He could almost hear her voice echoing faintly in the walls. Memories of her laughter fluttering through the emptiness.

He missed her.

It was a simple truth that he could not even admit to himself. He hated the absence that gnawed at him. It was so great, so incessant that the only way he could cope with it was to pretend. To put barriers around himself, layer by layer. Day by day. So he pushed her away. Distance under the guise of busyness.

Tell me you'll never leave me. Tell me... It taunted him. Look where vulnerability had gotten him....

Camila and Taine both hated needing people.

Even though deep down, they knew they needed each other the most.

--

It was the way his voice sounded that hurt her the most. It reminded her so much of the early days; where the steel that was Taine was impenetrable and unwavering. She almost wanted to stop calling him, but she knew she couldn't. Not because she needed to, she was busy enough – but she knew that not calling was selfish. Selfish and dangerous.

The routine of calling him at 6:00 each night was a reassurance. To let him know that she was okay, that he was important and that she would eventually come home...

What she refused to admit to herself was that their phone calls had become more of a reassurance to herself than it was to him. 'I'm coming home soon, I don't know when but soon...' she'd say in every call. Hoping the weight of the words would travel over the distance between them. Letting them sink into her chest.

Her ninth night, was the night that she realised the words meant nothing. To either of them.

--

This call was more strained than all the others had been. She tried to full the lulls and gaps with mindless chatter, grasping for straws of conversation, but she seriously doubted he cared that the water tasted better at home or that Sammy had started saying 'shit' every chance he got.

"So...How have you been?" She cringed as she said the words, realising this was the third time she had asked the question.

"I'm fine."

She was embarrassed now. What had she expected? That he would launch into a grand narrative detailing his day? That he would tell her how much he missed her?

She mentally screamed. He must think I am so starved for company that I'm willing to listen to the same answer three times.

She pressed her cheeks into Sammy's soft curls. She was cradling his sleeping body and her cellphone, in the hallway of the hospital. They had sat in this exact chair, in this exact position so often in the last week that the plush seat had moulded to the shape of them.

She had lied and told Taine that she was resting in her room. Even though it might not have mattered, she didn't want him to worry that she wasn't taking care of herself, which she knew she wasn't. Pretending things were placid over the phone made it almost seem as if it was, as if it would be.

"How's Ivory?" She bit her lip. If he didn't realise before, he would know now that she was fishing for...something.

"Camila... I have to go. Work to do."

She was taken aback. And hurt.

"Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to keep you."

Silence.

"Taine, I-I miss you."

The way she said it, like a question, like she had never said the words before. They were testing, expectant.

The silence that followed made her think that he had cut the call and hadn't heard her. A moment passed then the dial tone sounded.

"I'll be home soon, she whispered." Knowing her words would be lost. But he hadn't even asked this time.

--

She waited until 6:53 to call him the following evening. She'd make him wait - even if he wasn't waiting. She'd make him wait.

After the seventh ring, Camila was ready to turn off her phone for the rest of the night. An odd sense of relief mixed with longing washed over her.

Her finger hovered over the end call icon, when she heard a, "hello." At first, she didn't realise the strangeness of the sound. Her reflex reaction was to assume the soft female voice answering Taine's phone was Ivory. Her second reaction was to think that she hadn't dialled the right number in the first place. Then, when the foreign female voice said, "hello?" again and she could clearly see Taine's name on her screen. Everything was replaced with shock and anger. Pure anger. Her wolf-side was already on edge and this didn't help.

She hung up and threw her phone on the floor. It hadn't even been two weeks and he already had lady loves answering his phone at obscure hours. So now 'Melissa' was taking his phone calls. Screw giving him the benefit of the doubt. She was sick of this double life she had so long pretended she was unaware of.

Sammy turned from playing with his toys and looked at the phone on the floor.

"Oh shit!"

Hey everyone! I'm pretty much done with exams for the year so I have more time to write. Maybe I'll even finish this book in the next few months. That being said, I'm currently going back and reading my work because honestly, I forgot some things that happened lol. I'm editing lots of dialogue to make the characters more consistent and fixing many mistakes! Some early changes I make won't be so relevant to this point in the story but if it is mentioned at some point and you're confused about a detail - then it might be a late addition to the plot. Nothing substantial will change though so, you don't have to re-read, unless you want to ;)