Chapter 7 Back to Frostridge Pack

Elena's POV

I was out of options. The last trace of Leo pointed toward Frostridge Pack. To find my son, I had to return to the one place I’d sworn I’d never set foot in again.

The next evening, I passed through a stretch of territory I didn't recognize.

Before I could skirt around it, two patrolling guards had already blocked my way.

"Where'd this rogue come from?" One clamped down on my arm, hard enough to nearly crush the bone. "Trespassing on Blackstone Pack land — you tired of living?"

"I'm not a rogue, I'm only passing through—"

"No pack mark, no trace of a wolf," the other guard scoffed, shoving me to the ground. "Either a deserter or a spy. We handle it by the rules."

"Enough."

A single word, low and unhurried, but it landed like a blade. Both guards flinched. I looked up at the man behind them.

Black hair. Deep brown eyes. A sharp, angular face, perfectly still. He carried no visible weapon, wore no rank insignia, but the two armed guards stood behind him like chastened recruits.

The guards released me at once, stepped back, and bowed their heads. Neither dared meet his eyes.

He walked over and looked down at me. His nostrils flared slightly, like he was scenting something.

"Where are you going?"

"Frostridge Pack." My voice was rough.

"From here to Frostridge, you have to cross thirty miles of no-man's-land to the north," he said, flat, like he was stating a fact that had nothing to do with him. "That stretch has the most vicious rogues on the continent. Cross it alone and you'll die."

I took him for a kind-hearted patrol captain, nothing more. I was desperate to find Leo, so I just bowed to him. "Thank you for the warning. But I have to go."

Then I ran into the trees without looking back.

I dodged a few beast attacks and finally reached the border of Frostridge Pack.

"Stop!" Two guards barred my way with spears. "No outsiders past this point."

"I'm Elena Winters — daughter of the former Beta, Damian's stepsister. Let me in, I need to see Damian!" I gasped, both hands gripping the iron bars.

The guard sneered. "Liar. The Alpha announced to everyone three years ago that his stepsister is dead. And he's busy preparing for the marking ceremony with the future Luna right now. He's got no time for a fraud like you."

My heart seized.

He'd told the world I was dead. And now he was getting ready to mark Vera.

"Please, just this once! I really do have an emergency!" I clung to the bars, refusing to let go.

With enormous reluctance, the guard dialed Damian's number. "Alpha, there's a woman at the border claiming to be your stepsister, asking to see you…"

The other end was silent. No response at all.

I grabbed the phone and shouted, "It's me! Damian, it's Elena! I have something important — please, just listen to me!"

Then a voice came through — one I knew all too well, but not Damian's.

"Hm." Vera Cross's voice floated out of the receiver, light, laced with just the right amount of mockery. "Elena. You really don't know when to stay gone."

"Vera — let me talk to Damian—"

Beep—

She hung up.

The guard shoved me back and grabbed the phone. "You heard her. The future Luna's word is the Alpha's word. Leave now, or don't blame us for what happens."

Five minutes later, a black SUV pulled up on the inner side of the border.

The door opened, and Vera stepped out in a lavish couture gown. The guards bowed at once and cleared the way.

Vera walked to the iron bars and looked me over, cold. "So you really didn't die. The hypnosis finally took, we're about to have our wedding, and you pick this exact moment to come crawling back — just to spite me? Why won't you stay gone?"

Hypnosis? What hypnosis?

But I didn't care. All I cared about was my son.

"Vera, I'm not here to take Damian." I ground the words out. "My child is missing. He might be in this pack. I only need to go in and look—"

Vera arched a brow, laid a hand over her own flat stomach, and let out a mocking laugh. "Your child? Some bastard from who-knows-where. Lost is lost. The only child Damian cares about is his and mine."

Cold flooded me, the blood rushing straight to my head. Vera was pregnant too.

Damian was going to have his own child with her.

Vera dropped the smile, her face turning viciously dark, and turned to give the guards an order. "Throw her into the rogue territory."

"No! Let go of me!"

The guards seized me at once, one on each arm, and dragged me toward the abandoned forest a few hundred meters off, then shoved me in.

I hit the mud hard. Low howls broke out around me at once.

Five or six rogue wolves, eyes glowing red, stepped out from behind the trees and circled me.

I'd lost my wolf five years ago, the night he rejected me. I had no way to protect myself.

One rogue lunged and clamped its jaws around my calf.

I screamed, thrashing on the ground.

Vera stood safe behind a barrier in the distance, savoring the sight of me.

She taunted, vicious. "Elena, this death of yours is a lot gentler than your parents' was. Be grateful."

I stared at her, eyes wide with pain. My parents died in a car crash. It was an accident. What was she talking about?

Before I could get the question out, two more rogues pounced, sinking their teeth into my shoulder and my stomach, dragging me deeper into the forest. I was covered in blood, flesh torn straight off me.

On my last breath, I turned my head — and saw the man who'd warned me at the edge of Blackstone Pack.

He leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing, a cigarette between his fingers. The wind tore the smoke apart, and through the haze I saw his eyes — cold, unblinking, watching me.

I forced my hand up, lips barely moving, begging him to save me.

But he only stood there, cold, no ripple in his eyes, and watched, still and silent, as the wolves tore me apart alive.

I died.

My soul drifted in the air.

I watched Damian and Vera hold a grand wedding.

The venue was the house my parents had left me before they died — the one filled with every happy memory of my childhood.

I watched Vera walk into the living room and, one by one, "accidentally" shatter the crystal glasses my mother had loved most.

She remade the whole house beyond recognition, wiping out every last trace that my parents and I had ever existed.

I watched Damian, his face full of tenderness, lift his and Vera's child and kiss Vera's forehead.

The three of them lived out a whole, happy life.

No one spoke my name. No one remembered the Elena torn apart in the forest. And no one went looking for my lost Leo.

Unbearable grief and injustice drowned me completely.

Fine, then. Let me really die. Let me vanish for good.

I closed my eyes, and my soul sank into total darkness.

Then someone was calling my name.

"Elena."

I snapped my eyes open, gasping for breath, drenched in cold sweat.

I was reborn!