COME HOME OR...

COURTNEY

Two days on, the world I had carefully built around me came crashing down through the screen of my office television.

I was reviewing surgical charts when a breaking news alert flashed across the local pack network. My heart instantly stopped. There had been a brutal, unprovoked attack on the Silver Fang Pack—Lucas’s pack.

It was a smaller pack, at least far smaller and less militarized than Diego’s massive empire, leaving them utterly defenseless against the sudden assault.

The images on the screen showed burning timber, shattered homes, and weeping survivors huddled in the mud. As the news anchor read off the casualty reports, my breath caught in my throat. Lives were lost. Innocent wolves, elders, children, and even pregnant women had died in the crossfire. Their homes were scattered, their livelihoods reduced to ash and rubble.

As I watched all the death, the homeless, and the helpless crying out in agony, a crushing, suffocating weight settled over my chest.

Tears streamed down my face, hot and blinding, as a horrifying realization tore through me. All of this happened because of me.

Lucas had only extended a hand to help me secure my hospital loan because he cared for me. Diego had targeted him, blockaded his pack, and now unleashed a merciless military strike not because of territory or politics, but purely out of a psychotic, possessive rage. I had been with Diego years ago. He had treated me like trash, discarded me like an old piece of furniture, and now he was burning down houses and destroying innocent lives just so he could bend me to his will and have me back in his bed.

The grief inside me instantly morphed into a blazing, terrifying fury.

With shaking hands, I grabbed my desk phone. I didn't care about his blockades anymore. I didn't care about his threats. I dialed his direct private number, the one he had boasted was secured by his communications network, and waited for it to ring.

It picked up on the second ring.

"Courtney," Diego’s deep, smooth baritone purred through the speaker, dripping with arrogant satisfaction. "I was wondering when you would finally call. Have you realized that fighting me is entirely useless?"

"You monster," I choked out, my voice trembling with raw rage and tears. "You attacked Lucas's pack. Innocent people are dead, Diego! Pregnant women are dead! Because of your sick obsession with me!"

"I am a man who removes obstacles, Courtney," Diego replied casually, completely unfazed by my accusations. "Lucas thinks he can shelter you, play the hero, and keep what belongs to me. That was merely a warning. If he doesn't step aside, the next strike won't be on a border village; it will be right at his doorstep."

"I want to see you," I demanded, cutting him off, my voice dropping into a cold, lethal register. "Right now. Name the place."

There was a brief pause on the line, and then a low, victorious chuckle vibrated through the receiver.

"Come to my private estate tonight," Diego said smoothly. "An appointment is fixed, my love. I’ll be waiting for—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a sudden commotion erupted in the background on his end of the line. Muffled shouting echoed through the phone, sharp and frantic.

"Diego, you insane bastard!" a woman's voice shrieked shrilly. It was Chloe, his young, bubbly wife who had mocked my son in the hospital lobby just days ago. "I saw the news! You’re destroying everything, you're bringing a war to our doorstep over a woman who walked out years ago! I will not let you bring her back into this house! I am your wife, and I—"

BANG.

A deafening gunshot cracked through the speaker, so loud and sudden that I dropped the phone an inch from my ear, gasping in absolute horror. The shouting stopped instantly, replaced by a heavy, sickening thud against the hardwood floor.

"Diego...?" I whispered, my blood running completely cold, my whole body starting to violently shiver. "What... what did you just do?"

A second later, Diego picked the phone back up. His breathing was steady, calm, and utterly devoid of any human emotion, as if he had just swatted away an annoying fly instead of shooting his own wife in cold blood.

"She was loud, she was useless, and she had outlived her welcome," Diego said smoothly, his voice chillingly relaxed. "I just killed the last obstacle blocking us from coming back together, Courtney. Now, do you want me to do the same to Lucas, or are you ready to come home?"

The phone went dead with a sharp click as he ended the call.

I stood frozen in the middle of my silent office, the receiver slipping from my limp fingers to crash against the desk. I began to shiver uncontrollably, my teeth chattering as the dark, terrifying reality washed over me. The man I had once loved wasn't just cold. He was a monster, and he was coming for me next.