CHAPTER FIVE

Into The Abyss

Emery’s POV

If you had approached me this morning and told me that I would spend the end of the day running for my life with wolves chasing me down in the forest I would have laughed in your face.

Well no that’s not true, I definitely would have believed you.

Because as I lurch through the woods, my feet bare and aching, with the two pack enforcers close behind me, this moment feels almost expected.

It is no secret that I’m the burden of the pack. Wolfless and pathetic, I represent a weakness in the ranks of the Silver Moon pack that everyone has hated me for because they think that my mere existence is some sort of beacon shining to everyone that they are ripe for the taking.

Noelle has also made it a point to let me know that I am a stain on our family’s lineage, she never missed an opportunity to make the last six years of my life a living hell. We had no other surviving family, I only have my sister and she hates me.

So it should surprise no one that I have ended up here and if I’m being honest, it took longer than I had anticipated.

I have always known that one way or another, Noelle or the pack would find some way to get rid of me, maybe a prank that goes too far or a blow that's too hard.

I just secretly hoped that when I found my mate, all of that would change. He would take one look at me and know that he could never live without me.

A low tree branch smacks me in the face, breaking me from my thoughts and I let out a groan at the pain spreading through my head.

I am moving an instant later, this time I run faster.

My bare feet pound against the earth, while my hands block and push things out of my way as I make it deeper into the woods.

I feel the very air in my lungs tighten as I struggle to breathe through my aching and frantically beating heart.

I hear the snap and snarl behind me and I let out a short shriek.

My lungs burn even hotter now, like I am inhaling broken glass.

Sharp stones slice my feet with every desperate step further, but I can’t stop. Slowing down is not an option. Behind me, the low, guttural growls of the wolves seem to have multiplied and I realize with a sinking feeling in my stomach, that there are more than just two chasing after me.

Their growls seem to vibrate through the freezing mountain air, down into the earth and run straight through, rattling my bones. My sister’s person executioners are closing in on me, their heavy paws thudding against the ground like the beating of a drum counting down to my death.

The fact that they haven’t caught up to me is through no particular skillset of mine, or some sort of miracle, but by the careful planning of a spiteful, demented psychopath.

Noelle had probably instructed them to hold back, to draw it out and let me think I would actually get away then at the last moment, snatch that hope away and brutally end me.

Of all the versions of evil sisters the Moon Goddess could have cursed me with, I had to get a particularly deranged one.

Across the distance, a thundering, feral roar slices through the sky. It draws the attention of my assailants, slowing them down.

It is an Alpha’s howl, laced with a raw, agonizing grief that makes the very ground beneath my feet tremble.

Silas.

A bitter laugh manages to escape me as I hastily snatch my hair back from a stray branch that it gets caught on.

Is he celebrating? Is that that sound of the Silver Moon Pack marking their successful purge of their weakest link? The phantom ache of our severed bond flares in my chest, a sharp stabbing sensation that reminds me that I am utterly alone.

I sprint through a narrow gap in the rocks and freeze.

A spread of jagged rocks block my path. They are impossibly high and too smooth to hold on to and climb. They are close together, arranged in a curve that is joined to the mountain.

Dead end.

I scramble to a halt, my feet dragging on loose gravel. Ahead of me, the earth simply ceased to exist. The yawning darkness of The Black Ridge chasm opens like the jaws of some great ancient monster, its depths entirely swallowed by a thick swirling of toxic, freezing white mist.

The heavy rustle and cracking of shifting bones sounds behind me. I spin around, backing up until my heels overhang over the terrifying drop.

The five wolves shift to the human forms, their expressions dripping with cruel amusement. Their nudity does not faze me as this is a constant occurrence as a Lycan. The lead enforcer, Kade steps forward, cracking his knuckles like a cheesy cartoon villain.

I almost roll my eyes.

“End of the line, crawler,” he sneers,using the pack’s favorite slur for my lack of shifting. “Nowhere left to hide. No one’s coming to save a defect.”

He looks down at my bleeding hands and feet, waiting for the tears. They always wait for the tears. “Noelle gave her order and I will gladly see them through.”

Noelle has spent her entire life trying to make me beg or break, trying to destroy the quiet way I absorb their malice.

But for the first time in my life, the tears don’t come.

I lift my chin and manage to look down at him, even though he is a towering mass hovering over me. “Yeah well Noelle spends entirely too much time obsessing over me,” I say, my voice cuts through the wind with a strange icy clarity that I didn’t know I’m capable of. “You would think a girl that’s just gotten everything she wanted would have better things to do than send her favourite lapdogs into the mountains.”

Kade’s jaw tightens . The enforcer to his left, another massive guy called Jax, steps forward. “Watch your mouth, you wolfless bitch. You’re weak, defenseless, and about two minutes away from being buried out here.”

“Defenseless?” I let out a sharp, genuine laugh. “I might not have a wolf, Jax, but at least I have a mind of my own. I mean, look at the five of you. You run around taking orders from a girl who sees you all as disposable idiots. It’s embarrassing.

Even right now, you’ve all come all this way, the five of you, just to get rid of little ole weak and defenseless me.”

“We’re executing a pack order signed by the Alpha himself,” Kade snaps, his eyes flashing a predatory yellow. “You’re a traitor to this pack.”

“Why doesn’t anyone realize just how strange this whole situation is?” I scream in frustration.

“Enough talking. Kneel and take the hit like you always do, and maybe we’ll make it quick.” Lowe growls.

They expect me to break. All my life, I have been the quiet one, the meek sister who cleaned up messes, the girl who just took everything without making a scene. Everything Noelle did to me was all so she could feel powerful.

Looking at all of them, a profound, freezing numbness stretches over my panic. The girl who took their blows in silence will not exist anymore.

“I’m done taking your hits, Jax,” I whisper, stepping back until the loose rocks crumble beneath my heels. “And I’m definitely done letting this pack trample all over me.”

Kade realizes what I am doing a second too late. His yellow eyes widen as he takes in the sheer defiance on my face.

“Don’t move. If you jump, the fall will kill you before the mist suffocates you.”

“Then I guess I’ll have saved you the trouble of getting your hands dirty trying to murder me.” I smile, the expression venomous.

For the past six years, my life has been a living hell filled with unimaginable pain and torment from the people who are supposed to take care of me, to protect me no matter what.

I have been ridiculed. I have bled and cried and spent hours writhing in pain wondering why I am the way I am.

I have taken it all in silence. But no more. I make sure to look at each and every single one of them, letting them see the hate and fury in my gaze.

I open my mouth and let out a scream of my own. It is a sound of pure anguish, of a pain masked under years of endurance. It is a sound of rage, hot and guttural as I hurl myself over the edge.

The wind becomes a deafening roar, ripping the clothes from my skin and the breath from my mouth. The sky disappears, replaced by a dizzying rush of gray and white. I am falling, weightless and unmade, into the vast, silent dark that rushes up to claim me, with the strange trees of the Black Ridge looking like arms reaching up to embrace me with the old familiarity of a lover.

And then, all I know is darkness.