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WREN

I felt the blood drain from my head, only it didn’t stop there. It kept going until I was lightheaded and stumbling back into the kitchen island.

My mind spun, tripping over a million different thoughts as it did. I needed to know who Ender had spoken with and how they knew who I was. Icy dread slid through my veins. Did my father know where I was? Was he already coming for me?

“What’s the matter?” Ender sneered. “Cat got your tongue?”

Puck shoved him. “Back off. You need proof that she’s a part of that pack.”

He said the word pack as if it were a curse. And it was. Having Red River blood running through my veins was a punishment no one deserved. But even worse was having Bastian Boudreaux’s blood there, knowing that a man as evil as him was part of my fundamental makeup.

Just the reminder had acid sloshing through my stomach, nausea quick on its heels. Memories slammed into me. All his punishments in an effort to make me strong.

“Fucking look at her,” Ender demanded. “She’s his.”

“I’m not,” I croaked. I finally forced my gaze up to take in Brix, King, and Locke, who’d spilled in behind Ender. They’d moved so silently I hadn’t even heard them.

“Liar,” Ender snarled, lifting his phone and shoving it into my face.

There was a photo on the screen. One from years ago. I was probably thirteen or so at the time, standing next to Bastian and his top enforcers, my arms wrapped around myself. I remembered the day. Another pack had come for a meeting, and Bastian had trotted me out for the party like he always did. The only problem was that he’d beaten me so badly the night before it had been painful to move.

Kingston looked from the phone to me and back again. “Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me you’re not the daughter of the man who stole my sister from me. Who turned her life into a living hell.”

A whole new wave of nausea slid through me as pieces started to fall into place. A pack who kidnapped women and girls and sold them. I knew my father had been involved in illegal dealings, but I’d been far from being in his trusted circle. I hadn’t known he’d gone that dark.

But I shouldn’t be surprised.

My mouth felt like it was full of sand but I forced myself to speak. “I’m not his daughter by choice.”

Ender curled his upper lip, letting out a growl as he stalked toward me. “We’re not falling for your innocent act. Not anymore.”

Locke moved then, stepping between us and shoving Ender back a step. “Stop. You know she’s been through hell.”

“It’s a fucking act,” Ender snarled. “And you’re falling for it.”

Ender’s anger was like fiery claws raking against my shields, sending countless tiny ice picks through my skull .

“No, you aren’t seeing the truth because you’re so caught up in your vendetta,” Locke gritted out.

Ender’s chest rose and fell in ragged pants as fur rippled over his forearms. “My vendetta? You mean the fact that I want revenge on the pack who slayed mine without any honor. Just to steal what we had. The pack that killed my entire family? Brix’s family? Who almost killed Brix himself?”

Black spots danced in front of my vision—the only warning I had that I wasn’t breathing. I forced myself to inhale, to take in the oxygen, even though I didn’t want it. Didn’t deserve it. I knew my father led raiding parties. He was hungry for riches and territory. Greedy.

Bastian would use every trick in the book to get what he wanted. There were no challenges. There were only the most ruthless tactics. He didn’t care that he tore families apart and traumatized the survivors for the rest of their days.

I just didn’t realize he’d done that to men I cared so deeply about. My gaze lifted, finding Kingston’s locked on me. There was so much pain in those light-blue eyes. Total and complete agony. But there was also something else. He was looking at me like I was a complete stranger. As if he’d never laid eyes on me before.

It was like a dagger had been plunged into my chest. He might as well have rejected our mating bond right then and there. A cramping sensation took root in my stomach, waves of excruciating pain sloshing through me as I sought out Brix.

He stood the farthest away from me, back at the entryway to the kitchen. But his blue-green eyes had gone completely dead. There was no emotion in him at all. It was as if I was nothing to him.

A soft whimper left my lips, one I tried to swallow but couldn’t. Ender’s gaze shot instantly to me. “Don’t you fucking dare. You don’t get to keep this act up. You don’t get to learn our secrets and report back to Daddy .”

Bile surged up my throat, but I forced myself to straighten and lift my chin. “He is not my father. He contributed to my DNA and nothing more.”

Ender bared his teeth at me, trying to go around Locke, but Puck moved in to block him. The growl that left Ender’s throat was one of pure rage. “You’d take her back after everything I’ve told you?”

“She’s our mate,” Puck stated with finality, his green eyes glinting with a hardness I’d never seen before.

“Your mate?” Ender spat. “I never thought you would fall for the con of a woman again.”

The room went eerily silent. After everything Puck had shared with me, I knew why. That blow was too vicious, too brutal, especially between brothers. Puck’s eyes swirled with rage as he gritted his teeth. “I’ll let you have that one because of your wounds and losses. But only that one. Speak to me or Wren that way again, and I’ll do more than break your nose.”

Locke turned to me, reaching out as if to take my hand, but I skirted away. If he touched me now, it would break me. It would be the physical manifestation of everything I was losing. Everything that had made me feel whole for the first time in my life, only to be ripped out from under me.

Pain flashed in Locke’s gray eyes, but there was also empathy. “Go to your room. Stay there. I’ll come find you after we’re done.”

My heart clenched. He was still trying to protect me in his very Locke way. He didn’t want me to hear Ender’s cruel words or see the rejection in King’s and Brix’s gazes.

I moved quickly, slipping out the back entrance of the kitchen toward my room. Only I wouldn’t stay there. There was only one thing I could do now.

Run.