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“There was a woman here,” he stated then hurried to add, “but, I don’t even know how I got home or who the woman is.”

The low rumbling growl vibrating through their connection stopped abruptly. “Say that again.”

Nico repeated himself.

The pounding in his head increased when he stared out his bathroom window overlooking their little town. “Kalkin, something is definitely wrong. I can’t even stand the light.” His stomach picked that moment to give a heavy roll and saliva pooled in his mouth. He dropped the phone and scrambled back to the toilet, just making it in time to puke once more. He heaved the contents of his stomach several times, grossed out by the smell of his puke, before finally flushing the commode. He didn’t want to move. The pounding in his head amplified and the churn in his gut remained. However, he still had Kalkin on the phone waiting for him.

When his head was clear enough, Nico could hear Kalkin yelling at him to answer. “Sorry.” He winced at how weak his voice sounded. “Had to puke. Don’t feel better either. Should be anything left in my stomach. Where’s it all coming from?”

“Fuck kid,” Kalkin muttered. “Hang tight, I’ll have Danielle come take a look at you while I go find Hayden.”

Nico’s throat clogged with emotion and his vision swam. He thought he was about to pass out until he felt the wetness on his hand from the tears tracking down his chest. He cleared his throat and swallowed three times before he could manage, “Thank you. I’m sorry.” In those moments talking to his Alpha, he wanted to spill everything to the man. Tell him the truth. However, he made a promise to Hayden. They’d never speak about their afternoon together. No matter what.

“Give her some time,” Kalkin assured him. “She’ll come around. We’ll help her through this.”

When Kalkin said “we,” he knew he wasn’t included. His wolf howled in outrage. He’d fucked another woman other than his mate in his apartment, defiling the sanctuary he was building for him and Hayden, especially since they’d spent that special afternoon together. Every inch of him hurt. Every fiber of his being felt as though it was being snapped in two, tearing him apart from the inside out.

He hung up the phone and laid back on the floor, his body throbbed and ached in places that shouldn’t. He couldn’t make the pounding in his head stop. His stomach still roiled in disgust. There’d only been one other time he’d experienced anything like this. It’d been the first time after he and Hayden had sex, and another woman touched him. Nico closed his eyes knowing full well he’d single-handedly destroyed everything between him and Hayden, and he didn’t know if his little wolf would ever be able to forgive him, let alone love him again. Hell, he’d seen it in her eyes, the minute her world came crashing down around her. He saw the soul-crushing anguish of realizing her mate betrayed her then watched the last flickering flames of her love for him die out.

No. This was the end for him and Hayden. He'd broken their mating. He didn't give a shit about what Kalkin said concerning matings never being able to be broken, because he'd just watched it happen. His stomach turned and he jumped up, heaving the remaining contents into the percaline bowl, which was more bile than anything.

Fuck.

He was a worthless piece of shit and there was no coming back from that.

3

Hayden Raferty satat her desk and stared at the unopened letter from her father. The forced cheerfulness of his inquiries grew tiresome, the questions always the same. Had she made new friends? Seen any familiar faces? Did she like her professors? Blah, blah, blah. What would happen if she wrote return to sender on the envelope? Would they back off then?

From the moment she ran away from Nico’s apartment until the day she left for school, her family tried to make her understand what Nico went through. Hayden didn’t want to hear it. It was an excuse. She’d heard it all before and stupid her, she fell for his lie hook line and sinker. Forgiving him almost instantaneously reaction. He probably thought she would do the same this time.Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.Then she remembered it'd only been a short time before that fateful afternoon when she'd showed up at his apartment, desperate for his touch. In a single act of weakness, she'd given him her virginity, and he threw it back in her face.

Throw it away and be done with it.The longer she stared at the envelope, the curiosity about what her family wanted this time got the better of her, and she opened it.Maybe just a little look.God, she was a fool.

Pictures of her cousins tumbled out of the accompanying note, landing on the desk in front of her. Their happy faces stared back at her with such wide-eyed hope. Excited for the next stage of their lives, and they should be. In the coming years, they would all join her and Bodhi along with Bell, Zoe, Tate, and Henry at Turnskin University, aptly named since most of the students were of the shifter variety and then some.

Her uncle had made sure cousins were following in their family’s footsteps. They were creating a legacy, Kalkin’s words not hers, as Bodhi and she set foot on campus. She couldn’t complain. Being different was the norm. She didn’t have to hide as she did in the human world all those years while being on the run. For the first six months after she arrived in Window Rock, learning she was a wolf, she’d tried to shift, but nothing happened. Then during prom, something inside of her snapped. Nothing like the morning she found Nico with another woman, no, this was from being bullied.

Her wolf had had enough.

That was also the night she found out her wolf was like her Uncle Kalkin’s. Since then, she’d grown, as had her wolf. However, her shifting was still unreliable. Although her wolf rivaled her father’s when it came to size, the beast was more content to hang out within Hayden, hardly showing her face.

Still a bit shell-shocked when she arrived in Colorado, she been surprised by the freedom of being out in the mountains of Colorado Springs. A spark of joy took root within her. Maybe it was all the different scents or seeing all the different shifters and others co-existing on campus, but she wanted to be a part of it. If she decided to shift, throw her backpack over her back, and trot to class, she could.

Of course, she didn’t. Because being naked in front of people was still a long way off for her. Sure, shifters were supposed to be proud of their bodies and not give a damn, but after all of the torture she'd been through, she didn't dare to open herself up like that again. Maybe that was the reason why seeing Nico with someone else hurt so bad, besides the whole issue of them already having sex together. Hayden had waited almost four years to give herself to him. He'd been the first person to see her naked and vulnerable. He'd been the first one to see what truly happened to her in that warehouse, and she'd stupidly thought he'd treasure her. Now, she didn't know if she could ever make the same commitment to anyone else.

Shit. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking about him.

Nico.

After placing the photos into the edges of her mirror, she came back to the letter waiting for her.And now you’re putting off the inevitable.No doubt they’d ask about Nico again—since the asshole followed her to Colorado Springs to keep an eye on her, not because he was wanted there—and, honestly, she didn’t have an answer for them. Hayden opened the letter, and, instead of her father’s bold script, Blake’s chicken scratch jumped out at her. She smiled. When she met her father, he had already mated both Blake and Loraine. Bodhi had been with their father the whole time. Hayden could admit there’d been some growing pains with her twin. The idea her father would take one of them, but not her too, cut deep. It took a while to understand why Holly had Hayden and Jace had Bodhi. What was worse, they were twins. Just like her uncles, Kalkin and Caden—they carried a special bond, neither of them were sure about.

Supposedly, no one knew about her until the day Holly’s car broke down in Window Rock and she asked the sheriff, her Uncle Kalkin, for help. At first, it shocked her how much she resembled her family then, seeing her twin brother for the first time, she lost it. But, her dad… The man had been inconsolable. He held both of them for hours and didn’t want them out of his sight for nothing.

Then she worried about Holly. All she'd known all her life was Holly. The anxiety and fear of losing the one stabilizing part of her life had complicated matters too, because she worried Holly would leave, and she'd be all alone. Stupid, really, thinking back on everything. However, something miraculous happened and Holly became her Uncle Mackenzie's mate allowing her family to remain intact.

She traced Blake’s handwriting. He was the rapscallion of her two dads. Blake was her nurturer and over-indulger. He spoiled her and Bodhi while Jace taught her about her wolf, and Loraine had been the loving mother she'd always wanted. Loraine was also the disciplinarian. Hayden loved her family—as much as she loved Holly—even if they did enjoy playing matchmaker with her.

The letter started as per normal. Window Rock is growing, blah, blah, blah. We miss you and Bodhi. We hope you're doing well. Yada, yada, yada. When her gaze lit on the next sentence, she squealed—a noise she hadn't made since she'd been a kid.