Chapter 69

• Rose's POV
• By the time the sky began to dim, evening settling like a heavy blanket over the pack house, I found myself thinking this might have been the most painfully dull day I’d ever lived through. The hours had dragged mercilessly, each one slower than the last, and no matter what I did to fill the time, it never seemed enough. I didn’t have many friends to distract me—truthfully, I hardly had any. And Laura, the one person I could once call my best friend, now seemed to hate me with a venom I didn’t understand. Every time I thought about her cold eyes and sharper words, it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
• And then there was Tristan. My other best friend. Unlike him, he hadn’t visited all day. Since morning, I’d been waiting, expecting him to appear as he always did, with that easy grin and his careless laughter, but the hours kept passing and he never showed. I told myself something important must have happened in Moonlit Shadow’s pack, something that required his attention as their future Alpha. He had duties—serious ones. He couldn’t be expected to hover around me every day, no matter how much I selfishly wished it.