Chapter 5
Five years later, I stood in the baggage claim at Portland International Airport, watching the carousel spin endlessly as I waited for my suitcase to appear.
The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, and the smell of stale coffee from the nearby café made my stomach turn. Or maybe that was just nerves.?
I’d kept my promise to myself. I’d left and never looked back.
Europe had been beautiful—a blur of museums and cafés and cobblestone streets where no one knew my name or my history.
Penn had been exactly what I’d needed: challenging, consuming, a place where I could lose myself in coursework and new friendships and the careful construction of a life that had nothing to do with a boy with blue eyes.
And then the world had changed.
It happened during my sophomore year. I’d been in my dorm room, studying for a biology exam, when Nina. my roommate, burst through the door with her laptop. “Em, you have to see this.”
The President was on the screen, standing at a podium, looking grave and somehow excited at the same time.
“My fellow Americans,” he’d said, “today we acknowledge a truth that has existed since the beginning of human civilization. We are not alone on this planet. There are others who walk among us—beings of extraordinary ability who have lived in secret for millennia. Today, that secrecy ends.”
At first, everyone thought it was a joke.
Some elaborate hoax or early April Fools’ prank.
But then the liaisons came—representatives from each supernatural species, visiting cities and towns across the country.
Vampires with their unsettling stillness and ancient eyes.
Witches who could make fire dance in their palms.
Shifters who could transform from human to animal in the space of a heartbeat.
Wolves. Bears. Panthers. Creatures I’d only read about in fairy tales.
The fear had been palpable. For weeks, maybe months, humans walked around in a daze of terror and fascination. Would they hurt us? Could we trust them? How many of our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends were secretly something other?
But time, as it always does, had a way of normalizing even the extraordinary.
Four years later, supernatural beings were just part of life.
You couldn’t always tell who was human and who wasn’t—not unless they told you.
Though I’d learned that shifters had always known.
They could sense each other, smell the difference between human and other.
The knowledge had changed everything for me.
Suddenly, my degree in political science had a purpose beyond the vague notion of “making a difference.”
The government needed people who could bridge the gap between human and supernatural communities, who could negotiate and mediate and keep the peace.
People who understood that fear came from ignorance, and that most conflicts could be resolved with patience and understanding.
Forever the peacemaker, as Nina liked to say.
I’d applied for the liaison program the day after graduation, and somehow—miraculously—I’d gotten in.
Now, at twenty-three, I was the government shifter liaison for the northeast region.
I worked with packs and covens and nests, helping them navigate human laws and customs, smoothing over conflicts before they could escalate.
It was fulfilling work. Important work. Work that kept me busy enough that I didn’t have time to think about the past.
Except now I was here. Back in the Pacific Northwest. Back in the state I’d sworn I’d never return to.
My suitcase finally appeared, and I grabbed it off the carousel with more force than necessary.
This was fine. I was fine. I was here for Nina, for her mating ceremony.
That was all. Edgewood Pack territory might border my old hometown, but that didn’t mean anything.
It was a big area. The chances of running into anyone I used to know were slim.
The chances of running into him were even slimmer.
“Emily!”
I turned to see Nina practically sprinting toward me, her dark curls bouncing, her face lit up with the kind of joy that only came from being deliriously in love. She crashed into me with a hug that nearly knocked me over.
“Oh my God, I missed you so much!” She pulled back, holding me at arm’s length to look at me. “You look amazing. How was the flight? Are you exhausted? Are you hungry? We can stop somewhere if you want—”
“Nina.” I laughed, the tension in my chest easing slightly. “Breathe. The flight was fine. I’m not that hungry. And I missed you too.”
She grinned and linked her arm through mine, practically dragging me toward the exit.
“I can’t believe you’re finally here. I have so much to show you. The pack house is incredible, and everyone is so nice, and Nate is just—” She sighed, a dreamy expression crossing her face.
“He’s perfect, Em. I can’t wait for you to really get to know him.”
I smiled as we walked to her car, letting her chatter wash over me.
Nina had been my roommate freshman year at Penn, randomly assigned by some algorithm that had somehow managed to pair two people who would become best friends.
She was human, like me, but she’d always been fascinated by the supernatural world.
When she’d met Nate while she at a conference a year ago and he’d told her she was his mate, she hadn’t hesitated.
She’d moved across the country to be with him, to live on pack land, to build a life in a world that was still foreign to most humans.
I was happy for her. I really was. Even if a small, bitter part of me wondered what it would be like to be wanted that completely, to have someone look at you and know, beyond any doubt, that you were meant to be theirs.
We loaded my suitcase into her trunk, and I slid into the passenger seat. The car smelled like vanilla and cinnamon.
She started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. “So, how’s work? Still saving the world one mediation at a time?”
“Something like that.” I leaned my head against the window, watching the landscape blur past.
Trees, so many trees. The Pacific Northwest was green in a way that the East Coast never quite managed.
“I’ve been working with a pack in Vermont that’s been having some issues with a local hunting club. Trying to establish boundaries, make sure no one gets hurt.”
“See? You’re amazing at this.” Nina glanced at me, her expression softening. “I’m really proud of you, you know. You found your calling.”
I shrugged, uncomfortable with the praise. “I just talk to people. It’s not that impressive.”
“It is, though. Not everyone can walk into a room full of territorial shifters and get them to actually listen.” She turned onto a highway, heading east. “You have this way of making people feel heard. It’s a gift.”
I didn’t respond, my attention caught by a road sign. Edgewood: 15 miles. Pinewood, my hometown: 30 miles.
My stomach twisted.
Nina kept talking, something about the mating ceremony and the dress she’d found and how Nate’s mom had been so welcoming. I tried to focus, tried to engage, but my mind was drifting, pulled back to a time I’d spent five years trying to forget.
The last time I’d been here, I’d been eighteen and heartbroken, I’d seen him with someone else, had felt my heart shatter into pieces so small I wasn’t sure I’d ever found them all.
I wondered where he was now. If he was still in the area, or if he’d moved away like I had. If he ever thought about me, about us, about the friendship we’d destroyed.
If he was happy.
If he’d forgotten me entirely.
“Earth to Emily!”
I jerked, blinking as Nina’s voice cut through my thoughts. She was looking at me with concern, one hand reaching over to poke my arm.
“Sorry,” I said quickly. “I was just thinking.”
“I could tell. You completely zoned out.” She smiled, but there was worry in her eyes. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I forced myself to sit up straighter, to push the memories back down where they belonged. “Just tired from the flight.”
Nina didn’t look convinced, but she let it go. “Hey, you used to live near here, right?”
My chest tightened. “Yeah. My hometown is pretty close to Edgewood territory.”
“That’s so cool!” Nina’s face lit up. “Maybe you’ll know some of the people at the pack. Most of them went to school in the human towns around here. Nate said a lot of the pack kids were integrated into the regular school system.”
“Maybe.” I swallowed hard. “Though that was before the announcement. I wouldn’t have known who was human and who wasn’t.”
“True.” Nina tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “It’s so weird to think about, isn’t it? All these years, they were just living among us, and we had no idea. Like, Nate went to regular high school. Played on the basketball team. Had human friends. And none of them knew what he was.”
I nodded, my mind racing. Had there been others? Had I gone to school with shifters and never known? Had my teachers been supernatural? My neighbors?
Had Ryder—
No. I cut the thought off before it could fully form. It didn’t matter. He was in the past. Whatever he was, wherever he was, it had nothing to do with me.
“So, tell me about the pack,” I said, desperate to change the subject, to focus on anything other than the growing dread in my stomach. “You said they’re welcoming?”
Nina’s face softened into a smile. “Surprisingly welcoming, yeah. I was worried, you know? I’d heard stories about packs that don’t like humans, that see us as weak or inferior. But Edgewood isn’t like that at all. There are actually a lot of pack members who are mated to non-shifters. Humans,
witches, even a vampire.”
“That’s unusual,” I said, genuinely interested despite my anxiety. “Most packs I’ve worked with are pretty insular.”
“I know, right? Nate says it’s because of the alpha. He sets the tone for the whole pack. He believes in his members mating with their true mate vs taking a chosen mate. And he’s always been really progressive about inter-species relationships.”
Nina glanced at me. “Actually, he was one of the big advocates for the integration. Did a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure the announcement went smoothly.”