RayneWhen I reach my father’s pack, I’m bleeding and naked. A woman sees me and recognizes me, and she immediately grabs a sheet from her hanging line and covers my body with it. I don’t have the strength to thank her. I only nod at her. She doesn’t even see this gesture because she’s staring at the main house and starts racing toward it, no doubt to call my father. I lie on my side in the grass with the sheet wrapped around my sore body, breathing slowly. I ran the whole way here, ignoring aches and pains. In my wolf form, it’s a lot easier, but I’m still tired and exhausted, and my disappointment clouds everything, leaving little space to think about anything else. One thing I know for sure is that I didn’t want to come here. I felt too ashamed. I still do. When I left, it was because I genuinely thought I’d be happy. I told my father how much I loved him, and he encouraged me to pursue this. And now, I’m returning only a week later; heartbroken, perhaps beyond repair. I feel b
MaxThe mess that is my pack can’t be put into words. I have lost complete control and frankly, I let it happen. I can’t bring myself to care about control when all of these terrible things are happening to me. In the space of forty-eight hours, I’ve managed to lose the most precious thing in the world to me and the control of my pack simultaneously. To make matters worse, I have GrayLeaf on my case, which is understandable considering what happened to Alaska. Every time I think about her, I get nauseous and the feeling doesn’t go away. I keep seeing her dead body right outside the doors of the House and how torn apart she was. A brief autopsy confirmed her pregnancy, and the worst part to me is how part of the placenta was eaten. Eaten. My Rayne couldn’t have done that. This thought has been on my mind for some time now, however, I haven’t said it out loud. I have kept this to myself because I don’t have proof and I’ll probably sound delusional to everyone. But Rayne…she couldn’t
Rayne I hear my father's booming voice before I find out what's going on. He's standing at the door and yelling at someone. Or at people. I’m not sure at the moment. Darla and I glance at each other. My heart is racing. I’m wondering if it’s Max and his people. Did he come to see me? It seems likely. Unless Alaska told him what she told me, he probably doesn’t know why I ran away, but I think that’s unlikely. I step forward. I’m too anxious and impatient to wait. “Dad? What’s wrong?”“Stand back, Rayne,” he tells me hurriedly without even turning to face me. “Go up to your room and don’t come back no matter what.”My eyes fill with tears. Judging by the sound of his voice, it’s more serious than I initially thought. “Is it him?” I ask. “No,” he tells me. “It’s GrayLeaf.”Before I can say anything else, I hear a voice from outside. “If the criminal is in there, send her out. Attempting to intervene with the court of law will only cause you more trouble.”“Bring the court and ever
Max I rise, the chair behind me toppling over. “What?”Veronica squares her shoulders and says, “She handed herself over to the court of law. She’s guilty, end of story.”“Is that what she said?”“Does she have to say it?” she demands. “I can’t believe you, Maxwell. You still believe that she didn’t hurt Alaska? She killed her and your unborn child!”I shake my head and turn away from her. “I don’t believe she did that.”She chuckles. It’s a humorless smile. “You sound pathetic right now, do you know that?”“What’s your problem?” I ask, whirling around to face her. “I don’t get it. You went to GrayLeaf to convince them to hear her out and not kill her. Now you’re saying you don’t believe she’s innocent.”“The only reason why I went there to reason with them is because if she dies, you’ll die along with her,” she says through her teeth. “Can’t you see that I did this to save you?”“You believe she killed Alaska, then?”“Why shouldn’t she?” Lambert asks from the door. I forgot that it
Rayne The prison is worse than I thought it would be. It’s a dirty, soulless place. As soon as I entered it, I knew that there was much I would have to endure still, and that it wouldn’t be as easy as I thought it would be. For starters, they put me in a filthy cell. The good thing is that I’m all alone here, which is unlike most of the prisoners. They’re all packed in the same cell and they were catcalling me as soon as I entered accompanied by the guards. They’re still calling to me and saying foul things, which I try my best to ignore. It isn’t easy, because they’re so loud that I can hardly think. But I try. I try because it’s all I can do. Nothing has been explained to me. I don’t know when I’ll be questioned or what to expect from this. I don’t know how long I have to stay in this cell. It’s dark and there’s a sweet smell of decay in the air. I wonder if anyone has died here, but the answer is written everywhere. This place is a prison and a graveyard. If things go wrong,
Rayne The man—who I now know is the prison warden—comes to ‘speak’ with me a few more times. Each encounter is more painful than the last, and I have to admit that I’m starting to lose some hope that everything is going to be alright, as I initially thought it was. They don’t want to hear my truth. They have no interest in that. They want me to admit to Alaska’s murder and I highly suspect that her pack has something to do with this. My regret is as deep as the ocean. If I had listened to my father, I wouldn’t have been in this situation. But I was thinking about peace. I never would have guessed that we would have gotten to this point. I groan in pain when I try to move. Ever since the warden left a few hours ago, I’ve been feeling this pain in my lower back. I can’t even move without feeling stabs of pain that travel all the way to the front of my body. I don’t know how much more of this I can take, but I know this—I won’t confess. Not ever. I’ve come too far and I’ve gone throu
Rayne My physical pain is gone. It’s the emotional pain that’s haunting me and keeping me awake. I’m grief-ridden and devastated by everything. My will to fight and prove my innocence has vanished. At this point, I don’t care what happens to me. I just want this torment to end. I didn’t think that I’d be broken by this. I was prepared to fight them and hold off for as long as possible, but now I keep asking myself why I’m putting myself through this. I ask myself if my stubbornness has brought me here. I ask myself if my baby would have been alive if I hadn’t willingly put myself through this. This is what’s keeping me up at night. I spend endless nights obsessing about the what-ifs. I feel guilty for what has happened, and I wonder if it’s some kind of curse. A curse from Alaska herself. I didn’t kill her, though. No matter how hard they try to convince me that I did. I turn on my side and feel myself falling asleep. My eyes are closed and I’m almost there when the door open
MaxThe gates are opened by a guard and I stride in along with my Gamma and First Beta. A few more soldiers trail behind us. There's a mixture of anxiety and bottomless anger filling every single crack inside me caused by my separation from Rayne. Walking into this prison, hope and dread are added to the mixture of emotions. The investigation has ended and there is no concrete evidence that Rayne was responsible for Alaska's death. Because of that, there is no way that they can charge her with anything, and so they're forced to release her until more evidence is presented. If word hadn't gotten out that I planned on appealing, this could have been done while she was out, but because Veronica decided to talk about my plans with whoever, things changed. I can't seem to forgive her for that. The more I look around, the more I'm convinced that things between us will never be the same and it doesn't matter that she's my sister. She should have known not to tell anyone. The fact that Ra