Chapter 1
Noah’s POV
I absolutely hated how fucking happy everyone looked!
I knew it was wrong. I knew I should be happy for them. Which was why I sat there with a fucking smile plastered on my face, watching from the corner of the room as my brother, Zane King, and his second chance mate packed their suitcases. They were leaving the pack for a couple of weeks to celebrate their anniversary, along with my niece and nephew, Cain and Eva.
“You sure I don’t need a passport?” The chubby Latina asked her husband, her huge pregnant belly resting on her knees.
Arella Garcia!
Werewolf Queen, the Runt of the Royal Pack, and magical healer extraordinaire! Her own description of herself and always described herself with a wry smirk and a wink. Yeah, runts were ordinarily the weakest members of the pack, but there wasn’t a weak or submissive bone in her body. She’d somehow managed to subdue and tame the feral King even before she shifted.
Her runt magic had also helped – but mostly it was just her...
She tried to get up, but instantly Zane was there, gently forcing her to sit back down. He refused to let her lift a finger, which frustrated the pregnant she-wolf to no end. The independent woman, who’d lived alone in the forest as a ranger for most of her adult life, wasn’t used to having someone doting on her the way her mate did.
But I think secretly she enjoyed it…
“You’ll be fine,” Zane said, turning to his two young pups. “Go get your bags. And Cain, help your sister.”
“Sure, Dad,” the crown prince replied dutifully, the smile on his face warming even the blackest parts of my lifeless heart. Seeing him be able to smile and live happily again was more than I could have ever hoped for.
“I can do it myself,” the five-year-old girl happily announced and jumped passed me, ready to race her brother. Her voice was as if she hadn’t been mute for several years as she dealt with the trauma that had happened to her.
All of them happy and healed…
Ready to move on with their lives – ready for this new chapter in werewolf history.
And then there was me…
I felt stuck!
I couldn’t move forward, and I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t go back and beg my mate to take back her rejection – she was dead. I’d carried that pain inside ever since; the only one who knew the truth was my brother.
And only years after the fact…
Now, he was happy once more, and while I didn’t blame Zane for killing her, my parents were mourning the loss – and even I missed her sometimes. While Zane was off – lost in his grief, pain, and anger – Selena had been the only one I could turn to with my troubles. She’d always given me a sympathetic ear---
Now I knew she’d only been manipulating me…
Still---
She’d been my sister. And no matter what, having her by my side while our brother had suffered had made me feel less alone. When I felt helpless and lost, because I couldn’t help our brother, she’d been there for me…
And then she’d betrayed us all!
Once more, I was caught in the middle…
The first time I’d felt like this was when I’d been rejected. I wanted so badly to tell everyone, to have them see the pain and anger I felt – how humiliated and embarrassed I’d been. Like I wasn’t enough! But my brother and his previous mate, Helena, had just welcomed their second child, and they were so happy. My sister had found her mate and was getting ready to move away with her mate. My parents were so happy for them and I---?
I suppressed my pain…
I didn’t want to be the one to pull a dark cloud across all these happy moments. Didn’t want to be the one who worried them while they had lives of their own to think about. Futures that were bright and thrilling and happy. So I stayed by my brother’s side with a smile on my face, pretending I wasn’t dying on the inside…
“Zane! I’m pregnant, not dying. Stop treating me like I might break.”
Arella’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts, and my eyes easily found the two of them by the suitcases. The ranger wanted to pull her own luggage, but the overprotective and possessive alpha king wouldn’t let her.
“Pregnant with twins!” He reminded her, gently prying the bags out of her hands. “You need rest, hence why we’re going on this trip.”
Muttering something in Portuguese that I didn’t catch, her head snapped to me, her expression entirely put out, despite the pregnancy glow that gave her cheeks a youthful blush.
“Noah! Talk to your brother! He’s being completely unreasonable,” she snapped – but there wasn’t any real malice in her tone. I doubted that she was capable of anything truly evil – unless she was protecting the people she loved.
Then she was deadly with her shotgun!
“I’d love to,” I snickered, pretending that their happiness didn’t completely gut me. “But I like my head just where it is.”
“Traitor,” she huffed--- and then let out a girly squeal, as she was pulled into Zane’s arms.
“No,” my brother told her, a victorious gleam in his tilted lips. “He just knows that when it comes to you, I play dirty to get my way.”
A laugh bubbled out of her, and I felt her lose control of her powers for a fraction of a second. The healing waves that heated me from the inside out, making my wolf stir for the first time in forever. He lifted his head, turning it towards her and blinked, as if surprised that he was awake.
I quickly turned away, not wanting to intrude on their moment. Yeah, runts had literal magical abilities that could heal both physical and emotional wounds – basically a magical therapist for werewolves.
But---
I knew I could turn to her to fix my wolf. To heal me. To do to me what she’d done for my brother. The Mad King, who'd torn his family apart. But honestly, after everything that had happened, I didn’t feel I deserved happiness. I’d fucked up so badly, I didn’t have the right to ask her for help. Hell, I didn’t even deserve to ask for her forgiveness…
So I walked away…
My wolf closed his eyes again, drifting off to a sleep that pulled him further and further away from me. To the point where I couldn’t even shift, my senses so dull, I was basically human. I swallowed thickly, wondering what would happen to me when he eventually fell asleep---
And didn’t wake up…
