Elena’s POV
DAMIEN - The mont trouble starts, you contact imdiately.
I’ve already secured a backup vehicle just in case we need it.
- I will, but focus on those children right now.
That’s exactly where I need you to be.
DAMIEN - And I need you alive and unhard. I refuse to lose you too. Promise ?
- Fine. I’ll stay cautious. I’ll remain safe. And I’ll reach out if anything goes wrong. I’ll contact you later with an update about my mother’s condition.
DAMIEN - Good. I’m confident she’ll be okay. I love you.
- I love you too.
I remained seated, waiting with growing impatience for my mother’s return, though I had no idea where she’d gone or when she might be back.
My fingers found my phone, scrolling through aningless updates as my anxiety climbed with each passing minute in that sterile room.
Eventually I couldn’t sit still anymore. I stood and began walking back and forth before moving toward the window to peer outside.
The view was completely deserted. That fact alone unsettled deeply. But there was sothing else disturbing about what I saw. Every yard visible from my vantage point looked abandoned, with grass growing wild and untended, as if the residents had simply vanished without warning.
I found myself wondering if that’s exactly what had happened.
Perhaps Marcus had beco too controlling for the pack mbers to tolerate, driving them all away.
The possibility made perfect sense. Nobody could endure living under the thumb of such a domineering and unreasonable Alpha indefinitely.
These sa people had shown complete loyalty to Marcus when I’d lived here before. He would have needed to make so seriously destructive changes to push his entire pack to abandon their hos.
After waiting far longer than seed reasonable, I turned my attention back to the hospital bed.
I approached the nightstand and picked up the dical file the nurse had been consulting earlier. Opening it revealed completely blank pages. Not a single notation anywhere. Certainly nothing docunting any tests being perford on my mother.
I pulled out my phone and headed for the door imdiately.
"Hello." Damien’s voice ca through almost before the first ring finished.
"This whole thing is a trap. They directed to so random room and claid she was having tests done. This isn’t even her room." I explained.
"Get out of there right now." His voice was sharp with urgency.
"I’m leaving." I confird.
"Call the second you’re in your car." He instructed as I pushed through the hospital’s front entrance.
"That’s not going to be possible." I said, stopping dead in my tracks.
"Why the hell not?" He demanded. I stood frozen just outside the hospital doors, staring at Marcus who was casually leaning against my vehicle.
"What exactly do you think you’re doing, Marcus?" I called out.
"Well, I figured if you were actually alive, this would be my only shot at getting you back here." He replied with that familiar arrogant tone.
"Where is my mother?" I demanded.
"She’s at the packhouse. Our doctor is taking care of her there." He answered.
"She’s genuinely ill?" I pressed.
"She is." He confird.
"Where did everyone go?" I asked, gesturing at the empty streets.
"They’re in hiding." He said matter-of-factly.
"Why would they need to hide?" I asked.
"This entire place needs to appear completely deserted. Abandoned. Just in case military forces decide to investigate." He explained.
"Military forces." I repeated flatly.
"They’ve begun identifying werewolf communities. And I knew you’d ended up with one of them sowhere. I needed to bring you back here before you got yourself killed with whatever pack you joined." He said.
"Don’t you dare pretend you suddenly care about my wellbeing." I snapped.
"I never stopped caring about you. And I never believed you were actually dead. I simply understood that you desperately wanted to escape from . But everything’s about to change now." He said with cold certainty.
"I rejected you completely." I reminded him.
"I’m aware. And you’ve clearly joined another pack. I can detect their scent all over you. But now that you’re here again, you won’t be leaving." He said, and that familiar cruel smile began spreading across his features.
I glanced down at my phone screen and realized Damien was still connected to our call, listening to every word of this confrontation.
Right now, military threats were the least of Marcus’s concerns. I knew with absolute certainty that Damien was already headed this way.
Marcus stepped closer to , his eyes gleaming with the sa possessive intensity I rembered too well. The empty hospital parking lot suddenly felt like a cage, with nowhere to run and no one around to witness whatever he planned to do next.
"You made a mistake coming back here, even for your mother," he continued, his voice dropping to that low, threatening tone that used to make my skin crawl. "Because now I have exactly what I’ve been waiting for all this ti."
I kept my phone pressed to my ear, knowing Damien could hear every threatening word. Marcus might think he had the upper hand, but he had no idea what kind of force was already racing toward us. I knew Damien wouldn’t let anyone take away from him, especially not the Alpha who had made my life a nightmare before.
The wind picked up around us, carrying the scent of an approaching storm, and I wondered if it was natural weather or sothing much more dangerous heading our way.
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