After Carter vanished into the night, Caleb stayed by the riverbank, the winter air cutting sharp against his skin. His phone glowed in his hand, flickering with messages that weren't mine. None ever were.
I stood beside him in silence, though he couldn't see me. His brows were drawn tight, his thumb dragging over the screen again and again, as if he could will my name to appear.
He was probably thinking of Serena. I had seen the shift in his scent around her long ago, that faint thread of warmth he no longer gave me. Each time I caught it, anger would rise, sharp as a wolf's growl, but I always swallowed it back down. I told myself I was being small-minded. She was his stepsister, after all what harm could there be in kindness?
So I trained myself to overlook it, clawing down my instincts, smothering my unease. For the sake of pack harmony, for the fragile truce between our families, I was always the one to bow, to soothe, to mend. Always the one to return.
But it had been a full day since I vanished. My scent should have gone cold by now. My voice silenced. My wolf torn from his side.
Caleb growled low in his throat and hurled a stone into the black water. The splash echoed back at us, sharp and mocking.
"Go on, sulk," he muttered, the words breaking the stillness. "Let's see how long you can hold out this time."
A bitter smile tugged at me. Even when I was most furious, I never stayed away more than three days. He thought he knew me that well, thought I would always crawl back. He was certain my bond to him outweighed my pride.
I watched him now, his face shadowed with frustration, and my memory betrayed me dragging me back to when we were twelve. A summer storm, a mountain flooded with rain. I had been stranded, trembling with fear, when Caleb came clawing through the mud to reach me, reckless against the landslide. I had thrown myself into his arms, sobbing, terrified he would die because of me.
Even covered in dirt, his smile had been steady. "I couldn't leave you up here. The thought of you being scared made me want to sprout wings and fly to you."
Back then, I didn't know the name for the warmth that bloomed in me. I only knew I wanted that embrace forever.
Now, even though he had shattered me, there was no remorse in his scent. He thought I was the unreasonable one, the wolf who snapped at shadows. But when a heart turns, even the way one breathes feels like a betrayal.
By the fourth day after my death, the cracks in his confidence began to show. He sat in his den, staring at our old thread of messages, fixated on the last voice he'd sent. My phone was dark, cold, unreachable.
"Alpha," Roy said gently, setting down a cup of steaming brew beside him. But Caleb didn't stir. He hadn't moved in half an hour, eyes locked on a silence that no longer answered.
Four days. Even fury should have cooled by now. Wolves always came back to their mates. Always.
Abruptly, he shoved back from the desk, grabbed his coat, and stormed toward the door.
"Alpha, you have a gathering with the council," Roy reminded, his tone cautious.
"Reschedule." He didn't even glance back, his voice edged with command.
His wolf drove him straight into the city, where he tracked down Megan Gardner.
"Ms. Gardner, someone's here for you," a voice called into the school halls.
Megan appeared, her steps quick, her eyes narrowing like sharpened claws when she saw him. My dearest friend since we were pups, forced into teaching by her kin but always steady by my side. She smelled his betrayal before he even spoke.
"What do you want?" she snapped, her contempt barely restrained.
"Isabel's with you, isn't she?" Caleb demanded, his voice harsh. "Tell her to stop this foolishness. She's humiliating us both."
Her eyes flashed, cold and dangerous. "What the hell are you talking about, Caleb? Are you mad? You abandoned her at the altar. She had to bow her head to every elder and guest. Who's humiliating who here?"
Her words struck him like claws, his face tightening, shadows darkening his gaze.
"I don't owe you explanations," he snarled. "Just call her. Tell her to come home."
It was only then that Megan stilled, her anger faltering as realization hit. I had not been home. Not once.
Her voice softened, threaded with fear. "Isabel hasn't come back?"
Caleb scoffed. "Don't play games. You're her closest bond. Every time she runs from me, she runs to you."
And it was true. Whenever my world shattered, Megan was the only one I trusted. The only den where I found peace. That was why he assumed I was with her now, why he still clung to the belief that I'd return, like a wolf chained by instinct.
But this time, I was gone.
Megan's eyes burned into Caleb, sharp and furious. "What the hell are you saying? My grandmother's dying. I left right after the wedding and only returned today. What happened to Isabel? Did you push her too far again, you bastard?"
I studied her face her eyes raw and bloodshot, the dark hollows beneath them, lips cracked from too many sleepless nights. Her truth was written in her scent, weary and sharp. She hadn't been with me. She couldn't have been lying.
So where had I been, in his mind, all those days?
Caleb's jaw tightened as he turned away, his boots crunching against the frozen ground. But Megan's voice followed him, low and fierce, the growl of a wolf swearing vengeance. "If Isabel's gone, Caleb, I'll tear you apart myself."
I lifted my hand, aching to brush back the stray hair sticking to her cheek, to soothe her the way I always had. My fingers passed straight through. Cold emptiness.
"Megan," I whispered, though she would never hear me again, "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise. You'll have to find your joy without me."
Before I could linger, my spirit was yanked back, tethered to Caleb's side as he drove. His voice was clipped, guttural, as he answered a call. Something grim shadowed his face when he hung up.
He immediately dialed Roy. "Roy, track Isabel down. Find out "
I laughed bitterly. Now, after four days of my disappearance, after my scent had already begun to fade from the earth, he was finally lifting his head to search for me. Too late. My body must already be rotting in the dirt or carried away by the current.
Before he could finish the order, the car door flew open. Serena launched herself inside like a predator staking claim.
"Caleb! Why have you been avoiding me the past two days?" she whined, curling herself around his arm, her scent cloying.
Caleb's expression darkened, his exhaustion etched deep. He hung up on Roy, smothering his own instincts to hide the affair.
"Serena, I've a meeting. If this isn't important "
Her claws sank deeper. "It is! My art exhibit opens today. Don't tell me you'll miss it after everything I've worked for."
I saw the flicker in his eyes, the reminder of what he'd forgotten. He'd been so wrapped up in work and drowning in my absence that even Serena's exhibit slipped from his mind.
He exhaled, surrendering. "That's my fault. Let's go."
His phone lay abandoned on the seat, the last lifeline that could have been used to find me. My chest twisted with a bitter smile. So many years wasted on the wrong male.
Serena's exhibit was being held at the Lagoon Gallery the very den I'd once dreamed of claiming as my own. Painting had been my secret passion since puphood. My father, Josh Sander, had arranged for Serena and me to train under the former dean of Centria's art academy. He'd told me I was his most gifted student, his brightest star.
But in my pack, art was nothing more than a pastime. My parents pushed us toward the pack's business, toward alliances and arranged futures. I painted in silence, storing my canvases in the basement, always believing I'd one day open my own gallery when I finally earned freedom.
But death stole that chance from me. And now Serena spoiled, indulged, the long-lost daughter they had dragged back into the family and smothered with adoration was living my dream as if it were hers.
Inside the gallery, voices rose in awe, pack members praising the brilliance before them.
"Ms. Sander's work is breathtaking. Look at her gift, it's extraordinary."
"This one Lotus Dreamscape it's divine."
Lotus Dreamscape. My chest constricted, blood roaring in my ears.
I lifted my gaze and froze. The canvas before me was mine. The brushstrokes were the rhythm of my heart, the colors the pulse of my soul.
I spun, searching the gallery, and with every turn, my despair deepened. Piece after piece my pieces hung on those walls, the art I'd birthed in secrecy, stolen from the basement studio where I'd hidden them.
Serena. She had clawed out my very soul and draped it across these walls, basking in praise that belonged to me.
My vision blurred with rage. She wouldn't have dared do this unless she knew without doubt that I was gone.
The truth snapped into place like teeth around prey.
It was her. Serena. She had sent the killer after me.