After her morning run through the misty forests of Kunming with her wolf, Baihu, Venus went upstairs to check on Zhao Xin. He had shifted back into human form after an exhausting night of patrol, and she was surprised to find Liu Mei beside him on the bed. Even more shocking—liu Mei was feeding him honey cakes from a red lacquer box, her fingers brushing Zhao Xin's lips as if it were a sacred offering.
Venus's heart tightened.
"Venus!" Liu Mei said cheerfully when she noticed her. "I just came to see if Zhao Xin was healing well. I made these cakes with royal jelly and ginseng root—good for werewolf stamina."
"That's... thoughtful," Venus said, masking her emotions with a polite smile.
Zhao Xin looked all too happy to chew on the sweet, even though his eyes flicked briefly to Venus as she lingered in the doorway.
"I'll see you at ritual training," Liu Mei said as she reached for another cake.
Venus nodded and left, reminding herself she had no right to feel jealous. Liu Mei was the type to be happy with any attention Zhao Xin gave. If he lost interest, she'd probably start flirting with Liu Hao or Sun Lei without missing a beat.
Venus wasn't like that. Her emotions were rooted deeper—like tree roots winding around ancient bones.
She headed to the training fields where Zhao Wei, the pack's Head Combat Elder, was barking orders. During the water break, she pulled Chen Zixin, Liang Zhihao, and Lin Yue aside. They had been with her since their first transformation and had voted her captain of the training circle, a high honor for any beta-ranked wolf.
They deserved the truth.
"You all know Tianyu lives near the border of the Jade Fang and the Mountain Shade packs, right?" she began, shifting uncomfortably.
Liang Zhihao nodded. "We know he's transferring, Venus."
She blinked. "You knew?"
Chen Zixin glanced at Liang. "His father trades moon herbs with my uncle. Word gets around. Elder Zhao Wei knows, too. We figured he'd tell you himself."
Venus wasn't sure whether to feel betrayed or relieved. Trusting packmates wasn't as simple as it used to be.
That evening, her father, Luo, was watching an old pack dispute replayed on the commune's screen in the gathering hall. She waited until a lull in the growls before approaching.
"Father, I need to talk to you about the Eastern Medicine Symposium," she said.
He muted the sound. "What about it?"
"I was supposed to travel with Gao Tianyu, but he's going alone now. I don't trust my old motorbike to make it over the Sichuan hills. Could I use the pack's rover or... could you drive me?"
"I can't," he replied flatly. "There's a summit with the elders of the Iron Fang pack. Either find someone else or cancel. I'd get my silver tokens refunded."
"I want to go," she said firmly.
He held up his hands. "Then figure it out. You know I don't believe in those medicine dreams of yours. No wolf healer has ever earned a high rank outside pack territories. You're wasting your time."
"Liu Fang got accepted to the Jade Temple Academy."
"Liu Fang will be chewed apart by the politics there before the moon wanes. Mark my words."
Venus tried everyone—lin Yue, Chen Zixin, Liang Zhihao. All had commitments. Even her wolf, Baihu, couldn't help her this time.
Four days later, just when she thought she'd have to walk to the symposium barefoot if she had to, there was a knock at her door.
"It's Zhao Xin," he called. "Open up."
She opened it to find him standing there, arms crossed, eyebrows raised.
"What now?" she asked.
"You," he replied bluntly. "You've been moping around like someone fed you bitterroot."
"I'm allowed to feel down," she said defensively.
"You've stopped teasing me. You haven't once called me a city-born mutt or mocked my moon potions. I mean, you yawned when I took off my tunic last week!"
"That's because I was applying medicine to your claw marks!"
"We had a rhythm, Venus. Now you're throwing it off."
"Wait—you're mad that we're not arguing?" she asked, bewildered.
He threw his arms in the air. "And you didn't even notice that I've been walking falkor every morning and he sleeps in my room now. I bet you wouldn't even care if I renamed him Prince Hairball."
She squinted at him. "That's the dumbest name I've ever heard."
Zhao Xin wasn't amused. "I'm serious. What's going on?"
She wanted to scream: You. Football. Gao Tianyu. Everything. But instead, she shrugged. "None of your business."
"Well, you've had days to sulk about Tianyu. Snap out of it."
"Oh, like you're so emotionally stable?" she snapped. "Why don't you read that letter from your grandmother?"
Zhao Xin went stiff. He turned on his heel and stormed downstairs.
She followed. "You're using me as a distraction because you don't want to think about that letter."
"I'm not afraid of her," he muttered.
"You're acting like you are. She wants to see you before she dies, Zhao Xin. You should go."
"She abandoned me," he growled. "I'm not traveling halfway across the province to indulge a dying woman's guilt."
"She made mistakes. So have you," Venus said.
He grabbed a honey cake from Liu Mei's container and bit into it. Then winced. "Tastes like dried moss and regret."
"Stop deflecting."
He growled low in his throat, but she didn't back down.
They entered the den, filled with Zhao Xin's unpacked belongings. The letter lay on a crate, the red wax seal still unbroken.
"When I said I missed the old you," he muttered, "I didn't mean the annoying one."
Venus crossed her arms. "And when I said I wasn't moping over Tianyu, I meant it."
"Fine."
"Fine. But you still need to read that letter."
She left the room.
He called after her, "And Tianyu's still a self-serving fox."
Zhao Xin closed the door and stared at the letter. Again.
Yesterday he almost burned it. Today, he stared at it like it might bite.
Falkor looked at him from across the room.
"Catch," Zhao Xin said, flicking the letter toward the wolf like a toy.
Falkor watched it land near his paws, then yawned.
Zhao Xin shook his head. "Useless."
He wasn't scared of some old parchment. He was scared of losing his mother—the only one who ever saw both sides of him: human and wolf.
He had seen her waste away, her fur brittle, her body thinning until the transformation almost killed her. That had terrified him.
But this letter?
No.
He wasn't afraid of a letter from a woman who had given him away like an unwanted pup.
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