Chapter 4

Madeline’s POV

I never got the chance to run.

The door opened again before Harper's five minutes were even up, and this time it wasn't her. It was the guards again, grabbing my arms and roughly hauling me off the cot while I was still weak, bleeding, and barely able to stand.

My daughter—the one they didn’t know I still had—was wrapped tightly against my chest under a ratty blanket I’d grabbed off the cot without thinking.

"Please," I said, stumbling as they pulled me down the hallway. "Please, I just gave birth. I can barely walk—"

Nobody answered me. They didn’t even act like they could hear me.

I thought about my other daughter, wherever she was in this huge house, being fed or held or maybe not held at all, and my chest ached so badly that I felt weaker than I’d ever been in my life.

They dragged me in front of the council again. My legs shook the whole way there, and I had to lock my knees just to stop myself from collapsing. Alexander stood at the front of the room, scowling, his face nothing like the one I used to know better than my own.

"Alexander…" My voice cracked. "Please, just look at me. Just once. Let me explain.”

He looked at me right then, but it wasn’t for the reason I wanted. “Madeline Dawson, I reject you as my mate,” he said.

For one second, the entire room disappeared.

I couldn’t hear the council. I couldn’t hear the guards. I couldn’t even hear my own breathing.

The words hit me harder than anything else that whole horrible night. Harder than the accusation. Harder than losing my title, my home, and everything I'd built here in two years of trying. 

I felt the bond rip out of my chest violently, followed by a pain so sharp that I couldn't even scream. I could only stand there gasping while my whole body tried to process what was happening to it.

My wolf let out a broken howl inside my head, fighting the rejection even as the bond was ripped apart. Across the room, I saw Alexander tense like he felt it too.

For a second, I saw pain in his eyes. Real, raw pain, like his wolf was clawing at him from somewhere deep inside, fighting this decision even as he made it. I saw it. I know I saw it.

Then it was gone. He shut it down coldly like flipping a switch.

"Get her out of my pack," he ordered. “She's no longer welcome here."

Nobody stopped me when I walked out. Nobody stopped me when I kept walking, going past the front gates, the trees, and out into the dark forest. Nobody expected me to survive the night anyway. That had been the plan all along. The rejection was only a formality before the dangers waiting in the forest finished the job the council didn't want their own hands on.

The woods swallowed me whole.

Branches tore at my arms as I pushed through, my bare feet freezing and bleeding at the same time. My whole body screamed at me to stop, rest, just lie down somewhere, and let this all be over.

But I didn't stop. I couldn't. All I could feel was my daughter’s small, warm weight against my chest. Every step I took was for her, not for me. I didn't know where I was going. I only knew I had to keep moving, keep her warm, keep her quiet, and keep both of us alive one minute at a time.

I don’t know how long I walked, but it was long enough for the cold to numb my entire body until I couldn’t feel my feet anymore. I thought about lying down more than once. I thought about how easy it would be to just stop, let the cold take over, and end this. 

But every time the thought crept in, my daughter moved against my chest, making a small sound, and I took that as a reminder that stopping wasn't a choice I was allowed to make anymore because she was depending on me to keep us alive.

Then I caught a scent.

It was a wolf, but not a regular wolf that belonged to a pack. There was something wrong with the smell. It was sharp and feral, and every instinct in my body screamed that I was in danger.

The rogue had been drawn by the trail of blood I hadn’t even realized I was leaving behind me with every single step I took.

Suddenly, he burst out of the trees, circling me slowly, with hungry eyes that didn’t reflect anything to do with hunting for food and everything to do with something so much worse, and I understood, with a clarity that turned my blood to ice, exactly what he intended to do to me.

He was going to rape me.

"Please," I whispered, moving away from him, one careful step at a time. "Please, I have a baby. Please just let us go."

He didn't stop circling. If anything, my fear seemed to interest him more. I thought about screaming, but who was there to hear me? I was many miles away from Ashwood Pack by now, deep in a territory that didn't belong to anyone, and the only living thing close enough to hear me was the very thing I needed saving from.

My back hit a tree, the rough bark scraping my spine, and I realized with a sick, sinking feeling that I was out of options. There was nowhere left to run to, and nowhere left to hide.

My daughter started crying against my chest, sounding so afraid and terrified, as if she somehow understood the danger we were in even though she’d only been in this world for a few hours.

"Shh," I whispered to her, even though my whole body was already shaking uncontrollably. "Shh, baby, it's okay. It's going to be okay."

It wasn't going to be okay. I knew that even as I said it.

The rogue's muscles clenched, lips pulling back from his teeth in a vicious snarl. I pressed myself against the tree as hard as I could, one arm wrapped around my daughter, the other raised in front of me even though I knew it wouldn’t do anything to stop what was about to happen.

Then he lunged.