Page 119 of How to Lose a Pack in 10 Dates

“Uh,” Cam says, blinking at his screen. “Guys?”

Wes doesn’t leave the kitchen. “What.”

“I think…” Cam swallows. “I think she published it.”

My heart kicks hard in my chest. I’m already reaching for my phone before the words fully register. “The article?”

“Yeah.” He nods slowly. “I set up notifications for her pieces a few weeks ago. It’s… gone live.”

I open the publishing site—the same one she’d mentioned before, the one Cam had sent the sample link from a few weeks back—and there it is.

How to Lose a Pack in 10 Dates.

My thumb hovers over the title. For a second, I can’t press it. I can’t move.

Wes steps toward the kitchen door, coming back into view. “If it’s the one we saw—”

“It’s not,” Cam says quietly.

I tap the link, brace myself; and freeze.

He’s right. It’s not the hit list. Not the cold, calculated sabotage we found on her laptop. The layout’s the same, but the content…

The content iscompletely different.

Step 1: Walk into their lives like you own the place, even when your knees are shaking. Even when you're terrified they’ll smell right through you.

Step 2: Make promises you don't know if you can keep—but want to. Desperately.

Step 3: Start to fall for the gym rat with the broken past and the softest mouth you’ve ever kissed.

Step 4: Realize the golden retriever isn’t just sweet—he’s safe. Steady. The kind of Alpha who holds your heart without asking for it first.

Step 5: Let the one who broke you into pieces become the one you trust to keep you warm when the rest of the world feels cold.

Step 6: Watch them start to see you. Really see you. And hate that you ever planned to walk away.

Step 7: Tell yourself you’re still in control, even as your scent starts clinging to the walls and their shirts end up in your bed.

Step 8: Write two articles. One to fool yourself. One to tell the truth.

Step 9: Get caught before you’re ready. Get judged before you can explain. Realize you never should’ve waited to say it.

Step 10: Love them anyway.

I blink, trying to absorb it all. I read it again, slower this time. My hands go still, but my heart doesn’t.

She didn’t publish the plan. She publishedthe truth.

At some point while I was reading, Wes comes back into the room. He’s holding his phone, but he’s not looking at it. His shoulders are locked and stiff, his face completely unreadable.

“She was telling the truth,” I say, a little stunned. “That night—she tried to tell us.”

Cam doesn’t move for a beat. Then he lets out a long, shaky breath as his phone slides from his hands to the cushion beside him.

“I didn’t even let her talk,” Cam breathes out. His voice cracks—full-on breaks on the last word. “She looked me in the eye and begged, and I—I just stood there.”

He drags a hand over his face, and for the first time in days, I see something new in him. Not anger. Not heartbreak.

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