THE WRECKAGE

EVELYN

​I am going to die.

​The thought is not frantic. It is cold, just like the snow biting into my bare skin. The blizzard is a white wall of fury. The wind whips my hair across my face, blinding me. My feet are numb. My hands are blue. The pain in my chest, the bleeding wound where the mating bond used to be, is so intense it makes the freezing temperature feel like a mercy.

​Get up, a voice whispers.

​It is not my wolf. She is dormant from the rejection. This is the primal instinct of a mother. Move. Or they die. The twins.

​I gasp, forcing air into my burning lungs, and push myself up from the snowbank. My limbs feel like lead. I stumble toward the garage, slipping on the ice.

​I do not have my duffel bag, my coat, or my phone. But I have a secret. Three months ago, when Elena announced her return, I taped a spare key underneath the rear bumper of my old SUV. The clunky vehicle Kael hated.

​I reach the garage. My fingers are so stiff I can barely curl them. I claw at the underside of the bumper. The tape is frozen solid. I rip a fingernail, bleeding onto the snow, but the key falls into my hand.

​I scramble into the driver seat. The engine sputters before roaring to life. I do not wait for the heater. I slam the car into reverse, tires spinning on the ice before finding traction.

​I tear out of the driveway, the gates opening automatically for the transponder. I do not look back at the master bedroom window. I drive straight into the white abyss.

​Ten minutes. That is how long I make it before I see the headlights.

​I am on the winding cliff road leading out of pack territory. To my left is a sheer rock face. To my right, a hundred foot drop into the ravine below. Visibility is near zero. Then, bright beams flood my rearview mirror.

​A black lifted truck with no license plates.

​My heart hammers against my ribs. Is it Kael? Is he coming to bring me to the dungeons?

​The truck accelerates, moving too fast for the icy conditions, and slams into my rear bumper. The impact snaps my head back. My car fishtails toward the guardrail. I wrestle with the wheel, pumping the brakes, screaming as I narrowly avoid the edge.

​Kael promised a hunt. This is an execution.

​The truck hits me again, harder this time. Metal screeches. Shattered glass rains down as my rear window explodes. They are trying to kill me. Elena. She cannot risk me surviving the cold. She needs a tragic body to cement her place as the supportive Luna.

​I will not let you take them, I snarl, a surge of adrenaline cutting the cold.

​I slam my foot on the gas. My old SUV groans, pushing forward. I take a sharp turn, drifting dangerously close to the edge. The truck driver creates a pit maneuver, clipping my back tire.

​A perfect hit.

​Time slows down. My car spins. The world tilts. The guardrail buckles like paper.

​Gravity violently lurches as the ground disappears beneath my tires. We are falling. I scream silently, wrapping my arms around my stomach, curling forward to shield the tiny sparks of life inside me.

​Please, I pray to the Moon Goddess. Take me. But save them.

​The impact is deafening. Crunching metal. Shattering glass. A sudden violent stop throws me against the airbag. Then, darkness.

​KAEL

​The whiskey burns my throat, but it does not numb the ache in my chest.

​I stand by the study window, staring out at the blizzard. It has been an hour. Is she dead yet? The vile thought comes unbidden. I push it away. She is a rogue. She tried to kill Elena and my unborn heir. She deserves this.

​I look at my hand. It is shaking. I rejected her. The bond is severed. I should feel relief. Instead, I feel hollow. A phantom pain lingers in my chest, a coldness no amount of alcohol can chase away.

​"Kael?" Elena sits on the leather sofa, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a bandage on her forehead. She looks fragile and utterly terrified. "Is she gone?"

​"Yes," I say, my voice rough. "She is gone."

​"I am so afraid," Elena says, tears spilling down her cheeks. "She wanted to kill me. She kept screaming she was pregnant. I knew she was lying. She just wanted to hurt the baby."

​I clench my jaw. Evelyn lying about a pregnancy to stop a rejection was a low, pathetic blow. "You are safe now," I tell her. "She cannot hurt you."

​My phone buzzes on the desk. It is Gamma Marcus, head of the patrol units.

​"Report," I bark.

​"Alpha," Marcus sounds urgent over the roar of the wind. "We found a vehicle on Route nine near the ravine. It is the Rogue SUV. There was an accident. It went off the cliff."

​My blood runs cold. The glass in my hand shatters. Shards slice into my palm, but I feel nothing. "Is she alive?"

​"The car is on fire, Alpha. The explosion was massive. Nothing could have survived it. We are trying to put it out, but the storm is too strong."

​I hang up.

​I do not remember running to the garage or driving. Just a red haze of panic blinding me to the icy roads. I arrive at the ravine twenty minutes later. The scene is a nightmare. Police lights flash against the snow in violent strokes of red and blue.

​Gamma Marcus stands by the broken guardrail. I shove past him. Down in the gully is a twisted heap of burning metal. The fire rages despite the snow, a bright pyre in the darkness.

​"Kael!" Marcus grabs my arm as I try to climb over the rail. "It is too dangerous! The gas tank is unstable!"

​"Let me go!" I roar, throwing him off with a burst of Alpha strength.

​I scramble down the slope, sliding on the ice, tearing my suit. The heat hits me. The smell of gasoline. Burning rubber. And the smell of blood.

​I stop. Lying in the snow, thrown clear of the wreckage, is a piece of fabric.

​I pick it up. It is scorched, but I recognize it. The grey wool scarf I bought her for Christmas two years ago because I did not know what else to get. I clutch it to my chest, inhaling deeply to find her scent. Burnt rosemary. Vanilla. Blood.

​I look at the inferno. There is no body. There is nothing left to bury.

​The hollow feeling expands, swallowing me whole. A primal scream of loss builds in my throat, defying logic. I hated her. She was a monster. So why does it feel like I just died?

​I fall to my knees in the snow, clutching the burnt scarf. For the first time in twenty years, the Alpha of the Obsidian Pack weeps.

​EVELYN

​Pain. It is the only thing that exists. I am so cold.

​I open my eyes. I am lying in the snow, hidden by a cluster of pine trees. The car is burning below me. I managed to crawl out and drag myself away before the tank blew. My leg is broken. I can see the bone pressing against the skin. My head is bleeding.

​But my hands are on my stomach.

​Thump. Thump.

​Faint. Weak. But there. They are alive.

​I hear sirens above. I hear shouting. Kael? No. He has to think I am dead. If he finds me, he will finish what Elena started. I have to disappear.

​A shadow falls over me. I flinch, expecting death.

​"Easy now," a deep, gravelly voice says.

​I look up. A man stands over me wearing a long black coat. He has silver eyes and a scar running down his cheek. He smells like rain and old magic. A Rogue.

​"Please," my vision fades. "Do not kill me. My babies."

​The man kneels. He looks at the burning car, then back at me with a sad smile.

​"I am not going to kill you, little wolf," he says. "I am going to make you a Queen."

​He scoops me into his arms effortlessly.

​"Sleep now," he commands. "When you wake up, Evelyn is dead. And the retribution begins."

​I let the darkness take me.