I poured more champagne and sipped it slower. I still felt a little bad for yelling at Eleanor.

"What are you going to do with two weeks of nothing?"

"I don't know. Travel around the packs? Experience life a bit."

"Find your mate?" she asked, nudging me.

I smiled a bit. "No. I don't even want to think about that right now. I think just doing some traveling will do me good. I have been having this weird feeling lately. Like something is not right."

"Okay, weird."

"There's something else." I pushed my hair out of my face and showed her the moon and bow marking on my forehead.

"Okay, that's weird. What is that?"

"This is going to sound so incredibly crazy and insane. I'm still not sure if it's real or if I was hallucinating. And you have to absolutely swear not to tell anyone!"

"Okay. Pinky promise."

"When I shifted, I went into this black void. The Goddess Benjamin was there."

"I'm sorry...what?"

"I'm not finished. That's not even the craziest part."

"There's more?"

"Uh, yeah, Abigail."

Her eyes were as wide as saucers.

"So, she approaches me and tells me, get this, I'm her daughter."

"We're all Benjamin's daughters and sons."

"No, like her legit daughter. Her child."

"What?"

"Right?" I asked.

"How? You and Eleanor are twins."

"That's where I was confused. But Benjamin said that since mom was pregnant with Eleanor at the time, it was easy to put me there. Since she's a goddess, she couldn't give birth. She said something bad was coming and wanted her child to help save the packs."

"Something bad?"

"Yeah, the feeling I've been getting the past few weeks, what if that's it?"

"And not turning eighteen and shifting for the first time?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I told you it sounded crazy."

"Are there other children?"

I shrugged my shoulders again. "I don't know. She didn't say there were."

"Maybe there's something in the archives?" she suggested.

"Maybe. I'll go there before setting off on my great adventure."

"I want to adventure."

"Come with me."

"What?" she asked.

"Come with me."

"I don't know. I mean, do you think I should?"

"What are we going to miss? Sitting in class doing nothing for the last few weeks of school?"

"The rest of our finals?"

"There's what, three left? We can do those and then leave. I can postpone taking a few weeks off," I said.

"Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that'll be fun! That'll be awesome." Abigail bounced excitedly on my bed, nearly spilling her glass of bubbly.

"Yeah, it will!"

"Wolves don't travel without their pack though?"

"No, but we're not leaving forever. Just for a little bit."

"Okay. I can do that! Yes!"

We finished drinking the champagne and made our plans for going on an adventure. I hoped that it would be nothing but fun, but that nagging feeling was in the pit of my stomach.

As the sun started to crest the horizon, I heard the jovial sounds of laughter below my window.

"Everyone must be leaving."

I stood and watched as everyone filed out of the house and towards their cars. I spotted Eleanor, hanging onto Jayden as he left. She giggled and kissed him as they walked to his car.

"I hope she just leaves."

She kissed him long and hard before turning back to the house.

"There's that electricity again."

I felt a tingling in my body, and that was so odd. My gaze was drawn to the royal family. Prince Edmond stopped and looked around before looking up at my window.

My throat seemed to suddenly feel so dry. Our eyes met, and the feeling intensified.

"No. It's nothing. You're crazy."

"Who are you staring at?" Abigail called, lying on the bed.

"Oh, nobody. Everyone's just leaving my birthday party."

"Your party! Did you even get cake?"

I shook my head. "I don't really like red velvet cake. That's Eleanor's favorite."

"Let's get some sleep so we can get these plans put into motion!"

"Sounds good."

I lay next to Abigail and talked until the sun was high in the sky, eventually drifting off.

I sat at the breakfast nook in the kitchen, poking at a plate of waffles while staring out the window. My heart hurt, and the house seemed more like a prison with each passing minute.

"Hey..." Eleanor said, entering the kitchen.

I stood, dumped my plate in the sink, and brushed past her.

"Come on, Ava..."

"Don't. Talk. To. Me."

She sighed heavily and left the kitchen through the opposite door.

"You can't be mad at her forever," Mom said, standing in the library that was right outside the kitchen.

"Sure I can."

"It's not her fault."

"Mom, I don't care. I'm hurting. This is the worst betrayal. I hate her. I hate him. I hate being here."

"Ava, come on now."

"No, mom. Why can't anyone just let me be sad? Why can't anyone understand that I'm hurting right now?"

"This is an exciting time for your sister. You should be happy for her."

"I don't want to be happy for her. I've loved Jayden for as long as I can remember. I was convinced he was my mate. He's not. I'm not going to be able to just turn that off right away."

"Honey, when you meet..." I cut her off before she could finish.

"No, mom. I'm not staying. I'm not helping Eleanor plan her future with the man that I loved. Abigail and I are leaving for a few weeks after finals."

"Leaving? Where?"

"Everywhere. We're going to visit the other packs and just get away."

She tsked and shook her head. "I don't like that idea. We don't just leave the pack."

"I don't belong here, mom. I'm not dealing with her being the next Luna. I can't."

I felt the tears spill down my cheeks. She sighed heavily and nodded.

"I have to go to school. I'll see you later."

I grabbed my bag off the desk that sat in the corner and made my way for the front door. My heart dropped seeing Jayden's car sitting in the driveway. I could feel vomit rising in my throat.

"Hey, Ava, you wan.."

I turned and walked away from him before he could even finish.

"Hey! Come on! Don't walk away from me!"

"Don't talk to me."

"I'm your future alpha. You can't speak to me like that."

"I just did. Leave me alone."

"Ava!"

"Stop, Jayden!" I shouted. "I'll tell you the same thing I told my mom. I'm going to be in my feelings right now. You marked Eleanor in public. At our birthday party. You could have had the decency to talk to me first. A heads up. Something. But no. I didn't even get that. You literally pushed me out of your way."

"El...."

I looked up when I heard the familiar beeping of Abigail's car. "Come on, loser. Get in."

I smiled lightly and hurried to her convertible. She lowered her sunglasses a bit and wrinkled her nose at Jayden.

"Ew. He's at your house."

I nodded. "Let's just leave."

"So I have news for you."

"News? It's 7 am. What news?"

"I'm magical."

"How, Ash?"

"How pissed would you be to take all of your finals today and just leave tomorrow?"

"What? How? Why? That's a lot of tests."

"Dean Jones heard about what happened and called me this morning."

"Why did he call you?"

"Duh, Ava. He knows we're bff's. Anyway, can I finish?"

"Yes, please finish."

"So, I explained our plan, and he was actually on board with it. He said if we wanted, we could spend today taking all of our finals and just be done."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "That's six finals today. Why is he being so nice?"

"He's a nice guy. He's just a strict disciplinarian. But he does care about us."

"I guess. Yeah, that's a good idea. Let's leave tomorrow."

"What about your parents?"

"Mom is too focused on Eleanor right now. She probably won't even notice I'm gone for a few days. Dad, though. He might miss me. I'll talk to him tonight."

"Pops will be hard to talk to. He's very....I dunno. Pops."