“Well,” she said, her smile stretched thin and sharp. “If it isn’t the perfect Luna, hiding away while the real guests enjoy the event.”
I didn’t rise. “What do you want?”
She walked slowly toward me, heels clicking like warning signals. “You always do this,” she said with a fake sigh. “Act like you don’t care. But you do. You’re so desperate for Ethan’s love, even now, after everything.”
I looked at her evenly, my voice quiet. “I’m not desperate. You can have him all you want.”
She scoffed, crossing her arms. “Like I need your permission. You were never his first choice. Hell, you weren’t even a choice. You clung to him like a weed after I left years ago, thinking being Luna would make you worth something.”
My stomach twisted again, stronger this time. My knees buckled slightly as I stood. I didn’t understand what was happening to me—why my entire body felt like it was rejecting the air itself.
“Whatever game you’re playing, Farah,” I said through clenched teeth, “I’m done playing it with you.”
“Oh, I’m not playing,” she said, and then—without warning—turned on her heel and walked to the door. Before leaving, she looked over her shoulder and added with syrupy malice, “You might want to rest a little longer. You look sick.” Then she locked the door from the outside.
I rushed after her, but she was already gone. I jiggled the handle—it wouldn’t budge. She’d even hung a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the knob. I could hear the click as it settled.
When I thought the strange feelings subsided, it resurfaced once again. And then it all hit at once.
My knees gave out and I collapsed onto the bed, my body burning from within. My wolf howled inside me—desperate, frantic, needing. But needing what?
My mind tried to reach out, frantically calling through the mindlink. Alpha Ethan. Ethan, I need—
Nothing.
Silence.
No answer.
I curled into the bed, shaking and burning and breathless. My skin prickled like fire ants crawling just beneath the surface. My wolf clawed at my insides, and my heart pounded so hard it hurt. The nausea, the heat, the need in my chest—I didn’t understand any of it. I felt like my body was desperate of something.
And just like that, everything faded.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
Third Person POV
The alpha gathering wound down with laughter, wine, and hollow declarations of alliance. But Ivy did not return.