~Selene’s POV~
My mother is waiting at the bottom of the stone steps.
She doesn't ask questions. She doesn't say anything at all when I come through the Pack Hall doors and down the wide stone staircase, one hand trailing the rail because my legs are still deciding whether they will cooperate. She simply steps forward and puts her arm through mine, and we walk together to the car.
I don't look back at the building.
---
The drive out of Cresthaven takes eleven minutes.
I know because I watch the clock on the dashboard the way I have trained myself to watch things when the alternative is feeling them. Seven forty-three when we pull away from Pack Hall. Seven forty-nine when we pass the turn for Larkspur Lane, already curtains drawn, already empty. Seven fifty-four when the last of the
