Good Things Fall Apart

The ride home passed in total silence.

Once inside, I silently hung my coat and hat by the entryway. My fingertips were still numb with the cold.

"Why so quiet?" Liam Hurley finished changing his shoes and looked over at me.

He stood backlit, his amber eyes glinting in the dim entry hall.

Instinctively, my hand drifted toward my bare collarbone. Then, I let it drop.

"What do you want me to say?" I asked.

Liam froze for a moment, then let out a helpless chuckle.

Just like he had done so many times before, he wanted to use that gesture to make all my troubles disappear.

But this time, I leaned back and dodged his hand.

His arm froze midair before he pulled it back naturally.

"Still throwing a fit over the necklace?"

He sounded exasperated, like a father reasoning with a moody toddler. "You know what Mom's like. She loves a flatterer. Whenever she went to the company, Lilith would go out of her way to look after her, always saying the sweetest things. Mom loves that.

"Freya, if you bothered to be even half as nice to her, do you really think she'd give the necklace to Lilith instead?"

I said nothing.

Liam frowned, his patience visibly wearing thin. "Look, it's just a moonstone necklace. So what if she gave it away? Throwing a tantrum at home is one thing, but did you really have to pull a face at the banquet?"

Pull a face?

I hadn't uttered a single bitter word all evening. I just quietly ate my dinner.

So, because I didn't congratulate Lilith like everyone else, I was pulling a face?

"Liam," I called out softly, my voice barely above a whisper. "You promised me that necklace five years ago."

His face went blank.

The confusion was genuine. He truly had no memory of ever saying that.

"Okay, look, maybe I did." He chuckled and gave me a careless shrug.

"But it belongs to Mom. It's hers to give. What was I supposed to do? Snatch it back and put it on you? Freya, you know that's ridiculous."

His voice was steady, as if the whole thing were utterly trivial.

"Are you really hurting that bad for an old necklace? All that 'family heirloom passed down through generations' stuff is just old-folk talk. At the end of the day, it's a chunk of rock. How much could it even be worth? Don't worry. I'll buy you a bigger, better one."

He walked over and crouched in front of me, looking up into my eyes.

From this angle, he always looked intensely earnest.

It was this exact look that had kept me waiting year after year, feeding me hope only to crush it every time.

Five years ago, right after Liam became heir to the Alpha seat, he bought me a beast-fang necklace at the market. It was expensive but nothing special.

He had told me, "Freya, once I'm firmly set as Alpha, I'll have Mom hand down our family's ancestral moonstone necklace to you. I want you to be the Luna of the Ashmoon pack."

I still kept that beast-fang necklace tucked away in my jewelry box, untouched because I couldn't bear to put it on.

"How about this?" Liam gazed at me with deep affection.

"Tomorrow I'll take you to Dustro Bay. You've been dying to see the bioluminescent sea there, right?"

My eyelashes fluttered.

So, he remembered I wanted to go to Dustro Bay.

So, he could make time after all.

Once upon a time, I would have squealed with joy and thrown my arms around his neck.

Now, I simply shook my head. "No need."

I pushed open the bedroom door. "I have plans tomorrow."

Liam blinked, caught off guard by the rejection.

Then he stood up, his tone brightening as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "Well, in that case, I'll help Lilith pick out a dress tomorrow morning. She loves the necklace Mom gave her and wants a dress to match it.

"Honestly, Freya, you could learn a thing or two from Lilith. If you had her personality, I wouldn't always be stuck in the middle between you and Mom. Don't you think so?"

I didn't bother arguing. I just nodded passively. "I understand."

Liam smiled and leaned in to kiss my cheek. "I'll help her pick the dress in the morning and come home to spend the afternoon with you."

I smiled back, saying nothing.

He headed straight into the bathroom to shower.

I walked over to the bedroom nightstand and opened the drawer. Inside lay an official document.

An invitation from the Silverfang pack of Nordravia, with a train ticket pinned to it.

I folded the invitation carefully and slipped it into the inner lining of my half-packed suitcase.

Then I pulled out my phone and shot a text to my upperclassman in Nordravia. "I'll be there on time."

She replied instantly, "Finally came to your senses? Good! I'll arrange a grand ceremony to welcome you properly. It's the least I can do to show my respect!"

As I read the text, the corners of my mouth curled into a faint smile.