“If you hang on a second, I’ll get those samples for you.” The salesgirl took my order sheet and flashed me a smile.

I grunted in reply. Usually I had nothing but patience for anyone in the wedding business. Dealing with bridezillas every day was bad enough without adding anal retentive wedding planners into the mix. But today I just couldn’t plaster a smile on my face.

While I waited, I dragged my mobile out of my pocket and stared at the screen. Nothing. No missed calls, no texts. Nothing.

He stormed out and told you to have a nice life. What did you expect him to do?

After Irvine left me at Elinor’s that day, Caleb and Elinor came back and told me that Irvine had left for London, and the stalker wouldn’t bother me again, but that I wasn’t to have any contact with him or the rest of the pack, apart from finishing Alex’s wedding. Elinor looked shaken and upset, but Caleb’s stony face told me there was no sense arguing. I hurried out of there, so they couldn’t see my cry.

That was two weeks ago, and I hadn’t heard from anyone in the pack apart from Alex since, and even she was standoffish and businesslike. So much for friends.

Even though I hated Irvine, his words never left me. They burrowed into my every waking moment. I thought a lot about that fight, and then I thought about why I thought about it so much. I thought so much that my head ached, although that might’ve been from the copious amounts of wine I was consuming on my own every night.

I hated to admit it, but Irvine was right about one thing – there was nothing casual about what we shared. The sex was amazing – oh god was it amazing – but it wasn’t why I came back to see him over and over.

I love you, Willow Summers.

I’d thought … if he really felt that way about me, he would try and find some way to be with me. I expected flowers, heartfelt apologies, grand gestures like the ones in romance films that would somehow make everything right between us.

No. He’s a werewolf. You don’t want him back. It was better this way. I’d become too attached to him and the pack and my life here. I should have known it could never last. I shoved the phone back in my jacket, and tried to focus on the display of personalised party favours in front of me. Irvine wasn’t my boyfriend. He wasn’t my fated mate. He was the guy I was sleeping with. People did that all the time, and they didn’t go into a maudlin depression when they stopped.

“Here you go.” The bouncy salesgirl returned, carrying an enormous cardboard box stuffed with sample decorations. “We’re all out of the green fairy lights at the moment, but I’ve added two strings of pale pink just so you can see how they look—”

“Take them back,” I snapped, shoving the box back into her arms.

“Excuse me?”

“The pink fairy lights. Take them back. This is not a pink bride I’m dealing with. If you don’t have the green then I’ll just get them somewhere else.”

“But—”

“Look, I’ll do it myself.” I grabbed a string of lights from the top of the box, dropped it on the counter, and stormed out of the shop. My gut twisted at the thought of how rude I’d been, but who cares? She was a salesgirl. Her job was to deal with rude people.

I leaned the box against the side of the car, bending back at an awkward angle to insert my key in the door.

“I want to talk to you,” a voice growled right by my ear.

I jumped back, and the box clattered onto the footpath. Glass fairy lights smashed against the concrete. I whirled my arms in the air as I scrambled to remain on my feet. I glanced up from the mess, and my eyes met the face of my stalker.

I froze. My throat closed in terror.

“What … what do you want?” I managed to choke out.

“Please, don’t run away. I’ll help you clean all that up, I promise. Just listen to me for a second. It’s really important that I tell you about your boyfriend.”

“Well, then you have nothing to say to me, because I don’t have a boyfriend.” He shifted forward, but I backed up, so I was leaning against the car. “This is a busy street. If you don’t back away right now, I’m going to scream.”

He took a step back, and raised his hands in a gesture of supplication. “I’m sorry. I really don’t want to scare you.”

“You’ve been watching me. That’s pretty scary.”

“Only because I was trying to get you alone, so I could tell you that you have to stay away from the Scottish werewolf. He’s dangerous.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I stayed silent.

The man sucked in a deep breath. “My name is Lachlan Ross, of the Stoneleigh Castle Hunting Lodge. Five years ago, your werewolf murdered my father.”

I stared at him, unable to comprehend what he was saying. Murder? That didn’t sound like Irvine, even Irvine the wolf.

Lachlan nodded vigorously. “He did. I saw it with my own eyes. We were out checking fox traps, when we turned toward the ridge and there was this wolf standing there, plain as day. A wolf! In Scotland! It bared its teeth and growled. I think Pa wasn’t sure what to make of it. I think he thought it was a big, rabid dog, and he was worried it might attack. I dinnae ken, because I’ll never get the chance to ask him.”

“What happened?” I whispered.

“Pa shot it. We raced up the ridge to inspect it, to see if our eyes really didn’t deceive us. Then, from out of nowhere, there was a second wolf. It leapt at my Pa and tore his throat out. Blood stained the snow pink. The wolf shook Pa’s body and dropped it into the snow, then turned to me. I thought I was done for, but instead, the beast transformed into a man. Right in front of me! A naked man with evil grey eyes and my father’s blood streaming down his face. He told me to run. I ran. I ran back to the lodge and reported what I’d seen. I gave his description to the police. They found Pa and did an autopsy, but they said a wild dog attacked Pa. They said I must’ve been mistaken about the man I saw. Pa’s death was ruled an accident and that was it, we were just supposed to go on with our lives. There’s no justice for me. Do you have any idea what that feels like?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I do.”

Lachlan didn’t seem to have heard me. “But I ken what I saw. I never forgot his face. I’ve been looking for him for years, and I finally saw him in a photograph on the Werewolf Watch website. He was in the background of a wedding photo where another werewolf had transformed. The press said it was a stunt, but I ken better. So I came here to Crookshollow, and I saw him with you, and I ken I had to warn you, before you lost something you love, too.”

For the second time since I fled London and promised myself I’d pretend I was normal, I lifted up my pant leg and showed him my prosthetic.

“A werewolf did that to me,” I said, surprised that my voice didn’t shake at all. Lachlan’s eyes widened as he took in the prosthesis, then lifted again to my face.

“I ken it … I ken you looked familiar. You’re the daughter of Helen Winters, aren’t you? You were the one whose own father ripped off your leg. I saw you in her YouTube videos—”

“We’re on the street,” I said sharply, dropping my leg. “I don’t go by that name anymore. Thanks for your concern about my safety, but Irvine has gone from my life now. I don’t think he’ll be back.”

His shoulders slumped with relief. “I’m glad to hear it. I just wish there was something I could do to stop them, you ken? I dinnae want anyone else to get hurt.”

An idea started to form in my mind. “Maybe there is something you can do. The werewolves are planning something big. I can’t do anything to stop it, but I know more about it than probably any other human. I can’t go back to London, but if you really want to help stop this evil, then you could go to my mother. I’ll tell you everything I know about what the shifters are planning, and maybe you can help her stop them.”

Lachlan’s face brightened. For the first time, I noticed that he was quite handsome. “I’ll do it. I’ll do anything.”

I gestured to the box of smashed lights sitting on the footpath in front of me. “I have some work to do now. Come to my place at 7 p.m. tonight. I assume you still know where I live. I’ll give you all the information you need.”

We shook hands, and he helped me pick up all the broken glass and throw it into a nearby rubbish bin. I slid the box of unbroken strings into the backseat. “Thank you for listening to me,” he said as I pulled away. I nodded, numb to his bright smile.

My mind whirred as I headed out toward Raynard Hall to deliver the lights. My skin crawled.

Irvine murdered someone. All this time, I’d been sleeping with a murderer. Did the pack know? They must’ve known, because they’d sent Irvine away and said the stalker wouldn’t bother me. They knew Lachlan was after him.

They were supposed to be my friends, but they betrayed me, too.

That’s it. I’m done being the quiet amputee who let everyone walk all over me and make my decisions for me. I am going to take matters into my own hands.

Willow Summers wasn’t just going to lie back and let her life be taken away. Shapeshifters would become public knowledge over my dead body.