CHAPTER 4

"What the hell are you doing here?" I whispered so that Thomas and Victoria couldn't hear me. 

"I didn't have anywhere else to go." He says. 

"I thought you were dead." I say. 

"No. He didn't kill me." Lucas says. 

"I felt the tether break." I say.

"I surrendered. That's why the tether broke and he became your new Alpha." He says. And that was definitely obvious. He looked malnourished, his clothes were filthy and torn, and he smelt like he hadn't bathed in months and huge dark circles under his eyes.

"So, why the hell did you come to me?" I asked pushing him away from the house. This was the last thing I needed.  

"Because I don't have anyone else that I can turn to." He says. 

"Well, you can't turn to me either. I don't want you here. You're just going to get me or my friends killed. Get the hell out of here. Alpha Jackson is already asking questions about me." I say. 

"Why?" He asked, looking at me weird. Like he didn't even understand what I said.  

"Because Jackson thinks I helped you escape and I am still helping you now." I growled at him.

"I need your help Taylor. Please? I have nowhere else to go." He says. 

"That's not my problem. Maybe if you were actually a good Alpha and didn't try to pick a fight with every pack that you came into contact with then you would still have a home and a pack. Your father would be disgusted with you." I say. And his whole face dropped. I knew that it was a low blow, but it needed to be said. His father was a great Alpha. And Lucas lost the pack in less than a year. 

"Where am I supposed to go?" He asked. 

"I don't know. How the hell did you get past the patrols?" I asked. 

"It's a long story and it wasn't easy." He says. 

"Good. I'm glad it wasn't easy. Can you please get the hell out of here. Now?" I asked. I was about to climb in my window when he grabbed my arm and pulled me back down to the ground.  

"What can I say to get you to help me?" He asked. 

"Nothing. I am not risking my life for you. Not when you are the one that brought this on yourself. Just go." I demanded and I climbed in the window and I shut it and closed the curtains. 

I went to the bathroom to have a shower because I was dirty from my run and I washed my hair and then I got dressed and I went back to my room and I sat on my bed doing my homework. Trying to concentrate on my homework was hard. A lot of things are going through my mind right now. And a little panic.

I didn't get much sleep that night so I got up at 5am and I changed into a loose-fitting gray shirt, black tights, socks and sand shoes. 

I left the house and I started jogging along the tree line closest to the town until I got to the obstacle course that was in the woods and I ran up and started running the course until I came out the other end. I started to jog back towards the tree line again when I passed a cave and something moved around inside of it. 

I stopped suddenly to see if I could see anything but it was too dark. But I went to the entrance and I was puffing a lot because I had already been out running for an hour and I just heard someone backing up again. 

"Lucas. Is that you?" I asked after assessing the situation and realizing that there's only one person on pack lands that would be hiding out in a cave. 

Taylor. Shit, I thought you were one of Richmond's people." He says coming to the entrance of the cave and looking the same as last night. Like he still hadn't gotten any sleep.  

"You're lucky that I'm not. What the fuck are you still doing here?" I asked. 

"I told you. I don't have anywhere else to go." He says. 

"Well, you can't stay on these pack lands. They will find you and then you'll be dead. They'll turn you over and he won't believe that I didn't know that you were here." I say.

"Where the hell am I supposed to go?" He asked walking to the entrance of the cave. And I stopped to think about it for a minute. 

"Alright. There's an abandoned warehouse just outside the border. On no-man's land. It's not used for anything and I've never seen anyone there. That's probably your safest bet right now." I say. 

"Okay. Which direction?" He asked. 

"Northeast." I say. 

"Thank you. I appreciate it." He says. But I just shook my head and kept on jogging away from Lucas.

When I got back to the house I had a shower and I got changed and I went back into my room. I put all my things together in my bag and I grabbed out my savings and I sat there counting it. $3800. That wasn't too bad considering I needed to pay for everything myself. Victoria had put locks on all the kitchen cabinets and fridge so that I couldn't steal their food while they weren't looking. So, I really was on my own. I needed to completely fend for myself. So that kind of savings was pretty good. But that still wasn't enough for me to leave this house. I needed a lot more if I was going to get a good start in life and get a house on my own. I was just glad that James gave me as many shifts as he could.  

When I left my room that morning I was walking down the hallway to the front door when I heard someone come out of the kitchen. 

"How the hell did you get in last night?" Victoria asked. 

"I picked the fucking lock." I say.

"That's breaking and entering." She snapped. 

"Not if I live here." I say.

"It's my house." She yelled. 

"Then go dob me into the Alpha. Go on. I dare ya." I say. And I knew that she wouldn't because then she would have to explain why she had locked me out in the first place. And we all knew that he wouldn't look kindly upon her for doing that to me. She would get more of a punishment than me. 

"Don't fucking do it again." She growled at me before walking away. 

I left the house and I walked to the diner for breakfast and then headed to school. Carter was waiting for me outside as he always did and we walked into school together. He saw the cast gone and I told him that it ripped off when I went for my run last night.

"Are you okay? You look a little distracted." He says. And I realized that he had been talking to me but I hadn't been responding to him at all. I was in a complete daze. 

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just the same old shit." I say. 

"Oh yeah. Victoria again?" He asked. 

"Isn't it always?" I asked. 

"I'm sure if you went to the Alpha and told him how bad things are then he might do something about it." Carter says. I knew that the Alpha would do something about it. But even Carter didn’t know the full extent of everything. It was embarrassing and I didn’t want more people involved in this or knowing about it.

"Just leave it." I insisted. Once I had enough money then I was out of that house. Whether or not I was staying on pack lands or not. 

After work that night I headed to the gym and after the other guys left I helped Ethan pack everything up and although I stayed longer, we just talked tonight. I wasn't in the mood for anything else. But I was sitting on one of the mats and he was sitting right in front of me, so close that we were still touching and he was resting his head against mine. 

"Why don't you quit the diner and come work here at the gym. You'll get more hours and I'll pay you more." Ethan suggested. 

"I love the offer. But I'm afraid that if we spend too much time together like that, then it will ruin things between us." I say. And he just nodded his head in understanding. I looked at Ethan and I could tell that he was worried about me. So I leaned forward and kissed him. He kissed me back and wrapped his arms around my waist. 

Neither of us wanted to stop but I knew that we had to. One of us had to stop it and I knew that it had to be me. Even though I hated myself for it. 

"Listen, I need to get home. Victoria has been unusually bitchy lately. I don't know why. I wish she would go back to ignoring me." I say. 

"If it gets too tough at your place then you know where I live." He says. 

"Yeah. I know. Thank you for that." I say.

"Don't mention it." He says. Ethan stands up and grabs my hands to help me up and I kiss him goodbye and I leave the gym. 

I head home and as soon as I walk in the door I see Victoria standing in the hallway. 

"What the fuck have I done now?" I asked, looking straight at her. And then I heard footsteps in the kitchen. More than one footful of footsteps and a 5 foot 6 women with strawberry blonde hair came into the hallway. 

"Mom. What are you doing here?" I asked running up to hug her. She hugged me back but she had a very serious look on her face. 

I heard someone else come out of the kitchen and I turned to look and I needed to look up at this huge 6- foot 7 man standing in front of me with a very menacing look on his face and a scar along the side of his face that didn't make him look any less menacing. With his brown hair touching his shoulders and his brown goatee making him look like a real badass I felt my stomach drop immediately, knowing exactly who he was. Even though I had never met him before. 

"Alpha Jackson." I say stunned.