"It's a degenerative condition," Dr. Evans explained, his words carefully chosen, clinical. "Extremely rare. Your body... it's shutting down its lycanthropic aspects. The ability to shift, the healing... it will all fade."
My throat was dry, a desert. I had to force the question out. "How long?"
He wouldn't meet my eyes. He looked at a chart on the wall, at the pen on his desk, at anything but me. "The progression varies. It's... difficult to say for certain."
A lie. A kind lie, maybe, but a lie all the same. I knew. He just didn't want to be the one to say the number.
My phone buzzed against the desk, a harsh, violent sound in the crushing silence.
The screen lit up with a name I once loved. Alpha Keifer.
I took a shaky breath, my thumb hovering over the green icon. Maybe he sensed something was wrong. Maybe, just this once, he was calling because he cared.
I answered. "Hello?"
"Where the hell are you?"
The voice that crackled through the speaker was not one of concern. It was a low growl, tight with fury. The hope in my chest withered and died.
"Do you have any idea what day it is?" he demanded.
I tried to speak, to tell him I was at the doctor's, that something was terribly wrong. "Keifer, I-"
"It's Kallie's birthday!" he snapped, cutting me off. "The entire May family is here. The pack elders are here. And you, my Luna, are nowhere to be found."
My heart, which had been hammering against my ribs, gave a painful lurch. Of course.My adopted sister Kallie's birthday. How could I have forgotten the most important day of the year? More important than our anniversary, more important than anything to do with me.
"I wasn't feeling well," I whispered, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. My hand tightened on the diagnostic report, the paper crinkling under the pressure.
A cold, humorless laugh. "Not feeling well? Aurore, stop with the excuses. We all know you're just jealous of Kallie."
Jealous. The word was a slap in the face. He thought this was about jealousy. I was holding a piece of paper that was my death sentence, and he thought I was jealous.
"I don't care what you're doing," he commanded, his Alpha tone seeping through the phone, a weight I could feel even miles away. "Be at the May estate in thirty minutes. Or there will be consequences."
The line went dead.
I stared at the black screen, the silence of the room rushing back in, heavier than before.
Dr. Evans finally looked at me, his eyes full of pity. I hated it.
I stood up on unsteady legs, my body feeling disconnected from my mind. I walked out of the clinic, the hallway stretching before me like a long, dark tunnel.
The drive to my parents' house was a blur. The familiar streets of the Battle-Axe Pack territory seemed alien, the trees and houses like props on a stage. My stage. My tragedy.
I parked the car behind a line of expensive sedans and SUVs. I could hear the faint sound of music and laughter from inside the grand mansion I grew up in. It sounded like it was coming from another world.
I took a deep breath, the air doing nothing to calm the frantic beating of my heart. Then I pushed open the car door and walked toward the life I was about to leave behind.
The moment I stepped through the front door, the laughter died.
It was instantaneous. A wave of silence washed over the grand foyer, and every single head turned towards me. Dozens of pairs of eyes, all filled with judgment, disapproval, and annoyance.
In the center of the room, standing next to Keifer, was Kallie. She was wearing a stunning silver dress, a new gift, no doubt. Her blonde hair was perfect, her smile radiant. She looked like a princess. The princess I was never meant to be.
My mother, Eleanor May, detached herself from a group of elders. Her face was a mask of cold fury. She marched towards me, her heels clicking ominously on the marble floor.
She didn't ask where I'd been. She didn't ask if I was okay.
She stopped in front of me, so close I could smell her expensive perfume. She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper, but it was loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.
"You finally decided to show up?" Each word was a perfectly sharpened icicle. "Look at the state of you. Are you trying to make the May family a laughingstock?"
I looked into my mother's eyes and saw no love. No concern. Only a deep, chilling disgust. It was a look I had seen a thousand times before, but tonight, it felt like it was carving out the last piece of my soul.
Across the room, Keifer stood by Kallie's side. He watched me with cold, indifferent eyes, making no move to defend me. He was her guardian, not mine.
A small, triumphant smile played on Kallie's lips. It was barely there, but I saw it. She had won. She always won.
A wave of dizziness washed over me. A familiar, dull ache started in my abdomen, a grim reminder of the report still in my car. I instinctively pressed a hand against the spot, trying to will the pain away.
My mother's voice cut through the haze, sharper this time.
"Don't you dare stand there and play the victim for sympathy."
The world tilted on its axis. My husband, my mother, my family... they were all strangers. And I was utterly, completely alone.
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