CHAPTER 4

Delilah's POV

The pounding on the door got louder and more aggressive.

"Open this door or we break it down!"

Mom shoved me into my room and started throwing clothes into a bag. Her hands shook but she moved fast, grabbing anything within reach including my favorite books, the quilt my grandmother made, and photos of Dad.

"Change out of that dress," she ordered. "Put on jeans and a sweater, something you can travel in."

I stood there frozen, still unable to process what was happening. The rejection, Sarah, Jaxon's hands on her, the bond ripping apart, and now warriors at our door ready to drag us out and whip us for daring to exist.

"Delilah!" Mom grabbed my shoulders and shook me hard. "I know you're hurting and I know this is terrible, but if we don't leave right now, they will hurt us worse. Do you understand me?"

I nodded numbly and started pulling off the filthy white dress. My hands fumbled with the buttons and everything felt distant and unreal, like I was watching myself from far away.

A loud crash came from the front of the cottage as the warriors broke through the door.

"We're out of time." Mom threw the last items into two bags and grabbed my arm. She pulled me toward the window. "We're going out the back and the car is just through the trees."

"Search every room!" A male voice boomed from inside the cottage as heavy footsteps thundered through our small home.

Mom opened my bedroom window and climbed out first, then turned and reached back for me. I grabbed her hand and let her pull me through just as my bedroom door burst open.

"They're escaping! Back window!"

We ran with Mom still carrying the bags slung over her shoulder while I could barely keep up with my cracked ribs and injured hand. Branches tore at my clothes and face as we crashed through the forest. Behind us, I heard the warriors climbing through the window and crashing after us.

"There! Don't let them reach the car!"

Mom's old car sat where she'd parked it that morning, a lifetime ago when she was planning my birthday surprise. She threw the bags in the back and jumped in the driver's seat while I barely got my door closed before she started the engine and slammed her foot on the gas.

The car lurched forward just as a warrior reached us. His hand slammed against my window but we were already moving and his shout faded as we sped away down the dirt road.

Mom's hands gripped the steering wheel so tight her knuckles turned white. She kept checking the rearview mirror like she expected them to chase us down any second.

"Are they following?" My voice came out hoarse and broken.

"I don't think so." Mom's voice shook. "Alpha Sterling just wants us gone and as long as we leave Riverbend territory, he won't waste resources hunting us down."

We drove in silence through the dark forest roads. Every bump and turn sent pain shooting through my ribs but I stared out the window at the trees rushing past and felt nothing. The numbness was spreading through my entire body like ice water in my veins.

The birthday cake was still sitting on our kitchen table. The white dress was probably lying on my bedroom floor where I'd dropped it. We'd left everything behind including our furniture, our dishes, and the life we'd built in that small cottage on the edge of pack lands.

And for what? Because my mother dared to love again and because I dared to believe I could be wanted by someone who actually saw me as worthy.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." Mom's voice broke through the silence as tears streamed down her face. "I'm so sorry this happened to you because you deserved so much better than that cruel boy and his vicious father."

I didn't respond because what was there to say? Sorry didn't fix the gaping hole in my chest where the bond used to be. Sorry didn't erase the image of Jaxon kissing Sarah or take back three years of believing his lies.

"Ryker will keep us safe," Mom continued, trying to convince herself as much as me. "Nightshade Pack is different and stronger. We'll have a fresh start there where no one will know about the rejection and no one will judge us for the past."

I wanted to believe her but I'd believed Jaxon too, and look where that got me.

We crossed the Riverbend border just as the clock on the dashboard hit one in the morning. Mom's shoulders sagged with relief but she didn't slow down, just kept driving like Alpha Sterling's warriors might still appear behind us at any moment.

The drive to Nightshade territory took hours with dark forest roads stretching endlessly ahead. I leaned my head against the cold window and watched the darkness blur past while Storm remained completely silent in my head. The bond was still a raw wound and everything hurt with a deep ache that went beyond physical pain.

Somewhere around three in the morning, exhaustion finally pulled me under despite the pain. I fell asleep with my face pressed against the window and tears drying on my cheeks.

I woke to sunlight streaming through the windshield. We were parked in front of a massive packhouse made of dark stone that looked more like a fortress than a home, imposing and cold against the morning sky.

"We're here." Mom's voice was soft. "Nightshade Pack."

I sat up slowly and immediately regretted it as every muscle in my body ached. My ribs screamed, my hand throbbed, and my face felt swollen and tight from the bruises that makeup could no longer hide.

Through the windshield I could see wolves moving around the grounds. Some stopped to stare at our beat-up car with curious expressions while others looked hostile, like we were intruders invading their territory.

This was supposed to be our fresh start and our escape from judgment and cruelty. But looking at those cold stone walls and the suspicious faces of the Nightshade wolves, I wondered if we'd just traded one nightmare for another.

"It'll be better here," Mom said quietly as she squeezed my hand. "Ryker promised we'd be safe."

I didn't believe in promises anymore but I got out of the car anyway because there was nowhere else to go.

The packhouse doors opened and a man stepped out. He was large and powerfully built with silver-streaked dark hair and gray eyes that looked kind even from a distance. Ryker Blackwell, Mom's new mate and the reason we were here in unfamiliar territory.

He smiled warmly when he saw Mom and walked down the steps toward us with his arms open. But before he could reach us, two other men appeared in the doorway behind him.

Both were tall and dangerous-looking with the kind of presence that made you take a step back instinctively. One had black hair and storm gray eyes that swept over me with cold assessment. The other had dark brown hair with gold highlights and amber eyes that should have looked warm but were anything but welcoming.

They stared at me with expressions that made my stomach drop and my breath catch. Not curiosity, not welcome, not even the indifference of strangers meeting for the first time.

Pure hostility radiated from both of them like heat from a fire.

Ryker reached Mom and pulled her into his arms, clearly relieved to see her safe. But I couldn't look away from those two men standing in the doorway like guards protecting their territory from invaders they wanted gone.

"Delilah." Ryker turned to me with that same warm smile that seemed genuine and kind. "Welcome to Nightshade. These are my sons, Dante and Mateo."

The black-haired one, Dante, looked at me like I was an insect he wanted to crush under his boot. His storm gray eyes were ice cold as they traveled over my bruised face, my rumpled clothes, and my exhausted posture with clear disgust.

The other one, Mateo, smiled at me but it was sharp and cruel and didn't reach his amber eyes at all.

I had just escaped one hell where my mate called me worthless and let the pack throw garbage at me. Where the girl he was sleeping with beat me bloody in a bathroom and where I was nothing but entertainment and a joke to amuse them both.

The look in those brothers' eyes told me I was about to enter another hell, one that might be even worse than what I'd left behind.

And this time, there was nowhere left to run.