Chapter 25

Dominic’s car rumbled as he drove us, the familiar scent of leather and pine a small comfort in the anxiety that clung to me. He’d insisted on driving me to Frostborne. Said he wouldn’t let me face them alone. I appreciated it and the fact that the whole drive was blissfully distracting.

I had never thought that watching a man drive with utmost confidence was sexy until now.

As we pulled up to the familiar driveway, a knot tightened in my stomach. Even from this distance, I could feel the weight of the pack’s stares. The whispers started as soon as I stepped out of the car, a low, venomous hum that filled the air. The moving truck that followed pulled up behind us.

We entered the house and I directed the moving crew to my room, waiting downstairs with Dominic.

“Are you sure you want to wait here?”

I nodded. I wasn’t going to let them run me away.

“Traitor,” one voice hissed, sharp and clear despite the distance.

“Where’s the Alpha?” another one called out, their voice laced with accusation.

“What are they going to do to us?” a woman sobbed, her words heavy with fear.

I kept my gaze fixed on the main staircase as people started to come down the stairs with packed boxes. Dominic was a silent, solid presence beside me. The faces that lined the path were a blur of anger and desperation. I tried to ignore them. The sight of them just angered me more than unnerved me. I felt my heart growing harder and harder. I thought back to my funeral. I couldn’t remember any of them in the crowd, nor did it matter.

“Renee, please,” a man I vaguely recognized as one of the people who ran the kitchens. His voice was full of pleading, and I thought back to being a young, hungry teenager and how he’d turned me away from the kitchen without something for my stomach pains, stating that Philip didn’t want me getting fat. “Tell us where he is. They’re saying… they’re saying terrible things.”

“What are they going to do to our families?” a woman cried, tears streaming down her face.

I scoffed. “What families? Don’t blubber like you’ve got small children to feed.”

She sucked in a breath and looked like I’d struck her.

“You can go get a job like everyone who doesn’t have the money to pay for their lifestyles.”

I sneered at all of them.

“You can’t say that! You’re —”

“Where were you all when my father was misusing my inheritance? When he was lining his own pockets and yours with money that was never meant to be yours?”

A hush fell over the crowd. They shuffled their feet and wouldn’t look at me. Cowards. All of them were cowards. It made sense given the way they followed Phillip.

“How many of you,” I continued, my voice gaining a bitter edge, “how many of you benefited from his crimes? How many of you turned a blind eye because it suited you?”

The silence stretched, thick and uncomfortable. No one dared to meet my gaze.

“Now you’re scared,” I said, a humorless laugh escaping my lips. “Now you want answers. But where was this concern, this desperation, when it actually mattered?”

I turned and walked further into the house, heading to the main living room. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to think about it.”

Dominic followed close behind. The whispers started again, softer now, tinged with a shame that felt too little, too late.

The house felt cold and empty, stripped of the warmth it once held. Memories flickered through my mind – sneaking into the kitchen for food, tiptoeing around Phillip, never having anything nice for myself until I was old enough to work and buy it, and even then he’d always had a problem with how I spent my money. I went upstairs, heading to my room. They had already packed most of it. It was smaller than Vivian’s closet, and the only space in the whole house I could close and lock the door.

I spent a lot of time alone in this room, and if I never had to see it again it would be too soon. The packers packed efficiently, and I went behind grabbing the few personal items I had in the room that meant a lot to me: a few books and few pieces of jewelry that had once been my mother’s. I picked up the necklace my mother had given me when I was a child. The chain was to short to wear it as anything but a choker now.

I had been saving up for a longer chain for it, a pang of grief hit me as it hit me that I should have never had to. There had always been money set aside for me. My comfort, my leisure, my whims… Bastard.

I slipped it into my pocket and grabbed a few other things. They’d already packed the rest of the room, so I left the room, following a pair of movers down the stairs. I passed Dominic who was simply staring into the room with this unreadable expression. He turned from the sight, met my gaze, and followed behind me a few moments later.

I got in the car and stayed there until they had taken everything out of the room. Dominic climbed into the car beside me without a word. As we drove away, I didn’t look back. There was nothing left for me there but echoes and the bitter taste of betrayal. My future was uncertain, but one thing was clear: my life in Frostborne was over.

“I had wondered…” he said softly. “Why you were so hard to spoil.”

I frowned and looked at him. Dominic smiled at me—one of those rare, genuine ones that made my stomach feel like it was flipping over itself.

“That’s not a flaw.”

“No,” he said. “But it’s something I’m looking forward to breaking you of.”

I wrinkled my nose. “If you plan to turn me into Vivian, you can drop me on the side of the road.”

Dominic

I laughed, unable to help myself, but then she was just looking out the window and I had run out of words. I glanced sideways at Renee, but she just stared out the window, arms crossed tightly over her chest. Her scent was calm, composed—but I’d learned enough by now to know that with her, composure was more than likely a shield.

“You can talk about it,” I said, turning onto the main road that led into the city.

Her gaze didn’t move. “About what?”

I exhaled sharply. “About your father. About your pack. About the fact that you’re just…walking away.”

She tilted her head, just enough to look at me, her expression unreadable. “What would you like me to say?”

“Whatever would make you feel better.” I hesitated. “Whatever you want.”

She turned fully now, one brow arched. “Really?”

“Yes.” I tightened my grip on the wheel.

She scoffed. “You want me to change my mind.”

“Are you having doubts?”

“No.” I nodded. “I know it seems strange to you, but no… Brightclaw is nothing like Frostborne. Born of ice – cold as a glacier. I’ve seen your speeches about pack bonds. How much you think it matters. How our society is built on it. We don’t stand alone. We stand with our pack.”

I shifted in my seat and nodded. I hadn’t expected her to quote that particular speech.

“But for those of us who have packs like Frostborn, it’s bullshit.”

I nodded. “If not your mother’s birthpack… are you planning to go rogue?”

She didn’t answer. The silence stretched until my frustration surged up to meet it.

“Damn it, Renee—”

She cut me off, her voice ice over fire. “Are you asking as the man who kissed me back, or as a representative of the Judiciary Council, my temporary guardian?”

I opened my mouth. Closed it again.

I didn’t know.

Her gaze searched my face for half a second, and then she looked away, the window reclaiming her attention.

“Don’t worry,” she said, voice cool now, so different from the girl who once smiled up at me like I was someone she could trust. “I remember what you said. That you don’t owe me any wishes. That you only helped because of your integrity. I believe you. I’m grateful for that much.”

My chest tightened. “Renee—”

“You don’t see me as anything more than Vivian’s friend,” she said, voice steady, and then smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Hard on aside, we’re clear on that front.”

I scoffed at that, but I didn’t have the words to explain. One day I might be able to explain it to her, to myself as trying to protect her from things I couldn’t give, society’s judgment, and everything in between, for now, I let the silence settle around us.

By the time we reached the townhouse, we’d driven nearly an hour in complete silence. I pulled into the drive and parked. My pack’s men had already unloaded her things. The moving crew stood respectfully by the truck, waiting for her word.

Renee opened the car door without waiting for me. “Thanks for the ride.”

I watched her go, that proud spine straight as a blade, her scent still a maddening blend of strength and sorrow.

She didn’t look back, and I wasn’t entirely sure I had the right to want her to.