Chapter 5

Sasha was sitting in Harrison's lap.

That was the first thing I saw when I pushed through the door. Her arms looped around his neck, her body curved against his chest. Both of them looked up at once. Sasha looked annoyed. Harrison's went cold.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked.

"I agree." My voice came out steady. Dead level. "I'll sign the divorce papers. Tonight. I'll have the conditions to you by morning."

Harrison stared at me. Then he laughed. A short, dismissive sound through his nose.

"You think it's that simple?"

Sasha stood, smoothing her hair. She looked me over the way you'd look at a stain on the carpet. "A wolfless rogue asking for compensation. What would you even do with it? The second you leave this Pack, you're dead."

Harrison crossed his arms. "Completing the surrogacy is your only reason to stay in this Pack. You should be grateful I'm offering you that much."

I searched for the part of me that would have flinched at those words yesterday.

It wasn't there.

"Get out," Harrison said. "We're done."

I turned and walked out. No tears left. Just a dry heat behind my eyes that wouldn't cool.

---

I called Riley from the hallway. My fingers were steady on the screen.

"I need you to find me a divorce lawyer," I said.

A beat of silence. "Vera. What happened?"

"You were right." I leaned against the wall and stared at the ceiling. "About all of it. I was stupid, and I'm done." My thumbnail pressed into the phone case until it hurt. "I want what I'm owed, and then I want to be gone."

Riley didn't jump in with a curse or a speech. That scared me more than anything.

"Meet me tomorrow morning," she said. Her voice was careful. Measured. "First thing. I'll come to you."

"Okay."

"Vera." A pause. "Whatever happened tonight — don't do anything until I get there."

I hung up before my voice could crack.

---

The next morning I left the Pack compound before sunrise.

The road was empty. Trees pressed in from both sides, their bare branches tangled overhead. I drove with the window cracked, cold air stinging my face. Anything to stay sharp.

I was halfway to the meeting point when three figures stepped into the road.

Rogues. I knew from the way they stood. Hunched, feral, clothes torn and filthy. The one in front raised a hand. Not a greeting. A stop.

I slowed the car. Cracked the window an inch. "I have money. I can pay you. Whatever you need."

They didn't answer. The lead rogue charged.

I slammed the gas. The car lurched forward, tires screaming as I swerved past the first one. But two more burst from the tree line on my left. They'd been waiting. Positioned. This wasn't a random ambush.

They'd come for me.

A claw raked down the side of the car. Metal shrieked.

My phone was in the cupholder. I grabbed it with one hand and hit Harrison's number.

One ring. Two. Declined.

I called again. Something heavy hit the rear bumper and the car fishtailed. In the rearview mirror, two of them had shifted. Massive wolves with yellowed teeth, closing the gap.

Declined.

The car scraped against a guardrail. Sparks sprayed across the window. I straightened the wheel and called a third time.

He picked up.

"What." Flat. Annoyed.

"I'm being attacked." My voice broke. "Rogues. On the east road. Harrison, please send someone—"

"You're unbelievable." A scoff. "Making up stories to get my attention? This is beneath you, Vera."

"I'm not lying! They're on the car right now, I need—"

A laugh in the background. High. Breathy. Sasha.

"Don't let her ruin the mood," Sasha murmured. Her voice was close to the phone. Close to his skin.

Then I heard it. The panting. The creak of a headboard. A low groan from Harrison that stopped my lungs cold.

They were in bed together. While I screamed for help on a road with wolves on my car.

The line clicked dead.

A wolf hit the windshield and the glass shattered inward. I threw my arms up. The car spun, tires catching gravel, and slammed sideways into a tree trunk. My head cracked against the window frame.

I sat in the wreckage. Blood ran from a cut on my forehead into my left eye. The engine ticked and hissed. Through the broken windshield I could see them circling. Five wolves now. Patient. Unhurried. One of them licked its teeth.

They knew I had nowhere to go.

No one was coming. Not Harrison. Not anyone.

I pressed my forehead against the cracked steering wheel. The despair was so heavy it pushed the air from my body. I couldn't open the door. Couldn't lift my hands. Couldn't do anything but sit there and wait.

Please. I didn't think it. It just came, pulled out of me with the last air I had.

Moon Goddess. If you're listening. Please.

The world went black.

...

Wind through broken glass. A bird, far away. The smell of iron and wet earth.

I opened my eyes.

The car was gutted. The driver's door had been ripped clean off. The steering wheel was bent at an angle that shouldn't have been possible.

Around me, the rogues were dead. Every one of them. Bodies torn apart and scattered across the road and into the tree line. The asphalt was dark with blood.

I looked down at my hands.

They were covered in it. Not mine. Dried dark between my knuckles, crusted under my nails. These hands. My hands. The same hands that couldn't open a jar last week.

Something hummed under my skin. Not the faint buzz from the corridor with Sasha. This was louder. Stronger. A current running through every muscle, every vein, lighting up corners of my body I hadn't known were dark.

I flexed my fingers. The blood cracked between my knuckles. My hands felt different. Not bigger — but surer. Like they remembered something the rest of me was still catching up to.

A voice spoke inside my head. Not my own. Female. Warm. Certain. And it didn't ask permission.

You're back, Valerie.