Chapter 2

Mara

I wake to the sound of tyres humming softly on the tarmac, the woodsy scent of Beta Preston’s cologne in my nose, and the more flowery lavender scent of a woman. 

Frowning, I sit upright and look out of the windshield of the moving SUV. Ahead of us is a long, deserted road and the setting sun.

I have no idea where we are. Red Ridge must be far behind us. I’ve never seen anything so empty and desolate in all my life. The world here is flat, with nothing but the road and grasslands as far as the eye can see. 

How long was I out?

“Hello lovely,” a chirpy voice says from the front seat. “Did yeh have a good sleep?”

I look over at the platinum blonde sitting in the passenger seat. She’s in her mid-twenties. Her make-up is heavy, and she’s dressed in a tight, red dress that leaves little to the imagination. 

All I manage in way of an answer is a croak.

“Give her some water,” Beta Preston says, his voice deep and even.

He’s a handsome man, with salt and pepper hair, hazel eyes, and a beard that matches his hair. Everytime he smiles, two deep dimples appear in cheeks, and like all wolves of his station, he’s huge. The steering wheel looks like a toy in his hands. 

“I’m Rhoda,” the woman says and leans back to hand me a bottle of water. “E’ryone jus’ calls me Roe.”

“I-” a frog catches in my throat and it takes several tries to clear it. “I’m Mara. Thank you,” I say and take the water.

“Nice ta meet, yeh, Mara.”

“Luna Mara,” Preston corrects her.

“I’m not a Luna,” I remind him.

He looks at me in the rearview mirror, his warm eyes catching mine. “You will be.”

I don’t answer him. I haven’t had much to say since I got married. Sometimes, it feels as if my brain is empty - like someone went in there with a brush and scrubbed out all my thoughts. Lucas didn’t allow me to talk to guests, and I could only leave our house with his permission.

He only ever let me see Haley, and she was allowed to visit me once a week. I used to think it was the one small kindness he allowed. Now I think it was so he could get information about me.

Not that she’d tell him anything he didn’t already know, other than the fact that I used birth control and that I hated him. He must have known, surely.

“Yeh’re lookin’ a bit rough there, Mara,” Rhoda says. “What happened to yeh?”

“Rhoda!” Preston scolds her. “That is none of your business.”

He’s right, but I answer her anyway. “My mate liked to take his frustrations out on me.”

“Ah yeah,” she sighs. “I had one of those too.”

I look down at my left hand resting on my lap. Someone took my rings off. I have nothing but the clothes on my back. They even took my purse with my cell phone in it. “They took everything,” I mutter, more to myself than the other two occupants in the car.

Rhoda glances at Preston who shakes his head, but she either doesn’t care or doesn’t see the warning. “Yeah, I’m sorry lovey. Them men are assholes.”

Warm tears spill down my cheeks. It’s the first time in two years that I’ve allowed myself to cry in front of others, but it’s too much to hold on to. “What will happen to me?”

“Look what you’ve done,” Preston says and flicks the indicator on.

It wasn’t Rhoda’s fault, but I don’t have the energy to stand up for her. The Beta pulls off the road, and shoves the gear into neutral before he awkwardly tries to turn in his seat. “Mara. You are going to a good place,” he says. “A better place.”

It’s the kind of thing people said to my mother when she lay on her deathbed. It stirs a restless fear in me that has been my ever-present companion since the day we buried her. “Am I going to die?” I ask.

“What? No!” Preston exclaims. “I’m just saying…Haven’s Crest is a good place full of good people.”

“And the Alpha?”

Preston and Rhoda exchange a glance that doesn’t put my mind at ease. “He’s okay,” Rhoda says at last. “He can be a lil…snippy, sometimes.”

“Snippy?” I ask.

“He has a temper,” Preston explains.

The fear in me grows, swallowing my insides like a big, black hole. 

“Don’t worry,” Rhoda says quickly. “He don’t beat women or nothing like that.”

But he might beat his mate. Lucas doesn’t beat women either, yet he enjoyed using his fists on me. 

Preston exchanges another one of those troubled glances with Rhoda. “You’ll be okay,” he says and straightens.

Was that supposed to be comforting? If anything, he just made me feel worse.

A few seconds later, we’re back on the road. A sense of impending doom settles over me like a heavy blanket. It’s so bad that I’m afraid to breathe. 

This day has been too much to deal with. My whole world, fucked up as it might have been, came crashing down in less than ten minutes.

I lie back down and go to sleep.

When I wake again, it’s dark and the SUV is parked outside a small hotel. There are a few other cars in the parking lot, but otherwise the place is deserted. Preston is not in the car, but Rhoda is. “Do yeh feel better, sweetie?” she asks.

No. Not at all. “Sure,” I say and rub my hand over my throat.

Rhoda’s eyes fall on my throat and she lets out a soft, tsk, sound. “Why are yeh not ‘ealing?”

“He beats me too much.”

“My mate…he used ta go in with his fists too.”

“Where is he now?”

“Dead. I killed ‘im.”

“That was brave,” I say. “I wish I was that brave.”

“You are very young, lovey,” she says with a grimace. “I din’t find my bravery ‘til I was much older.”

I snort softly. “You are what? Four years older than me?”

“I’m thirty-five, schnookums.”

I like her. There’s an honesty about her in the way she speaks, and she doesn’t seem to care what people think of her. “What do you do for the pack?”

“We’re not really a pack. Yeh’ll see when we get there.”

“What does that mean?” I ask.

Rhoda opens her mouth to answer me, but before she can, Preston is back and leaning into the car. “You are in room ten. Eat. Sleep. We leave at dawn.”