Chapter 4

When I woke up again, it was noon the next day.

Some passersby had brought me to the hospital.

The doctor who operated on me was Adler.

He was the Blackwood Pack's healer, and Ethan's friend since they were boys.

I saw the look on his face, and I understood everything.

The baby was gone.

I didn't cry. I just turned my head and looked at the bare oak tree outside the window. It was a long time before I spoke.

"Dr. Adler, please don't tell Ethan about this."

He paused. "Why not? He's the baby's—"

"He's been busy lately," I said. "Don't bother him with something like this."

Adler looked at me for a long time. In the end he sighed and nodded.

He didn't know I wasn't thinking of Ethan.

I just didn't want the man who'd kicked my baby to death to have the chance to stand beside my bed and say "I'm sorry."

He didn't deserve it.

By the next day, what had happened on that street had spread through all of Crescent Valley.

The story was that I'd been jealous of Chloe for moving into the Blackwood main house, that I'd made her life miserable again and again, and that I'd knocked her down in the street and hurt her.

Ethan had simply had enough and taught me a lesson.

Overnight, everyone turned on me.

The Holloway family's business got dragged into it too.

Several packs we'd worked with for more than a decade cut ties overnight.

I lay in my hospital bed, shaking with rage.

My body hadn't recovered, and with all that anger on top of it, I ran a high fever that night.

When Ethan heard I was in the hospital again, he came that same night.

He was carrying a paper box. Blueberry pie.

He opened the door, saw my face, white without a trace of color, and his step faltered.

I saw a flicker of heartache cross his eyes, so fleeting I don't think he even noticed it himself.

He stood beside my bed and hesitated for a long time. Finally he let out a long sigh.

"Celeste, I know you're hurt. But you shouldn't have taken it out on Chloe."

"Now that it's blown up, you're the one who has to take the blame. This all started because you didn't like her moving in anyway."

"You have the Holloways. You have your brother. What does she have? She doesn't have any family left. Even the Rivers family is gone. If I don't protect her a little, what else am I supposed to do?"

He paused. His eyes fell on the coat folded at the foot of the bed, where the nurse had left it. The bloodstains hadn't been washed out.

"What's that? It's not red wine, is it?"

His eyes swept over me, searching. I was under the blanket. He didn't see any bandages, didn't see any wound.

He seemed relieved.

"All right. Let's both meet each other halfway. You can stop giving me the cold shoulder."

"I promise I'll make it up to you twice over once we're married. On the day of the Moonlight Ceremony, I'll invite every pack in the North to watch, and all of Crescent Valley will see you become Blackwood's Luna. Is that enough for you?"

He said it as if he were granting me some enormous favor, as if I should get down on my knees and thank him.

Slowly, I brought my gaze back from the window and let it rest on his face.

He had already turned to go.

Just as his hand touched the doorknob, I called out to him without warning.

"Ethan."

"Are you sure that's red wine on the coat?"

"Is there any chance it's my blood?"

He stopped short and turned around.

"Impossible," he blurted out. "I only kicked you in the stomach once. Besides, you don't even have a bandage on you anywhere. How could that be your blood?"

His eyes couldn't help searching me, back and forth.

I looked at him, and suddenly I smiled.

"Right," I said. "I was just messing with you."

That made him furious. His face turned ugly.

"Celeste Holloway! Is that something to joke about? I'm warning you, don't push my patience!"

He slammed the door hard behind him.

I listened to his footsteps fade down the hall and slowly closed my eyes.

In the blink of an eye, it was the day of the Moonlight Ceremony.

Before dawn, the Thorn Pack's convoy pulled up outside my house.

Three cars in all, solid black, with no decoration at all, as silent as three wolves crouched in the morning mist.

Marcus opened the car door for me.

I didn't look back at the Holloway front door. I ducked my head and got in.

The convoy left town and followed the old road along the river valley north.

As we neared the stone bridge where the two territories met, the cars slowed.

The bridge was narrow, just wide enough for two cars to pass.

Coming toward us was a long convoy. The lead car was draped in silver-white satin ribbons, with a bouquet of moonflowers fixed to its hood, their petals faintly glowing in the morning light.

It was the Blackwood Pack's convoy.

In the middle of the stone bridge, the two convoys slowly passed each other.

Through the car window, I saw Ethan sitting in his car.

He was wearing a black dress suit, with the silver badge of the Alpha heir pinned to his chest. As if he'd sensed something, he suddenly looked up.

Our eyes met in midair.

"...Celeste?"

I saw his lips move, and his whole body jolted.

By the time he turned to look again, I had already raised the window.

The dark glass blocked his view.

A strange panic seized Ethan.

He wanted to get out of the car, to chase after us and see for sure.

It was his Beta, Derek, who grabbed him and held him down, sweating with desperation.

"Sir, you can't get out now! If we miss the hour of the ceremony and don't secure the rights to the vaults, we'll have no way to answer to those buyers in the south!"

"The treasury funds you used have to be replaced today. And the debt you guaranteed for the Rivers family, if it isn't paid off before sundown, the Council is coming to seize our territory!"

The words hit Ethan like a bucket of cold water and brought him back to his senses.

He forced down that strange unease and said coldly:

"Drive."

And so the two convoys passed each other on the stone bridge.

When the car came down off the bridge, I lowered my window again.

The morning wind poured in, smelling of river water and pine needles.

I took out my phone, opened the Council's public channel, and sent a statement I had written long ago to every pack in the North.

Declaration of Ownership of the Holloway Silver Vaults

Effective today, all five hundred silver reserves held in the name of the Holloway family belong to the Thorn Pack and pass to its heir, Kieran Thorne.

I pressed send and watched the little progress bar run to the end.

Then I turned off my phone, leaned back in my seat, and slowly smiled.

Ethan, I hope you like the gift I've left you.