137 Ashleigh

‘Abandon Winter?’ she thought, ‘Selfish desires… this is what he thinks of me? Of everything I have done for our pack… our family?’

Ashleigh felt heavy and weighted down in sorrow. But, Caleb’s warmth, acceptance, and love entered her mind.

She realized that she didn’t have to feel this way anymore.

“I’m tired of feeling like this….” Ashleigh sighed.

She looked at her father and shook her head as she let out a bitter laugh.

“I have worshipped you my entire life,” she said. “I have always done everything you asked of me and more.”

Wyatt looked away from her.

Ashleigh closed her eyes, the tears falling.

“When I was eight years old, dying in the mountain during the blizzard, all I could think was how much I would disappoint you by failing.”

Caleb had saved her on the mountain.

The man she loved, the man that was meant for her, was the reason she had lived that day. A story that she should have viewed as a sign of their bond.