Chapter 2

Melanie.

“Tell me you are calling to take it back.” Alpha Adrian Matthews said before I could finish saying hello. He sounded so alert that I knew he had been standing at a window in Ashwood territory, watching the same moon I was.

I had just copied every message from that group chat onto the hard drive I kept for my work files, along with the poll, and the video from Saltmarrow Island.

“I am calling to retract my resignation.” I told him. “If the Highmoor Project is still open, I would like it.”

“It has been open since the day you left it on my desk, because I never signed your letter.” He said. The warm, relieved laugh that followed made my throat tighten, since hardly anyone had sounded glad to hear from me in months.

Highmoor was the largest territory accord the northern packs had attempted in a generation, and it would require me to live in Ashwood for a full year and negotiate boundaries with six Alphas who disliked one another.

“The project is yours, Melanie. I will send the transfer papers to your office in the morning.” I thanked him and hung up before my voice could crack.

This was the first decision I had made in a long time without first wondering what Kingston would think of it, or telling him about it.

I dragged the empty bins up from the cellar and began to pack. Every board and shelf carried the scent of the man I was leaving.

Sable paced in my mind while I folded sweaters, and each time I lifted something Kingston had bought me, his cedar and woodsmoke rose from it so strongly that I set it aside on the bed instead of in a bin.

By the time the sky turned gray I had packed my awards, my work files, and the photographs of the orphaned pups I had grown up beside in the pack’s care, while the earrings from our tenth anniversary, a silver bracelet, and the little wooden wolf he had won for me at the Harvest Fair lay were left on the bedspread.

My parents’ oak keepsake box stayed on the closet shelf, because I could not bring myself to drop it into a bin, and I promised myself that I would carry it out with my own hands.

I was sealing the last bin at eight in the morning when Sable lifted her head, because the scent reached me before the sound of the lock did. Cedar and woodsmoke, vanilla, and Gloria’s heavy rose perfume.

I counted seven heartbeats through the wall. I knew every one of them by its rhythm because I had fed each of those wolves at my own table.

By the time I walked out and leaned against the bedroom doorframe with my arms crossed, they had already crowded into my living room.

Kingston stood at the front with a cake in one hand and roses in the other, and beneath the flowers I could smell sea salt and jasmine clinging to his collar, which was Anabelle’s scent and not mine.

Katelynn leaned out from behind him with a smile that looked as warm as ever. “There’s the birthday girl. We’re here to give you a proper do-over.”

Gloria swung a gift box from her fingers and added, “Yesterday got away from me, so I brought you a little something to make up for it.”

A few friends followed with balloons, and one of them called out, “Melanie, stop sulking. Kingston is swamped, but he still made a special trip back to smooth things over with you.”

Katelynn came toward me with open arms, and when I stepped back, Sable’s growl vibrated low in my chest and froze her mid-step, her smile faltering for a moment.

Kingston set the cake on the coffee table and crossed the room with the roses held out like a peace offering, and I did not take them.

He drew a small jewelry box from his jacket and opened it, and inside lay a silver band that was smaller and older than anything he had ever given me, its setting worn thin by time.

Then he took my hand. “Melanie, something really did come up yesterday, so don’t be upset. Once you leave your post, come and work under my father’s roof. We’ll run the border together every morning and come home together every night.”

The ring touched my knuckle and my claws slid out, stinging my palm as I curled my fingers, and I pulled my hand free so that the band dropped back into the box with a little clink.

The room went so quiet that I could hear the balloons bumping against the ceiling in the draft.

Gloria huffed and folded her arms. “Melanie, don’t be dramatic. Kingston drove through the night to make this right, and you’re going to behave like a child?”

I laughed loudly, and when I lifted my eyes to Kingston I felt them burn gold. “Did you enjoy the mate ceremony on Saltmarrow Island?”

Katelynn’s face shifted first, and her voice dropped. “If you already knew, why didn’t you just ask me last night? Did you have to sit there sulking and drag everyone through this?”

The others jumped in one after another, their eyes flashing amber as their wolves bristled on Kingston’s behalf.

“Anabelle waited eight years for him, Melanie.” Hector said, and Julie, whose tuition I had paid, muttered, “Being with him for years doesn’t mean he owes you the rest of his life.”

Scott, the cousin I had hosted at every Harvest Feast since his father died, shrugged. “It was only a ceremonial kiss, not a claiming.”

Kingston delivered the last line himself, rubbing the space between his brows as though I were a burden. “Melanie, Anabelle and I only shared a kiss at a ceremony. Nothing was sworn before the Moon Goddess and no mark was made. She wanted a title so she would have something to tell her family, and what you want is a home, so I’ll take you to my father tomorrow and have you marked.”

He believed it was a generous offer, and I saw that he expected the orphan to be grateful enough to accept his mark while he kept an omega at his side. Katelynn smirked while Gloria smiled as though they had already won.

I lifted the moonstone pendant from my throat, the one he had given me for our tenth anniversary and that I had never once taken off, and laid it in the jewelry box beside that sad little ring.

“Kingston, you’re right.” The tension left his shoulders and he reached to touch my shoulder, but I stepped out of his reach and looked at the face I had loved with everything in me. “I really do need to find myself a home.”

Then I bent to lift the first bin, and the mind-link he had kept shut for weeks tore open inside my skull, and his voice came through it with the full weight of an Alpha’s blood behind it. ‘Stay.’ Sable, who had bowed to that voice for years, went rigid within me.