A scarred face, just like my mother.
A scar that I’ll wear on my skin forever to remember this moment. It feels like failure. My naïve ego thought I could have it all, the club I loved and the pack I wanted. I was so fucking wrong.
I wonder now if Kurt and my brother knew something was brewing with the Wraiths and everything they did was all out of love. If I had just gone with their plans, I could have found nice enough Alphas and lived my life out peacefully.
A drop of blood mars my opal wedding ring, and it seems so symbolic of my life right now. How much I don’t want to bein this situation, but I can’t regret my decisions. I can’t regret wanting to feel truly loved and wanting to stay in my home.
Even if it’s been completely taken away from me in a matter of moments.
“Lily, I’m so sorry,” Shelby sniffs, grabbing the blanket and blotting my face with her good arm.
When I look up at her face, I don’t know if it’s the guilt or pain flooding me, but it’s the first moment I feel the fight pump through my bloodstream.
“We’re getting the fuck out of here, Shelby,” I whisper, and she nods her head.
I don’t care if it’s in a body bag or barely in pieces. I will not live in this hellhole.
They takeShelby from the room—separating us—and all I can do is wait and breathe. I wouldn’t consider myself a religious person, but maybe in these moments when everything in the universe is out of control, you can’t help but pray to something beyond what we know.
I pray they aren’t doing what I think they are and that my friend will come back to me whole. Shelby is smart, and maybe they’re taking her somewhere that will give her an idea as to how we can escape. I wouldn’t blame her if she could get out. I’d want her to take the chance. Maybe if she got out, she could get help from the guys, which would lead to me getting out, too.
Time is relative when there are no clocks and each minute feels like an hour. I just lie on the mattress and wait for her to come back.
If they’re separating us for good… I don’t think I’ll survive.
There’s a tear in the mattress, and I focus on that, unraveling each thread gently while I wait, hoping for the best.
“Hello?” the voice comes softly through the wall on my right.
“Hi,” I say quietly back.
I’m pretty sure someone sits out in the hallway to monitor us. Even though I don’t know how many of ‘us’ there really are.
“Don’t dri…” she says, but trails off. I can barely hear her voice through the wall.
“What?” I ask.
But as soon as the words leave my mouth, Shelby comes stumbling back into the room, another bruise forming on her left eye, but at least her arm is in a sling.
Shelby huddles into the corner of the room, staring at the wall, saying nothing. Reg places a tray holding two sandwiches, applesauce, and two glasses of juice on the floor.
“Eat up,” he commands before slamming the door on us again.
I’m on my feet faster than I can think, feeling dizzy as I do, but I push through as I approach Shelby. She winces when I touch her arm, but she doesn’t pull away.
“What did they do to you?”
“Nothing. Just eat. We need to keep up our strength. The infirmary is our way out,” she reveals. I look at her with too much tenderness, and she snaps at me. “I’m fucking fine. Now eat while I think,” she orders.
I don’t question her. If she doesn’t want to talk about it, she doesn’t have to. Her clothes look just as put together as they did before she left. So I take a deep breath, filling myself with hope,before eating my sandwich, which is dry as hell. I wash it down with the juice they provided.
Shelby taps her thigh with her good arm and sits down across from me to eat her own food and drink.
“This place must be around four thousand square feet. There are six bedrooms on this level alone,” she whispers. “They keep a guard in the hallway. The walls are thin, so we need to be quiet.”
I nod at her, one of her eyes nearly closed from where she was hit.
“It would need to be at just the right time. There must be a few guys who live here and a revolving door of them, who they station at this house.”
