Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE 

SERA POV

I made it to the pack boundary at 11:47 PM.

I know the exact time because I checked my phone the moment my feet crossed the territorial line and because every second since the rejection had felt like an hour.

The pack line ran along the eastern ridge. I stepped over it, turned off my location services, and stood there in the dark.

My face hurt.

Not from crying. I hadn't cried. I wasn't going to cry. My face hurt from standing in front of three hundred wolves and feeling something tear loose in my chest while keeping my expression completely blank.

My ribs ached where the bond had been, my hands were still shaking.

The walk to the door had been the longest thirty seconds of my life.

I'd set the tray down. I turned and walked. Three hundred wolves parting around me like I was something they didn't want to touch. I heard someone whisper. Another one laughed. A woman near the front looked at me like I was gum on her shoe and said, "What did she expect?"

I kept walking.

The doors closed behind me. I made it to the service stairs before my hands started shaking. I stood there for five seconds with my fists pressed against the wall, breathing through my mouth, waiting for the shaking to stop.

It didn't, but I walked away anyway.

***

The grounds were dark. The ballroom lights blazed behind me, casting long shadows across the lawn, but I didn't look back. Looking back was a luxury for people who had something to return to.

I didn't.

The pack boundary was half a mile from the estate. I'd walked this route a hundred times during my three years in Silvermoon, always at night, always alone. Every tree. Every ditch. Every place where the security cameras didn't quite reach. I'd told myself I was being prepared. I hadn't let myself believe I'd actually need to use it.

The air changed when I crossed the territorial line. I stopped for a moment and just breathed.

Three years of playing small. 

Three years of keeping my head down. Three years of scrubbing floors that belonged to the man who'd rejected me in front of three hundred people.

I'd learned to move through Silvermoon like a ghost. 

I'd told myself I was being prepared.

I hadn't let myself believe I'd actually need to use it.

But I'd been ready.

I was always ready.

***

I walked faster, putting distance between myself and the estate. The gravel path gave way to grass, then to the hard-packed dirt of the eastern trail.

Then I heard it, footsteps... behind me.

I stopped and listened but nothing.

I increased my pace, and the footsteps came again.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

They followed me.

I broke into a run, although the trail was dark. I stumbled one and caught myself as I kept going.

Don't stop. Don't look back. I continued to tell myself until I got to the ridge.

I'd spent three years looking at this ridge from the other side, wondering what it would feel like to cross it. Wondering if I'd ever get the chance.

Now I know. The feeling was scary.

I glanced over my shoulder. A figure, on the tree, standing on a branch.

I couldn't see who it was. I turned and continued running.

Would Kade send people after me? 

What for?

I crossed the ridge and stepped over the line. 

I stopped and bent over, hands on my knees, gasping.

I looked back. The figure was gone.

I stood there for a long moment, breathing hard, waiting for someone to come through the trees.

But no did.

Was it him?

I turned away and kept walking.

My phone rang.

I answered before the second ring.

"Sera Delacroix."

"Miss Delacroix." The executor's voice was flat. "The blood verification is complete. The waiting period concluded at midnight. The assets will transfer on your authorization."

I closed my eyes.

Down the mountain road, headlights appeared. One vehicle, then a second. Moving without hurry.

This is it.

I should have felt relieved. 

Instead, I felt the hole in my chest where the bond used to be. Still bleeding a little.

"Authorize it," I said.

"Authorized." A pause. "Congratulations, Miss Delacroix. Your father was a very thorough man."

"He was," I said. "Thank you."

I hung up.

The headlights were closer now. Two vehicles, moving towards me.

I thought about the first time I'd called Marcus. Eighteen months into my time at Silvermoon. Sitting on the floor of my closet-sized room with a burner phone and a list of names my father had left me. The list was short, just three names. People my father had trusted with his life. 

Marcus had answered on the second ring. "Who is this?"

"Mathis Delacroix's daughter."

Silence.

"I was wondering when you'd call." 

He had asked what I needed and I told him.

He said it would take time but that wasn't a problem for me.

I'd been waiting eight years already.

The second vehicle stopped on the shoulder below. A door opened. Marcus climbed out, looked up the ridge, and raised one hand.

I raised mine back.

The helicopter came from the north. Landed on the highway shoulder. The rotor wash hit me halfway down the ridge path, and I spent the last hundred meters with my hair in my face, aprons strings whipping sideways.

I climbed in. The door closed behind me and the helicopter lifted.

I didn't look back at Silvermoon. 

Instead, I pulled my knees up to my chest and pressed my face against the window. 

Below us, Silver moon shrank to a cluster of lights. 

I pulled out my phone and texted Dana.

It's done. Start the clock.

She replied in four seconds.

Welcome back. Don't sleep on the helicopter.

I almost smiled.

Then another message came through.

One more thing. There's movement on the council side. They might already know about tonight.

I stared at the screen.

How? 

Not sure. But be careful. Thorne had eyes everywhere.

I thought about the figure in the trees. The one who'd followed me to the ridge. 

Be it Thorne's people or something else.

One thing is for certain. I wasn't the same girl who'd scrubbed floors in Silver moon 

I was Mathis Delacroix's daughter.

And I was done running.