She needed me to hold on.
To stay. To put in an effort.
And I didn’t. Hindsight really is 20/20.
I drop onto the bench and stare down at the floor, at all the marks left behind by other people trying and failing and getting back up again.
I don’t blame her. She didn’t pick me.
And maybe…maybe she was never supposed to. Not that Igave her a reason to. I gave her every reason not to from the very beginning. Can you say walking red flag?
So if being with them gives her the joy I couldn’t?
Then yeah—I’ll carry this regret.
Because she deserves everything.
Even if it’s not with me.
The door clicks shutbehind me. The parking lot is empty. She’s already gone. Left with her pack. I stare at the empty sidewalk a second too long, then exhale, running a hand through my hair as I head toward the back lot.
That’s when I feel it.
That pull. That itch at the base of my neck. I’m not alone. I can feel eyes on me.
I stop walking.
“You loved her for a week. And you fucked it all up. If I was given a week, I wouldn’t fuck it up like you did.”
The voice comes from the shadows near the alley. Calm and steady.
I turn slowly.
A guy steps forward, lean and composed, dressed in black as though the shadows never really let him go. His frigid blue eyes cut like glass, and his mouth tilts in a smile that doesn’t reach them.
He looks familiar. Not in the I’ve met you kind of way, but the I’ve seen you where I wasn’t supposed to kind.
I narrow my eyes. “How would you know that? Have you been watching me?”
“No,” he says. “I’ve been watching her.”
I freeze. My blood runs cold. “Excuse me?”
He grins, unrepentant. “You heard me.”
I’ve heard the girls on the team joke with Willow abouther having a stalker—and that’s why those three alphas are always hanging around. But I thought it was just that. A joke. Not something real. Not someone real.
“What do you want from me?” I ask cautiously.
His expression doesn’t change. “Don’t flatter yourself, Landon. I don’t want anything from you. You’re just collateral. A piece of her past. A mistake I have to fix.”
I step forward, heat rising in my chest. “You don’t know me.”
“I know enough.” His voice doesn’t get louder. “I know you were the scent match who let her go. I know you kissed someone else to make her run. I know she nearly broke when the mark faded, and you didn’t even fight for her. Do you even know what she went through because of you?”
My stomach turns, but I stand my ground. “It was complicated.”
“No,” he says, stepping in closer now, close enough that something hums under my skin. “It was cowardice.”
