Page 31 of Primal (The Prey Drive #1)

Chapter 30

Noa

T urns out when Rhosyn said her impromptu return to Ashvale worked out for her, she meant it was the perfect time to start on her side quest of schmoozing with Amara and Lowri. Her plan was to butter up the High Priestess and the Ashvale Alpha, and win them over to the Fallamhain Pack cause before Rennick made his own plea to them at a later date.

“They probably wouldn’t help him if he were on fire right now.” She’d scoffed, arms crossed as she explained why she was going to be staying behind for the next day or two.

And, honestly? She wasn’t wrong about Lowri and Amara.

After what they witnessed in the clearing, it made sense that they'd want nothing to do with him. But Rhosyn’s thinking that the pair of women would make a good allyship for her pack was also one I’d considered when I’d learned of their issues. It was what I meant when I told Rennick that I may have been able to help him if he’d only given me the chance to. Through my years of being part of the sanctuary, and my connections I’ve made through my dealings at Potion she just had to be willing to help. And despite my own salty feelings toward the High Priestess right now, I know she has a good heart, and the protection of omegas is a cause she already stands firmly behind. I guess it just comes down to if shielding a territory as large as Pack Fallamhain’s is something doable. She’s powerful, but even she has limits.

Sending Rhosyn to start any kind of alliance talk with them was the smart move. Even if Canaan looked about ready to drag his mate back to Silverthorne with him by her curly ponytail when it was time for Rennick and him to leave. The pair couldn’t stay because they had to get home to go over the logistics of some kind of pack gathering that is happening next weekend. It felt like they had bigger fish to fry than planning a party, but what the hell do I know?

What I do know is that watching Canaan have to force himself to leave Rhosyn had cracked something open in me. And when I saw Rennick hesitate just the same way, saw his jaw tense, his throat bob when he looked at me, it wasn’t just a crack anymore. It was a slow, spreading fracture. The walls I’d tried so hard to hold up had already started to crumble—softened by his hands, his mouth, his honesty.

On the front porch of the manor, Rennick cradled my face and I didn’t have the strength to fight him. His palms were warm, fingers rough, but his thumbs were gentle as they swept across my cheekbones. And then he leaned in and pressed the softest kiss to my forehead. Not possessive. Not hungry. Just…aching. Like the goodbye wasn’t something he wanted to give.

“You can keep running, sweet one,” he said, voice low and steady, “but I'll keep chasing. One day, you'll believe that I'm not walking away from you. Not again.”

I didn’t say anything. Just turned away, quick enough that he wouldn’t see the way my eyes brimmed with tears.

Because I wanted to believe him.

I just didn’t know if I could afford to.

Hours later, after they’d pulled away in a familiar black Escalade, I was still thinking about that tender forehead kiss and his vow. It was making me feel stir-crazy, which is why I’d decided to get out of the house, to walk down to my favorite coffee shop a few blocks away, but that plan had almost gone to shit along with every ounce of my willpower, because when I stepped out my front door, I saw the carefully folded green hoodie sitting on the top step of the porch. I about shattered and picked up the phone to beg him to come back when I’d lifted it to my nose and found his scent had been restored from when he’d worn it for a little while before leaving.

Wolf sad, moping about in her weakening cage, my own emotions wreaking havoc on me, I’d told both Rhosyn and Seren that I was stepping out for a minute. I wasn’t too worried about leaving Siggy with them both being there, not to mention today is Edie’s day off, and the last I heard, they were talking about going down to the cellar’s living space and watching a movie all together while Ivey napped.

I spent the walk to the café—just a few quiet blocks—trying to sort through the chaos in my head. I picked through each emotion like broken glass, holding them up to the light, asking myself how much of what I was feeling was really me , and how much of it was the rejection. The heaviness in my chest. The voice whispering that none of this mattered. Was it all just the fog of the broken bond coloring everything in shades of despair? Would I be thinking differently if I wasn’t dragging around this storm cloud in my mind, making everything feel like the end of the world? Would I be willing to fight harder? To risk another heartbreak if it meant surviving?

Could I trust that Rennick truly wanted me—and not just because he felt he had to? That he felt obligated to heal me?

That’s the question I’m asking myself when I step into the house again after a half hour of self-reflection and a cold brew. I need to find Seren—and Rhosyn—and talk it out with them too, because I don’t feel like I can trust my own thoughts right now.

Box of cookies in one hand and coffee in the other, I make my way down the narrow cellar steps to the enchanted cinder block wall. Setting my things on the floor, I press both palms flat against the stone. Vardis’s glamour dissolves into mist like it always does, peeling back the hidden entrance to the sanctuary.

But something’s wrong. The string lights that usually line the tunnel with that soft, enchanted glow are completely dark. Not flickering. Not low on power. Just dead. And that shouldn’t be possible—they don’t run on batteries.All the electricity down here is connected to an emergency generator, because the last thing we want is for the traumatized omegas to be blanketed in darkness without warning if for some reason we lose power.

A chill skates down my spine, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. Every instinct I have begins to hum. I scoop the coffee cup and the box of cookies back into my arms, fingers trembling slightly, and step through, the glamour falling back into place behind me. The hallway stretches ahead in eerie silence. With each step I take toward the bend that leads to the common room, my unease sharpens into dread.

They should be down here. Seren. Rhosyn. Siggy. Edie. And Ivey, too, if she’s awake early from her nap. I should also be hearing her by now—those soft baby babbles echoing off the stone walls.

But I hear nothing. Not even a shuffle or a breath.

It’s not peaceful. It’s heavy. Weighted silence, the kind that settles into your bones and screams for you to turn around.

My wolf is pacing, hackles raised and teeth bared behind her cage. She’s in full defense mode, and she rarely gets like this. My instincts are screaming that something is very, very wrong.

I juggle the coffee and cookie box, fingers clumsy and nerves stretched too tight, trying to free one hand for my phone. My thumb hovers over Seren’s name, just a breath away from pressing, when the ground vanishes beneath me. One second I’m upright, the next I’m weightless. My feet skid out with no warning, no grip, and then the world lurches sideways.

I hit the floor hard—bone, spine, ribs, all colliding with cold stone in a brutal thud that knocks the breath out of me. Pain shoots through my hip and shoulder, and my coffee goes flying, splattering across the floor. The cookie box slips from my fingers, skidding away in one direction, my phone in another. For a second, I just lie there, stunned and winded, heart hammering as I blink up at the ceiling.

Groaning and disoriented, I push myself up on shaky arms. My knees slip once before I catch myself. My jeans cling to me, soaked through, Rennick’s hoodie too. My palms are slick. At first, I think it’s the coffee that spilled across the floor when I fell. But it’s too thick. It clings in a way that churns my stomach. There’s too much of it.

I shift back onto my heels, unsteady, and lift one trembling hand toward my face. In the dim light, I can just about make out the dark smear coating my fingers, and then the scent hits me—metallic and heavy. Copper.

Blood.

My phone, the cookies, the coffee—they don’t matter anymore. I crawl forward, half upright, half dragging myself through the tunnel, my breath ragged, vision swimming.

I round the corner into the common room and freeze.

There, in the center of the space, is a body.

Slumped. Still. Surrounded by a pool of blood so wide it stretches all the way back to the hallway. I realize in one sickening blink that the trail I slipped in wasn’t random. They were dragged. Left there like a morbid version of the yellow brick road for me to follow.

My legs give out five feet away. I fall to my knees again, crawling the rest of the way on hands that shake too hard to be useful. I’m so beyond caring ifi I get more blood on me. My heart is thundering, a riot in my chest. My wolf is howling in her cage.

“No, no, no,” I whisper, the words cracking and catching in my throat as I reach for the body.

We were supposed to be safe here.

The end…for now