Chapter 3

Davina

It felt like air left my lungs the moment I saw my father shaking on the floor and more foam pooling down his lips. I couldn’t move my body, and I couldn’t hear a single thing.

Everything simply stopped. I just couldn’t move. It all happened so fast.

Tears clouded my eyes.

“Dad!” I called out, but still he wouldn’t move. My knees finally gave out, and I fell before him. Rushing over his body, I hauled him into my hands. I could still feel his heartbeat.

Even though it was weak.

My father was epileptic. His seizures always came at random.

I needed to get help, to take him to the hospital, so I ran back outside, reaching for the neighbors and banging on their doors. No one was around. I ran to the other side, hitting on every door until one finally opened.

Someone came out.

“What's the problem, Davina? Is anything wrong?” Liz said, an old lady and my father's close friend.

“Yes, my dad, he’s having seizures again. Please, I need someone to carry him to the hospital. I need a ride,” I said breathlessly.

Liz stared at me, her expression almost blank. She lacked the enthusiasm I expected her to have once I mentioned my dad.

“The hospital is at the pack borders, Davina.”

“And so? If we get there, we can save him. I don’t know how long he has been like that. Can you please, please help him? He’s going to die.”

She bit her lip, her brows knotting as she said, “Have you paid your debt? It's the end of the month. If the Alpha's tax collectors come and they don’t find you, if word goes around that I was the reason you are not around, I will be in trouble.”

Once again, my chest tightened and the air was knocked out of my lungs.

“What? My dad… he might die and you…”

She tried to shut the door. “I am sorry, Davina. I wish I could help you this time, but I can't.”

“What? No, no! Please, you can’t do this, please!” I pushed her door open, trying to stop her.

“You can’t do this to me, Liz, please.”

“Please stay away from me, Davina. I don't want trouble.” She shut the door, jamming my hand. Pain jolted through my body. I staggered backward while flinging my hand in the air.

My nails were already pulled out by the force.

How could she do this? How?!

When my father was healthy, he would do anything for our neighbors, and they knew this. A ride to the pack borders would take barely thirty minutes. Why would she do that? Why now? Now that I needed her the most.

“Liz, please.” I was welcomed by silence.

There was no way I could help my dad get to the hospital. Does that mean I'll just let him die? Let him sit there and do nothing? Liz was the last neighbor on the block who could help me. If she didn’t, then no one else would.

All my effort was futile.

I weakly turned and aimed for the door of my house, my heart breaking over and over again. I just couldn’t hold myself together.

I walked over to the house. He wasn’t shaking, he had already stopped, and the pace of his heartbeat had reduced. He was slowly dying.

I just held him there until I heard the footsteps of the tax collectors at my door, jamming their hands against it as if they were going to break it down.

They eventually pushed through and entered my house. One of them saw me on the floor with my father in my arms.

“She’s here,” he yelled to his other comrades, but I didn’t flinch. I didn’t say a word. He looked down at me in confusion.

“Is this some form of drama to avoid paying up, huh, little girl?” another man said. “Let me just inform you it’s not going to work.”

“It's the girl from those sex videos,” one of them said, and my heart ached. “She’s even hotter in person.”

I ignored them. I thought more about how I was going to survive once I was cast out of the borders.

If my dad died, there would be no one in the entire world who could protect or care for me. I would be completely alone, wandering and hunting in the wilderness.

“Shut up!”

“What did I do wrong? She's the same girl, right?”

“Hello Davina, we are here to take the last installment for the debt. Where is it?” One of the collectors crouched to my level. He looked older, his eyes were calmer.

“I don’t have it,” I said weakly, tears dropping down my cheeks.

“What do you mean you don’t have it? That's not an option. It’s an offense punishable by law.”

“I don’t have it,” I muttered again.

“Well, you know we have to bring you to the Alpha if you don’t have it.”

“Or she could show us some of her bedroom moves.” One of them behind chimed in. The man who crouched before me closed his eyes tightly and pressed the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

“Don’t be stupid, she’s an asset to the Alpha now.”

“What? She and her father are going to get banished anyway. We would be doing her a favor.”

“No. Cuff her. We are taking her to the Alpha. She's the pack's property, not ours.” He stood up and demanded that the other two take me, but I raised my hands.

“Wait, please help me. My father is sick. Please take him to the hospital. I will follow you to the pack house, please.”

“Young lady, you can’t be making demands.”

“Please, please, he’s epileptic. Of what good would he be if he’s not treated? If we must get banished, I would like to be banished with him.” His eyes softened, and for the first time today, I truly saw any form of empathy.

He looked between my dad and me. “If we take him to the hospital, he would be there for more than a day. The pack rules clearly state that all defaulters must be banished or executed. How do you intend to stay longer than a day if you are going to be banished tonight?”

I had no idea how to be a rogue. I had dreaded it my whole life, but if I was ever going to be banished, I was going to do it with my father. He cannot die now.

“I won’t be banished tonight. Take me to Alpha Atlas.”