#Chapter 58: Getaway Driver
I’m pacing my living room, a glass of whiskey in hand, lost in my thoughts. The night has been a

coc ktail of emotions—high spirits at the party, laughter with Abby… And then, of course, there was the

palpable tension with Chloe.

I thought I had managed to keep my feelings under wraps, maintain the casual facade. But Chloe had

to go and ruin it, filling the air with words like poison darts.

“Stay away from him,” she had whispered to Abby, not knowing that I was within earshot.

Who the hell does she think she is?

I throw myself onto the leather chair, my fingers gripping the armrests, the echo of Chloe’s words still

fresh in my mind. “Stay away from him,” she had said, as though her voice could erect a wall between

Abby and me—a wall I’m not certain even I could scale at this point.

“What is her problem?” I growl to myself, my thoughts a whirlwind of frustration.

“She clearly dislikes you,” my wolf interjects, his voice a rumbling presence in the depths of my

consciousness.

“You think I can’t see that? And it’s not the first time, either,” I retort, my mind slipping back in time, to

another party, another confrontation.

It had been a similar occasion. Friends, laughter, a lively atmosphere.

Abby had been radiant, the center of my universe. But then Chloe had started arguing with me. About

what, I can barely remember.

What I do recall is the anger, my territorial instincts flaring up, the undeniable urge to assert my

dominance. I had ended up kicking her out of the party.

The aftermath was equally vivid. Abby had been furious, her eyes ablaze with a fire I had rarely seen.

“You’re trying to ruin my friendships, Karl,” she had yelled, her voice strained with emotion. She had left

with Chloe, her best friend, her confidant. Abby hadn’t come home for two days. When she finally did,

the atmosphere between us had been colder than a winter night.

were a jerk to Chloe,” she’d told me, her voice

friends, then don’t expect any affection

my hands down my face, the weight of the past settling on my

ever have a

her friends who

husband,” my wolf remarks, a touch of reproach in his tone. “You left

her. What do

I know I screwed up. And I’m working d mn hard to be a better man—to be the

tinged with bitterness.

me a

whispers, his voice softening. “She might not fully realize

wouldn’t allow you back into her life, even in the

has.”

lean back into the chair, letting the words sink in, a tiny glimmer of hope in a sea of doubt and

does see the changes in me.

to rebuild what

the coffee table, ripping me from my internal monologue. The caller

Gianna, my ever-efficient

“Hello?”

she says without preamble. “Your Council has called

meeting. Can you come?”

pack. The responsibilities I’ve been skirting ever since I moved to the city.

it off any

my teeth. “I’ll be

life I left behind and the one I’m

act, and sometimes I

on cue, my phone buzzes again, pulling me back

sense of dread mingling with anticipation.

calling?

I answer, trying to keep my

me,” she stammers, her voice tinged with anxiety. “I had to get

lost. And—”

to get you,” I interrupt, my heart pounding.

by a

coat and head for the door, locking my apartment with an

in my car in record time, my phone guiding me

mulling over what the hell is

each other like a couple of lovestruck teens, and the

friend tells her to keep her

up in the middle of the night when she

villain in their narrative, or just

short as my phone indicates that I’m nearing Abby’s location.

eventually catching sight of

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