Winter closed the door of her room and walked downstairs with her bag; it was almost sun rise so she needed to hurry. Soon the pack life would start again and it wouldn't become so easy to sneak out. 

With the keys her Nana had left her in her bag, she had a goal. The compound was far away from the pack and in pack free territory. Her brothers had no clue it existed so that would give Winter the perfect opportunity to start over. 

Her Nana had confided into Winter about her secret right before she passed. She wanted her to have the keys, Nana had always felt like she may need them one day.

 Winter grabbed the keys of her car; she had worked hard to pay for the jeep so she couldn't simply leave it behind. 

As her hand reached for the front door, she heard something behind her 

"Winter?" 

It was Charlie that stood right behind her. 

"I am leaving." She said without looking at him. 

"You can't" he responded. 

Winter turned around and looked at him. 

"You have no say in it." 

"Yes, I do." He answered. 

She felt deadly calm, it was as if she had completely switch off her emotions. Her wolf was howling inside to let her out, to teach that bastard a lesson. 

"I have no reason to stay here anymore. I am not going to watch how you fuck around." She saw how her words affected him. 

"Maybe I made a mistake." He softly said. 

"I can undo this. You know why I had to." 

"Why Charlie? Because another man touched me?" Winter's voice was deadly calm. 

"No" Charlie answered upset. 

"I failed to protect you a first time, I knew back then that you were my mate. I never should have let you out of my sight. I am not worthy of you." 

Winter nodded her head in denial. 

"It was bound to happen, my father arranged it." She said calm. 

"I don't know what to say." He answered her. 

"Well there isn't really much to say after all." 

"I feel miserable for what I did. You are my mate." 

His eyes were still focused on her. 

"That ship has sailed don't you think?" 

Suddenly the blonde from the party appeared on top of the stairs. 

"Charlie are you coming?" she said. 

"Maybe we can have another go at it." She added a giggle and a wink. 

Winter looked shocked at him. 

"You rejected me and you fucked her?" she asked. 

"Babe go back to bed." 

Charlie said stern and the blonde immediately disappeared. 

"Why are you stopping me from going? You already have moved on that much is clear. I wonder if you even felt the hurt of the rejection at all." She said. 

He dragged his hand through his hair and sighed loudly. Winter looked at him. 

"Guess this is it. I Winter Hope Whitefortis ..." 

"No Winter don't do it." 

He tried to stop her, moved forward and grabbed her arms. He tried to kiss her to stop her from saying the last words, but he failed. 

"... accept your rejection." 

And with that she pulled away from him and walked out of the door.

Aster felt exited as he woke up, he felt different as if something had changed inside of him. He kissed Robin good morning and jumped into the shower. He was so excited to know that his best friend and his sister finally would be mates. 

With that and his sister becoming his beta, a new and better time would start for the pack. As he made his way to his sisters' room, he knocked hard on her door. He waited for a couple of minutes but no answer came. 

His wolf stirred awake 'Something is wrong.' 

He tried to open the door but it was locked. He knocked again and listened carefully. If someone was in that room his wolf could hear him. But nobody was there. Aster made his way over towards Charlie's room with a big smirk. 

He didn't bother to knock but walked straight in, they had always done that to each other, he hadn't plans to stop doing that now. 

As he walked in, he immediately sensed something was off, he saw Charlie still vast asleep but what bothered him the most was that a blonde woman was sleeping next to him, with her arms wrapped around him. That woman was definitely not his sister. 

His wolf started to pace in his head. 

'Something is horribly wrong with her.' He said. 

Aster stalked over towards his best friend and grabbed him harshly. 

"What did you do?" He yelled Charlie awake. 

He opened his eyes confused and still sleepy to look at his best friend. 

"What are you doing man?" He asked. 

"Why are you with her? And not my sister?" Aster asked loudly. 

The blonde next to Charlie stirred awake. 

"Why would I be with your sister?" he asked. 

"Don't play dumb with me, you two are mates." Aster yelled. 

The blonde staired at the fight in front of her, not knowing what was going on. 

"Your sister left." She suddenly said. 

"Charlie tried to stop her, but she left." 

Aster was fuming by now. 

"Get out of his room." 

He hissed between his teeth using his alpha vibes the blonde wasted no time and took off. 

"What did you do?" he repeated his question. 

Charlie felt ashamed about what had happened between him and Winter. Last night his actions all made sense, but this morning that feeling was completely gone. 

"I rejected her." He softly said. 

"You did what?" Aster yelled at him. 

"She found out that we were mates last night. But I am not worthy to be here mate, I failed to protect her. We were too late that night he had already raped her." 

"You are a moron; you did more for her than you possibly could imagine. You warmed her with your wolf when she lay there unconscious. You protected her from everything and everybody. You helped her through my father's twisted decision of letting the guy leave unpunished."

 Charlies shoulders slumped down.

 "And yet I failed to protect her, I failed to prevent it from happening. She found out yesterday that your father arranged it all." 

Charlie was almost crying as realization hit him. He had rejected his mate, the one woman he had ever loved. He had hurt her and chased her away. 

"She said the exact words to me when she found out I was her mate as that night. I couldn't take it. But I tried to stop her, I tried to fix it. She wouldn't listen, she accepted the rejection and she left." 

Aster felt never more disappointed in his life. 

"Then you didn't try hard enough."

"Why are you guys fighting?" 

Falco popped his head in and looked at Aster and Charlie. 

"He chased away our sister." Aster replied and turned around.

He grabbed the key from Winters room from his pocket and walked over. 

"What?" Falco asked following his brother. 

"Winter is gone." Aster said defeated as he opened her room. 

They both looked around and saw that most of her stuff was gone. On her bed lay three envelopes each with the name of a brother. 

"Get River." Aster commanded. 

Falco quickly disappeared as he took a seat on the bed. 

"Why didn't you come to me?" He softly whispered as his hands trailed over the letters holding his name. With trembling hands, he opened it and started to read.

Dear Aster,

It pains me the most that by leaving this place, I have to leave my best friend, my one and only alpha behind.

If you have a stupid plan in your head, then I ask you to let it go. Don't try to bring me back. Too much has happened for me to be here. I am deeply sorry for causing you this pain, but I can't stand to face my pain each and every day. 

Charlie rejected me; I hope you never have to lose Robin because the pain is just unbearable. Hold her tight and close to your chest, cherish her with all your heart. You guys are so good together. 

Charlie's rejection is part of why I have to leave. He clearly hasn't had as much trouble with it as I have, but please don't give him a hard time. He has his reasons, and even though I find them weak and pathetic I get where he is coming from.

Last night something else happened. I hope by now that you feel the changes inside yourself. You are the true alpha of the pack. 

Father and I had a confrontation last night. I am sure that it will stir some commotion in the pack. But you need to know that I never hurt him, all though I tossed some things at him. I simply refused to help him. 

That's another part of why I can't stay. You will become the best alpha that this pack has ever had, there is no shred off doubt in my mind. 

Father did some horrible things, mostly for his own gain. But I am confident that you would never make the same choices. 

Tell the pack about my choices, tell them that you will put them first as you always have. They love you and they will support you.

As for Charlie, keep in mind that he is your best friend. I know that by now you are mad at him beyond words. But you need a good beta, and he will be perfect for the job. He knows you almost as good as I do. Give him a chance to earn your trust back. I know he will need it, and so will you.

I love you beyond words.

I hope that someday our pats cross again.

I look forward to that day.

You will always have a place in my heart.

Love, Winter.

Aster felt how the tears rolled over his cheeks as he looked up, he saw Falco and River standing in the door looking down at him. 

"There is one for each off you." He said. 

"Is she truly gone?" River asked. 

"Yeah and a lot has happened. But I am sure she will explain it to you in her letter." 

They both moved forward and started to read. Right in that moment Charlie came in. 

"She left you letters? Is there one for me?" 

He immediately asked as he saw what they were doing. 

"No there isn't one." Aster replied cold.

 He looked how is best friend took the hit. 

Suddenly Falco and River turned towards Charlie. 

"No, you didn't." Falco yelled. 

He moved forward ready to hit Charlie. 

"Guys, stop it. She wouldn't want this." Aster said. 

"I know she wants everything to stay the same, but I can't live with that." He added.

He looked at Charlie, eyes filled with rage and fire. 

"Charlie Pierce Einar I hereby strip you from your beta position." 

They all looked shocked at Aster. 

But he couldn't care less he simple walked out the room.