Chapter 2

Estelle's POV

The room goes cold the second the words leave my mouth.

"Ha, yeah!" Callum forces out a laugh, stiff. "Lila's lucky. She's finally got a match. That's great news!"

"Right, right." Everett nods over and over. "The moon goddess must be watching over us."

Sylvia's face is still soft with sympathy. "Estelle, you're still weak. Don't overthink things. Just focus on getting better."

I let out a small laugh. "I'm not overthinking anything. Just seems like quite the coincidence. I lose my heart, and hers just happens to show up right on time."

The air goes still.

The smiles on their faces freeze in place, and none of them can look me in the eye.

That's when footsteps come pounding down the hall outside.

The nurse from before comes rushing back and calls through the door. "Something's wrong. Lila's having a rejection episode, she's seizing, crying and screaming that it hurts. She's asking for all of you."

The four of them straighten up at once, their faces going tight with worry.

"Rejection? I used the best integration meds we had." Sylvia sets the soup bowl down on the nightstand without even looking.

"Go, now!" Everett's cane hits the floor hard as he heads out first. Callum shoves past the nurse in the doorway and takes off.

Rhett stays behind, but his eyes keep drifting toward the door, giving him away.

I watch him standing there, clearly somewhere else in his head, and I almost want to laugh.

"Go check on her." I look down. "She's so fragile. She needs someone right now."

Rhett looks relieved, and he leans down to press a quick kiss to my forehead. "Lila's always been sickly, she can't handle pain like this. I'll just go take a look, then I'll come right back. Be good and drink your medicine, okay?"

He doesn't wait for me to answer before he's gone, moving fast, forgetting to even shut the door behind him.

The room goes quiet.

I push back the blanket and set my bare feet on the cold floor.

As the Luna running the pack's day-to-day affairs, my authority is second only to Rhett's.

I make my way along the wall to the medical terminal in the corner, my fingers shaking as I pull up the pack infirmary's security footage from a few hours earlier.

They haven't gotten around to deleting it yet. It's all right there on the screen. How they cut open my chest, how they carried my heart, still dripping blood, straight into the operating room next door where Lila was waiting. Even every word they said while I was unconscious got caught on tape, all of it.

"...once she gets this heart, Lila will be back to full health." Sylvia's voice comes through the speaker, flat and cold. "As for Estelle, we keep her alive. Every time Lila has a rejection episode on the full moon, we just draw her blood to help stabilize things."

Whatever was left of the flame in me goes out completely.

They don't just want my heart. They want to keep this hollowed-out body of mine around as Lila's blood bank for life.

I download and back up every video, every file, and set them to release automatically.

Once that's done, I make my way down the hall, following the wall, toward the private room at the far end that's lit up warm and bright.

The door's half open. Lila is propped up in bed, pale, but her chest rises and falls strong and steady. That's my heart beating in there. The girl who was screaming in pain a minute ago is smiling now like nothing happened.

Rhett sits at her bedside, peeling grapes one by one and feeding them to her. Sylvia tucks the blanket around her. Everett and Callum stand on either side, watching her like she's the most precious thing in the world.

"Rhett, am I really that useless?" Lila's eyes go red, her voice soft and small. "If it wasn't for saving me, my sister wouldn't have lost her heart. She probably hates me now."

"Don't be silly." Callum flicks her nose, fond. "That was the rogues. None of this is on you. Besides, if her heart gets to save your life, that's the best thing she's ever done with it."

Lila smiles and rests a hand over her chest. "Her heart's beating so strong. I feel like I've got all this energy in me."

Everett laughs. "Once Lila's fully healed, we'll pick a good day, dissolve the bond between Rhett and Estelle, and start a new one between Rhett and Lila."

Rhett nods slightly and reaches over to ruffle her hair. "Sounds good."

I stand there in the dark corner of the hallway, watching this whole warm, tender scene, and blood surges up my throat.

It's almost funny. The way they sit together like that, so natural, so at ease, like they're the real family here.

I've been in this world for over twenty years now. I loved every one of them so carefully, gave them everything I had. But fate never once cut me a break.

When I was a kid, enemies took me and I was gone for years. By the time they got me back, they'd already taken in a sickly little girl named Lila.

They told me adopting her was to bring me good luck, that I'd always be their only treasure. I believed them. I loved her like a real sister, no reservations.

But I could feel it, that favoritism sliding off me and onto her, little by little. And today, they carved my heart out to feed it.

The reaper said if I couldn't rewrite this body's fate, they'd all end up dead or insane in the end. But watching this happy little family scene in front of me, it hits me that maybe he got it wrong.

They're this close, this pleased with themselves. Even if I died, they'd probably just breathe a sigh of relief, pull Lila in close, and go right back to their happy little life.

I press a hand over my mouth, force the taste of blood back down, and slip away without a sound.