Chapter 4 Blake had always been a man who thrived on order, yet he broke his own rules repeatedly for Zariah. The night he rejected me, he never came home again. Time seemed to slow in that house, but only the things inside the pack house kept dwindling one by one. On day five, Blake called to ask which brand of razor he usually used. I was cutting up our photographs at the time. There were thousands of them. My hands went sore from the scissors, and in the end, I set everything on fire. By day ten, his mouthwash ran out. I was sweeping up shards of porcelain-the couple's mug we had once made together. On the fifteenth day, he sent his beta to pick up two of his ties. I splashed paint over the portrait I had once lovingly painted of him. Frames of every size piled up until they filled half the room. By the twentieth day, he sent flowers from afar, wishing me a happy birthday. I sold our bed. It was an antique bed brought across the ocean, said to have belonged to an Alpha and a Luna who had spent their whole lives together, raising seven or eight children in it. On the thirtieth day, I told his beta to clear out the children's room I had painstakingly decorated. All the little beds and toys went straight to the secondhand market. The moment the beta left, Blake came back. He opened his arms. "Layla, it's been a month. I'm back. Thank you for waiting for me." I didn't throw myself into his arms as I used to, didn't pout or cry. He smiled again. "What's wrong, Layla? Are you so happy that you're speechless?" Chapter 4 40.00% I thought for a moment and replied, "No." His brows knit together, a flicker of anger in his eyes. He pushed past me into the pack house living room first. "Why does the place look so empty?" he asked. Then he saw the newly cleared children's room and strode over, brimming with curiosity. "You finally opened this door. I used to ask what was inside, and you always said it was a secret." He chuckled. "Caught you off guard today, didn't I? I have to see what's in there. Don't tell me you were so obsessed with me you wrote a roomful of love letters?" A dull ache rose in my chest. That room really had once been full of my love letters. But now it was empty. "Huh? Why is it empty?" he said. Because it was too late. He eagerly went to make me a cheeseburger, but then his phone rang. I heard the voice on the other end clearly. "Blake, I slit my wrists. I'll be dead in twenty minutes." Blake visibly panicked. I folded my arms and waited for him to choose. All he said was, "This is life or death, I have no choice. This month has thirty-one days. If I go to her now, it doesn't count as breaking the rules." "Layla, wait for me. Please, just wait one more day!" I smiled and waved, "Goodbye." Not another day, not another hour, not another minute, not another second. Was it really that impossible? He could have asked his beta to handle it. He could have sent a healer. He could have told her friends or neighbors to break down her door. Chapter 4 But no, he had to drive there himself. I dumped the half-cooked cheeseburger out with the pan, handed the keys to his beta, dragged my suitcase, and left the pack that had carried all my youth. By the time my plane landed, Blake's post was already up, written in Zariah's voice: [Hello everyone, I'm Blake, and I love cheeseburgers.] The attached picture showed him rolling up his sleeves in the kitchen, his toned muscles barely visible on his forearm. A sharp pain seized my lower abdomen, burning like fire and dragging me into a pit. I dropped to my knees in the middle of the bustling airport. Discover our latest featured short drama reel. Watch now and enjoy the story!