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Chapter eleven

Annabella

The drive took almost two hours, each mile ratcheting up the pressure in my chest. The cityscape gradually gave way to sprawling suburbs and, finally, the dense forests that marked Ashridge Pack territory.

The familiar scent of pine and Pack boundaries hit me as I turned onto the access road, my hands tightening on the steering wheel. Two hours of driving, and I still couldn’t get Felix out of my head.

What the hell was wrong with me?

I’d replayed our last conversation at least a dozen times during the drive, dissecting every word, every inflection.

The way Felix had asked if I wanted backup; not demanding, not challenging my authority, just offering.

The flash of something in his eyes when I’d snapped at him.

That moment at the elevator when I’d almost said…

what exactly? That he was carving out space inside me that I didn’t know existed?

That he was getting under my skin in ways I didn’t understand?

I’d never been attracted to anyone in my crew before.

Hell, I’d never allowed myself to be attracted to anyone, period.

Attraction meant vulnerability. Vulnerability meant weakness.

Weakness meant death—or worse, failure. But Felix made me think about things I had no business considering.

Like how his callused hands might feel against my bare skin.

Whether his lips would be as soft as they looked when he smiled.

The weight of his body pressing mine into the mattress.

I had to get my head together. I had real problems to deal with and needed to be sharp for today.

The landscape outside grew more familiar with every mile, each landmark twisting something sharp and rusty in my gut.

The crooked oak where I’d broken my arm when I was eight and Lucas and his friends had pushed me from a branch.

The convenience store where they’d ambushed me after school, pouring sticky soda over my head and clothes, then telling everyone I’d pissed myself when I walked home soaking wet.

The turnoff to Ashridge High, where I’d spent four years with my back to walls, eating lunch alone in bathroom stalls, learning that invisibility was the closest thing to safety I could hope for.

At least Lucas was simple to understand; a predator who’d never evolved beyond the joy of making others suffer.

His cruelty was straightforward, uncomplicated by things like conscience or complexity.

Felix was… something else entirely. Something that scared me more than any enemy I’d faced because he made me feel things I couldn’t name, couldn’t categorize, couldn’t defend against.

A familiar burn ignited beneath my sternum as Pack scents grew stronger, my body remembering what my mind wanted to forget.

Breathe. I had to breathe.

In for four. Hold for seven. Out for eight.

The meditation techniques weren’t working today.

My wolf pushed harder against my control, sensing the proximity to Pack lands.

To memories. To pain. We’d severed our Pack bonds when we’d left at eighteen, but some primitive part of her still recognized this place, still whined at the reminder of that severed connection—despite everything they’d done to us, despite how they’d treated us, she still remembered the feeling of belonging.

Stay down, damn it.

Five years since I’d left. Five years since I’d discovered the truth about my father and realized everything I’d been told was a lie.

I pulled up to a modest single-story house at the very edge of Pack territory—as far from the Alpha compound as you could get while technically still under Ashridge protection.

Nothing had changed since my childhood—the same faded blue siding, the same neatly trimmed but unremarkable yard, the same careful anonymity designed not to attract attention.

Existing at the margins had been our specialty.

I caught his scent before I even turned off the engine.

Lucas.

Just the thought of him being this close to my sister made my teeth ache with the need to bite something.

My wolf stirred, a warning growl building in my throat that I swallowed down hard.

The last thing my family needed right now was for my wolf to attack Lucas and lose the only protection my mom and sister had.

He was waiting on the porch, arms crossed over his chest like some cut-rate bouncer at a Shifter bar.

In the five years since I’d left, he’d grown fully into his Alpha role.

Gone was the hotheaded teenager who’d relied on brute force and Pack numbers.

At twenty-seven, Lucas projected the kind of deliberate stillness that reminded me of hunters who’ve learned that patience yields better results than lunging.

Time had refined his cruelty, made it more efficient, his movements measured now, his presence expanding to fill available space without any visible effort.

But his eyes were the same. Glacial blue, calculating, perpetually scanning for weakness like targeting sensors locked on vulnerable points. Always searching for the soft places where his words or fists would cause maximum damage.

“You’re late,” he said by way of greeting.

“I’m exactly on time.” I met his gaze without flinching, refusing to show submission despite the ingrained instinct to lower my eyes. The Pack might have rejected me, but I wasn’t about to play the submissive wolf for this asshole. “Where’s Tara?”

“Alpha business.” He didn’t move aside. I’d have to brush past him to get into the house. Classic dominance play straight from Intimidation 101, the grown-up version of slamming smaller wolves into lockers. I climbed the three wooden steps and stopped just short of his personal space.

“I brought your money.” I dug the envelope thick with cash out of my back pocket. Three months’ worth of protection, paid in advance, as always.

Lucas took the envelope, thumbing through the bills with deliberate slowness. I’d never short-changed him, but he made a show of checking each time we did this.

“Webster must pay well for whatever you’re doing for him.”

“My finances aren’t your concern.” My voice came out ice-cold.

A year ago, when Mom had collapsed with the first seizure, I’d been forced to beg Lucas and Tara to take her and Ellie in.

The Pack bonds my mother had never severed made her technically still Pack, and Lucas had grudgingly extended that protection to include Ellie, given the money I’d promised him and the fact that the Ashridge Pack had already protected—if you could call it that—one half-witch before.

It was always meant to be temporary—just until I could dismantle the Wolf Council and create a northern territory where Ellie would be safe, where being half witch wouldn’t make her a target.

But the clock was ticking. Ellie would start school soon, coming into daily contact with Pack children who would no doubt make her life miserable.

I had to have her out of here before then.

But for now, the money kept Lucas and the Pack quiet, kept them from calling the Council and telling them all about us.

“Sure they are. I’ve decided to raise my rates. Inflation, you know.”

My stomach dropped. “We had a deal.”

“Deals change.” His smile was shark-like. “Market forces. Supply and demand. Unless you’d prefer to find somewhere else for them to live?”

We both knew there was nowhere else. No other Pack would take in a sick werewolf and her half-witch daughter. This was it—the only sanctuary they had, and Lucas knew it.

“Fine.” The word scraped past my clenched teeth. “I’ll get you more.”

Lucas pocketed the cash with a smirk that made my fingers twitch for the knife strapped to my thigh. “As long as the money keeps coming, I don’t care if you’re robbing banks or selling your ass in the city.”

My wolf slammed against my control with enough force to make my vision swim, fangs pushing painfully at my gums, claws threatening to rupture through my fingertips. I forced her back through sheer will, but it was harder than usual—like trying to hold back a flash flood with a paper dam.

Fuck. I needed to get myself under control. The cold, rational part of my brain—the part that had kept me alive this long—reminded me that if I killed Lucas, my mother and sister would lose what little protection they had. Logic, not mercy, kept his throat intact.

“How are they?” I dipped my head, not out of submission, but because his exposed jugular was becoming far too tempting a target.

“The cub is fine. Noisy. Annoying.” He shrugged with elaborate disinterest. “Your mother had another episode yesterday. Dr. Mitchell came by, adjusted her medication.”

My stomach dropped. “Episodes” meant seizures. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“Because I don’t answer to you.”

I took a single step forward, closing the distance. “I’m going to see them. Move.”

“Say please.”

I could literally feel my claws breaking skin, tiny pinpricks of pain as they pushed through my fingertips. This was it—the moment I finally gave in and tore Lucas Ashridge’s throat out.

A small thump sounded from inside, followed by a high, sweet voice calling, “Mama, Bella is here!”

I breathed in and let it out slowly. I couldn’t kill Lucas. I needed him. Ellie needed him.

“Please,” I forced the word out.

He smirked, triumph written across every feature. “Was that so hard?” But he shifted sideways, allowing just enough space for me to pass.

“Twenty minutes,” he called after me. “I have a Pack meeting at noon.”