I move stealthily away from the pack house, out into the tall trees, while working through the best option for how to get to my bag and then where to go from there. I won’t go to town this time. They’ll expect that. Maybe my previous trek will work in my favor and my scent from earlier will be a trail that leads a good portion of the hunting party astray.
Instead, I’ll run for the rivers tonight. I’ll douse my scent in their waters and ride them as far down as I can until I’m closer to a safer civilization. It’s a risky plan, but the only one that will work. I won’t be able to outrun the pack all night, and they won’t immediately think I’m in the freezing cold water until I have a solid lead on them. There’s got to be another human town I can reach, and then I’ll stuff myself into a bus or cab and put as many miles between us as I can.
For a second, I consider abandoning my bag in the bushes, but it has everything; my clothes, my money, and my mom’s hairpin that I stuffed in the front pocket at the salon. I can’t leave that behind. It’s all I kept that was hers.
Determination filling me, I know I have two options. I can pick my way through the woods and stealthily make it back to where I stashed my things, or I can make a run for it and get to it as quickly as possible. As risky as that seems, I know it’s what I need to do. There aren’t any betas sweeping the perimeter tonight. Burke always gives them the night off from guard duty during the Flux so they can partake. As if to prove my point, I hear cheers and clapping, the celebration growing rowdier.
I take a second to gather my bearings, eyes sweeping the dark side of the pack house, the noise and orange glow of the fire emanating from the other side. I don’t have a second to waste. With one more puff of breath, I take off. My feet fly across the grass and mud, past pinecones and rocks. I think for a second that I’ve somehow overshot my direction, but then I spot it—the bush I hid my bag in. I rush over to it, digging my hand beneath the rough brambles, fingers closing around the strap. I yank it out, pine needles falling off it like rain.
My heart is pounding now, so hard I can practically taste my pulse in the back of my throat. Hurriedly, I sling the bag over my back, holding the straps tight as I turn and run deeper into the woods. I make it ten feet before the first shadow moves.
I skid to a grinding stop, shoes digging into the earth, eyes going wide in horror as Burke steps into view. The break in the trees above shows the glittering fury rising in his black eyes. “Going somewhere, Seneca?” The tone of his voice is filled with something dangerous, something dark.
Instead of answering, my feet back up a step and turn to the right, my body ready to tap into the flight response now surging through me, but as soon as I take a step in that direction, Seamus steps out from behind a tree. I go left instead, but another beta steps out next, blocking my path. A snapping twig makes me jerk a look over my shoulder, finding a fourth male, Conrad, behind me.
I’m surrounded.
I lick my lips, shooting another look at Seamus, who now has an ugly smirk on his face.
Burke clicks his tongue, and somehow, it sounds as loud as a cocking gun. “What’s in the bag?” he asks, stepping closer.
“None of your business.”
A sharp crack of a laugh comes out of him, but it’s definitely not humorous. “That bitchy tone isn’t going to be tolerated.” His eyes flick behind me, and that’s all the warning I get before Conrad is there, yanking the bag from my back. I whirl around, clawing at the straps and trying to get it back, but he’s too strong. It rips out of my hold, and I go falling onto my hands and knees.
I scramble back to my feet, shoving curled hair out of my face, just to watch the bastard unzip it and dump out all the contents in a pitiful heap. “Ha! Got some cash here, Alpha,” Conrad says, but when he steps forward to pick up the money, his boot lands on my mother’s hairpin. I hear the snap like it’s my own bone cracking, and fury floods me. One blink, I’m standing there in horror, and the next, I’ve rushed at him with all my might.
Because I surprise him, I’m able to push the big beta off, making him stumble back a step. I reach down and grab the snapped wooden stick and cuff, but before I can shove it into my pocket, Burke appears in front of me and tries to rip it from my grasp.
“No!” I cry, as his thick, meaty fingers pry my hand open from its protective fist. He plucks the pieces from my grasp, holding them in the moonlight for a second before his cruel black eyes fall to me. “Token from Mommy Dearest?”
“Give it to me.”
I shouldn’t have shown how much it meant to me, not in front of them, but it’s too late. I just reacted without thinking.
My eyes track the movement as he tucks the pieces into his pants pocket. “Nah, I think I’ll keep it.”
“You fucking bastard,” I growl, and I raise my hand to smack the look off his face, but my arms get restrained by Seamus’s hold. I struggle in his grasp, but I might as well be a mouse trying to pry itself off a glue strip.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Burke says, taking a step toward me, feet crunching over leaves. “You’re going to walk back into that clearing, wearing your robe like a good girl, and then you’re going to get your wolf.”
“It’s my choice,” I snarl, arms bending painfully beneath Seamus’s merciless hold.
“I’m your alpha, and you do what I say!” Burke snaps before he raises his hand and grips my face hard. “Once you have your wolf spirit, things will become clearer for you. You’ll know your place.”
I stare at him defiantly. “At your feet? No fucking thank you.”
He drops my face to wave a dismissive hand. “At my feet, on your knees, bent over in front of me, your cunt ready and waiting…”
My foot shoots up to nail him in the groin, but he catches my ankle, twisting it enough to make me yelp in pain. “I see you’re gonna do this the hard way. That’s just fine.”
Still holding my foot, I’m forced to balance on one leg as he looks over to Conrad. “Robe.”
Wordlessly, the beta steps forward, somehow already holding my robe in his hands. He and Seamus shove me into it like they’re dressing a doll, and I’m in danger more than once of getting my shoulders dislocated from their manhandling treatment.
“I’m not doing the ceremony!” I spit as Burke finally drops my ankle with a heavy thud, my thigh muscles screaming from being overextended too long.
“Yes, you are. And you’re going to behave yourself in front of the Spirit Weaver.”
I glare at him with all the hate I can fathom in the depths of my eyes. “Fuck. You.”
Quick as a flash, his fist is in my hair, yanking my head back. “I will. Before the night is done. I bet your wolf can’t fucking wait for some alpha cock.” I start trying to fight again, but he looks over to the other betas. “Bring him.”
A frown mars my brow, but I can’t turn my head, not with the painful hold he has on my hair. My ears twitch with the sound of a struggle, and then two new betas are dragging someone forward between them in front of my line of sight. The blood drains from my face when they toss the male to the ground, and I see it’s a bloodied and beaten Hess.
“No,” I whimper, my heart squeezing at the sound of his pained groan. “What did you do to him?” I demand.