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“Hi,” I said.

Missy adjusted Owen against her side. “What are you doing here?”

I looked at my cousin. At the person who had kept reaching out while I blamed her for the distance I created. Tears spilled down my cheeks.

“I owe you an apology.”

21

HUDSON

COME OVER. I MADE TOO MUCH SOUP.

The last thing I remembered clearly about the birthday party was Sloane’s taillights disappearing around the bend in the road. Everything else was fractured.

Karen’s gloved hand around Sloane’s wrist. The silver coin resting harmlessly in her palm. Sloane dropping it too late and pretending it burned.

Sloane looking at me with panic and love and guilt tangled together.

Then she ran.

I stood with the rest of the pack in the parking area and watched her leave.

Silence settled over the lawn.

Caldwell was pressed against Julie’s side, sobbing loudly. His fingers twisted in the fabric of her skirt while he stared at the road where Sloane had disappeared. Julie crouched and wrapped her arms around him.

Trevor had picked up the silver coin. He wore the grilling glove and turned the marker over beneath the string lights, studying the proof that had broken the evening apart.

Grandma Ruth was still sitting at the dessert table, her eyes trained on the blueberry crumble Sloane had brought. No one touched it.

Mom recovered first. She always did. Her grief had been visible, but the alpha in her won out. The instant Sloane left the property, Mom began issuing instructions. “Remove her from the group chat,” she said.

Patty looked at her. “What?”

“Now.”

“We don’t have to do that this second,” Patty argued.

“Yes, we do.”

Patty’s face crumpled. “She isn’t going to share anything.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.”

“You believed she could maintain this lie safely. Your judgment is compromised.”

The rebuke hurt Patty. It was meant to.

Mom didn’t raise her volume or lose control. She didn’t need to. “Sloane has access to our names, locations, family relationships, schedules, and internal conversations,” she continued. “She has been inside our homes and on protected land. Until we understand her intentions, she is a security risk.”

I wanted to intervene. I wanted to tell Mom that Sloane would never expose us. I wanted to insist she hadn’t infiltrated the pack with malicious intent.

She had laughed with us. Cared for us.

Cared for me.