(Adele's POV)

The first snow of winter had fallen over Silvercrest City.

From my hospital bed, I could see the white through the window. It looked clean and soft. My hands felt like they were on fire.

Acute silver poisoning. That was what the doctor had called it.

Something in my darkroom had been contaminated. I still didn't know how. I had worked for hours before I noticed the burning. By then, the blisters had already started forming across my palms.

"Excuse me."

A soft voice came from the bed beside mine.

"Your IV drip... I think it's finished. The blood is flowing back."

I turned my head. A young she-wolf was watching me with quiet concern in her eyes. She looked no older than me. We had never met before, but her expression held no judgment, only genuine worry.

"Thank you," I said, and pressed the call button for the nurse.

The nurse came quickly, swapped out the empty bag, and told me I could be discharged in the morning. I nodded and leaned back against the pillow.

Then my phone rang.

I already knew who it was before I looked at the screen.

Mother.

"Adele." Her voice was crisp and purposeful. "Valerie's birthday party is tomorrow evening. You are expected to be there."

I stared at the blistered skin on my hands. "I'm in the hospital, Mother."

"I heard. Silver poisoning from your little photography hobby." She said hobby the way other people said waste of time. "You're being dramatic. It's not life-threatening."

"My hands are covered in blisters."

"Valerie never makes a fuss like this." Her tone warmed noticeably when she said my foster sister's name. "She understands what it means to be a dutiful daughter. You could learn something from her."

Something sharp moved through my chest.

"A dutiful daughter," I repeated. "Is that what we're calling her now? After what she did last summer with Hayden? After that girl lost her baby because of what Valerie-"

"That is enough." Mother's voice cut through mine like a blade. "I will not have you dragging up old accusations. I've already arranged for Eric to pick you up tonight."

The name landed in my stomach like a stone.

Inside me, my wolf Cora stirred. It wasn't a gentle movement. It was the kind of pain that came from something being twisted in the wrong direction.

"I don't need-"

"He will be there at seven. Be ready." She paused. "And Adele, I suggest you control that temper of yours. The mate bond with Eric is not yet stable. If you keep pushing him away, he will find someone else."

He already has, I thought.

I pulled the IV needle from my arm before the nurse could stop me. The nurse made a sharp sound of protest. I was already reaching for the discharge forms.

"If you want me at that party," I said into the phone, my voice completely level, "then add seven figures to my dowry. That is my condition for attending."

Silence.

Then: "You cannot be serious."

"I am completely serious."

Another silence, longer this time. I could hear her calculating. The face of the pack. The appearance of family unity. Valerie's party would have guests from three allied packs.

"Fine," she said at last, the word tasting sour even through the phone. "Done."

I signed the discharge papers and walked out.

Back at my apartment, I sat on the couch with my bandaged hands resting in my lap. Ten minutes later, Paige called.

"She paid you to show up?" Paige's voice pitched upward. "Your own mother paid you to attend your sister's birthday party?"

"Foster sister."

"Even worse." I could hear the disgust in her voice. "After everything Valerie has done. That girl caused another woman to lose her child, Adele. And your mother still treats her like she's made of gold."

"You know how it is," I said.

"I know how it shouldn't be." Paige exhaled. "Okay. Different subject. How is the no-talking phase going with Eric?"

I didn't answer right away.

"Adele."

"It's going."

"He's in love with his secretary." Paige said it plainly, without cruelty, the way a good friend delivers a truth you already know. "Melody. Everyone can see it. You need to stop holding on."

"Cora won't let go," I said quietly.

"Cora is a wolf, not a decision-maker. You are."

I knew she was right. I knew it clearly and completely. Eric had stopped looking at me the way a mate looks at someone a long time ago. The warmth had drained out of his eyes so gradually that I hadn't noticed until it was entirely gone.

But Cora felt every absence like an open wound.

Before I could respond, my phone buzzed with another call.

Eric.

I switched over.

"I'll be there at seven." His voice was flat and measured, the tone he used for scheduling meetings. "To pick you up."

"Eric-" I stopped. Tried again. "Does this mean we're trying again? Are we working things out?"

A pause.

"I'll see you at seven," he said, and ended the call.

I sat there holding the phone. Then I looked up at the mirror across the room.

The woman looking back at me had clear skin, dark eyes, and features that people in this city called striking. I had been told, more times than I could count, that I was one of the most attractive she-wolves in Silvercrest.

It didn't seem to matter to the one person whose opinion I had wanted.

At seven, I walked out to find Eric leaning against his car, the ember of a cigarette burning between his fingers. Three crushed stubs lay on the ground near his feet.

"You're not impatient," I said.

"I'm not," he said, but his jaw was tight.

He opened the passenger door. I got in without touching him. He walked around to the driver's side and we pulled out into the snow-covered street.

For a while, neither of us spoke.

Then Eric said, "We should try to fix this."

I kept my eyes on the road ahead. "There's one condition. Let Melody go."

"No." The word came immediately.

"Eric-"

"She's a valuable employee. You're being unreasonable."

"I can smell her on you." My voice stayed calm even as something inside me went very still. "Every time you come near me, I can smell exactly where you've been and who you've been with. So don't tell me I'm being unreasonable."

"You're jealous." He said it like it was a character flaw. "I'm an Alpha of my standing. It's not unusual to have more than one-"

"Stop." I turned to look at him. "This isn't complicated. You either choose me completely, or you let me go. Those are the only two options."

Cora was howling somewhere deep inside me. She could feel that his wolf Noah wasn't reaching for her. No pull. No recognition. Nothing.

Eric said nothing.

The lights of the Crescent Pack House appeared through the windshield.

I picked up my phone and typed a message. Two characters. Sent it to him.

99.

His phone lit up on the console. He glanced at it and shook his head.

"Another one of your dramatic gestures?"

"Not dramatic," I said. "Just counting."

He had seen this before. He knew what the numbers meant. Every wound to Cora, recorded. One hundred was the line I had drawn for myself.

He didn't look worried.

He looked like a man who had never once believed I would actually leave.