Silver in September

At nineteen, Ayla Draven was rejected at the Mating Moon by Roman Kessler, the boy who was not ready to be Alpha and could not stand the pack's eyes on him. She left Blackpine that night. Twelve years later she runs a bear-rehabilitation center in the mountains and treats wild animals with silver wounds, and when Blackpine's Alpha is poisoned by the very metal she knows, Roman has to call the only person in the state who can build the antidote. Ayla comes back for the formula. Not for him. Fourteen days on the trails they ran as teenagers. An old Luna who asks her to stay. An antitoxin tested first on Ayla's own arm. On day fourteen the Alpha wakes, and Ayla hands Roman the vial, the formula, and a letter that says she is leaving for a different state — not because of what he did, but because of what she built without him. He can visit in the spring. The road west is hers.