Minutes bleed into hours as I fall in and out of sleep. It must be them trying to use darkness as a mode of torture. Too bad he doesn’t know I lived in it for weeks. Not only that, but I had learned to almost thrive in it. So instead of cowering in the corner like I had been doing earlier, I reminded myself that I can do hard shit, have been all my life, and I made a plan. Or rather, started to. I’ve been strategizing how best to create an opportunity for me to run. It is unlikely that Anna will save me, Onyx, either. For all I know, he is dead. I pull my knees to my chest, forcing my stomach to stop aching and my lungs to cease burning. If he was dead, I’d know it, I’d feel it, right? Mate bond or not, we have a connection that goes beyond fate or soulmates. So there is no way I wouldn’t feel him if he had died. It’s impossible, so I push the thought away and settle in on the truths I know. I know Anna is injured, Onyx was poisoned (fucking Georgie), and Ty went for help before shit

“How the ever living fuck did she get past you?” Ian growls at his scouts. They look at each other before dropping their heads in shame. “Alpha, it’s like she just vanished.” One woman says. “Truly. One moment she was exiting the shack and the next she was gone. She is stealthy.”He sneers at her, taking four menacing steps into her until he has her backed into a tree.“Veronica, Veronica, Veronica. If I wanted fucking excuses, I WOULD HAVE ASKED FOR FUCKING EXCUSES!” He slams his hand into the trunk next to her cheek as she cowers away from him. “Y-yes alpha.” She says, swallowing a lump in her throat as I watch from the coverage of the trees down the row.What Ian doesn’t realize is that I’ve been on his tail for most of the night. Going where they search after the search it, sticking close enough that I can see and hear what I need. If they don’t find me before the apex of the moon, Ian misses his chance for the month. It’s been rather amusing watching him lose his shit with each

I am leaping off the cliff within seconds of learning back up is close by. I tuck and roll out of my premeditated fall, landing with a grunt as I hit the ground roughly. To use my wolf right now would only exhaust my strength and wear him out. If I time it right, I can lean on him when I run out of energy and allow him to take control, finishing whatever I need finished. To use him too early is a risk, and I can’t afford those. Not with her on the line.The second I am up and standing, hands are reaching for me. A quick jump to the side helps me evade their grasp with ease and provides me with an opening. I slam my arm down over theirs and reach out with my other hand gripping the nape of their neck.Another warrior comes at me from the side, and to provide myself some space, I sink my claws into the back of the first warrior’s neck. I swing him around like a human mace, using his body to get myself some space. He howls in pain, his comrades trying to duck and avoid him the best they

Onyx gives my hand a gentle squeeze as he pinches his brow, squinting his eyes, trying to blink the exhaustion away. This is all far from over. In fact, shit is more complicated even with Ian in our hands. Onyx swears he can sense eyes on us watching as we set up camp just outside the border so that I can heal away from all the corpses of the pack that is supposed to be mine. “You could accept the pack, as the Alpha…” He offers and I frown at him. “I don’t want to.” I admit. “The old ways here are so complex and random and barbaric…what if there is no way for me to get out of being the Alpha after I accept? Where would that leave us?”My heart pinches, knowing what his answer will be. I know he would leave his pack for in an instant. Onyx has the luxury of having two good and capable step-ins if needed. And with no real ‘law’ to prohibit Tic from becoming Alpha, it wouldn’t be a terribly difficult transition. But…it is his birthright, his pack, his family name…all given up and away

I move as fast as my pain allows me, trying to close the distance between us. Beckham’s eyes remain on me, trying to calm himself as he goes through routine breathing exercises. He just killed someone, and for someone so young, so genuinely kind…it’s not something to take lightly. We are werewolves, yes, sometimes feral, often borderline barbaric, but that doesn’t make taking a life any easier. Especially for someone who has not yet shifted. Someone innocent, someone like Beckham. “Are you okay?” I ask him, reaching out to place my hand on his shoulder before taking a seat beside him. Beckham shrugs. Then shakes his head no, and then he covers his face and sobs some more. “I don’t know.” His voice is hoarse, like he has been screaming and yet he sounds so small. I still see in him the little guy who I would have tickle wars with, whose face I would wipe clean after sneaking chocolate ice cream in the middle of the night. “You will be,” I assure him.“He deserved it.” He mutters as