Chapter 2
Skylar.
I didn’t sit down. “Just say it, Fennimore.”
“You’re pregnant.” He said. “Two months along. I’d guess the pup is Alpha Jameson’s, given the timing. Will you inform him, Skylar? Or does he already know?”
The room went quiet, with me breathing heavily. I hadn’t planned for this or prepared myself. Two months put conception right around the week Jameson started disappearing to the training grounds until dawn.
“He doesn’t know.” I said. “And he isn’t going to.”
“Healer confidentiality holds. Don’t worry about that.” Fennimore said, closing the folder. “Whatever you decide, that's yours.”
I thanked him and walked out before my composure could crack in front of the one wolf in Thornwood who’d earned my trust, asides my father. I pressed a hand against my stomach on the healer’s steps and made myself a promise right there. Whatever this pup grew up to be, it would never once wonder if he or she was wanted.
A twig snapped behind me, off the path. I knew that scent before I saw her.
Capri stepped out from the treeline, arms crossed, cloak traded for her gown like she’d been waiting a while. She had a bright smile on, like she’d won a lottery.
“Following me now?” I asked.
“I wanted to see your face when you finally left.” She said, “I thought it would feel like winning.”
“Does it?”
“Yes.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Then enjoy it. It’s the only thing you’re getting from me tonight. Goodbye, Capri.”
I turned toward the border markers before she could say anything else. Her footsteps stopped behind me. Then I heard her breath catch, and when I glanced back, her eyes had dropped to my stomach and stayed there a second too long.
I looked away and kept walking. Werewolf senses didn’t miss changes like that, but suspicion wasn’t proof, and by the time she worked up the nerve to say anything to anyone, I’d be gone.
The first marker came up faster than I expected, the pack bond thinning under my skin with every step toward it. I stopped just short of crossing and let myself remember everything, before I put it all down for good.
Sixteen, in the orchard behind my father’s house, Jameson climbed the wrong tree because he refused to admit I’d picked the better one. Nineteen, I was hunched over the pack ledgers until three in the morning, and he fell asleep with his head on my shoulder rather than leave me to it alone.
Tears slid down my cheeks, my mind playing videos of our happiest memories together, his warm hands on my body, the way he always comforted me, the way he fought for me. I thought my love for him was enough to keep him, I guess it wasn’t.
I wiped my tears and let myself hold all of it for exactly as long as it took to cross the marker.
Then I let it all go. There was no point keeping those memories.
Whatever we had been to each other at sixteen, and at twenty-six, wasn’t a debt I owed him for the rest of my life. He’d made his choice in a bed that wasn’t mine, and he’d made it a long time before he finally had the guts to reject me today.
I wasn’t going to spend nine months, or nine years, waiting for a version of him that had already stopped existing. I was going to raise this pup on my own, and I wasn’t going to grieve a man who was still very much alive and simply hadn’t wanted to stay.
I crossed the marker and didn’t look back again.
Ravenshollow smelled like nothing I recognized. No pine, no pack musk, no familiar faces. Neutral territory didn't ask questions, and that anonymity was exactly what I needed. I’d reached out to my dad, explaining things to him, and surprisingly, he supported me.
I rented a room above a healer’s supply shop that same week and didn't leave it except to eat. By the second month I’d drawn up the first proposal for Moonveil Remedies on the back of a Thornwood ledger sheet. Wolfsbane antidotes, and faster-binding salves. Things no pack apothecary had ever bothered perfecting because no pack apothecary had ever needed to survive alone.
By the fourth month I had a lease and two employees who didn’t ask questions, and only focused on their duties.
Audrey called every few days.
“Thornwood officially announced the new mating.” She said one evening. “Jameson and Capri have bonded.”
I set down my pen. “That was fast.”
“There’s talk going around that you’re the reason the first bond broke. That you weren’t fit to be Luna. People are saying that everywhere, even at gatherings.”
“Let them talk.” I said. “I’m not there to hear it.”
“You say that like it doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.” I answered.
A week later she called again, practically vibrating through the phone. “You will not believe what they did for the mating ceremony. An entire pavilion, with imported flowers from three territories, and a singer flown in from the coast packs. Jameson gave Capri a mating gift worth more than the severance he walked away with.”
“He gave away the assets and spent money he doesn’t have on a party.” I said coldly.
“Half the Council’s furious about it.” Audrey said. “The other half’s too dazzled by everything to care. Oh, and it was all white roses, apparently. Somebody told me the florist nearly didn’t have enough stock and had to import extra from two towns just for that one wedding.”
“Hm.” I said, only half listening, already reaching for the next line on the proposal in front of me. “Sounds expensive.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“What do you want me to say, Audrey? He can plant a garden at his own wedding if he wants to.” I said. “I've got a shipment to sort before morning. Tell me the rest tomorrow.”
She sighed, clearly disappointed I hadn’t given her more to work with, and let me go.