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The card trembled in my hand as I held it up to the patrol gate.
One of the guards scanned it without speaking. The moment it blinked green, the silver bars began to pull apart.
There were no questions asked. Just some silent, unnerving permission.
I glanced back over my shoulder. Still no one was chasing me. The silence chilled me to the bone. Just the watching figures, calm and distant, like they'd seen this happen before. Like they'd all expected it.
My legs ached, burning with each step. The cold had started to bite through my shoes, creeping up through the soles and settling in my bones. If I hadn't been sporty, if I hadn't spent years running track, I would've collapsed.
The trees thinned. The ground dipped. I followed the road, and finallyâI saw it.
The city. Streetlights. Familiar traffic. A sea of buildings.
Relief burst like a flare through my chest. I choked out a breath that turned white in the freezing air.
Then I froze, my eyes catching sight of the moon. It hung low in the sky, enormous. Glowing silver and unnaturally close. If I stretched my hand upward, I could swear I'd brush its face.
But there was no time to stop. I only kept running.
Down the hill, past a vendor unloading crates. Past a group of strangers in long coats who turned to watch. People stared as I sprinted byâsome curious, others amused, none too friendly.
A payphone appeared across the street. I darted toward it. A car swerved, horn blaring. I barely missed the bumper.
"Shitâ!"
My feet skidded on the pavement. The world spun. I caught myself on the side of the phone booth and dove inside, breath ragged.
I grabbed the receiver, then it dawned on me. I had no money. They'd cleaned me out.
I searched my pockets. Only lint, the card, and a trembling hand.
I pushed out of the booth, shivering, teeth chattering. I went from stranger to stranger. "PleaseâI just need a phone. One callâplease."
They walked past. Some gave me wide-eyed stares. Others rolled their eyes or picked up their pace.
They all seemed tall. The shortest of them was a head taller than me. Every single one of them towered over me. Their steps were too quiet. Their eyes too sharp. I could feel them all slicing into me.
I saw a couple coming, laughing at a joke only they knew. Despite seeing fangs glinting, they looked normal enough. Somehow more unguarded, almost familiar.
I ran forward, desperate. "Pleaseâma'am, can Iâ?"
The woman turned. Her brown eyes gleamed... red.
My eyes widened, not sure of what the hell I'd just witnessed. I stumbled back but I had no chance.
Her pink manicured hand lifted. I heard and saw flesh split in an instant, bones cracking. But if she felt pain, she didn't show it.
Her fingers stretched, curved, sharpenedâ
And claws tore through the back of my hand before I could react.
I screamed.
Pain shot up my arm like lightning. Blood spilled over my fingers.
She smirked, wiped her claw on her coat, pulled her partner closer, and walked away.
I stared at my hand. I could see the jagged cuts, the skin split open. But worse was the thing twisting in my gut.
This wasn't normal. None of this was.
Red eyes. Claws. Fangs. The massive moon. The fact that they could transform.
It hit me all at once. This wasn't my town or even my world.
That warped thing that had happened when we flew over the cliffâit hadn't been metaphorical. It was real. A portal. An actual fucking portal.
And now I was trapped in a world that didn't give a damn if I bled on its streets.
That's why they let me go. Because they knew it didn't matter. I was never getting out.
The laugh started in my throat, forcing its way out in tight, breathless huffs that made my head spin. Then it grew.
I leaned back against the payphone, clutching my bleeding hand, and laughed. Laughed like a lunatic.
People stared. I didn't care.
I laughed until my lungs hurt, until my vision blurred, until the snow started to fall harderâcovering my tracks, hiding my blood, hiding me.
The cold hit me like a final betrayal. With the adrenaline gone, my body remembered everything.
The burn in my calves. The sting in my hand. The numbness creeping through my soles like frostbite blooming from the inside out.
I dropped to the base of the payphone and curled in on myself. The snow didn't care. It kept falling.
My fingers trembled so badly I couldn't feel them. My teeth chattered, not from fear anymore, but from a cold so deep it felt like it had cracked my spine open and settled there.
A sound escaped meâhalf sob, half breath.
I missed her. God, I missed her. My mother.
Her voice, her touch, those warm brown eyes that always made everything better. If she saw me now... she would pull me in. Hold me close. Stroke my hair and whisper that I'd make it out. That I always did. That I was her girl and that I was strong.
But I'd failed her.
I'd promised myself that I'd find him after the truth broke me on my eighteenth birthday. That I'd hunt the monster down, the one who destroyed everything. And make him pay but I couldn't even stay on my feet.
The image of him flashed behind my eyes. Amber eyes. Like mine. Tousled dark hair, streaked with bronze under the light. Like mine.
It made me want to scream. I hated that I looked like him. Helplessness clawed at me as the world felt like it was closing in. I pressed my bleeding hand to my chest and rocked once. Twice. The pain kept me awake.
Then there was commotion. Murmurs spread like ripples around me. Footsteps slowed. Heads turned. Some people stepped back. Others simply stopped.
And then something warm settled on my shoulders. A luxuriously heavy coat. It was scented faintly of smoke and cedar and something else I couldn't name but I knew.
My head snapped up and there he was.
Platinum hair slicked back. Pale skin like porcelain. Those ice-blue eyes fixed on mine, unreadable. He stood tall, composed. Not a speck of snow dared settle on him.
It was him. The man from the car. The one who'd driven me off a cliff, through a portal, into this madness.
The Alpha.
The crowd around us didn't move. They watched him with all the reverence he commanded.
And as I stared up at him, body shaking, blood still dripping into the snow, something inside me cracked.
Because somehow, this meant it wasn't over.
He'd come back, like he knew he would find me here. Desolate and utterly hopeless. Defeated with no strength left to resist.
That had been the plan.