Chapter 5

Wren pulled off her mask and breathed in deep. It was the first time she had felt alive. Elias touched the top of her head. "You're a good girl." "It's just… hearts change too easily." "I'll keep searching for a match. Don't give up. Come back any time." Wren smiled. "Thank you, Elias." She looked out at the street. Sunlight fell across it, warm and too bright. "Be happy for me. I'm going to spend the rest of my time living." # Chapter 5 In the end, Wren went back to the den. She'd lived there for five whole years. Every tile, every piece of furniture, she had picked herself. Before the Silver Blight, it held everything she had built as an adult. The moment she pushed the door open, she stopped. She hadn't been back since she was admitted a year ago. Damon had said he would clear her things out. She had expected a mess, or a home already taken over by someone else's life. But everything was exactly the way she'd left it. The couch in the front room was one they had picked together. She used to curl up there at night, working late on her designs. When she got tired, she'd fall asleep against it. When Damon came home from a long day at Pack Headquarters, he would carry her back to bed. The pots on the balcony were still there. The flowers had long since died. Only dry, cracked roots left. In the bedroom, her clothes still hung neatly on their side of the closet. Untouched. Undiscarded. The old frame on the nightstand still sat in the same place. Inside was the photo of them on the Aegean Coast. In a storm of snow, Damon on one knee, asking her to be his mate. She was laughing, bright and happy. But after that trip, on the way to seal the Bond at the Pack Registry, she collapsed. And then the diagnosis. Wren sank onto the couch. Her fingers brushed the soft fabric. The memories came back, one piece at a time. The day of the diagnosis. She had just received the Healer's report. She hadn't even processed it yet. But Damon lost it first. In front of the Healer, he held her and sobbed. Tears fell onto her hair, onto the back of her hand, hot and heavy. "Wren… why you… if anyone has to pay, let it be me, not her…" That day he cried like he wasn't an Alpha. Wren was the one patting his back, a little awkwardly, trying to comfort him. After that, to save her, he took her to every kind of Healer. Pack Healers, Capital Healers, even old back-country folk remedies — he tried them all. For a rumored "thousand-year Moonroot," he went to a remote village and got swindled. On the way out he broke his leg. Lying in bed, he still laughed. "If it saves you, I'll try anything." He went to the Moon Temple Sanctuary. He knelt there for three full days. He went to Crescent Peak Shrine and bowed his forehead to the stone all the way up the mountain. His forehead broke open and bled. His knees were raw. To be with her through it, he handed off every part of the Pack's outside business to his Beta. This was a wolf who couldn't tell one tonic from another. He ended up chewing through stacks of Healer texts, taking notes to fill a whole book. He could say her exact doses, exactly what to avoid, and could argue treatment plans with Elias. For those two years, he was truly good to her. A wolf who used to look precise, groomed, sharp, was now unshaven, his hair streaking white. Shadows under his eyes. Wren watched him being ground down, and she forced herself to hold on. After purification treatments, her nose would bleed. She'd wipe it with a tissue when he wasn't looking and hide the tissue. She acted like nothing was happening. The herbal tonics were bitter, almost impossible to swallow. She forced them down anyway. Even when she wanted to throw up, she forced herself to eat a few more bites. She didn't want his effort to be wasted. When they did the marrow extraction, it hurt so much her whole body shook. She gripped the sheet and made no sound. Cold sweat stood on her forehead. The moment he looked over, she forced a smile. "It doesn't hurt." Later she could barely walk. She still leaned on him, step by step, through every treatment. Even when each step felt like her last breath. She didn't want to let him down. Until the day the match came back. He held the result and cried into her again. This time it was relief, exhaustion, the joy of getting something back that had almost been lost. "Wren… we're saved… we're finally saved…" In that moment, Wren thought all the pain was over. Then, later, he fell in love with someone else. # Chapter 6 The sound of the door broke her out of the memory. Wren's heart pounded. She looked up. When she saw who it was, she let herself breathe again. It was Marla, the warm-hearted She-Wolf from next door. Ever since Wren had fallen sick, Marla had quietly looked after their little home. Marla's eyes lit up. She came over quickly, looking her up and down. "Wren?