Chapter 3

Mike walked half a step ahead of me while I carried the cardboard box against my chest, and every few feet, somebody from Mooncrest Media looked up long enough to watch me leave before turning back to whatever screen they had suddenly decided was more interesting.

The whispers started before I even reached the elevator, and my hearing caught every nasty little comment whether I wanted it to or not.

“Mooncrest might finally stop trending in the pack gossip channels now that Tyler’s desperate little fan is gone.”

A woman near the copy desk covered a laugh with her hand. “Redwood should probably ban her from events too, because embarrassing the successor Alpha like that is wild.”

Someone behind them muttered, “Imagine leaking your own underwear pictures and still getting rejected.”

My grip tightened around the box until the edge pressed into my ribs, while my wolf shoved forward inside me with enough aggression to make my fingers twitch.

“Turn around, and I swear I’ll make every one of them regret opening their filthy mouths.”

I kept walking because crying in front of them would be worse, and shifting in the middle of the office would be even worse than that.

“They already think we’re pathetic, so stop giving them reasons to enjoy this.”

My wolf snarled so hard inside my head that my jaw clenched. “You keep calling silence survival, but all I see is you letting people spit on us.”

Mike pressed the elevator button, then finally looked at me. “I need your building pass before you leave. Brian wants your access shut down immediately.”

I dug through my bag and dropped the card into his palm. “You don’t have to explain yourself, Mike,”

His fingers curled around the pass. “I don’t want you thinking I’m enjoying any of this.”

I laughed under my breath, but there wasn’t anything funny about it. “You’re still escorting me out while they stand there watching, so whether you enjoy it doesn’t really change where I am.”

Mike looked toward the elevator doors. “I’ve got a job too, Hailey, and I can’t start fighting management over something I don’t fully understand.”

The doors opened before he could answer, and I stepped inside without waiting for him.

The elevator ride felt longer than it should have, but Mike kept his eyes on the numbers while I stared at my reflection in the metal doors and barely recognized the girl holding that stupid box.

Outside, he followed me through the lobby until the glass doors opened onto the sidewalk.

“I’m supposed to make sure you leave the property,” he murmured while rubbing the back of his neck. “After that, I’m done.”

“Take care of yourself, Hailey. I know whatever happened in there was surely brutal.”

I stepped onto the sidewalk and glanced back once. “Brutal is a mild word for what I experienced today but thank you.”

He had nothing for that, so I turned away before the tears sitting behind my eyes got any ideas.

My phone buzzed before I reached the next block.

Unknown number.

Looks like Mooncrest finally took out the trash. Maybe now you’ll understand that wanting Tyler doesn’t put you anywhere near his level, because Redwood’s future Alpha needs a Luna and not some nobody wolf embarrassing herself for attention. Enjoy your miserable days of unemployment. — M

My feet slowed while I read it twice.

“Go back this minute.” My wolf demanded.

“And do what?”

“Just a few minutes with her, and I promise she’ll never text us again.

I shoved the phone into my bag and started walking again. “She wants me to lose control, and I’m not giving her another reason to make me look unstable.”

“You already lost the job, so what exactly are you protecting now?”

That question stayed with me longer than I wanted.

I didn’t have an answer.

For the next hour, I walked without any real direction, and the city kept changing around me while the box dug deeper into my arms.

Traffic got heavier, but my head stayed stuck in the same place.

Then two young wolves passed me near a bus stop.

One of them looked over his shoulder.

“Bro, isn’t that the girl from Mooncrest?”

His friend glanced back too. “Quit staring, I heard she sent that shit trying to get Tyler Brooks.”

They kept walking, but my hearing held onto every word anyway.

I stopped near the curb and stared down at the box in my arms.

So it was already outside the office.

Perfect.

I had been fired for something I didn’t do, and now random wolves knew me as the desperate idiot who tried to seduce Redwood Pack’s future Alpha with leaked pictures.

“Why can’t you defend yourself?!”

My wolf sounded furious again.

I watched the two men disappear into the crowd. “To who, exactly? They all believe the same bullshit story.”

“You’re unbelievable!”

By the time the sun started dropping, my feet hurt, my arms were numb from carrying the box, and I had no idea how far I had walked.

The neon sign above Moonfang Bar caught my attention because it looked like exactly the kind of place nobody from the office or pack would step into.

The bar sat near neutral territory between pack boundaries, and everybody knew they didn’t care whether you came from Redwood, Blackridge, Silver Creek, or nowhere at all.

Humans drank beside wolves there.

Rogues showed up sometimes too.

Nobody asked about rank unless you brought it up first.

I pushed through the door and carried my box to a booth near the back before walking over to the bar.

The bartender glanced at me, then at the box. “You moving in, or did life just beat your ass today?”

I pulled out a stool. “Whiskey, and make it enough that I stop caring about my life or people’s opinions.”

He poured without arguing and I took the glass, swallowed too much at once, while the burn gave me something physical to focus on that wasn’t humiliation.

“Another one, please, and don’t give me the responsible-bartender speech because I’ve already had enough people deciding what’s best for me today.”

The bartender studied my face while refilling the glass. “I wasn’t planning a speech, but you look like you’re trying pretty hard to forget something.”

I took another drink and stared at the amber liquid. “I lost my job because somebody leaked pictures of me changing, everybody decided I was a slut chasing a future Alpha, and the guy I actually liked joined in on humiliating me, so forgetting sounds pretty fucking reasonable tonight.”

His brows lifted. “That’s a messed up, and I’m guessing the box means you didn’t get to quit dramatically on your own terms.”

I laughed once and pushed the empty glass toward him. “You guessed just right.”

“Alcohol won’t fix this.”

My wolf sounded less angry now, but somehow that made her worse.

I rested my elbow on the bar. “Neither will growling inside my head all night, so let me have something.”

“You keep trying to drown me too, and that part is starting to piss me off.”

I ignored her and finished the next drink.

By the fourth glass, the noise around me started blending together enough that I could breathe without catching every laugh and every conversation.

The bartender slid water toward me. “Drink that before you fall off the stool and make me responsible for your bad decisions.”

I pushed the glass aside. “You seem way too emotionally invested for a guy who said he wasn’t giving speeches.”

He snorted. “I’m invested in not cleaning vomit off my floor, because I’ve already done it twice this week.”

“Fair enough, and somehow that’s still the nicest thing anybody’s said to me all day.”

The door opened behind me, and my wolf went alert before I even turned.

I glanced toward the entrance.

Two men in expensive suits had just walked in, and they looked completely wrong for the bar.

The older one had silver in his hair and carried himself like he expected rooms to organize themselves around him, while the younger man beside him looked sharper, more restless, and much more suspicious of everyone around them.

Neither smelled like Redwood.

Something in their scent carried another territory, than the wolves who usually drifted through neutral bars.

The older man stopped walking.

His eyes found me.

I looked away first because strangers staring at me had already lost their charm.

The younger one leaned closer to the other man. “What happened?”

The silver-haired man kept staring. “Do you smell that?”

The younger guy breathed in slowly. “Wolf, whiskey, and about three different kinds of bad decisions.”

“Underneath it.”

His expression changed after another breath. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

I turned on my stool. “If either of you is planning to stand there talking about how I smell, you might want to find a less creepy way to say it.”

The younger guy’s mouth twitched. “Fair point.”

The older man walked toward me, although he stopped far enough away that I didn’t immediately feel cornered.

“If this is where either of you asks whether I’m drinking alone, save yourself the effort because the answer is yes and I’d really like to keep it that way.”

He didn’t smile.

Instead, he studied my face with an intensity that made me sit straighter.

“What’s your name?”

I pulled my glass closer. “That usually comes after introducing yourself, and I’m drunk enough to still remember basic manners.”

The younger man gave him a sideways look. “She’s got you there.”

The older man exhaled. “Caleb Warren, and this is Ryan Cole, but now I really need you to tell me your name.”

“Hailey Monroe.”

Caleb went still.

I frowned between them. “Why are both of you acting like I just confessed to murder?”

Caleb took one slow breath. “Because you look almost exactly like someone I knew years ago, and your scent has traces I never expected to find again.”

Ryan folded his arms. “He means bloodline scent, and before you ask, yes, some families carry patterns strong enough to recognize.”

“I know something about them.” My wolf chimed in.

I set my glass down. “You don’t know them.”

“I didn’t say I knew them, because I said something about them feels familiar.”

Calebl’s gaze stayed on me. “Have you ever heard the name Natalie Monroe?”

I shook my head. “No.”

His face changed.

For the first time, that controlled expression actually cracked.

“She was connected to one of the strongest Alpha bloodlines in this region, and you look enough like her that walking away without asking questions would be insane.”

I laughed because the alternative was believing him. “I think you’ve confused me with somebody else, because my life has never been remotely that interesting.”

Ryan glanced at Caleb. “Looks can happen by coincidence, but scent usually doesn’t.”

I looked between them. “Whatever you think you smell, you’re wrong.”

Caleb stepped closer to the bar. “I’ve spent years searching for Alpha Dean Monroe’s missing daughter, Hailey, and for the first time in a long time, I don’t think we’re searching anymore.”

My wolf went completely silent.

I stared at him through the alcohol haze while the entire bar seemed to tilt slightly around me.

“You’re serious.”

Caleb nodded once. “Completely.”

I gripped the edge of the stool. “Then you definitely have the wrong woman, because I’m not some missing Alpha’s daughter.”

Ryan watched me carefully. “Maybe you are, and maybe tonight is the first time anybody finally got close enough to tell you.”

I glanced back at Caleb, waiting for him to laugh or admit this was some weird mistake.

He never did.

“Hailey, and I think your life is about to become very different from what you were told it was.”