Chapter 2
My body never recovered after that.
The Pack doctor said the damage was permanent. My wolf's healing ability had been stripped down to almost nothing. Likely unable to carry again.
I heard it and felt something loosen in my chest.
Good. A pup nobody wants shouldn't have to come into this world.
"Vera."
Callum's voice pulled me back.
"That procedure," he said. "I know it left damage."
I looked at him and said nothing.
"How are you — how's your wolf now?"
Not dying. Not living either.
My inner wolf had gone so quiet I sometimes forgot she was there.
Cold weather and my joints ached bone-deep.
Every change of season brought the cough.
Some nights it went on for hours, and there was blood in what came up.
A doctor had told me I had a few years left if nothing changed.
I wasn't going to tell Callum any of that.
"Don't worry about it," I said.
He nodded. Didn't push.
The car moved through one red light, then another.
I closed my eyes.
---
Callum Hart was my first mate.
We grew up on the same territory outside Boston.
Same Pack schools, kindergarten through college. Both families had known each other for decades. Everyone said we were the obvious pair.
I was twenty when everything changed.
Serena's mother showed up at our Pack with Serena in tow. My mother found out her mate had a daughter nearly my age that she'd never known about.
My mother died that winter. A brain bleed. She was already gone by the time anyone reached her.
The funeral day, Callum came to pay his respects.
He took my hand and said: "The bonding ceremony still stands. When the mourning period is over, we'll make it official."
The first months of our bond, he was good to me. He was.
But it didn't last long before he fell for Serena.
He told me straight. Said he'd split everything fifty-fifty. Said he wanted to sever the bond.
I said no.
I cried. I begged. I knelt in front of him and asked if he remembered I was his bonded mate.
He looked down at me. No disgust. No pity. Nothing.
"Vera," he said. "You can't force a wolf to feel what it doesn't."
He loved Serena and he didn't hide it from anyone.
When Pack members talked about her, he went after them.
When she cried, he stayed up all night.
When she said she was unhappy, he gave her whatever she asked for.
Including my unborn pup.
The car stopped.
"We're here."
The Hart den was right in front of us. The living room light was still on.
Callum's mother was on the couch in her robe.
She saw me walk in and her face went flat.
"Why did you bring her here?"
"She is cursed. Her own mother dies, our Pack loses its territory — and you walk her through our front door?"
I said nothing. I stood there with my eyes down.
Callum said nothing either.
She got louder. Went through everything — my bloodline, my family, my standing in the Pack hierarchy.
She went for a full fifteen minutes before Callum spoke.
"Mom. It's late. Go to bed."
She shot him a look, shot me another, and went upstairs still cursing under her breath.
Just the two of us.
Callum stood with his back to me. "Don't take it personally."
"Where do I sleep?" I said.
He turned, looked at me once, and led me upstairs. He stopped in front of a bedroom door.
The room we'd shared when we were bonded.
He pushed it open.
Everything inside had been redone. Pink curtains. Serena's things lined up on the vanity. Her photo on the nightstand.
Callum gestured at the room. "You can stay here. Don't move anything. She might come back someday — I don't want her walking in to find it changed."
I walked in and sat on the edge of the bed.
He was still in the doorway. Waiting for something.
I didn't look back. "I'm tired."
He stood there a moment, then turned and walked away. His footsteps faded down the hall.
---
That night I couldn't sleep.
The room carried Serena's scent. Something thick and sweet that made my wolf flinch.
I turned over and over. My mind wouldn't stop.
After the bond with Callum was severed, I'd gone back to my father's den.
I thought — my father's house, at least. He wouldn't turn me away.
I was wrong.