Chapter 265
CASSANDRA
Derek knows.
The thought pounded in my head like a war drum, louder than the creaking floorboards beneath my feet as I stumbled back inside my cottage. I couldn’t breathe. My skin was ice. I gripped the edge of the counter like the world might slide out from under me if I let go.
He knows.
How? How could he possibly know?
My mind raced. The memory had been buried so long–so deep–even I had nearly forgotten it. I’d done everything to keep it hidden. To rewrite the truth in Derek’s eyes. It had worked. For years, it had worked.
But now?
Elena.
Of course.
She must have remembered.
I felt bile rise in my throat.
The bitter taste of humiliation, of fury.
Elena Hart.
She had always been the thorn in my side. The ghost in every one of Derek’s stares. The ache he never admitted to. It was always her. Even when she was gone. Even when she was dead.
And now she was back. And worse–she remembered.
7
She remembered what happened in the woods that day. The day he was attacked. The day I stood frozen and she picked up her bow.
The day she saved him.
‘I sank onto the couch, head in my hands. My entire body shook. It wasn’t just that she had done what I couldn’t. It was that she had the courage to act when I didn’t. I’d built my entire life a single, stolen moment of bravery that hadn’t even been mine.
on
And now it was gone.
“You know what this means, don’t you?”
I looked up.
My father was still standing in the doorway, his expression carved from stone.
“It means I’m finished,” he said.
His voice was strangely calm, even as his hands shook slightly at his sides. “The second this gets out, I’ll be challenged. Another young Alpha will rise up and take what we built. The creditors will come after us for the rest. Every bargain we made–every
favor we pulled–they’ll all turn against us.”
He stepped forward, face dark with fury.
“You’ve ruined everything. Either we lose the pack, or we lose our place at the top. Either way, this is the end of the road.”
The words felt like a slap.
Chapter 265
+25 BONUS
I stood slowly, shaking.
‘Get out,” I whispered.
“Cassandra-”
“GET OUT!”
He stared at me for a long beat, then turned on his heel and left, slamming the door behind him.
I stood there for what felt like hours, staring at nothing.
Then I moved.
I don’t know how I ended up in the Blightwood.
It was nearly midnight when I crossed the old service road, the trees crowding around me like cloaked figures whispering my name. The woods were colder than I remembered. Colder than any spring night should be.
Dead leaves crunched beneath my boots.
Somewhere, far in the distance, an owl called once and then fell silent.
The further I walked, the more the world changed. The stars disappeared behind thick, knotting branches. The path narrowed. The trees leaned in, their bark slick with moss and secrets.
I had been here before.
With Logan.
And Logan never came back.
A chill danced down my spine, but I kept walking.
The ground sloped downward, into the oldest part of the forest. The part we weren’t supposed to enter. The part that smelled of damp earth and death.
I told myself this wasn’t madness.
That I wasn’t desperate.
That Derek still loved me. Somewhere inside, past the anger, past the betrayal. That if Elena weren’t in the picture, everything could go back to the way it was.
But that was the problem.
Elena was always in the picture.
I couldn’t kill her. Not outright. Too many eyes. Too many people who already suspected me of every wrong thing she ever suffered. No, I couldn’t make her disappear.
But I could erase her.
Her memories, at least. It had been done before. It could be done again.
The whispers began around the time the moon vanished behind the clouds. Faint. Hissing. Like the wind speaking in a language I almost understood.
Chapter 266
