Chapter 3

The wind on the back mountain cut like a blade across my face. Through the crack beneath the warehouse door came a faint, pitiful moan—Ryan's voice.

My heart dropped, and I couldn't bear to imagine what I'd find inside.

I kicked the rickety door open. A wave of mildew hit me like a fist.

Ryan was curled on a tattered mat in the corner, his lips an unnatural shade of blue-purple, hands clawing at his own arms so hard his nails were practically digging into flesh—the suppression reaction before a forced shift.

I recognized that gesture. He'd done the same thing before the last blood moon, trying to use pain to override the agony of bones threatening to snap and rearrange themselves.

This wasn't ordinary cold—with only three days until the blood moon and no moon pool energy to suppress it, his body was already burning through what little strength he had left.

I could already picture it: in a few more hours, his bones would start twisting beneath his skin.

"Ryan!" I lunged forward, stripped off my coat, and wrapped it around his freezing body.

"Selina..." Ryan's eyes fluttered open, his voice barely a whisper. "I'm sorry. I'm holding you back. Tessa said... she said it's because I didn't behave that the Alpha doesn't want us anymore."

"Don't listen to that bitch!"

I pulled him close, tears burning in my eyes, but I forced them back. "They don't deserve us. I'm getting you out of here. We're leaving this hellhole."

Just as I tried to lift Ryan onto my back, the sharp click of heels on concrete echoed closer, each step like a countdown.

I froze, slowly shifting Ryan behind me.

They'd known I'd come here. They'd planned this.

Elvira and Tessa strode in with several pack enforcers, their laughter grating like nails on glass.

Elvira covered her nose, her face twisted in disgust as she surveyed the warehouse.

"Jesus, what died in here?"

She made a show of fanning the air. "Selina, you see? You just had to make Callum angry. If you'd just done what you were told, Ryan would still be in the warm medical ward right now."

"Get out," I growled, shielding Ryan like a cornered lioness.

"You've still got the balls to talk back?" Tessa stepped forward, emboldened by the enforcers backing her up, and jabbed a finger at my face.

"Selina, you're accused of stealing classified pack documents. Your resource allocation has been revoked! This warehouse is only here because Miss Elvira was generous enough to give you and your brother somewhere to shelter!"

"Stealing classified documents?"

The words hit like ice water. For a split second, doubt crept in. Had I actually—? No.

The next instant, rage burned it away.

Ridiculous. This new accusation was even more vicious than "the wolfless don't deserve medical resources."

These people would throw any kind of dirt on me to justify their cruelty.

It would take one phone call to verify the truth, but Callum had believed Elvira's word without question.

Or maybe he didn't care about the truth at all. He just needed an excuse to crush me.

"Elvira, you think this cheap trick will make me bow to you?" I stared her down. "You're just jealous that Callum still carries my mate mark."

The words struck a nerve. Elvira's expression darkened, a flash of undisguised murder in her eyes.

"A wolfless wretch's mark doesn't count as a mate bond." Elvira sneered and flicked a glance at the enforcers behind her. "Drag that little waste out here. Since they stole from the pack, they need to be punished."

Two enforcers clamped down on Ryan's bony arms and hauled him into the air.

I watched his small body dangle, toes scrambling uselessly for the ground, reaching for something—anything—and finding nothing.

"Let him go! What are you doing!" I threw myself forward, but a dull pain exploded in my stomach—Tessa's boot slammed into my gut.

The pain shot up my throat. Before I could even scream, I hit the ground hard, vision swimming.

"Selina!" Ryan thrashed in terror, but a wolfless boy's strength was nothing against adult werewolves.

"If she doesn't suffer today, you'll never learn. You'll just keep throwing yourself at my husband." Elvira walked up to Ryan, her sharp nails trailing across his pale cheek in a mockery of tenderness.

A thin line of blood welled up, stark against his ghostly skin.

All sound seemed to vanish except for my heart hammering in my chest—once, twice—so hard I thought it might burst through my ribs.

"Elvira, you touch one hair on his head, and I swear I'll kill you." I clutched my stomach, glaring at her with so much hatred that even she took a step back.

"Kill me? You?" Elvira laughed. "You trash aren't fit to polish my shoes. Take this little waste to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Let him cool off out there. Might clear his head."

The Forbidden Forest. Where rogues and predators roamed.

I thrashed like a wild animal, but the enforcers pinned me to the ground.

I could only watch as they dragged Ryan away.

Any illusion I'd had left about Callum shattered completely.

He wasn't deceived. He was complicit.

He'd allowed Elvira to trample my last boundary, allowed the entire pack to grind me into the dirt.

I lay there on the frozen mud, nails digging into my palms until blood mixed with the filth beneath me. The pain sharpened my mind instead of dulling it.

I would make them pay.

I would make Elvira, Tessa, and Callum—that hypocrite—watch everything they have turn to ash.