(Unedited) Rejection hurts. It can break many people apart. Slowly crushing their souls and silencing their wolfs forever. Unfortunately, that happened to Christina Prior. Ever since she was little, she always dreamed about getting a mate. Growing up, she soon faced the reality that her own soul mate didn't want her, but her gorgeous best friend. The one thing that would help her wolf and herself heal from the damage was to leave the pack and disappear. She did just that. Now three years later, she returns back to her pack not as a badass she-wolf, but a dying wolf. She has terminal cancer with only three months left. Let's just say that it would be nice to hear someone say "Don't Leave."

• • • • • Watching from afar has become my new way of life. Watching my friends be happy, watching my peers live in a blissful ignorance, and watching my family watch me wither away. Being diagnosed with cancer was a painful punch to the gut, a wake up call I didn't think I needed. And as I watched my family crumble apart under the weight of my sickness, I made the decision that nobody else would ever know. So my cancer is my secret, it's locked away in so many vaults that nobody will ever be able to reach it. Not even Zach Dawson.

❛ he had loved her for years, centuries, eons even. he had loved her from the very first touch, from the very first word upon her sweet lips. ❜ all grayson had ever wanted was his chryssie.