Valen’s entire body went rigid beneath my touch. He pulled back, staring down at me with a terrifyingly pale face. "Evadne... do you realize what that means? If you were fifteen... that red mist means you would have forced a full shift. In the middle of a school gymnasium."

I gasped, a cold dread paralyzing my heart. A forced shift among untrained juveniles and humans could have turned the school into a slaughterhouse. I had put everyone in danger.

"I have to talk to Father," I stammered, pulling away. Valen reached out to grab my wrist, but I slipped past him, flying down the stairs.

As I approached my father's private study, the sound of muffled, explosive shouting stopped me dead in my tracks.

"I will not banish her to live with strangers!" my mother’s voice rang out, raw with tears. "It wasn't even her fault, Chris!"

"The elders don't know that!" my father roared back, slamming his hand onto his mahogany desk. "She attacked a high-ranking lineage wolf without provocation! She has to leave tonight, unless you want the entire clan to turn on us and question our bloodline's stability!"

I clamped a hand over my mouth, stifling a ragged sob. Two arms wrapped around me from behind, pulling me tightly against a broad chest. I turned in Valen's embrace, burying my face in his shirt as my heart shattered into a million pieces.

"Evadne, listen to me—" Valen began, his voice thick with emotion.

"NO!" I screamed, breaking away from him. I sprinted back up the stairs, slamming my door and locking it.

Predictably, the lock meant nothing to a future Alpha. Valen quietly slipped into the room minutes later, sliding onto the mattress beside me. I turned to face him, our fingers intertwining, clinging to each other like drowning souls.

"You can't leave me, Cassie," he whispered, using his childhood nickname for me, a tear escaping his gray eyes. "What am I supposed to do without my other half?"

I closed my eyes as a fresh wave of tears soaked my pillow. What would I do without him? Without Cian? And Gideon... I was the only person Gideon truly let close. I couldn't abandon them. I crawled closer to my twin, seeking the comfort of our shared heartbeat until exhaustion claimed me once more.

When dawn broke, I opened my eyes to find Valen staring at me, his dark blue eyes hollowed out by a sleepless night of worry.

"What happened while I was asleep?" I whispered, sensing the suffocating dread in the room.

"They bought the ticket," Valen choked out, his grip on my hand tightening until it bruised. "You leave tonight. At six o'clock."

I stared past him, the words echoing vacuously in my mind. My own blood was shipping me off to an unknown continent, banishing me to live with strangers because of a curse I didn't understand.

"So... I'm not allowed back at the academy today?"

Valen silently shook his head.

I let out a ragged sigh, releasing his hand to reach for my phone on the nightstand. My fingers trembled as I typed a message to Gideon. I needed to see him one last time.

Gideon. Come to the estate after school. Please.

I stood up to face the day, my heart sinking further when I noticed two massive leather suitcases already sitting by my closet door. My parents hadn't even waited for me to wake up before packing my life into boxes. How long would I be gone? Where was I going?

A sharp chime interrupted my thoughts. I picked up the phone, my heart stopping when I saw Gideon’s reply. He knew the risks of texting during tactical hours, yet he had answered instantly.

I'll be there, sweetheart. I missed you at the training pits today.

A bittersweet smile touched my lips. He always knew how to anchor me.

I always miss you. And stop texting in class before Avery catches you!

I tossed the phone onto the bed beside Valen and locked myself in the bathroom. I stayed under the steaming water for an hour, letting the heat soothe my aching muscles until the water turned ice-cold. Stepping out, the mirror revealed deep, dark purplish hollows beneath my eyes.

A sharp knock rattled the door. "You didn't save a single drop of hot water, did you?" Valen grumbled from the hallway.

A small laugh escaped my throat, knowing my twin could never truly stay angry at me. I opened the door with a weak smile, and he let out a mock growl. "I knew it!"

My smile faded. "Valen... do you know where they are sending me?"

The playfulness vanished from his eyes, replaced by a cold, ancient solemnity. "Europe. To stay with our eldest uncle. That’s all Father would tell me."

"For how long?"

He shook his head, and my chest tightened. "So... what does one pack for a permanent exile in Europe?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Valen stepped into my closet anyway, sorting through the racks. Within minutes, the heavy sadness broke as we began tossing clothes into the suitcases, intentionally picking out the ridiculous outfits he had bought me over the years.

We were laughing so hard that we didn't hear the soft footsteps approaching. I stepped out of the closet and froze.

Gideon was leaning against the doorframe, his towering frame casting a long shadow across the room. His handsome face was completely devoid of emotion, but his hazel eyes burned with a volatile intensity. "Where are you going?"

"I’m being sent to Europe," I whispered.

"For how long?" The irritation in his voice was a low, vibrating warning.

"I don't know, Gideon."

The moment the words left my mouth, a terrifying, territorial roar tore from his chest, so loud and powerful that it rattled the windowpanes. Within seconds, the heavy footsteps of my father and Cian thundered up the stairs, both men bursting into the room with hands on their hilts.

"What do you mean you don't know?!" Gideon yelled, stepping closer, completely ignoring the two grown Alphas in the room. "Why are you leaving me?!"

I stayed silent, letting his fury wash over me. I didn't want to leave him. I didn't want to leave my family, my home, my dirt-tracks. But I couldn't be selfish. If I stayed, the political fallout would destroy my father's pack.

"Answer me, Evadne!" he roared, stepping into my personal space.

I flinched back from the sheer volume, slowly raising my eyes to meet his burning gaze. "Look at me, Gideon! I asked you to come because I wanted to spend my final hours with you. I am sorry. I don't want to go."

"Then don't," his voice cracked, the terrifying Alpha fury melting into a raw, desperate plea as his hazel eyes begged me to stay.

"She has no choice, boy," my father interrupted coldly, his voice dripping with absolute authority. "Her transport leaves at six."

Terrified that Gideon would shift right here and do something that would get him executed by the council, I threw caution to the wind. I lunged forward, wrapping my arms tightly around his massive torso. He froze, his body rigid before his large arms locked around my waist, pulling me so close I could feel the frantic racing of his heart.

"I want you to stay," he murmured into my hair, his voice broken. "But I understand why you can't."

I looked up at him, a desperate hope flare in my chest that he would ride with me to the tarmac. But he looked down at me, a profound sadness in his eyes.

"I’m sorry, sweetheart," he whispered, his grip loosening. "I can't stay and watch you drive away."

He pulled back, tearing his gaze from mine as he pushed past Cian and my father, vanishing down the hallway. A single tear spilled over my lashes, but before I could fall apart, Valen stepped up, opening his arms wide. I collapsed into my brother’s embrace. I truly had the best twin in the world.

We spent the remaining hours in the grand living room, a heavy silence hanging over the three musketeers until Cian finally broke it. "I can't believe the triad is breaking up."

I offered him a watery smile, and we spent the next hour trading our favorite childhood memories—most of which revolved around me getting dragged into my father's disciplinary court.

"Or how about the time you lined your uncle’s mattress with active firecrackers before lighting them?"

We looked up to see my father standing in the archway. A faint, nostalgic smirk graced his lips, but his dark blue eyes were swimming with a profound, unspoken sorrow. "It's time to go, Evadne."

He picked up my heavy leather bags and walked toward the garage.

Cian and Valen stepped to either side of me, hooking their arms through mine as they escorted me out like a royal guard. I forced my mind away from my own grief, repeating like a mantra that this exile was the only way to safeguard my family.