Chapter 5

—•AVERY’s POV•—

The drive was silent.

Two guards sat in the front, while I rode in the backseat with Ryan. He stared out the window, arms folded. I didn’t look at him. If I did, I might claw out his eyes for what he did to me.

The farther we drove from the pack house, the more I memorized everything I saw. Landmarks, turns, the scent of pine.

Ten minutes into the ride, I pretended to feel dizzy.

I leaned forward slightly, pressing a hand to my head.

Ryan gave me a disinterested glance. “What now?”

"I… I need some air,” I murmured weakly. “Please. Just a moment.”

The guard glanced to Ryan through the mirror.

He hesitated.

Then—

"Fine. Pull over.”

The SUV slowed to a stop by the side of a narrow path just beyond the trees.

One of the guards stepped out, opened my door.

As soon as my feet hit the earth, I stumbled forward, gripping my side like I was sick.

But the second the guard turned to call for assistance—

I bolted.

Goddess I ran like never before in my entire life. I sprinted into the woods, bare feet slapping against the frozen ground, heart pounding louder than the growls behind me.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!”

Branches whipped across my face. Thorns tore into my arms. But I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t stop.

This was my chance. My one shot at freedom.

"Run,” I told myself. “Don’t look back.”

The wind howled through the trees as the guards shouted behind me, their footsteps crashing through the underbrush.

But I kept running.

Faster.

Harder.

I kept running.

My lungs burned with every gasp, my vision blurred from branches scratching across my face, and my legs ached beneath me. I didn’t know where I was going—I just knew I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t stop. Not when freedom was so close I could taste it in the wind.

But then—

Snap.

A branch twisted beneath my foot, and I stumbled with a cry, crashing hard into the ground. I barely had time to scramble onto my knees when a heavy blow landed across my cheek, sending a searing pain down my jaw and knocking me back to the ground.

My cry was swallowed by the leaves.

The taste of blood filled my mouth. My ears rang. My head pounded.

I tried to crawl, hands shaking and slick with dirt, but strong hand grabbed me by the arm and yanked me up like a sack of grain.

“No—please!” I cried, coughing, vision spinning. “Let me go—please!”

Tears streamed down my face, mixing with sweat and blood.

"Enough!” The guard hissed.

And then, a familiar voice growled from behind.

"What the hell is going on?!”

Ryan.

His tall figure strode through the trees, rage blazing in his blue eyes as he took in the scene—me, covered in dirt and blood, being dragged like an animal.

He didn’t even ask if I was okay.

Instead, he snarled angrily at the guard, “You fucking let her get this far?”

"I’m sorry, Alpha. She ran fast,” the guard bowed, tightening his grip.

Ryan turned his fury toward me. “You’ll never learn, will you?” His tone was ice. “You think this little stunt will save you?”

I said nothing.

I just stared at him with tears streaking down my face… and bitterness in my eyes.

I wanted him to see it. The hatred. The betrayal. The girl he used to love? She was gone. Buried under everything he had done to her.

He stepped closer, lips curled in disgust. “You’re lucky I still need you.”

Then he turned on his heel. “Take her to the car. She’s wasted enough of my time.”

The guard hauled me away again, and I didn’t resist.

I was too tired.

Too broken.

But not defeated.

:

:

The car ride was suffocating and silent. The guards didn’t look at me. Ryan didn’t speak.

By the time we reached the hospital, I could barely feel my feet. They were raw and bruised from running barefoot through the forest. My cheek throbbed where the guard had struck me, and the dried blood along my lip cracked every time I swallowed.

But worse than the pain was the shame.

The hospital was bright and sterile, like walking into ice.

Ryan led the way, his overwhelming presence looming beside me like a shadow. The nurses and doctors straightened as we passed, nodding respectfully to him.

But when they looked at me…

Their eyes flickered with judgment.

In their minds, I wasn’t the Alpha’s fated mate. I wasn’t a victim.

I was the omega who ruined everything.

The selfish girl who wouldn’t let her dying sister be happy.

The doctor, a blonde man with glasses and a pinched face, gestured stiffly. “Come. The procedure is ready.”

I walked stiffly into the room, my feet dragging. The walls were white. The table was cold. The instruments beside it gleamed under the artificial lights.

"Lie down," the doctor said curtly.

I hesitated. He snapped his fingers. “Now.”

I forced myself to lie down, trying to breathe evenly as I stared at the ceiling.

The two nurses stood on one side of the bed, I saw the way one nurse wrinkled her nose slightly, as if I smelled offensive. Another whispered something behind a chart and chuckled with disdain.

Meanwhile, the doctor pulled on gloves and then looked me over with thinly veiled contempt.

"Open your vagina widely."

The words were blunt, clinical, and humiliating.

I didn’t move.

"Miss Coleman, we don’t have all day,” the other nurse eyed me impatiently. “You agreed to this, remember?”

Shame burned through me like acid, but I obeyed. Slowly, I opened my legs, teeth clenched so tight I felt my jaw click.

The doctor stepped forward, expression unreadable. His face twitched once—just the slightest wrinkle of his nose, like I was something unpleasant.

"Hold still,” he muttered, inserting the cold speculum.

"Keep your mouth closed and do not moan,” the doctor added, and I know he was deliberately humiliating me in front of the nurse.

I felt sick.

Sucking in a breath, I try not to cry out. My fingers dug into the edge of the table as the procedure continued, my body invaded intimately by strangers while the man responsible for it all waited outside as if even being in the same room with me during this process would somehow taint his precious marriage.

“You’ll feel a bit of pressure,” the doctor muttered, as if that excused anything.

When it was finally over, I closed my legs on instinct, curling inward, humiliated beyond words.

The nurses took notes while the doctor peeled off his gloves and walked out, not even glancing at me again.

Outside, Ryan stood waiting with his arms crossed.

The doctor bowed slightly. “The procedure was successful, Alpha. She should stay off her feet and avoid stress.”

Ryan just nodded.

“We’ll confirm in ten days,” the nurse behind the doctor added with a tight smile. “If the embryo implants successfully, we’ll begin standard prenatal monitoring.”

Then she added, lowering her voice.

“Congratulations, Alpha. The Luna will be pleased.”

He nodded once again, then turned to me.

“Come on. We’re leaving.”

Afterward, I was taken back to the old room at the pack house.

Days passed in a haze of nausea and fatigue which turns out to be early pregnancy symptoms —the doctor had said when they confirmed that the procedure had worked.

Ten days after the hospital visit, it was official: I was carrying Ryan's child.

But instead of the joy I had once imagined feeling at the news, all I felt was emptiness.

As I sat on my bed, staring out the window at the world I could no longer freely explore, I placed a hand on my still-flat stomach. This child, this innocent being growing inside me, deserved better than to be a pawn in Kira and Ryan's sick game.

"I'll find a way out," I whispered to my unborn child. "For both of us. I promise."

But even as I made that vow, I knew the odds were stacked against me.

I was alone, powerless, and trapped in a nightmare of betrayal and cruelty.

Little did I know that fate had other plans—plans that would change everything.