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    Julian’s POV


    I said her name before I could catch myself, and a storm of emotions swelled inside me. Looking more closely at Healer Amanda,


    her resemnce to myte ex-wife was less apparent than I’d first thought.


    Whereas Amber’s hair had been deep, dark brown, Healer Amanda’s was like liquid gold. Healer Amanda’s face was scarred, at


    least the part I could see. Her mask covered her chin.


    Yet these emotions, this jolt of recognition, had lit up my whole body. There was a familiar shifting inside me. Could it be? Was


    Rory, my wolf, ready toe out of his dormant slumber?


    Rory stirred, restless. I wanted to act, to jump up and ask Healer Amanda a million different questions. I had the strange urge to


    take her into my arms. With all of the publicity around Healer Amanda’s arrival to Thorn Pack Hospital, though, the action would


    not be wise.


    I restrained myself, regretfully urging Rory to calm himself.


    I couldn’t help but think of the ne crash, in which my former mate- my chosen mate – had died. It had been a bad day already,


    as she had sent me divorce papers, ready to leave both me and Thorn Pack altogether. I never expected the news that her ne had


    crashed, and as soon as I heard, I had to take action.


    I left headquarters, abandoning Olivia, my fated mate, and the Elders. I hadn’t even taken the time to call a driver. Although I hadn’t driven myself in years, as it was unbing of someone as important as the Alpha as Thorn Pack to do such things


    himself, I still remembered where the keys to thepany cars were kept. I grabbed a set, running to the parking garage and


    pushing the rm button until I located the vehicle the keys in my hand belonged to.


    I drove to the shore, where I knew the pack’s Coast Guard would be sending out rescue vehicles. As Alpha, no one blinked an eye


    when I demanded to be let on one of the vessels headed to the scene of the ident.


    I remember sea spray whipping my face as we rode out into the ocean, not minding the numb feeling the wind and cold water caused. I wasn’t particrly interested in feeling, anyway. I remember the lead investigator informing me that the ne had sunk deep into the ocean already, leaving no survivors behind.


    I remember focusing on the numbness, hoping that it would save me from the deep despair filling my bones.


    “Send down your best dive team. I need Amber Wood’s remains to be located immediately, at any cost.” The investigator looked at me curiously, wondering what Alpha Julian could possibly want with some woman he’d never heard of, but he acted


    professionally, not questioning my orders.


    I stayed on the boat as the dive was performed, pacing anxiously as the sky turned from sunny daylight to darkest midnight.


    They found nothing. The ne had sunk deep into the sea, the wreckage barely visible to even Thorn Pack’s best divers.


    When Beta told me that Amber had been in the hospital for prenatal check-ups, I called her doctor immediately. I didn’t think it


    12:34 PM Tue 26 Aug


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    could be possible, but the doctor’s confirmation broke my heart even further. I hadn’t just lost my wife, but our unborn child, as


    well.


    This never would have happened if it wasn’t for you! Rory snapped at me.


    I could feel him raging inside me. I wanted him to stop, so that I could try to feel nothing at all, but he persisted, furious.


    You got Olivia pregnant. You chose her over your wife, Rory growled. And now Amber is dead, and your child is dead.


    She never would have gotten on that ne if you hadn’t betrayed her.


    “Stop!” I cried out in response. “You heard her. Amber insisted on the separation. This isn’t my fault.”


    Rory didn’t believe me. I felt him scoff in disbelief, giving up on trying to convince me of my fault.


    It didn’t matter. I knew my argument with Amber had driven her away. Regret consumed every part of me.


    I knew that I hadn’t treated Amber the way I should have. I wished I could go back and be better for her, paying more attention to the woman who ran my house and fed me for years, doing special things for her the way she’d done for me. Amber deserved that.


    But it was toote.


    The next best thing to giving Amber her due in life was giving it to her in death. I arranged, personally, for her funeral. Despite resistance from some of the elders, who sneered at the idea of a human woman buried in an Alpha family’s graveyard, even


    symbolically, I had her buried in a plot next to mine.


    I ordered her tombstone to be inscribed with the following: “His ex-wife and former mate.”


    Just as everyone else who’d wondered at my rtion to Amber, the engraver had been shocked when I told him what the tombstone had read. I kicked myself again and again for hiding Amber away, for keeping her hidden. Nobody pressed me for


    details.