Chapter 4

And then he turned and walked out. # Chapter 4 That night, Wren asked Elias to come to her room. "Elias. Am I dying?" Elias was past fifty, a gentle-natured Pack Healer. Over the past three years, he had watched her claw through every stage, and he already saw her as his own. At her question, his eyes went a little red. His hand tightened on her chart. "Wren. You're under too much stress. Don't let your mind go there." Wren didn't argue. She just looked down at her hands. Thin. Bone-white. Dotted everywhere with needle marks. These hands had once drawn designs that the whole Pack admired. Now she could barely close them. She spoke softly. "Lately I keep dreaming about my parents." "They say… they're lonely. They want to take me with them." "I already died once. This time I don't want to spend my last days in here too." Elias ran a hand gently over her hair. His voice cracked. "Is this because Damon took Selene abroad? Is that why you're so low?" Wren nodded. She didn't deny it. She couldn't. Damon had taken Selene to the Aegean Coast. They said it was a sacred place. That if you made a wish at the blue-domed chapel, every unhappiness would dissolve. Wren had never been. She hadn't even been outside the Infirmary gates in a long time. Every day she could only look at a flat stretch of sky through the window. She watched bare branches, birds flying in and out, but she saw no future of her own in any of it. It wasn't fair. And there was nothing she could do. Elias sighed. "Damon told me. As soon as they're back, the procedure goes in right away." "Just get your strength up. Once you're better, you can go wherever you want." She had heard things like that too many times. It didn't reach her anymore. Elias said he would keep searching for another match. But that kind of thing wasn't something effort could force. She didn't want to wait. She was leaving the Infirmary. Wren packed a small bag. Then she took out her phone. Her finger hovered on the screen for a long time. In the end, she dialed the number. It rang and rang, almost cutting to voicemail, before it picked up. It was Selene's voice. "Hello? Who is this?" Wren's hand tightened around the phone. "Put Damon on." Selene acted like she hadn't heard. She started showing off. "Wren. Are you calling about the procedure?" "Too bad. We're at a hot-spring resort right now. The view is amazing." "Yesterday we went to see a volcano." She laughed. "You don't know how good Damon is to me." "He puts sunscreen on me every day. Carries my bag. Even makes sure the water I drink is the right temperature. Better than he'd be with a pup." She paused. Her voice took on a meaning. "Not like you, stuck in a bed. You've probably never even seen the Aegean, have you?" "But I guess I have you to thank for that. If you hadn't trained him so well, he wouldn't know how to take care of me." Wren closed her eyes. She pushed everything down. "Give the phone to Damon." Selene seemed to choke on her coldness for a second. The next, she raised her voice on purpose. "Damon, Wren seems upset. She's being mean to me on the phone…" The phone was passed over. Damon's voice came on. "Wren. Are you pushing about the procedure again?" "How many times have I said it. Selene is not in a good place. Can you stop being so selfish? Stop pushing her." In that instant, the last thread of hope inside Wren snapped. She sniffed. "Damon. Elias says I have three months left." "Are you going to save me or not?" The other end went quiet for a beat. Then there was a cold laugh. "Wren. Can you stop using this I'm-dying line to pressure me?" "If you push Selene too hard and she refuses to donate, you don't have a chance left at all." "Every day you send out pictures from your bed, pictures of your wounds. You just want to push us to come back, right?" "Can you think clearly? She doesn't owe you her blood. She doesn't owe you this kind of pressure." "If you can wait, wait. If you can't wait, you still have to wait." Wait. She had waited three years. Waited through six procedures. And what came was this — him, in another country with another woman, making wishes about their future. And he still wanted her to wait. In that moment, everything inside her snapped. "Damon, you're a goddamn piece of shit!" She hung up the phone. Then she blocked him. Wren pressed the call button without a second of hesitation. "Elias. I'm checking out." "Wren, what's going on all of a su—" He stopped. He saw the bag she already had packed. Wren shook her head. "I'm done waiting." "He's not coming back." "He's not going to save me." Elias was quiet for a long time. Then he let out one heavy sigh. He knew her. Once she had decided, she wouldn't turn back. The discharge went through without trouble. Elias walked her out the whole way, carrying her bag like an elder. As she stepped outside the Infirmary gate, a breeze met her. It smelled like the real world. No disinfectant. No stifling rooms. Just long-lost freedom.