Chapter 13

(Isabella’s POV)

Not having anywhere else to go, I return to Ariana’s house. She looks to have just woken up with messy hair and sipping on a cup of coffee.

She looks me up and down, clearly noticing I’m wearing a man’s shirt. Suddenly she’s perky…wiggling her eyebrows at me she says, “Okay, who’s the new man in your life? What’s his name?”

“It’s Santiago,” I say. “He’s my mate.”

Ariana’s eyes widen. “Santiago?”

I nod, “Yes.”

Ariana pats the chair next to her. “Come, sit.”

I do as she asks.

“You know, Isabella, his reputation is…well, I mean…he’s kinda indifferent when it comes to marriage. Even when he appeared with Layla, their relationship seemed…well, distant.”

I feel my forehead scrunch as I think about how to reply to that, but before I can say anything…

“Or is that just what the news shows?” she asks, scooting her chair closer to me.

“There are plenty of rumors,” she continues “that the reason they divorced was because he couldn’t stand being in a cold, emotionless marriage,” she says tilting her head. “Man, Isabella, there’s no denying he’s handsome. It just seems like he won’t be a good mate.”

The truth is, I have no idea what Santiago is like in a relationship. We’re just contract-bound. Once the partnership ends, the relationship does too.

My mind drifts off to his scent and last night…the way his body felt on top of mine. Then the thought of ending our contract stabs me behind my eyes and my stomach drops.

What is this feeling that aches deep in my chest?

Once Santiago finds a way to cure his wolf from going feral, he’ll ask to end the contract and that will be that. I need to get my pack back before that happens.

“Ariana, can we talk more later? I’m exhausted and just need to go rest for a while.”

I can’t bring myself to change clothes or shower. I just curl up in my bed in Santiago’s shirt. His scent is mild, but present in both the shirt and on my body. I fight through unwanted arousal and go to sleep for a while.

Jesse holds his usual pack training session in the afternoon. It’s mandatory for all pack members, but since technically I’m not one anymore he can’t track me or communicate through the pack mind-link with me.

I use this to my advantage and sneak back to my former pack house to look for clues.

I sneak in and search the house without luck, until I reach the bedroom.

Jesse’s credit car statements…well, look at that, he spent money on Layla. I might can use this.

Layla comes home unexpectedly. I keep my movements quiet. I stoop down low and creep around the furniture.

Not being aware of my presence, Layla paces the living room on the phone.

“Yes, hi. I’d like to make a prenatal check-up appointment, please,” she says.

Layla’s pregnant? What the actual fuck? Jesse and I were married for two years, and I never conceived. But Layla is already pregnant? How?

My wolf growls inside my mind.

I shake my head. My hands shake at my side. I back up a step and bump into a side table. The lamp on it wobbles.

Layla jumps at the sound and turns around fast.

Crap

“What’s on your neck?! Santiago never marked me!” Her tone is shrill and sharp, like a knife slicing through air.

Oh, this does resemble marking.

“We can fake this as a marking,” my wolf says. “She can’t tell the difference and the revenge tastes delicious.”

Of course, only in our shifted wolf form can we complete a mark. However, a bite left in our human form leaves a similar wound.

I know its bitchy of me but my heart feels satisfaction in getting revenge for what Layla has done…to me and Santiago.

Suddenly, I realize that I am just staring at her like a deer into the headlights of oncoming traffic. Before I can say anything, she starts screaming at me.

Her eyes are wide and unblinking. Redness starts at her hairline and creeps down to her neck as her face contorts into a snarl.

Goddess, she’s drooling and shaking.

Then she notices what I’m holding. “What are you doing with those credit card statements in your hand? What are you even doing here snooping around?”

I look down at my hands and then quickly put them behind me. “Nothing. I have nothing!”

“Liar,” she screams.

I can’t lose this evidence. “Run!” my wolf orders.

I stuff the receipts into my pocket, not answering Layla and bolt.

Layla calls the guards and orders them to retrieve me and seize the documents I am smuggling out of the territory.

I make it to the woods, but the guards catch up to me very quickly. Despite being alone and outnumbered I fight off several of them.

Some are in their wolf forms while others remain in their human forms. I don’t have time or space to shift.

One guard grabs me from behind. He has my arms pinned while another one punches me in the face. One in wolf form grabs on to my belly and bites down hard.

I drop to my knees. When the man behind me leans down with the movement I counter his weight, throwing him off enough to break one of my arms free.

I get back to my feet, causing the wolf’s grip on my stomach to loosen. I use my free elbow to jab the guard who had me from behind in the stomach, then with my hand flat I go for his nose.

I hear the satisfying snap of his nose breaking.

The wolf’s teeth slice across my stomach. Through the pain I manage to kick him with enough force to release me from his grip.

I fall backward to the ground, holding my stomach and sit up. My left eye is swollen shut and my lip is split. As I move my hands from my belly, I notice that what’s left of my shirt sticks to me, like sap to a tree.

I hold my hands out in front of me, palms facing inward. There’s no flesh to be seen. Blood drips from my fingertips down my wrists.

There’s no time to waste, I can’t fight them all. Santiago’s pack border is just over the hill. I run toward it crying for help and screaming his name.

The guards are catching up to me. I push myself harder to move faster. My legs feel like lead, but still I run.

The wind pushes back my matted hair. It’s soaked in sweat and blood. Some of it mine, some of it the guards.

Snot and blood trickle from my nose to my busted lip, the taste of iron matches the metallic scent in my nostrils. Goddess help me, just a little farther.

I’m sure I have at least one broken rib. I stop for a second. The pain in my chest shoots straight through causing me to fall to my knees.

I cough and the pain fills my vision with only colors. It’s like looking through a kaleidoscope. As vision returns, the world looks blurry, out of focus, and tilted to the side.

I long to take a deep breath as air starvation has my lungs begging to open, but the pain is too great, the best I can manage is short barky, ragged breaths.

The guards are practically on top of me…I push myself up from the earth with my hands, now coated in mud as the dirt grinded into the still sticky but drying blood on them

“Run,” my wolf pleads.

“Someone help me, please help me…Santiago!” I scream.

Suddenly, I see him crest the hill. He shifts mid-run.