Chapter 3

"If something happens to me, I'll be branded the other woman on top of everything. That's not fair to me." She said it with her eyes flicking over the Healers and nurses in the room.

Wren understood at once. The staff had been defending her, saying things behind Selene's back. Selene had heard. Wren looked at her. "What do you want?"

Selene held her stare and said it slowly. "I want you and Damon to announce your breakup on the Pack's social feed." "And then I want him to announce I'm his chosen one."

The room went silent. Everyone waited for Wren to snap. She only nodded. "Fine."

In front of Selene, she took out her phone. She left every shared group with Damon. She deleted every message they'd exchanged from childhood on. Conversations spanning more than a decade, wiped out one by one. Then she drafted a post.

"Take care. We're done."

Four words ended what they'd had for over ten years. Selene stared at the post for a long time. Only after she was sure it was real did she finally let it go. "All right. That's that."

Damon stood off to the side. His face was ugly, but he didn't say a word to stop it. "Wren. I'm sorry. Trading a relationship for a life is worth it. Isn't it?"

Wren smiled. They said no son stayed filial at a long sickbed. She had leaned on Damon too much. She slowly turned her head toward him. "Damon. Seven years ago, when you nearly had your organs taken in the Border Territory — who brought you back?"

Damon flinched. The memory he had fought so hard to forget was torn open.

That year, he had still been a young Alpha heir just stepping into outside business. He'd been lured to a neutral port and then sold across the border into Rogue Pack territory. They set his ransom at $30 million. Wren sold the den, sold the car, sold her patents, took out every loan she could, borrowed from everyone who would answer her, and put together the $5 million she could. It was Wren who carried that money across the border. Wren who negotiated, bribed the Rogue leader, and walked him out alive.

The room was dead silent. Damon's hand curled into a fist without his thinking. The stub of his little finger — what the Rogues had taken from him — shook. His face drained white. His lips moved, but no sound came out. The next second, he turned and walked out of the room.

But the next day, Selene backed out again. Damon stood by the bed. His face was hard to look at.

"Wren… Selene… she wants me to clear out our den." "She says once she's out of the Infirmary, she wants to move in right away."

He seemed to hear how that sounded and rushed to add — "Don't worry. I'll buy you another place." "I'll have your things packed up and moved over. I know you care about the furniture, the things we picked together…"

Wren looked at him. Her eyes were cold. "Don't bother. Everything that has to do with me — throw it out. I don't want any of it."

Damon froze. In that den were the pieces they had picked out when they claimed each other. The hand-woven rug she had carried back from the Aegean Coast. Every photo from when they were pups on up. Almost the whole of her younger years was in there. She had once said she wanted to die in that place if it came to it. And now she said "I don't want any of it" as if it meant nothing.

Because Selene ate before the ritual, the procedure was pushed back again.

In her last life, Wren hadn't known she would back out. She had done everything. Fasted. Bled out for tests. Run herself down to nothing, then spent weeks recovering. In this life, she knew the outcome, so she held off on the prep checks. Elias cursed under his breath and reset the procedure for three days out.

Damon stood off to the side, full of guilt. "This time it will happen. I promise."

But she didn't get past this one either. When Damon came back to the room, he couldn't even lift his head.

"Wren. Selene has been too stressed. She threw up several times this morning…" "She says she needs to get away, clear her head. Let's push the procedure… one more month."

Wren lay in bed. She didn't even have the strength to argue. Her body was past every emotion.

In her last life, she had cried, screamed, called him a traitor, threatened to expose the whole thing on the Pack news feed. The Healers and nurses were on her side. It spread through the Infirmary fast. It got bigger. Damon finally had to drag Selene in for a sixth attempt at the procedure. She still died.

This time, Wren stopped fighting. "Forget it." Wren said it softly. "Damon. Don't bother."

The room went dead silent. She stared at the ceiling. The ache in her chest spread, but she didn't even have the strength to cry.

Damon stood frozen for a few seconds. Then he said something even sharper. "You're only alive because of her. She's a young girl, and she's scared. That's normal." "It's just a delay. It's not like we're calling it off." "This dying-on-everyone act — who are you putting on a show for?"