Once the transfer went through, a cold heaviness settled in my gut. I stared at the confirmation screen until it blurred.
Then I sighed and padded into the kitchen barefoot, the linoleum cool under my feet.
My apartment was small, just one room with a narrow galley kitchen and a window that looked out onto the parking lot.
Cozy on good days. Claustrophobic on nights like this. Sleep wasn’t happening. Not with my thoughts racing like this.
I opened a cabinet, yanked out a mixing bowl, and grabbed the first ingredients I saw. Flour, sugar, eggs, butter. I'd grabbed them from Wolf & Whisk earlier that week, just in case.
Cupcakes. Maybe baking would help.
It always used to. Joel used to tease me that I only baked when I was stressed. That if I ever stopped baking, he’d know I’d finally snapped. And now look where we were.
I measured the flour and dumped it into the bowl, working on muscle memory. I cracked the eggs, added sugar, but my brain was far away. On Rafael.
The kiss had rocked me. Not just because it was hot, but because of how real it felt. There was something grounding in the way Rafael touched me, like he wasn’t just responding to lust.
Like he saw me, chose me, even knowing I was a walking disaster. But that couldn’t last, could it? What would happen when he realized just how deep my mess went?
Avery knew I was terrified of Callum finding out. That’s what made the bastard so smug. It gave him power.
Callum had given me everything. A job, a home, a family. I’d walked into Sugarpaw Springs two years ago, broke and grieving and full of secrets.
Callum never once asked for anything in return except honesty and loyalty. And I’d failed him on both counts.
I stirred the batter too hard and flour poofed up, coating the front of my shirt. I swore under my breath. I wasn’t stupid. Avery hadn’t just followed me to Sugarpaw Springs by accident.
Sugarpaw Springs was under Callum and Beau’s protection. Not officially, not on paper, but in the way that mattered. The town didn’t belong to a single pack, but it might as well have.
Shifters like Avery didn’t usually come near. But rats always found a way through the cracks. And I’d been the perfect crack.
I turned on the oven, spooned the batter into cupcake tins, and shoved them in. Even as I closed the door, I already knew something was off. Too much flour? Not enough butter?
Didn’t matter. What mattered was that I couldn’t keep pretending everything was fine. I’d been holding out, hoping I could fix it myself.
Hoping I could keep this part of my life hidden and still keep the good things I’d found here. But sooner or later… Callum was going to find out.
What did I really fear? That was the part that kept me up the most.
I could picture it too clearly. Callum’s eyes going cold, the way they had once when an out-of-town shifter had gotten too handsy with me during a delivery run.
One minute, Callum had been calm. The next, the guy was pressed against a brick wall, Callum’s hand around his throat.
“I protect what’s mine,” he’d said quietly. And the guy had pissed himself.
I wasn’t sure what I was to Callum. A brother? A younger wolf he took in? Someone he tolerated? But if he found out I’d been lying to him… that I’d brought danger into Sugarpaw without a word?
Would he still protect me? Would he still want me in his pack?
I opened the oven and checked on the cupcakes. They’d sunk in the middle. Looked more like weird muffins than anything.
Great.
I shut the door with a little too much force and leaned against the counter.
Maybe I could talk to Rafael first. He wasn’t part of the pack. Maybe he’d have advice. Or just… listen. That alone would be enough. I trusted him, even if it scared me to admit it.
I scraped frosting into a piping bag, tried to salvage at least one of the sad cupcakes, but the whole thing looked like a toddler’s art project. I dropped the piping bag in the sink and gave up.
