Chapter 3

The knock came just after sunset, and somehow I knew who stood on the other side of the door before my father opened it. Maybe it was the sudden quickening of my heart, that involuntary response my body had never quite managed to unlearn.

My father opened the door.

Chase stood in the fading light, looking exactly as he had yesterday when he had publicly dismantled four years of my life. For a moment, neither man spoke. Then Chase's eyes moved past my father and found me sitting on the sofa, where I had been pretending to read the same page for the past two hours.

"Belle. I need to talk to you," he said, his voice carrying the same authoritative tone he used when speaking to his pack.

I almost laughed. Yesterday, he had rejected me in front of everyone I knew. Last night, I had found him with Kacie, their bodies intertwined in a way that left no room for misinterpretation. And now he had the audacity to stand at my door as though this conversation was his to initiate, his to control.

My father didn't move. "You've said enough."

"Sir, please."

"No," my father said quietly, his voice carrying more authority than Chase's ever would. "You were told to stay away from her."

Chase's jaw tightened. "This concerns my pack."

I stood before my father could respond, some stupid part of me still wanting to hear whatever explanation he thought he owed me. My mother reached for my hand, but I squeezed her fingers gently. "It's fine. I'll talk to him."

My father stepped aside, letting Chase in. He stopped several feet away from me — a distance that felt strangely familiar. Once, he couldn't bear being more than a few inches away. Now he regarded me as though I were a problem to be negotiated with.

"I didn't come here to fight with you," he said.

I folded my arms around myself. "Then why are you here?"

"Because I need you to understand what happens next."

"I already know what happens next," I said, my voice steady despite the tremor running through my veins. "You marry Kacie. You become Alpha with her at your side. And I become just another woman you used to know."

His eyes flickered. "Yes."

The single word still hurt in a way I hadn't anticipated. "Then what else is there to say?"

"The marriage is important. There are alliances involved. Her father's pack has influence, resources, territory. As Alpha, I have responsibilities that go beyond what I want personally."

"Personally," I repeated.

"Belle, I know you're hurt."

"You don't," I said flatly. "You spent four years telling me I was going to stand beside you. Every single day for four years, you said forever like it was a promise written in stone."

"I know."

"You knew my wolf wasn't strong," I continued. "You knew I would never be the kind of Luna that families like the Blackwoods would respect. And you still let me believe you loved me."

His expression tightened. "I cared about you."

A bitter smile touched my lips. "Cared. What a carefully chosen word for someone you promised forever to."

He took a step toward me. "Belle—"

"No," I cut him off. "Tell me what I was supposed to call it. When you held me and told me I would be your Luna? When you promised me you couldn't imagine anyone else beside you?"

"I was eighteen too," he said quietly. "We were young."

I froze. "So the promises don't count because you made them when you were young? That's your defense?"

"That's not what I'm saying."

"Then what are you saying?"

"I'm saying things changed."

Four words. Four words to erase four years of my life. "And Kacie is the better choice."

He didn't answer. His silence was confirmation enough, and it felt like a blade sliding between my ribs.

"Does she know you used me as a placeholder?"

"That's enough," he said, his voice hardening.

"No. I want to know. Does she understand that she's only valuable because of what her father can give you?"

Chase exhaled sharply. "Kacie brings something to this alliance that you can't."

There it was. Not love. Not fate. Not even regret. Just value. I had spent four years believing I was his destiny, and I had been nothing more than a temporary pawn.

"So that's what I was," I said, my voice hollow.

"Belle, don't twist my words."

"Then give me better ones."

Finally, he said, "I need you to stay away from me and Kacie."

"Excuse me?"

"The wedding will be difficult enough without rumors or problems."

"You think I'm the problem? That I would deliberately sabotage your wedding out of spite?"

"I think you need to accept that it's over."

"You're afraid I'll cause trouble."

"I'm asking you to let me move forward."

"And what am I supposed to do?"

"Move forward too," he said, as though it were that simple.

Before I could respond, a voice came from behind me, sharp and precise. "You've done enough."

My father. He stepped into the room, and I could see the moment his expression changed entirely. There was no respect in his eyes now, no trace of the man who had once welcomed Chase into our home as his daughter's future mate. Only a father standing between his child and the man who had destroyed her.

Chase straightened, attempting to regain some semblance of authority. "Sir—"

"Don't call me that," my father interrupted.

He walked toward him with measured steps. "You made your choice yesterday. You rejected my daughter in front of the entire pack, publicly humiliated her, and then had the audacity to come into this house to instruct her on how quietly she's supposed to suffer. That's not negotiation. That's cruelty dressed up as necessity."

Chase's face hardened. "I came here because I don't want this to become a problem."

My father laughed once, a sound entirely devoid of humor. "She isn't your problem anymore." Chase looked toward me, but my father stepped directly into his line of sight, blocking me from view. "You may be Alpha to the Sterling Pack, but you are nothing to my daughter now. Nothing."

The room went silent, heavy with finality.

"Stay away from her," my father said, opening the door. It was an ultimatum, not a request.

For a moment, I thought Chase might argue. Instead, he looked directly at me one last time, and I don't know what he expected to find on my face. Maybe he was looking for the girl who had spent four years waiting for him.

She wasn't there anymore. I looked away.

The door closed behind him, and when I heard the lock click into place, it hurt more than I had anticipated. My mother came to me immediately, but I didn't cry. There were no tears left for him. I simply stood there, staring at the closed door, because somewhere in the wreckage of what had just happened, I finally understood something essential.

Chase hadn't come here to ask for forgiveness or to truly explain himself. He had come to ensure that the woman he had discarded knew her place. And for the first time in four years, I was too angry to care about any of it.