Chapter 4
I stared at the contact on my phone for several seconds before pressing answer.
Ryan Whitmore.
My college classmate. The man I had not spoken to properly in far too long.
After what I had witnessed, I knew I could no longer keep playing by Ethan and Megan’s rules.
If Ethan could have a woman he treated like his closest friend without seeing anything wrong with it, then perhaps it was time he understood how it felt from the other side.
The call connected.
“Claire? Is everything okay?”
Ryan’s voice sounded deeper than I remembered, sending an unexpected ache through my chest.
I swallowed and leaned back against the car seat.
“Ryan, I need you to come over.”
There was a brief pause before he asked, “What happened?”
I glanced toward the window.
Through the windshield, I watched Ethan talk with Megan as she laughed, her arms wrapped around him like the whole reason she had called him out there was nothing more than a joke to her.
“I need you to pretend to be my super-close guy bestie.”
There was a three-second pause on the other end before Ryan let out a quiet laugh.
“Guy bestie?” he echoed, his tone teasing. “Claire, are you up to something wild?”
“Yeah.”
I watched as Megan playfully elbowed Ethan in the arm, and they both burst into laughter.
“I’m about to pull off something big.”
Ryan laughed softly.
“Sure.”
He didn't ask anything else, just as I remembered, because Ryan had always known when to push and when to simply trust me.
“I've got three days off next week. Is that enough?”
“That’s enough,” I said.
“All right, it’s settled. I’ll come find you then.”
“Thank you, Ryan.”
The call ended, and I lowered my phone, realizing that I had spent years waiting for Ethan to notice what was happening right in front of him.
I was done waiting.
The days that followed were strangely peaceful, even though nothing had truly changed.
Ethan still spent time with Megan, and her calls still came.
She still appeared in our packhouse whenever she wanted, acting as though her place in his life had never been questioned.
But I stopped reacting, swallowing the hurt whenever Ethan mentioned meeting Megan for lunch or answered her calls while we were having dinner.
When he told me she had invited him somewhere with their old friends, I smiled and told him to enjoy himself.
I could feel Ethan watching me, perhaps waiting for the jealousy he had grown used to dismissing, but I gave him nothing because my wolf knew this was not surrender.
It was patience.
I was waiting for the right moment to strike.
“My college friend is coming to visit.”
His fingers paused.
“Your college friend?”
Ethan’s brows knitted together.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Ryan Whitmore.”
Ethan looked up.
I caught the subtle change in his expression.
“Ryan?”
I nodded.
“We went to college together.”
“I didn't know you were still in contact.”
“We kept in touch.”
That wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't a lie either.
Ethan studied me for a moment.
“When is he coming?” he asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“Next week.”
“How long is he staying?” His voice tightened.
“Only a few days.”
He didn't say anything after that.
I picked up my phone and continued scrolling as though the conversation meant nothing.
Inside me, my wolf caught the faint change in Ethan’s scent, a trace of unease I noticed immediately, and for once, I wasn’t the one feeling unsettled.
The following week, I went to meet Ryan, and the moment I stepped out of my car, the city noise surrounded me as humans moved along the sidewalks, unaware of the wolves living among them, our kind having learned long ago to blend into their world by wearing human faces, driving human cars, working human jobs, and hiding our pack lives behind ordinary doors.
Mine recognized Ryan’s scent before I even saw him, and when I turned toward the café entrance, he was standing there waiting, looking so different from the boy I remembered that I barely recognized him until he looked up and our eyes met.
Ryan.
He was the same Ryan I remembered from college, yet somehow different, more confident, more mature, and more magnetic than I remembered.
He was taller than I remembered, broad-shouldered and well-dressed, with dark hair that fell slightly over his forehead and a calm confidence that drew attention without him seeming to notice.
My wolf stirred at Ryan’s familiar scent, and warmth spread through me as I saw someone from a part of my life I had almost forgotten.
Ryan smiled the moment he saw me.
“Claire.”
I smiled back.
“Ryan.”
He walked toward me, and after so long, I felt something other than exhaustion when I thought about the days ahead.
I had asked him to pretend to be my closest guy friend.
Now that he was standing in front of me, looking more charismatic than I remembered, I realized Ethan and Megan had no idea what I had just brought into their carefully controlled little world.