Neah Focussing on my hand, I run my thumb over the palm. There wasn’t even a tiny mark. It had been so long since I had healed this quickly.

Over the years, Trey and the pack had great fun in trying to make the bruises last longer than a few seconds. Hitting me harder and harder, sometimes, breaking my bones, only to hit me again once they had healed

After I was bound the final time. the beatings continued, just not to the same extent. They got their satisfaction by seeing me permanently wounded. “It’s the Alpha in you.” Alpha Dane mutters. “The only reason it took so long before is because of the binding.”

Curling my hand into a ball, I dig my own nails into my skin, watching tiny beads of blood appear. The moment I release, the small wounds are gone and I’m just left with a few droplets of red, staining my hand.

“This is what Trey wanted, Neah. To beat you down, to take away your power, to make you little more than nothing. And you,” he tips my chin up with a single finger. “You are not nothing. I need you to see that.”

His hands move to my hips as he continues to stare at me. “And we are telling the pack today.” lo.” I shake my head at him. I just wasn’t ready. I didn’t even want to see what I looked like as a monster.

“Neah, it’s time. I’ve held off for as long as possible. They need to know.”

.I don’t have a choice, do I?” I whisper, lowering my eyes.

“Not this time, no.”

Maybe it was better that they knew. If they decide they don’t want me here, it would be better to find out now. “They will want you here.”

I look back at Alpha Dane to see his crimson eyes watching me. He didn’t seem in the least bit worried. Closing my eyes. I ned my head, Still not quite believing that I was agreeing to it.

“Good, the meeting is set to start in thirty minutes.”

“Thirty…. Minutes?” I thought I would have more time to talk myself into it

“I will be right by your side and Eric will be on the other side of you. But there is also something else you need to do.” ‘l can’t… I haven’t even done it.”

“I’m not asking you to shift. I am asking you to make a decision about Devon.

“Oh. Do….do you think he is a risk?”

“Aero still doesn’t trust him.”

“What about you?” I ask quietly

“I’m still on the fence. But at the end of the day. he is your family.

I involuntarily snort. “Technically so is Trey.”

“You have a point. Speak to Eric, he has been having a lot more conversations with him than I have.

“What do you mean?”

‘It’s a long story. “He mutters. He picks up. the ear plugs off the table and hands them to me. “You. are probably going to need these.”

–

Quietly pushing them back in my ears, I scan the room looking for a dustpan and brush to sweep up the broken glass.

“There will be someone along to clean it up.” Alpha Dane tells me as he tries to guide me from the room. “It’s time to go.

Walking over the snowy ground, we pass the trainhsg hall, travelling further southtthan I had ever been. We duc nto the trees, following a> well trodtien trail, moving deeper into the f forest. Alpha Dane keeps his fingets ocked around mine at ‘all timés as my nerves build. Tie growing knot in my stomach wasn’t helping and we had to stop multiple times so that I could vomit.

We were surrounded by some that had shifted while others were still in humandorm. There were so many of them,more than I had ever seen. It madé It even scarier, if they attaked, I didn’t stand a chance.

bélongs ~