Ashley POV

After hearing the sound of the front door key, I nearly snapped the pen in my mouth out of sheer frustration. But I didn’t. Instead, I put the pen down and took a long, deep breath. Pushing the pain in my heart out of my mind— something that felt both easier and harder to do each time.

Easier, because I knew I could suppress the pain with sheer willpower, and willpower was something I rarely lacked. Harder, because a part of me, the part buried deep within my wolf, actually wanted the suffering to stay. It was masochistic, purely so, but the act of stitching my shattered heart...