My suitcase was lying on my bed, open and empty. I packed my clothes neatly inside, trying to fit everything that I could. And once my closet was bare, I gazed down at the windowsill where I had placed my mate’s necklace next to Luna Raya’s keychain and my favorite Moonflowers.
The necklace felt so cold between my fingers, so chilling, so fucking distant. I wanted to put it on but putting it on myself felt so wrong. Mates were supposed to put it on each other to show their love and support and pure connection between them.
But my mate didn’t want me because I chose my dreams over him.
After a few moments, I clipped it around my neck anyway. I needed to do it. Even though Roman didn’t accept me, he had given me this—which meant something, right? It was his mother’s after all. I would keep it on until… he rejected me.
My heart sunk just thinking about rejection. Though he gave me the necklace, he could still reject me. I knew that it was such a strong possibility; he had probably toyed with the idea all night.
I lugged my suitcase downstairs and set it next to the door. Sunlight flooded in through the windows, and the forest was oddly quiet for the early morning. It reminded me of the days when I was young, when Luna Raya would invite me over to play with Roman in the forest, when we would hide-out in the cave and tell stupid jokes to each other for hours upon hours until the sunlight faded and the forest was this quiet. Everything was so much simpler back then.
Mom handed me a plate of French toast and ushered me outside to the porch where Dad was staring at his garden of Moonflowers and drinking his black coffee. We ate breakfast in silence because I wasn’t sure if I could say anything without crying.
Instead, I listened to the soft pounding of paws against the forest floor and the howls of the warriors when they started practice. I should’ve been there with them right now. I should’ve been a warrior. I should’ve been marked and mated to Roman. But the Moon Goddess didn’t have that planned for us.
I brushed my hand against my neck in the place Roman wanted to mark me last night. Without a mark, I couldn’t feel how Roman felt today. Was he leading practice like every other day? Was he hurting? Did he care? Would he walk through the forest and see me before I left?
No. He would never come see me.
When we finished, Dad put my suitcase in the car. I took our plates and walked to the kitchen with Mom. She leaned against the counter and frowned at me. “So, Derek isn’t your mate?”
I blew a breath out of my nose. “No.”
“Is it Roman?”
I gazed up at her. “How do you know?”
She gave me ayou-didn’t-think-I-was-that-stupid-did-you?look, her right brow arched hard. “We could smell him in the house, and Dad saw him lingering outside a couple of nights. And… you know… Mr. Beck has the latest gossip at the hospital, so everyone there already knew.”
Oh, Mr. Beck. I hated him, but I was going to miss the hell out of him. “Tell him I said goodbye.”
“Roman?”
“No, Mr. Beck.”
She smiled, but the smile didn’t meet her eyes. “Roman knows, doesn’t he?” Her voice was soft, unlike her usual upbeat and lively tone. I squeezed my eyes closed and pressed my lips together, trying to hold it all in, but a tear slipped down my cheek. Mom pulled me into a hug and rubbed her hand against my temple. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Everything will be okay.”
“No, it won’t.” I sobbed. “He hates me. He refused to mark me, he refused to put the necklace on me. Everything's ruined. Everything.”
She rocked us back and forth. “He will get over it. Mates always do.” Her words were kind, but I couldn’t find any comfort in them.
Dad walked into the kitchen and clapped his hands together, a big grin on his face. “You ready, kiddo?” he asked. When he saw me, his eyes widened, and he slowly backed out of the room.
Mom rolled her eyes at him and laughed softly, pulling away just enough to gaze at me. “You know, when I first met your father, I wasn’t a virgin.”
I scrunched up my nose and choked out a laugh through my sobs. “Mom, I didn’t need to know that.”
She shushed me. “That’s not the whole story, Izzy. When he found out, he refused to talk to me for weeks. I was devastated; I never thought he would talk to me again… but as you can see...” Dad peeked through the window from the outside, just enough to only see from his eyes up. “We’re in a much better place…” She smiled at him with so much love and grasped her mate’s necklace. “Roman will get over it. Maybe not now, but soon.”
Dad peeked his head behind the front door as I wiped my tears away. “You ready?”
I nodded my head and said goodbye to the house I lived in for years, then—reluctantly—hopped into Dad’s car. Being the sappy guy that he was, Dad decided that it would be a good idea to take a slow drive through the pack to see everything one last time. My high school. The park. Derek’s house.
And, of course, the packhouse.
Roman stood outside, talking to Cayden, with his back turned. When he heard Dad’s car, he gazed over—not even bothering to turn his whole body—and tensed when his eyes met mine through my window. I swore that Dad hit the brakes to drive about 5mph because everything slowed down.
I so desperately wanted him to run over, to hug me, to apologize. But he didn’t.
