Chapter 3

Selene POV:

"She doesn't go, I will," I said, my voice flat and devoid of emotion.

Without another glance at them, I turned and walked to my closet. I ignored Lycan's stunned silence and Isabella's triumphant smirk. I pulled on a pair of black leather pants, a fitted top, and my riding boots. I wasn't running away. I was making a statement.

I grabbed my phone and sent a Mind-Link message, not to my father this time, but to an old friend.

"Jax. You busy?"

The reply was instantaneous, full of the boisterous energy that was so uniquely him. "For you, future Luna? Never. What's up? Need me to rough up your ice-block Alpha for you?"

Jax was the Gamma-the head of the warriors-for the Dawnguard Pack. We had grown up together, two hell-raisers who were more like siblings than friends.

"Meet me at the Moonshadow. I hear it's under new management."

The Moonshadow was a bar in the neutral territory that separated the three major packs. A place where pack business was left at the door.

"On my way. You sound serious."

"I am."

When I arrived, the bar was loud with music and laughter. Jax was already there, holding a table with a few other warriors from his pack.

"Well, well, look who it is," he grinned, standing to pull me into a rough hug. "Our future Luna graces us with her presence. Not afraid that big bad Alpha of yours will use his Mind-Link to roar you back home?"

I slid into the booth, the worn leather cool against my skin. I picked up the glass of amber liquid he'd ordered for me and downed it in one go. The fire of the whiskey burned a welcome path down my throat.

"Not for long," I said, setting the glass down with a thud. "I'm going to reject him."

The table went silent. Jax's grin vanished, replaced by a look of grim concern. "You're serious," he stated, not a question.

I nodded, the lump in my throat making it hard to speak.

"What did he do?" Jax asked, his voice low and dangerous.

And so, I told them. Everything. The constant presence of Isabella, the late-night visits, the inappropriate touching disguised as comfort, the way Lycan looked at her, the way he spoke to me.

The warriors around the table cursed, their loyalty to me overriding any formal respect for another pack's Alpha.

"That bitch," Jax spat, his knuckles white where he gripped his glass. "I bet the pup in her belly isn't even his brother's. Why else would he be so damn protective? Maybe it's Lycan's own."

The thought was so vile, so disgusting, that it made my stomach turn. I pushed it away, but the seed of doubt had been planted. I signaled the waitress for another drink. And another.

The world began to blur at the edges, the sharp pain in my chest dulling to a throb. The last thing I remembered was Jax's worried face leaning over me.

I woke up with a pounding headache and the disorienting feeling of being in the wrong place. I was in my bed. In the Alpha's den.

A frantic Mind-Link message buzzed in my head.

"Selene! Are you okay? Lycan came and got you. He looked like he was ready to kill someone. The raw possessiveness rolling off him was insane. It wasn't love, Selene, it was pure Alpha rage. Like someone had touched "his" property."

It was from one of the other friends who had been at the bar.

For a single, stupid moment, my heart softened. He had come for me. He had looked... possessive.

But my friend's words echoed. "His property." Not his love. Not his mate. Just a thing he owned.

The hope was a fragile, stupid thing, and it shattered instantly, leaving behind a tiny flicker of cold fury.

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