u/Purple_Rich_2771

I was done waiting for Cade Ironwood to notice I existed.

So I did something stupid.

I opened my grandma's forbidden grimoire and cast a companion spell.

A wolf with witch blood was already the pack's biggest freak.

Now I was playing with magic, too.

The night before I left for Crescent Bay, I decided to try it.

I traced the runes on my bedroom floor and whispered,

"I'll be kind of lonely watching the ocean by myself. Can you come with me?"

The candles flickered.

I held my breath, half-expecting nothing to happen.

Then a voice—low, warm, impossible—answered.

"Are you sure about that?"

I froze.

Wait, since when did a companion spell talk back like that?

Like an actual person with opinions and everything?

Help, that's not what Grandma's spellbook said!

But before I could spiral into full panic mode, the voice softened.

"Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. I'm right here. I'll do anything you want with you."

I stared at the dying candles for a long moment, my brain trying to process what just happened.

Then I gave up, blew out the candles, and went to pack.

Because honestly?

At that point, a mysterious voice was still better company than Cade Ironwood.

What I didn't expect was running into Cade at the airport the next day.

We lived in the same pack territory, but it had been ten days since I'd last seen him. I'd taken his words to heart—stopped clinging, stopped asking for his time, stopped pretending he still cared.

I wasn't planning to say hi.

Then Briar Nightwind came bounding out from behind him.

"Iris!"

I turned stiffly. The moment my eyes met Cade's, I caught the irritation flash across his face.

He was carrying Briar's luggage. They were going on a graduation trip. Together.

Something bitter twisted in my ch//est, but I kept my face blank and looked away.

Briar dragged him over. "What a coincidence! What are you doing here?"

She shot Cade a playful look. "Iris is flying out the same day as me, and you didn't even come see her off? Some oath-brother you are."

I wanted to crawl into a hole.

But then Cade frowned and said, "Iris, you really didn't need to follow me all the way here."

His voice had an edge I'd never heard before.

"It's been, what, a few days? And you're already back to your old ways? I swore a blood oath to look after you, but I need my own space too."

I closed my eyes for a second, then held up a hand. "You think I came here because of you?"

That threw him off. He blinked. "Then why else?"

I let out a quiet, disbelieving laugh. "I'm flying to Crescent Bay today."

I tapped my wrist where my grandmother's protection bracelet sat. "I'm on a schedule. Anything else?"

Silence.

Cade stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

I'd dyed my hair. Changed my style. Planned an entire trip without once asking him to come along.

When he finally spoke, his voice came out wrong.

"How come you didn't tell me?"

I frowned. Was he serious?

Wasn't he the one who'd cornered me two days ago, telling me he was sick of me clinging to him, relying on him for everything? Now he wanted to play the concerned childhood friend?

"Why would I need to tell you?" I asked.

Cade didn't have a comeback for that, and his expression darkened. "Would the pack elders really be okay with you traveling alone?"

For some reason, the presence from my spell flickered to life in my mind.

"Who said I'm going alone?"

Cade scoffed. "I know you better than anyone. You can't even cross pack territory without me. Your wolf senses are barely functional. Who else would go with you? Even if your parents are fine with it, my mom would still—"

Before he could finish, his phone rang. It was his mother, Vera Ironwood.

My wolf hearing had never fully developed after the accident. Even straining, I couldn't make out what they were saying. But watching Cade's expression grow darker and darker, I could guess Vera was ordering him to come to Crescent Bay with me.

He could have said no. But after he hung up, he let out a long sigh. "I really can't get rid of you, can I?"

I stood there, frozen.

I understood why his mother did it. When I was little, my wolf senses had been normal. Then one day, Cade dragged me into the woods to explore an old rogue den—somewhere we had no business being. We'd gotten cornered by a feral wolf, and in the chaos, its claws had raked across my head.

I'd collapsed, blood streaming down my face. My parents had rushed me to the pack healer, and the news hadn't been good. My wolf senses were permanently damaged. I'd never fully shift, never track by scent, never feel the pack bond the way others did.

My parents hadn't blamed him, but Vera had been furious. She'd dragged Cade in front of the entire pack and forced him to swear a blood oath.

"Cade Ironwood swears he'll protect Iris Stoneheart forever, stand by her side, and never harm her again."

Little Cade had cried so hard his whole body shook. He'd been too young to understand what a blood oath meant—that it would bind his wolf to mine for life.

But to everyone's surprise, he'd actually kept that promise.

From the time we were six until we were eighteen, he was the one I leaned on. He understood what I needed without me having to say a word.

So I'd always known when Cade started pulling away. When he started looking at Briar instead.

It was around three months before graduation, I think. Briar, the pack's wild child who never took anything seriously, had suddenly started training.

Cade had been dismissive. He'd handed me a protein bar after practice while muttering under his breath. "So she's done screwing around, and now she wants to prove herself? Does she really think three months can make up for years of slacking off? I can't stand wolves like that."

He really had disliked Briar—she was always late to patrol, always skipping pack meetings, always causing trouble.

But that changed the day he found her alone in the training ring after midnight.

She'd been running drills, over and over, her wolf form stumbling with exhaustion. Cade had seen the desperation in her eyes—the need to prove she belonged.

From that day on, he started spending more time with her. A month before graduation, he brought her into our study sessions to help her pass the pack trials. And he started forgetting I existed.

So it made sense that he wanted to draw a line between us.

I thought about it for a moment and took a deep breath. "You don't have to come. I'll smooth things over with your mom."

Cade gave a bitter half-smile and pulled a boarding pass from his pocket. Then he turned to Briar. "I was on the fence about going with you, but looks like I don't have a choice."

They looked at each other and smiled.

I traced the rune on my bracelet and whispered into the spell. "I think I just became a prop in their little game."

The presence stirred, warm and steady in my mind. "That's rough."

The whole flight, Cade sat between me and Briar. She was the one talking his ear off now, while I sat in silence, tracing the runes on my bracelet and reaching out to the spell.

"Will you really show up?"

The presence stirred, warm and certain. "If you want me to, I'll be there."

My heart skipped a beat, and my face began to heat up.

Cade's voice came from beside me. "Why is your face so red? You'd better not be having another episode. That's the last thing I need."

He started rummaging through his bag, then stopped short. He hadn't brought the herbs the pack healer usually gave me—the ones that helped stabilize my damaged wolf senses.

"Stop looking. I'm fine. And you don't need to carry that stuff for me anymore."

Cade opened his mouth to say something, but Briar pulled his attention away. She'd knocked over her water bottle, and I watched as he patiently helped her clean it up without a single word of complaint. That stung.

But then, for some reason, Briar turned to me.

"Iris, Cade used to take care of you like this, right? I feel kind of bad being the third wheel between you two."

I had no idea why Briar always had this talent for making things painfully awkward. I smiled without answering and stood up to head to the restroom.

That was when the plane hit turbulence. I lost my balance, and my body tipped straight backward. My wolf instincts should have kicked in—should have steadied me—but they didn't. A ringing filled my ears, and just as I thought I was going to hit the floor, a pair of strong hands caught me.

In that split second, the spell's words echoed in my mind. "I'm right here. I won't hide, I won't back away, and I won't run. I've got you."

But when I turned my head, all I saw was a middle-aged human businessman.

"Careful there, miss."

I scrambled to my feet, my face bvrning. "Thank you. I'm so sorry."

The next second, someone grabbed my wrist. It was Cade, and he didn't look pleased.

"Iris, you're not a little kid anymore. Are you seriously pulling stunts like this just to get my attention?"

I was still drowning in embarrassment from what had just happened, and hearing Cade accuse me on top of it made me feel even worse.

"Cade, what are you even talking about?"

He didn't care that I'd almost fallen. "What I'm saying is, can you stop acting so helpless? Would it kill you to not depend on me?"

He looked completely serious. If he could say something that harsh, he really didn't care about me at all anymore.

I pulled my wrist free and muttered, "Got it."

Then I turned and walked straight into the restroom without looking back. I locked myself in and sat there in silence for ten minutes.

By the time I came out, I'd made up my mind.

I was done waiting for Cade Ironwood.



Chapter One

I was confirming my college enrollment decision when I suddenly received a video call from my future self.

The woman on the screen looked utterly exhausted. When she spoke, her voice was almost a shout.

"Don't give up Harvard for Adrian Cole. No one else gets to decide your future for you."

"The person Adrian truly likes isn't you. It's Emily. They have already agreed to get married after college. Everyone knows except you."

For a moment, my mind went completely blank, and my hand froze on the mouse.

Then, on the Common App, I changed my final enrollment decision to Harvard.

Confirm.

Submit.

The woman in the video visibly let out a breath of relief. Then she leaned closer to the camera, speaking even faster.

"Tomorrow, buy Powerball tickets. The white ball numbers are 5, 8, 12, 20, 33, and the Powerball number is 6. Buy ten tickets. That money will change your life."

"No matter what anyone says, never sell the old house in Brooklyn that your grandmother left you. That whole neighborhood is about to be bought out for an urban redevelopment project."

"Two years from now, Aurora BioTech will be on the verge of being delisted from Nasdaq. Then, at the very last moment, its core therapy will receive FDA fast-track approval and a massive NIH grant. Its stock price will rise nearly a hundredfold within two months."

"On May 6, 2024, at 2:50 p.m., buy in with everything you have. That will be the stock's historical low."

"Nora Bennett, you're only eighteen. Please, save yourself again and again if you have to. Seize the chance. Go create a life that truly belongs to you."

The video cut off abruptly.

My phone screen went black.

I whispered a promise to my future self.

"I will."

The bedroom was so quiet that I could hear my own breathing clearly.

Everything that had just happened felt like a dream, or a hallucination.

But the regret and exhaustion in my future self's eyes felt stronger than anything Adrian had ever made me feel. It was like ice water running down my spine. I had never been so awake.

With trembling hands, I took a notebook out of the drawer and wrote down the Powerball numbers. Then, with a red pen, I wrote underneath:

Do not sell the house. Aurora BioTech.

After writing it down, I let out a long breath.

My phone vibrated. It was a message from Adrian.

[You've already changed your choice to Rhode Island University, right? Emily wants to live by the sea. We can all go together.]

Then Emily's message came in too.

[Nora, Adrian said you'll come with me and take care of me in college.]

[Thank you. You're so good to me.]

I stared at the messages glowing on the screen and slowly closed my eyes.

Adrian Cole was the boy I had grown up with.

Emily Bennett was my half sister.

Two weeks after my mother died, my father brought Emily and her mother, Linda, home.

That was how I learned I had a younger sister who was only half a month younger than me.

My grandmother was worried I would be mistreated, so she took me in.

After my grandmother passed away, I was sent back to my father.

He acted very guilty. On the surface, he tried to make it up to me. He even gave me more pocket money than he gave Emily.

Linda was decent enough, at least in front of other people. She had never openly made things difficult for me.

Emily liked clinging to me. Whenever she met people, she would tell them she had a genius sister.

But the video from my future self made me understand one thing.

Maybe none of them were worth it.

My life, my future, was the only thing worth giving everything for.

Adrian probably noticed that I had not replied, so he called me.

"Nora, what's going on? The deadline is almost here. Did you actually—"

"Don't worry. I've already submitted it."

My voice was calm.

He clearly relaxed too.

At that moment, Emily's excited voice came from the other end of the line.

"Oh my God, that's amazing! The three of us can live together."

Emily's voice sounded innocent and sweet, just like always. She was a girl raised in love.

In the past, I would have thought that having her rely on me, and having Adrian by my side, was the best thing I could ever hope for.

Now, all of it seemed unbearably ironic.

Adrian's voice also relaxed completely, carrying that familiar warmth and confidence of his.

"Nora, I knew you'd be reasonable."

"Rhode Island is nice. It's right by the bay, and it's close to home too. It'll be convenient for all three of us to come back during breaks. It's much better than you running off to Harvard alone."

He always spoke like that, as if everything was only natural.

He had never considered that with my SAT scores, AP scores, and awards, Harvard was not out of reach for me. It was the future I deserved.

Fortunately, there was still time.

I took a shower and went to bed.

I did not dream.

Early the next morning, I woke with a start.

The numbers that could change my entire life flashed through my mind again and again.

I quickly got dressed, skipped breakfast, and went straight to the lottery counter at the nearest convenience store.

The morning air was cool and pleasant, driving away the summer heat.

At the counter, I recited the numbers I had already memorized by heart.

"I'd like Powerball tickets. White ball numbers: 5, 8, 12, 20, 33. Powerball number: 6. Ten tickets."