“You’re a liar.” She spits the word at me like poison. “I trusted you. I told you things I’ve never told anyone, and you went straight to the Alpha with all of it.”
“That’s not what happened.” I keep my voice calm even though my heart is pounding against my ribs. “But even if I had spoken to someone about your case, it would only be because I was concerned about your well-being. My duty of care requires me to escalate situations where I believe someone might be at risk of—”
“Your duty of care?” she scoffs. “That’s such bullshit. You don’t care about me. None of you do. I’m just the orphan girlwhose parents were monsters, and everyone in this town looks at me like I’m going to turn into one of them any second.”
“That’s not true, Ivy.”
“Yes, it is. And you’re just like the rest of them.” She backs toward the door and shakes her head. “I should have known better than to trust an outsider. At least when the pack treats me like garbage, they’re honest about it.”
“Ivy, please. Let me help you.”
“You’ve helped enough.”
She shoves through the door and disappears into the morning, leaving me standing in the lobby with Skylar watching from behind her desk and a handful of other staff members pretending they didn’t just witness the whole thing.
“Well,” Skylar says after a long moment, “that could have gone better.”
I don’t have the energy to respond.
The rest of the day crawls by in a haze. I see three other patients, but I can’t focus on any of them. My mind keeps circling back to Ivy, to the betrayal in her eyes, to the way she accused me of being just like everyone else who’s let her down.
By the time I lock up my office and head for home, the sun has already dipped below the tree line and shadows stretch long across the sidewalk. I pull my jacket tighter around my shoulders as the evening chill seeps through the fabric and quicken my pace.
Something feels wrong.
I can’t explain it. There’s no sound, no movement, nothing concrete I can point to. Just a prickling at the back of myneck that won’t go away. The sensation of eyes on me, tracking my every step.
I pull out my phone and call Skylar.
“Hey, you okay?” she answers on the second ring. “You seemed pretty shaken up after that thing with Ivy this morning.”
“I’m fine. Listen, do you want to grab a drink? I could use some company tonight.”
“Absolutely. Meet you at the Rusty Nail in twenty?”
“Perfect.”
The bar is crowded when I arrive, packed with locals unwinding after a long day. Skylar waves at me from a booth near the back, and I slide in across from her with a sigh of relief. She’s already ordered me a glass of wine, and I take a long sip before settling back against the worn leather seat.
“You look like you’ve had a day,” she observes.
“That’s one way to put it.”
We talk about nothing important for a while. Work gossip, town drama, the latest rumors about who’s dating whom. Skylar has a gift for making me laugh even when I don’t feel like it, and slowly, the knot in my chest begins to loosen. I’m halfway through my second glass of wine and actually starting to relax when I glance toward the window, and everything goes cold.
He’s standing on the sidewalk outside. Half-hidden in the shadow of the building across the street, but I’d recognize that silhouette anywhere. The broad shoulders. The way he holds himself is coiled and ready to strike.
Robbie.
“Fern?” Skylar’s voice sounds far away. “Fern, what’s wrong? You just went white as a sheet.”
“He’s here.” The words come out barely above a whisper. “Outside. My ex. He’s right outside the window.”
Skylar doesn’t waste time asking questions. She grabs my arm and hauls me out of the booth, steering me toward the back of the bar with a grip like iron. We push through the door marked “Restroom,” and she locks it behind us.
“Call Connor.”
“I can handle this myself.”
