Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2: The Long, Dark Road to Nowhere

Allison's POV

For a second, the world just… stopped and the sound of my own heart screaming in my ears was the only thing I could hear.

Theo. My baby. My whole world. He was hugging her leg and did he just called her Mommy?!

He hadn’t even looked at me.

My brain scrambled, trying to find a logical explanation where there was none. This wasn't just my husband banging some red hair in our bed. This was something else.l entirely.. This had to be dark fucked-up magic!

“Theo?” The word came out as a broken whisper and I cleared my throat, forcing strength I didn’t have into my voice. “Baby, come to Mommy.”

He finally looked over at me and my hope shattered..!

His little face, usually so full of light and love for me, was blank. Worse than blank. It was confused and wary like I was a stranger who’d just yelled at him.

He buried his face deeper into Victoria’s thigh. Her hand came down, stroking his hair with a possessiveness that made my wolf snarl inside my head.

“No,” I said, my voice getting louder and sharper. “No, what the hell did you do to him?”

Derek just stood there, leaning against the doorframe of our destroyed bedroom, looking bored like this was a mildly inconvenient TV show.

Victoria had the audacity to smile down at my son with that same vicious smirk from before.

“He just knows where he belongs, darling,” she purred.

“Don’t you fucking ‘darling’ me, you psychotic Barbie doll!” I snapped, taking a step forward. “Theo, honey, it’s me. It’s Mommy. Look at me.”

Theo flinched. He actually flinched away from my voice and then a low scared whimper came from him. A sound I’d only ever heard when he had a nightmare. Now, I was the nightmare..!

White-hot rage burned through the shock as I spun on Derek.

“What is this? What kind of sick spell did you put on our son? Lift it. Lift it right now, Derek, or so help me...”

“There’s no spell, Allison,” he said flatly and coldly. “He sees clearly now. He sees you for what you are.. a disruption and a mistake he doesn’t need to be burdened with.”

The casual cruelty of it stole my breath. I launched myself at him, not to hit him, just to shake some fucking sense into him, to make him see what he was doing.

“You bastard! He’s five years old! He’s our son!”

I didn’t even see him move. One second I was raging in his face, the next his hand planted squarely on my chest and shoved hard.

I’m not a small woman but he’s an Alpha. The force was unreal and my feet left the top step. For a horrifying second, I was airborne, staring up at the ceiling, at my husband’s cold eyes looking down at me as I fell.

Theo, was my only thought.

Instinct took over.. survival and a scream tore from my throat, but it wasn’t a human sound. It was a snarl. My body contorted in mid-air with bones snapping and reforming and fur erupting from my skin.

I hit the bottom of the staircase not as a broken woman but as a furious russet-brown wolf, skidding across the hardwood floor on all fours.

I shook my massive head, snarling up at them. From the top of the stairs, my son screamed in pure terror and Derek pulled him and his new girlfriend back into the bedroom, slamming the door shut.

The sound of that lock clicking into place was louder than the fall.

I stood there for a long minute with my sides heaving and panting in the silence of the empty living room.

The fight drained out of me, leaving something hollow and aching behind. I shifted back, collapsing onto my hands and knees on the cool floor and trembling.

What was the point? He’d won. He’d taken everything. My home, my mate, my son. He’d even turned my own child against me..!

I changed with numb clumsy fingers. Jeans, a t-shirt and boots from my dumped-out duffel bag. I couldn’t stay here another second. I couldn’t breathe the same air as that monster..!

I slung the bag over my shoulder and yanked the front door open and I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. If I saw Theo’s little face in the window, scared of me, I’d shatter into a million pieces that would never ever go back together.

I got in my car and just drove. I didn’t have a plan and my mind was just a broken record of Theo calling her Mommy, Theo flinching at me, Derek pushing me and Theo was scared of me.

Tears burned like acid behind my eyes but I refused to let them fall. Crying was for people who had hope. I had fucking nothing..!

I stopped at the first ATM I saw. My account was pathetic. The “Alpha’s wife” who wasn’t allowed a job, remember? I withdrew every last penny of it but it wouldn’t last long.

Then I did the only thing that made a sick kind of sense. I drove to the private airfield the pack used. No one stopped me. My status... until about an hour ago... still technically Alpha's Luna. The beta on duty just nodded as I marched past

I walked straight up to the closest idle jet to meet the pilot doing a pre-flight check.

“I need to go,” I said with my voice raspy.

“Ma’am?” he said, looking confused. “Is the Alpha expecting...”

“The Alpha,” I spat the word, “told me to get the fuck out. So I’m getting out. Now. Are you flying me or not?”

He looked hesitant but a growl rumbled in my chest and he got the message. I didn’t have the energy for a debate.

“Where to, Luna?” he asked as I slumped into a plush seat. The title felt like insult to injury.

“Just… just go.”

He waited while I stared out the window at the darkening New York skyline.

Where does one go when their life is over? The name popped into my head as a random stupid thought. A place as far from Derek Boyega as I could imagine.

“California,” I muttered.

***

The flight was silent and I don’t mean quiet. I mean silent.. the kind of silence that presses down on you and the pilot didn’t try to make conversation. Good..

I just replayed the whole damn day on a loop in my head. The grocery store.. theo asking for ice cream.. finding the lace bra.. the moaning.. the smirk.. the push and theo’s terrified scream.

Mommy.

Each time I got to that part, my heart cracked a little more.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, the wheels were bumping onto a runway and I jerked awake, disoriented. The pilot turned in his seat.

“We’ve landed in California, ma’am. A small private strip just outside Truckee.”

California. Right. I’d actually done that. I’d flown across the country on a whim with a duffel bag and a maxed-out bank account. Brilliant move, Allison. Real fucking genius!

“Thanks,” I said, grabbing my bag and heading for the exit. The stairs were already down and the outside air that washed over me warmer and smelling like dirt.

The pilot followed me out.

“Ma’am, I can’t just leave you here. It’s the middle of nowhere. Do you have someone to call? A place to go?”

I almost laughed.

“I’m fine. Seriously. Tell the Alpha his problem is officially gone.” I started walking away before he could argue.

I heard the jet door close behind me and a minute later, the engines whined as it taxied back down the runway and then, it was just me.. qlone in the dark in the middle of fucking nowhere, California.

“Okay, Hayes,” I muttered to myself, using my maiden name now. “Now what?”

I started walking down the one road leading away from the airstrip. The streetlights were few and far between, casting long creepy shadows.

I stuck to the darker patches at the side of the road, my wolf eyes adjusting easily.

Crunch…

I stopped dead with my head cocked. That was probably a raccoon.. or a possum. I kept walking.

Swish.. Crunch..

There it was again.. but it wasn’t an animal. It was too… deliberate and too coordinated with my own steps.

I didn’t turn around. I just picked up my pace with my senses stretching out into the darkness around me. My hearing sharpened and my sense of smell searched the air.

Nothing.. and then… everything..!

The scent hit me a second too late.. it was probably a man and they were close..

Oh, you have got to be kidding me, I thought with my blood running cold. I just got here and I was being stalked.. Seriously, fucking stalked!

After the day I’d had, this was just the goddamn cherry on top of the shit sundae..!