Chapter 2: Enemies of the past

~Liam~

Hollow.

That’s how I feel as I stare at the woman I thought loved me for me. The woman I love, the same one who just gutted me with a few words. From living in the clouds, blissfully happy to desolate. I have no words. Nothing I can say to her. She didn’t expect me to find out. She thought I wouldn’t hear, or maybe she forgot that werewolves have excellent hearing. But she slipped up. She fucked up when she revealed her secret to Sari. 

“Liam…” she says, clinging to my waist, her emerald eyes boring into mine as I look down at her. I used to think she fit here perfectly. But now it looks all wrong. 

I stumble back, extracting myself from her arms in haste. My vision wanes as if I’m emotionally bleeding out slowly, losing my sanity and control. I spin on my heels, my chest heaving as I break down one piece at a time.

My wolf is silent for the first time in my life. He sits lifeless and I’m on my own to escape this suffocating room. No respite for me, only doing the one thing in my life I swore I would never do—flee. She grabs my arm and I want to stop. I want to spin and take her in my arms and tell her it’s ok.

That’s what a good mate would do, right? I’m overreacting, I have to be… but my soul feels like it’s been shredded and my mind feels like all reason is not reasonable and I can’t handle the reality of it all. 

She mated with me because she wanted to heal faster. So she could become what she wanted to be. I’m happy for her. That’s what fucking hurts the most. I’m happy she is completely healed. I am happy she has everything she wants. Everything she needs. But now she has no need for me.

She used me as a step stool to the life she wanted and now I’m the anchor at the bottom of the ocean, pulling her down, holding her back from the life she has craved. She always wanted to be the hero. The person you can turn to in a lurch. The one who can save you and she feels nothing but happy because of the good she implants in the world. That’s her dream.

Dreams are just figments of life we want, but will never achieve. I mean, look at me now, she was my dream and for a blip in time; I had her. But her love is elusive as smoke. Never truly containable. And I’m back to what I was—the villain.

The broken guy she is tethered to in a terrible twist of fate. Ali–My first mate–couldn’t love me the way she loves Wade and Adri can’t love me the way she loves what she is, where she is. I tear through the packhouse, storming straight for the woods. I want to beg her to follow me, to chase me and tell me I misheard. But I know she won’t. It’s not who she is.

Yet, the childish part of me who believes in fantasies and love strong enough to save the world hopes she comes. 

But she doesn’t. One look over my shoulder proves that. She stays where she wants to stay, where she has always wanted to be. And I get to look the fool. The unloveable fool who only wanted to be seen and loved but wasn’t enough. I’ve never been enough.

I wasn’t enough for my father, for the committee, for my pack. I’ve always come up short. Hell, I’m man enough to admit it was almost always my doing. I was weak to my father, ruthless to others, and too like my father for my pack to respect me. And now I’m not enough for her, and I can’t even blame her for it, because it seems to just be who I am. Even when I tried to be more, I am most undoubtedly less.

The warm air sticks to me like wetness when it rains as I storm past Alpha Wade and Axel. I know they are watching me. I can feel the judgmental eyes as they watch my back and when I can’t handle it anymore, I shift, not even worrying about my clothes. The only thing on my mind is running, far, and fast. I need to escape it all, this pack that can’t ever accept me, the mate who swore she wanted me, but she wanted the mate bond. Not me, only what I could offer.

Fuck!

I run until the sun comes down, and then I push further, running until the thought of Adriana no longer brings anger, only empty shame. When a stream comes into view, I slow and ease my sore wolf's body into the dark pool and shift. I sigh as the cool water relaxes my muscles, shocking my body back to feeling when it’s been numb for so long. My hands and feet ache, but I stay floating in the small stream, allowing it to roll over me in little lapping waves.

The peace of the forest relaxes me, lulling me into a silent meditation where I can hide from myself, and just listen to the music of the forest. 

I’m surprised when laughter floats through the trees and rendering me frozen in place. The laughter isn’t melodic or the sweet sound of someone who is enjoying their time in the woods. It’s the sound of a deranged man who has found his prey.

Sticks crack, heavy breathing and panting grow closer by the second, and with a crash, a young woman breaks through the brambles. She freezes when she sees me standing in the stream. She smells like an animal, but the scent is faint and her face is full of cuts and bruises from the trees she has ripped through to get here. 

She watches me warily as she moves swiftly, jumping into the stream, submerging herself. Her brilliant red hair disappears below the surface as she swims with the current as fast as she can under the water. She makes it almost out of view when a grinning man with sandy blond hair saunters through, clucking his lips as if calling for an animal and I realize she is running for her life. Or maybe her virtue?

“Come on, little foxy,” he says, his voice falling away when he locks eyes with me. 

“Well, you aren’t the fox.” he grins, sticking his hands in his pocket.

I toss him a disdainful look and lower back into the stream, ready to ignore him, but I can feel his eyes on me. Watching me closely. I open one of my eyes and find him crouching at the mouth of the stream and focusing on the scar on my face. 

“See something you like?” I ask.

“Yeah…” He grins, standing taller as he takes me in.

Then he whistles, and a moment later three men find their way to the clearing. The first is a blazing redhead with piercing green eyes, his buddy has raven black hair pulled back into a ponytail and dark eyes, his physique is the only one I’m concerning myself with as he looks closer to my size and the look in his eyes is one of murder. 

The last guy steps forward, his silver hair bringing me back to my past for a moment. I mutter a litany of expletives as face my past. The late Alpha Brantley. The first pack I attacked at the bidding of my father to secure us more pack lands when I was just sixteen. It wasn’t a quick fight either. Both packs lost lots of warriors, but in the end, my pack and I reigned superior and we absorbed his pack and exiled him. 

“Well, holy fucking shit.” He grins, his eyes menacing and mirth in his eyes.

“Brantley,” I grunt. Slowly easing backward, deeper into the water. 

“The infamous Alpha Liam.” The other men stiffen and look at each other and then back at me. 

“Unh uh. Not an Alpha anymore. Isn’t that right, Liam?” The original man says with a cackle.

“I heard you picked the wrong side and got fucked over by your mate?” Brantley says.

“Shit! If that isn’t karma, I don’t know what is.” The blond chuckles.

“Oh no, that’s just what’s due. This right now. This is karma.” Redhead says.

“Your little chick went that way.” I frown and point down the stream.

Admittedly, I feel a little bad about ratting her out. But this is my life on the line now. I have a mate waiting for me. Even if I am angry with her, I’m not stupid enough to pick a fight I won’t win.

“Fuck her. We found justice. Finally.”

“Come on out, Liam.”

“Yeah, fucking no way.” I laugh sardonically.

I know the second I’m out of the stream, they will be on me. I’m in a pretty shitty situation right now. Fucked might be a more appropriate description. I knew my past would rear its ugly head, but I have to admit I didn’t expect to have my past team up and come for me at the same time. And I hate they were smart enough to do so.