Chapter 4

Another call came in. I picked up.

“Monica, why the hell aren’t you answering? You being disobedient again? Do you need me to remind you how to behave?”

For the first time, I didn’t apologize.

“I’m hospitalized with a stomach ulcer. I won’t be bringing you any lube. I don’t want to.”

He choked on my answer.

“You drank with a stomach condition? I didn’t force you, did I? You looked fine in the booth—stop lying.”

I repeated myself, annoyed.

Then Phoebe’s voice chimed in from the phone. I wanted to smash it.

“Monica’s in the hospital? But she looked perfectly fine just now.”

Their voices were breathless, panting.

It wasn’t hard to imagine what they’d just been doing.

“Enough. I won’t press charges for you lying to me,” Manny said.

“But you need to come over and buy us some clothes. I’ll send the sizes.”

Before I could reply, he hung up.

I stared at the phone screen, feeling hollow.

I’d just wanted to see him alive again, that was all.

I convinced myself of that. I looked at his messages again and left the Pack Doctor’s clinic.

When I arrived at the door with the clothes, Phoebe opened it.

She sneered. “After everything, you still show up? You really think I don’t know what you’re planning?”

I stared at her.

She leaned in and whispered into my ear:

“Stand-in.”

I shoved her without thinking.

“What are you doing, Monica?!”

Alpha Manny had just walked in, catching Phoebe as she stumbled.

He glared at me, furious.

I glared back at Phoebe. “That’s enough. You can leave now.”

Manny took the clothes from me and tried to shut the door.

My devastated expression made him pause for a second.

But the door still slammed shut in my face.

Back in the guest room, I turned on my phone.

Two friend requests—one from my new friend Jill, and one from Phoebe.

I accepted them both.

Let’s see what she wants to say.

Alpha Manny had never gone this far before.

If it had been anyone else, I could’ve walked away from him.

But it was Phoebe.

The one I hated most in the world.

I couldn’t stand the thought of her standing next to someone who looked so much like… him.

Just the image of it made me want to vomit.

If it were David—he’d never have anything to do with her.

David and Alpha Manny weren’t the same person.

I could tell myself that a thousand times.

But when I saw David alive again, all I wanted… was to be near him.

Just to see him breathe.

A message popped up—from Alpha Manny.

[Meet me here at the same time tomorrow.]

I had no idea what he was planning.

But nothing good ever came from Alpha Manny.

That was a lesson I learned after three years.

I hovered over my screen for a moment, typing, deleting, then finally replying.

I said yes.

Just this once.

Let it be the last.

And may it finally drive Phoebe away from him.

With that thought, I downed my meds and replied to a few of Jill’s messages.