Ryan crouched, gently cradling her injured fingers. “Does it still hurt? Come on — let me help you clean this up. We’ll get some salve on it.”
Warren knelt beside her too, his expression full of guilt. “Don’t cry, Trisha. After the party, I’ll get you that a fresh deer from the woods. Okay? Anything to cheer you up.”
Trisha sniffled and looked up at them both with watery eyes. “Thank you… both of you.”
Then she turned to Warren, her voice so small and sweet it made me want to vomit. “Warren… don’t go hunting anymore. It’s dangerous. I… I’d worry about you.”
Warren’s shoulders stiffened, but he nodded without hesitation. “If that’s what you want. I’ll stop.”
And just like that, they led her away — one on either side, hovering protectively, utterly devoted.
I stood there in the doorway, the shadows of the hall stretching long around me, watching them disappear down the stairs.
For a moment, I felt like I’d woken from a dream.
Because years ago… it was me standing between them.
I’d grown up here in Hawthorn, sent from Plum Blossom at ten years old because my identity made me a target there and even in the neighboring territories who secretly heard about the news of my awakening. Ryan and Warren had been my world from the first day.
They’d walked me to school, torn up love notes from other wolves, glared at anyone who even thought about asking me to dance.
Even as adults, one on track to be Alpha, the other set to serve the Wolf King himself — they still stayed. Bought the houses next to mine, knocked down the walls so we could all live like one packhouse.
They’d cried when my parents wanted me to go home. “Wherever Allison is,” they’d said, “we’ll be there.”
I stayed because of them.
But that was before Trisha.
Trisha, the shy little Omega whose father had disgraced his bloodline and left her a pariah.
I pitied her once. Took her under my wing.
And she took everything.
Ryan started throwing parties for her, even though he hated crowds. Warren quit hunting at her slightest frown, even though he lived for it.
They stopped competing for me. And started competing for her.
I’d once thought I might choose one of them to stand at my side when I became Luna.
But now? I see things clearly.
I looked at my phone and set a countdown timer. Seven days. Seven days, and I’d be gone.
For good.
From now on, I wouldn’t disturb the three of them anymore. And they could keep their little moonflower.