The scent hit me before I even opened the door to our cramped apartment. It wasn't the smell of the cheap pine cleaner I scrubbed the floors with until my knuckles bled. It was vanilla and cloying sweetness—Ava’s scent.

My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage. I adjusted the heavy bag of groceries on my hip, wincing as the strap dug into my shoulder. I was seven months pregnant, my ankles swollen, my back aching from a double shift at the pack house kitchens. I had picked up extra hours just to buy Reece the stethoscope he needed for his final exams.

"Reece?" I called out, my voice trembling.

Silence. Then, a soft giggle.

I pushed the door open. The sight that greeted me shattered my world faster than a dropped mirror. Reece, my childhood sweetheart, the man I had starved myself for, was in our bed. But he wasn't alone. Ava, my best friend—the girl I had pulled out of the gutter when we were kids—was tangled in the sheets with him.

They froze. Reece scrambled up, not with shame, but with annoyance.

"Lara," he said, his tone flat. He didn't even try to cover himself. "You're home early."

"Why?" I whispered, the grocery bag slipping from my numb fingers. Eggs cracked against the floor, a wet, pathetic sound. "Reece, the baby... we're mates."

"Mates?" Ava sat up, smirking as she pulled the sheet over her chest. "Oh, honey. You really thought a future Beta like Reece would settle for a wolfless Omega? You're a genetic dead end, Lara."

Reece ran a hand through his hair, looking at me with cold, unfamiliar eyes. "She's right. I need a mate who can strengthen my bloodline. Ava… she has Alpha blood. We checked the archives. You? You're nothing. You can't even shift."

He stepped forward, the air around him crackling with a pressure that forced me to my knees.

"I, Reece Cole, future Beta of the Black Mountain Pack, reject you, Lara Sanders, as my mate."

The pain was instant. It felt like a physical blow to the chest, a tearing of my very soul. I gasped, clutching my stomach as the bond snapped, leaving a gaping, bleeding hole in my spirit.

"No," I sobbed, reaching out to him. "Reece, please!"

Before he could answer, a scream pierced the air from outside. Then another. The sky through the window turned a terrifying, glowing orange.

"Fire!" someone yelled from the street.

My blood ran cold. The workers' quarters. My parents were visiting this weekend. They were staying in the guest block right next to the kitchens.

"Mom! Dad!" I scrambled up, ignoring the agony in my chest. "Reece, we have to help them! My parents are in there!"

Reece looked out the window, then back at Ava. "The fire is spreading fast. If we go down there, we could get trapped. We need to get to the Beta house. It’s safer."

"But they're trapped!" I screamed, grabbing his arm. "You're a healer! You have to help!"

He shook me off like I was dirt. "My duty is to the pack's future, Lara. Not to a couple of Omegas."

He grabbed Ava's hand, and they ran. They left me there.

I stumbled out into the inferno. The heat was blistering, the smoke thick and choking. I tried to run toward the guest block, but the structure was already a skeleton of flames. I could hear them screaming. I screamed back, clawing at the heat, until my legs gave out.

The stress, the rejection, the horror—it was too much. A sharp, tearing pain ripped through my abdomen. I collapsed onto the ash-covered ground, darkness swallowing me whole as I felt the life inside me slip away.

***

I woke up in the stark white of the pack infirmary. My body felt hollow. My parents were gone. My baby was gone. The only thing left was a burning rage.

I tried to sit up, but straps held me down. The door opened, and Ava walked in. She was wearing a nurse’s uniform, but her eyes were cold and predatory. Reece stood in the doorway, his back to me, refusing to look.

"You're awake," Ava said softly, closing the door. She held a steaming mug in her hands. "Reece told the Alpha it was an accident. A kitchen fire. But we both know you'll tell them the truth, won't you? That we left them to burn."

"Murderers," I croaked, my throat raw from smoke. "I'll tell everyone."

Ava smiled, a cruel, twisted thing. "I can't let you do that. Reece's future depends on his reputation. And mine."

She moved closer. The smell of the tea wasn't herbal. It was acrid. Wolfsbane. Concentrated.

"Reece!" I screamed, thrashing against the restraints. "Help me! She's going to kill me!"

Reece didn't turn around. He just stood there, a coward in a white coat.

Ava pinched my nose shut. I gasped for air, opening my mouth, and she poured the scalding liquid down my throat.

It was worse than fire. It was liquid acid, shredding my vocal cords, burning through the soft tissue, searing the very ability to make sound from my body. I tried to scream, but only a gurgling, choked noise came out. The pain was blinding, absolute.

As my vision blurred with tears and agony, the last thing I saw was Ava’s triumphant grin and Reece walking away, closing the door on my screams that would never be heard again.

The soil beneath my fingernails was cool and damp, a grounding sensation that kept the ghosts of my past at bay. I knelt in the rows of lavender and chamomile, the morning sun warming the back of my neck. Five years. It had been five years since the fire, since the screaming, since the silence.

I adjusted the scarf around my neck—a habit born of necessity, not fashion. It hid the jagged, silvery scars where the scalded skin had healed poorly. My hands moved with practiced efficiency, pruning the dead leaves from a struggling valerian plant.

*Peace,* I signed to myself, a small, private gesture. *This is peace.*

But peace was a fragile thing. A sudden snap of a twig behind me made me flinch, my heart leaping into my throat. I spun around, clutching my trowel like a weapon.

It was only a squirrel.

I let out a shaky breath, my pulse thundering in my ears. The panic never truly left; it just slept lightly. My mind drifted back to the night Alpha Eliam found me. I had been a broken thing, bleeding and voiceless, crawling across the border of the Crescent Moon Pack territory. I expected death. Instead, I found a towering shadow that smelled of rain and cedar. He hadn't asked who I was or why I couldn't speak. He had simply scooped me up, wrapped me in his coat, and carried me to safety. He gave me a purpose when I had none. He gave me this garden.

A vibration in my pocket pulled me from the memory. I pulled out my phone. A text from Eliam: *'Pack meeting in ten. I need my best Healer there.'*

A small smile touched my lips. I wasn't just a mute refugee anymore. I was essential.

I dusted off my knees and made my way to the Pack House. The meeting hall was buzzing with noise—warriors boasting, elders grumbling, children laughing. As I entered, the noise didn't stop, but the crowd parted respectfully. They knew me now. The Silent Healer.

Eliam stood at the front, radiating power. His dark hair was swept back, his jaw set in that formidable line that made rogue wolves tremble. But when his eyes found mine, the hardness melted away.

"Before we discuss the border patrols," Eliam's deep voice boomed, silencing the room instantly. "I want to acknowledge a victory."

He beckoned me forward. My cheeks heated, but I walked to his side.

"The Smith pup, Leo, has made a full recovery from the wolfsbane poisoning," Eliam announced. "Thanks to Lara's new poultice blend."

Applause rippled through the room. I dipped my head, shy. Then, Eliam did something that still made my breath hitch, no matter how many times he did it. He turned to me, his large, calloused hands coming up.

*Thank you,* he signed, his movements precise and gentle. *You saved him.*

A collective soft sigh went through the room. The Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack, the most feared wolf in the region, had learned sign language for a mute girl with no wolf of her own.

*It was my duty,* I signed back, my fingers trembling slightly.

Eliam stepped closer, his scent of cedar enveloping me, blocking out the rest of the world. His aura didn't crush me like Reece's used to; it felt like a shield, a warm blanket against the cold. He reached out, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear, his thumb brushing the edge of my scarf.

"You are more than your duty, Lara," he murmured, low enough that only I could hear. "You are a gift."

My heart stuttered. I wanted to lean into his touch, to let his strength hold me up. But the scars on my throat burned with phantom pain. *Not yet,* my fear whispered. *Love is dangerous. Love burns.* I took a subtle step back. Eliam’s eyes dimmed for a fraction of a second, but he nodded, respecting my boundaries as he always did.

Later that afternoon, I drove the pack truck to the sanctuary on the southern border. It was a rehabilitation center Eliam had built for injured rogues—wolves who wanted a second chance, who were willing to work for their redemption. We needed extra hands for the harvest, and a group of community service workers from a neighboring territory was scheduled to arrive.

I parked the truck and grabbed my clipboard. The air was crisp, smelling of pine and impending winter. I checked the list of names, my finger tracing the paper. Most were petty thieves or trespassers.

A bus pulled up, the engine coughing smoke. The doors hissed open, and the 'volunteers' shuffled out, looking sullen and tired. They wore gray jumpsuits, the uniform of the disgraced.

I stood by the gate, ready to assign them to the apple orchard. I kept my gaze professional, scanning their faces. A heavy-set man. A teenager with a nose ring. A woman with a limp.

And then, him.

The clipboard slipped from my hands, clattering loudly onto the gravel.

He was thinner. His cheekbones were sharp, his skin sallow and gray. The arrogant posture of the future Beta was gone, replaced by a slump of defeat. But I would know those eyes anywhere. The eyes that had looked at me with cold indifference while I begged for my life.

Reece.

My breath trapped in my ruined throat. The world tilted on its axis. The smell of smoke and burning flesh filled my nose, vivid and suffocating. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move.

He was looking down at his boots, kicking at a stone. At the sound of my clipboard hitting the ground, he looked up.

His eyes widened. The color drained from his face, leaving him looking like a corpse. His mouth opened, and for a moment, he looked as voiceless as me.

"Lara?" he whispered.

The sound of my name on his lips was a physical blow. It wasn't possible. He was supposed to be a Beta. He was supposed to be married to Ava. Why was he here, in a gray jumpsuit, getting off a bus of criminals?

He took a step forward, his hand reaching out—the same hand that had once held mine, the same hand that had rejected me. "Lara... is it really you?"

A high-pitched whine built in my chest, a scream that couldn't escape. Panic, hot and blinding, clawed at my insides. I stumbled back, my boots scraping against the gravel.

*Get away,* I wanted to scream. *Don't touch me!*

But only silence came out. Just the terrifying, suffocating silence.