“I’ll drive you after I hear what Warner has to say.” Roderick remains his unmovable, focused self, not bothered in the slightest by our sister’s complaining.

“Fine!” She huffs, retrieving her cell phone from her back pocket and using the screen to ignore us.

Isaac leans his head back as if he’s going to take a nap, but I know better. He’s quiet, unassuming, lacking the intimidating factor that is a necessary piece of Roderick’s makeup. But that only allows Isaac to hear and see more than the rest of us do. He passes around town unobtrusively. So, he knows things.

My guess is, he’s wiser than most other seventeen-year-olds. Probably more than most people three times his age too.

I’ll miss him when I’m gone. I’ll miss all of them.

But not as much as I’d miss Zoey.

I love my family, but I don’t need them the way I need her.

In only a few weeks, she’s become the one for me. My partner. So much a part of me that the idea of losing her is on the same level as having one of my limbs ripped off.

But that’s how it is for wolves. When we love, we do it deeply.

My only hope is that this knowledge will help my family understand my decision.

“I’m leaving Pine Falls.”

No one was speaking before I made the declaration, but still, the shop suddenly seems a hell of a lot quieter.

Roderick is the first to respond. “She won’t stay?”

My brother sounds regretful, but not as if he plans on challenging my choice.

“This isn’t her place⁠—”

“Of course it isn’t!” my mom growls.

Her fierce input has me rocking back on my heels. I knew she wouldn’t like the idea of me moving, but damn. Her voice came out so sharp that it stings.

“She doesn’t know us. She doesn’t know our ways,” Mom continues with a snarl, abandoning her receipts and stalking out from behind the counter.

Tanya isn’t staring at her phone anymore, and Isaac leans forward in his seat, eyes fixed on our mother. We all know she has a temper, but something about this reaction seems different.

More intense.

“Honestly, I don’t care. She knows me,” I say.

Does that sound like a line from a cheesy movie or what?

Mom scoffs. “Knows you? Come on, Warner. She’s pretty—I’ll give you that. And charming, I’m sure. But I can guarantee, if you let her, that girl will destroy you. She’ll smash your heart. Probably won’t even realize it. One day, she’ll just decide she doesn’t need you anymore. And then she’ll walk out.”