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Mine.

My perfume bloomed again, fresh and floral against the Beta’s skin and I snapped.

"No!"

I shoved him back, stumbling away from his embrace.

He reached for me in reflex, fingers catching on the chain around my neck as I twisted away.

It snapped.

My mother's necklace.

I felt it go, and I couldn't do anything butletit fall as I rushed out of the kitchen and up to my room. I could hear them chase me, but I was in fight-or-flight mode, and this girl had to fly away. Now.

My bedroom door slammed shut behind me, in their faces, and I quickly hit the lock.

I wasn't stupid enough to think a flimsy lock would stop three Alphas from barging in and claiming what they thought of as theirs, but I was damned if I would give up my freedom as soon as I finally had it in my grasp.

Grabbing my bag from under my bed, I head for the small window I'd been using to sneak out for the last three years.

There was enough money to get me out of town and settled into a new place.

And hopefully, along the way, I could figure out a way to get my hands on some damn suppressants. No way was I going to let biology fuck up everything I've been working for.

It was time for this girl to flee the nest.

Chapter 3

Cindy

Ididn't know where I was going.

Didn't know what I was running to. All I knew was that I needed to get away from Tracy. Tracy and... the pack.

The world outside the windshield blurred into streaks of shadow and highway. Every road sign passed unread, every mile a smudge behind me. I didn't care. Just needed distance.

From them.

From the truth.

From what my body had become.

The gas gauge blinked its warning light at me, reminding me of my meagre funds suddenly made even more desperate because I'd need to get my hands on a new identity and black market suppressants. Not to mention, I wouldn't know the first thing about getting either of those things!

I pulled off at the next exit, a narrow off-ramp that fed into a mostly abandoned stretch of rural nothing. Trees loomed on either side like silent sentinels. An abandoned looking gas station sat on one corner. It didn't even seem to have a name.

With a sinking heart, I coasted into the gravel lot anyway and killed the engine.

I was shaking.

That initial burst of heat had faded, but the memory of it, the feeling of all those scents, all thosethingsoverwhelming me, was still so present I shuddered.

I shoved open the door and stumbled into the night air.

Cool.

Damp and quiet.