The Eve II

"Ironwood Pack would offer you a sanctuary. A place where you can freely live, work that's fairly compensated, as well as respect and dignity as a pack member. My father has no idea that I'm making this offer, he'd probably be livid if he did, but I don't care. No one should ever have to live the way you do in this park."

Hot tears burned behind my eyes. "Why would you go so far for me? You don't even know me."

"Because it's the right thing to do. And I've seen the look in your eyes, Seraphina." Marcus leaned back, with a gentle expression. "You have the eyes of someone who hasn't given up yet. Someone who still has fight left in them. That's quite rare after years of abuse. Its precious."

"I don't think I can shift," I whispered. " Even if I wanted to accept your offer, even if I could leave Moonstone... I can't shift. What use is a wolf who isn't really a wolf?"

"Maybe you can't shift yet. Maybe the right environment, the right pack, the right support would trigger it." Marcus pulled a business card from his pocket, with an address and phone number. "Here's my personal contact information. If you need help at any time and for any reason at all, you call that number. Be it day or night. I'll come for you."

I took the card with trembling hands, staring at it like it was a lifeline. And it truly was.

"Why?" I asked again. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because when I was just sixteen, I watched as my younger sister almost died from a rogue attack. She survived it, but she was traumatized, couldn't shift for a year afterward. Everyone gossiped about how she was broken, damaged, that maybe it would be kinder to let her go." His jaw tightened. "My father strongly refused it. Said she was pack, and the pack was family, and we don't abandon family when they're hard times. It took a lot of time, patience, and a lot of support, but eventually she shifted again. Now she's one of our best warriors."

"She's so lucky to have family like that."

"Everyone deserves a family like that," Marcus said quietly. "Everyone deserves people who will always fight for them. Who believe in them. Who refuse to ever give up on them."

The card in my hand felt heavy. Heavy with possibility and hope.

"I... I'm speechless, I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything. Just know that my offer stands." Marcus stood, and I immediately stood too. "I hope this ceremony goes well for you, Seraphina. I genuinely do. But if it doesn't, if you need an escape route... you have one now."

He walked away, leaving me in the dining room with a business card tightly secured in my hand and hope, dangerous hope, blooming in my chest.

Maybe I did have options.

Maybe my survival didn't have to mean staying in Moonstone.

Just maybe...

I tucked the card carefully into my pocket, right next to Maya's bracelet, adding it to my small collection of things that proved that at least someone, somewhere, thought I was worth saving.

------------------------------------

I wasn't supposed to be on the roof. Servants weren't allowed to be in the upper levels of the pack house except to clean, and the roof, definitely and extremely off-limits.

But I'd discovered the access point years back. One small window in the attic that opened onto a relatively flat section of roof. I came up here sometimes when I felt suffocated, when the walls felt like they were closing in, when I needed to see the sky and remember there was indeed a world beyond these walls.

And tonight, I needed it more than ever.

The sky was painted in shades of orange, pink and purple, evidence of the setting sun. It was mesmerizing and completely at odds with the turmoil in my mind and the churning in my stomach.

Two days.

I pulled out Marcus's card, reading it again in the fading light. Ironwood Pack. A place where omegas were mattered. Where I might be treated like a person instead of an old object.

But it would mean leaving Margaret behind. Leaving the only mother I'd ever known.

And it would also mean living with the knowledge that I'd been kicked out of my pack because I was too weak to belong.

"I thought I might find you here."

I nearly rolled down the roof.

Kade Sterling stood right infront of the access window, his expression an unapologetic one as he climbed out to join me. "Sorry. Did I scare you, I didn't mean to."

"You shouldn't be here," I said quickly. "If anyone sees you with me..."

"I don't care anymore." Kade plopped down a few feet away, keeping a respectful distance between us but close enough to talk quietly. "Let them see. They can think what they want."

"Kade..."

"I've been a huge coward for six years, Sera." His voice came out rough with emotion. "I stood by while they hurt you and watched them as they broke you piece by piece. I did nothing. I can't... I can't keep doing that."

"There's nothing you can do. You're just one person against the whole pack."

"Maybe. But I can at least stop being part of the problem." He pulled something out from his pocket, a small cloth bag that jingled slightly. "Here."

I took it, carefully opening the drawstring. Inside it were coins. A lot of coins.

"What..."

"It's not much. Maybe fifty dollars. But it's definitely enough for a bus ticket if you think need to run. Enough for a meal or two and enough to get you started somewhere else."

My throat closed up. "No, I can't take this."

"Yes, you can. You already owe Eleora thirty dollars for her stupid thermos, right? This covers it and gives you a little extra."

"Kade, if they find out you gave me money.."

"They won't find out. And if they do, I'll deal with it." His eyes met mine, and I saw the genuine remorse in them. Genuine pain. "I know this can't make up for six years of my silence. I know this fifty dollars doesn't erase the times I stood by while Zane hurt you or while Eleora humiliated you. But it's a start."

"Why now?" I asked. "Why now after all this time?"

"Because I can't sleep knowing I stood by and did nothing." Kade's voice cracked slightly. "I lie awake at night and your face comes to mind. The way you look down the ground when they're insulting you. The way your hands shake when you're serving dinner. The way you flinch when someone, anyone gets too close. And I come to a sudden realization that I helped do that to you. By keeping silent, by doing nothing, I helped break you."

"I'm not broken.. yet."

"No," he agreed. "You're not. And that's what makes it worse. You should be broken. Any normal person would be. But you're still here, still somehow finding reasons to hope. That makes you far stronger than any of us."

We sat in silence for a while, gazing at the sky, watching the last of the sunset fade into twilight. The first stars were beginning to appear, and the moon, almost full now, was slowly rising in the east.

"The ceremony," Kade said eventually. "Are you scared?"

"Terrified."

"What if..." He hesitated. "What if I stood with you? In the circle? It's not traditional, but pack members are allowed to show support..."

"No." The word came out a bit more forcefully than I intended. "Kade, no. They'd all turn on you too. I can't let you sacrifice your position in the pack for me."

"Maybe I want to sacrifice it. Maybe I'm tired of being a part of a pack that treats people like you like garbage."

"You can't help me by destroying yourself," I said firmly. "Promise, promise me you won't do anything stupid at the ceremony."

Kade looked like he wanted to argue, but he finally nodded with reluctance. "Okay. I promise. But remember... if things go bad. If Magnus decides to exile you or worse... you run. You take that money and Marcus Hawthorne's offer and you run. Promise me."

"How do you know about Marcus's offer?" I asked, my eyes wide with shock.

"I was passing by the dining room and I overheard part of your conversation." Kade's expression was earnest. "He's right, you know. There are way better packs. Better places you could go. You don't have to stay here."

"Margaret is here."

"Margaret would want you to live, to survive. Even if it meant leaving her behind." Kade stood, brushing the dirt off his jeans. "Think about it. And keep the money. Please."

He climbed back through the window, leaving me alone on the roof with a bag of coins, my thoughts and more possibilities than I'd had in years.

The moon climbed higher, and I touched the pendant at my throat secured around my neck, the one Margaret said I'd been wearing when I was found as an infant.

"I don't know who I am," I whispered to the moon, to the night, to the moon goddess. "I don't know where I came from, why I can't shift or what I'm supposed to be. But I'm still here. I'm still fighting. Please... please let that be enough."

The moon, of course, didn't answer. It never did.

But somewhere in the pack house below, a future Alpha stood infront of his own window, staring at that same moon, and feeling his wolf howl with a desperate need he had no way of understanding or explaining.

Two days until everything changed.