"I'm taking this one," he said, and his voice came out low and rough.
I steadied myself and forced my wolf to settle down. "Sir, this silk—"
Before I could finish, a hand closed around my wrist like a wolf's jaw and held it tight.
Somehow, that man had gotten right in front of me without me noticing, and his eyes locked onto mine like he was staring down a rogue.
"Yvonne," he growled, the name scraping out from between his clenched teeth.
My blood ran cold, and even my wolf went still inside me.
I recognized him right away. It was Lucas Quinn, Richard's most trusted wolf, his shadow, and the leader of his pack's secret warriors.
I couldn't figure out how he had tracked my scent all the way here.
Just then, the young pup beside me lifted his head.
He looked at me with confusion and curiosity in his eyes, along with a flicker of longing that his wolf was trying to bury deep.
He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he only pressed his lips together and stayed silent.
Lucas squeezed harder, and I thought he'd snap my wrist with his wolf's strength.
The rage and hatred that had built up over seven years came through in his voice. "Luna, you've been hiding for way too long.
"The Alpha has been hunting for you all these years. Now you're coming back with me to face him."
As soon as he finished speaking, more than a dozen warriors in dark leather rushed in from outside and surrounded the shop so tightly that not even a wolf could slip through.
I knew I wasn't getting out of this.
Lucas saw how pale I was and smirked, not kindly. "Oh, I almost forgot. Let me introduce someone."
He pointed at the pup next to him. "This is the Alpha's heir, Edward Sterling.
"The Alpha sent him here so he could see for himself. See what kind of mother he has. The one who dumped him for money and fame and never looked back."