Chapter 4
Selene’s POV
Branches scraped my arms and legs as 1 stumbled through the woods. My heart pounded wild in my chest, each breath burning in my throat, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. The pain from the beating, the humiliation from my own father’s world, and the sacrifice my mother made, still ringing
my ears. all drove me forward–away from the horror I had left behind.
Where am I going? I don’t know.
My feet moved faster than my mind could catch up. Every instinct screamed at me to get away as far as possible. The air felt thicker against my face, heavier, the cold biting into my brused skin. Every step felt like I was wading through a storm I could never escape.
I have no one. I have no one to run to,
My father just abandoned me just because I had a child in my belly–his own grandchild.
I pushed harder, trying to outrum the panic surging inside me, but it was useless. The shame, the fear-it clung to me like a shadow I couldn’t shake,
I’m alone. So painfully, terrifyingly alone.
The world blurred around me. The tears I had been holding back since running out of the manor finally spilled over, hot and bitter on my cheeks, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. My father’s voice, his threats, still rang in my cars.
I’ll kill you. You’ve disgraced me.
I’m running for two lives now.
And
then there was the other voice in my head–the one that was momentarily buried in the ashes of my father’s rage. The voice that hurled insults at me in the bathroom as I held the pregnancy test.
I’m carrying Dorian’s child inside me. A child born out of deceit from the man I thought had finally accepted me
It was almost laughable, the cruelty of it all. What did I do to deserve this! Two men 1 handell my trust and love with on a silver platter all turned their back onto me
It’s okay, honey. I will give you the life you’re so utterly deprived of, and you’re not even out of this world yet.
“Fuck, aght“| groaned, when I finally slowed down, gasping for air. My knees scraped on the rough ground as I stumbled upon a thick tree root Lodging our of the dirt.
I looked up and instantly froze
There it was, looming before me. The Blackwood Park house
Hadn’t meant to come here, yet somehow, I had. Maybe fate was cruel enough to bring me back to the one place I didn’t belong. My legs trembled.
I approached, unsteady, as if they might give out at any given inoment.
Mayber my legs knew what my y heart | couldn’t
‘t accept. Maybe I thought
No. belene. I shook the thought away, feeling the cold gnaw at me.
The guards at the gate saw me first, their eyes widening. One of them stepped forward, recognition flashing across his face. I spent an ample amount of tune in this park house for the park warriors ro dedicate themselves in my bonor, ruling over the place Dorian left for months to head
Of course, thay were more than slut ked and yet were forced to oblige as I was banished out of the place I had taken care of, like the Luna I thought
“Miu Selrue?” La
Selene was how it was back then. The senior guard asked, his voice unsure. I nodded, barely able to speak. My throat was raw,
(uncontrollably.
at my state with a slicked and pained look and that was all it took for him to order the new guards with a single nod, “Let her through” and just like that, the heavy iron gate treaked upris for me after months of being pushed out of it
I stumbled inside bruned and wounded, yet still so unsure why I was here Why dal I come to him?
cramed to turn around, to simply keep running away from this pack altogether, but my feet dragged me forward anyway. Maybe deep down, in some hidden part of me, I still laclieve he would ha
Chapter 4
“What is she doing here?”
“Goddess, it’s been months. It’s shocking how it still didn’t register to her who the is now
“Even if I was at a gunpoint, I wouldn’t run here like a stray dog, and yet here she is
Gaps and murmur surrounded me but I was too diruised and battered to even care. It feels as though these people weren’t the pack I grew to love
I look around at the grandhall, the familiar scene of stone and wool filling my senses, the place that was once underneath my fingertips months sgo. The marble wedlood the packhouse stretched up around me, cold and unforgiving. Everything felt smaller now, more oppressive or maybe it was pubi me—broken, lost, and carrying a secret that was too heavy to lear
My body was screaming, begging me to stop to rest, but my mind was still racing. What am I doing here? Would he even care
1 feb dizzy, my vision dimming. I swaged on my feet, the weight of everything crashing on me all at once. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could May Manding
And then, from the shadows of the packhouse. I heard footsteps.
“Dorian” I called and quickly shook my head, forcing my bruised body to bow down, “Alpha”
I raised my gaze and my heart dropped. The moment he saw me, his expression darkened, those sage green eyes narrowing with anger–or maybe. something the It was hard to tell. His voice, however, was sharp as a blade.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
1 flinch at the venom in his words, feeling my heart sink even further, 1 opened my mouth to explain, but nothing came out. I’m not sure how to answer that. What was I doing here?
“You’re not welcome here,” he continues, stepping closer, his presence overwhelming. He roams his eyes from my head down to the ends of my toes, burard in bruises and dirt from how much running I did. The only reaction 1 got from such a miserable state I was in was his jaw clenching
I knew it. he wouldn’t care.
You think you can just walk back in and cause trouble? You think I don’t see w
what
you’re doing”
I blinked, confused “W–what?
“You’re here to ruin things with Amara, aren’t you?” His
A colder than I had ever heard it. “You couldn’t stand that I moved on, so now you
show up like some desperate little wold, hoping I’ll take pity on you?”
Estumbled back, his words hating me harder than any of the bruises I took from my father. Desperate? He didn’t understand. He couldn’t
My voice broke, but le cut me off before I could explain
nothing bur a fowly wolf, Selene. You don’t belong here. You
RAKE AA)
never did.
İs were like dagern,
ing eventually sips
alicing deeper than the last. I felt the ground sway beneath me, my legs barely holding up as the adrenaline of mur. And still, I had not told him about the child growing inside me. About the life that would forever bind us
But what would it change? Nothing. He hated me. He always had.
“If I see you here again he growded, “I’ll have you killed Guards, take her out.” I couldn’t fight back the tears now. They spilled over, hot andd pantsful, as two guards dejard forward, grabbing me roughdy by the armis,
ruggle Didn’t scrram: My heart felt as though it had been ripped from my chest and crushed beneath his boots. As they dragged me out of the parkhome, I rast suur last glance over my shoulder. Dorian hadn’t moved, his expression hard and unreadable
a serond. I thought I saw something In ker in his eyes–something like regret
– gates slamuning shut behind me. Alone. Again.
peed unto the frozen ground, cradling my stomach. I whispered the words he’d never heard. Tro pergnant. Dorian. It’s your
Dorian’s POV
5.44.OM
Chapter 4
The moment Selene stepped through the packhouse doors, my heart damn near stopped in my chest. What the hell was she doing here?
Panic gripped me hard, like a vise tightening around my throat. I felt my heart sink as I took in her appearance. Her face was pale, and her eyes- Goddess her eyes were hollows as if the light had been ripped from them. I saw her bruises, the marks of pain from whatever happened to her elung like a second skin and something inside me twisted violently.
This wasn’t how I had imagined seeing her again. Not like this. The monstrous part of me wanted to rip apart everyone who had laid a hand on her, It wanted to scream and tear through the flesh of whoever did this.
But I didn’t let it show.
“You’re not welcome here. I muttered. Her wide eyes met mine. Fuck, if she only knew how many mights I lay awake thinking about her. How many times I fought the urge to track her down and take her away from all this.
“Dorian I—” she whispered, her voice so damn soft, so damn innocent. It made something in me snap.
“You’re nothing but a lowly wolf, Selene. You don’t belong here. You never did.”
I couldn’t let her stay. I couldn’t. But fuck me, every time I looked at her, it was like I was drowning in the s she made me feel like I was worth more than the blood in my hands. The way she always looked ag me kike I wasn’t a monster.
sun she’s brought in me–of us. The way
“If I see you here again, I’ll have you killed. Guards, take her out 1 snapped. It was easier to be cruel. If I hated her, maybe it would hurt less. Maybe I could keep her alive.
The guards moved towards her. They grabbed her, their hands too rough on her arms and I wanted to rip them apart for touching her that way. I hear the door slammed shut behind her. The silence that followed was unbearable. It ate me like a prison.
My mind wanders how I got here in the first place.
NINE MONTHS AGO
“Fuck off” All the rogues were down, I killed all of them alone. And yet
to let loose when another woll pounced over me, kicking off the rogue above.
one–their leader was far too energetic to stop. My limbs were about
He ripped his neck off, cutting his lifeline. I glanced towards the help that came unannounced. A girl stood in front of an army of wolves, staring at
“You look lost. Do you need
any help?” She murmured.
