Maya Goldstein POV
I packed nothing.
I took only the clothes on my back and the small, tarnished locket my mother had given me years ago.
Every item in that pack house reeked of Liam.
It reeked of lies.
I walked toward the boundary line, my boots dragging against the dirt.
My body was screaming. The Rejection had taken a brutal physical toll.
My muscles trembled, and a cold sweat slicked my skin. But beneath the weakness, my Inner Wolf was awake.
She was urging me forward.
*Run,* she whispered. *Run before he changes his mind.*
"Maya!"
Liam’s voice boomed across the clearing.
He was running toward me, flanked by two enforcers. He looked manic, his eyes wild and feverish.
"I won't let you do this!" he shouted, closing the distance. "I am your Alpha! I forbid you to leave the territory!"
I stopped and turned.
"You are not my Alpha anymore. I belong to no pack."
He grabbed my arm. His grip was bruising.
"You are mine! The Moon Goddess gave you to me! You don't get to walk away just because things got hard!"
"Hard?" I spat, wrenching against his hold. "You destroyed me, Liam."
He raised his hand, as if to use the Command again. To force me to my knees.
To drag me back to that house where Ava was waiting to mock me.
A siren suddenly sliced through the air.
The high-pitched, bone-rattling alarm of a perimeter breach.
*ROGUES!*
The Mind-Link of the pack—which I could no longer hear clearly, but could feel as a dull, static pressure—erupted into chaos.
Marc Chen, the Beta, sprinted into the clearing, chest heaving.
"Alpha! Breach in the northern sector! They are heading for the safe house! Ava is there!"
Liam froze.
He looked at me, his eyes wide with conflict. Then he looked toward the north, toward the woman carrying his legacy.
"Ava is pregnant," he muttered, his voice straining. "The heir..."
He looked back at me.
I was standing there, pale, shaking, clearly on the verge of collapse.
"You stay here," he ordered, shoving me backward with a force that sent me sprawling.
I stumbled and hit the hard earth with a cry.
"Don't move. I have to save them."
He didn't hesitate.
He turned his back on his Fated Mate and shifted into his massive grey wolf.
With a snarl, he sprinted toward the north, toward Ava.
He chose her. Again.
I lay on the ground, staring up at the indifferent moon.
A sharp pain ripped through my abdomen.
*The baby,* I thought, panic seizing me.
Stress. Rejection. The physical assault of the Alpha Command. My body was failing.
I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn't work. The edges of my vision began to blur into gray static.
"Help," I whispered, but the forest swallowed my voice.
I dragged myself toward the tree line. I couldn't stay here.
If the Rogues came... or if Liam came back...
I crawled. Dirt packed under my fingernails. My breath came in ragged gasps.
*Move,* my Inner Wolf roared, her voice faint but fierce. *We must survive.*
I reached the dense cover of the forest just as my body gave out.
Darkness rushed in to claim me.
As my eyes closed, I saw a faint, silver light glowing on my skin.
The ancient markings of the White Wolf were surfacing, trying to heal me, trying to keep the spark of life from extinguishing.
*Goodbye, Liam,* I thought as the blackness took me.
*You killed us both.*
