Chapter 4

When I walked into the house, Ethan was sitting on the couch waiting for me.

His face was dark as he demanded loudly why I would say something like that.

In all the years we had been together, he had never once raised his voice at me. Now, he truly looked provoked.

"When did it start? From the very beginning, or later down the line?"

Ethan sprang from the couch, shouted that I was being completely unreasonable, and stormed into the bedroom.

He was so flustered that he forgot his phone had slipped into the crack between the sofa cushions.

I wasn't about to pass up such a golden opportunity.

I retrieved his phone, went into the study, and locked the door behind me.

I had trusted Ethan completely, so I had never once snooped through his phone.

Yet when I typed in Chloe's birthday to unlock the screen, it lit right up.

I went through all his messaging apps. His chats with Chloe were scrubbed completely clean—not a single trace left behind.

Too clean. It screamed suspicion.

I opened the hidden apps folder and discovered an encrypted messaging app.

I tried the passcode several times to no avail. I tried Chloe's birthday—wrong. I tried mine—wrong again.

I punched in the date they first met—it unlocked.

Inside lay years of chat logs between him and Chloe.

I scrolled through them line by line: from the early flirting, to their calculated schemes, to their recent bitter fights.

It turned out that from day one, I was nothing more than a pawn in their little game.

I took screenshots of every single message, reset the phone to how it was, and stuffed it back into the sofa cushion.

Opening the bedroom door, I saw Ethan lying in bed, pretending to be asleep.

That was his signature move. Whenever guilt ate at him, he faked sleep, assuming he could dodge the issue entirely.

To be honest, my initial attraction to him had been superficial, but what truly made me fall in love was a specific incident.

Back when we were stationed in different territories, rogue wolves were spotted near our perimeter, and several Betas were ambushed over successive nights.

One evening, an attack occurred in the woods right next to my quarters. I heard the savage snarls and dying screams, leaving me terrified to close my eyes all night.

The moment Ethan heard, he sprinted through the night to reach me. He accompanied me everywhere I went and even pitched a makeshift tent in the clearing nearby to keep watch through the dark hours.

He stayed until our pack warriors captured the rogue, only heading back after the threat was eliminated.

From then on, our bond deepened rapidly. Whenever friction arose between us, the memory of those two weeks of devoted protection always softened my heart.

Ethan knew I had walked into the room.

He poked his head out from under the covers, eyes bloodshot. If I hadn't just read his phone, I would have genuinely believed he was weeping over my harsh words.

"Emily, why would you say something like that?"

Was he playing dumb, or testing the waters?

I brushed it off casually. "Probably just hormones. My emotions have been all over the place lately."

He put on a wronged, hurt tone. "Even so, you shouldn't talk about Chloe and me like that. We've known each other for years. If I had feelings for her, why would I have stayed with you this whole time?"

Right. That was the exact question I wanted answered.

Though I had a feeling I'd find out soon enough.