Chapter 36

(Isabella’s POV)

“What the actual fuck just happened?” my wolf asks incredulously in my mind.

Santiago doesn’t go into specifics about what is wrong with Layla. He just turns and runs out of the Ball, leaving me standing there staring at his back as he rushes to her aid.

“I don’t know,” I tell her. “You know everything I do. It's some sort of emergency with Layla.”

“There’s always some sort of emergency with that she-wolf,” she replies. “It's all a put on, and he falls for it hook, line, and sinker every single time.”

“Oh, you’ve noticed that too, have you?” I ask with feigned shock.

“We could fight her?” she asks with a hopeful tone that makes me feel bad I can’t accommodate the request.

I sigh. “No, we can’t. She’s pregnant.”

“Her face isn’t pregnant. We could punch and claw that as the target.”

I laugh out loud and people turn to look at me like I’m crazy. I shake my head.

“Tempting, but no.”

“Bella, she’s evil. Why not?”

“Because it would be wrong.”

“You’re an Alpha. Santiago belongs to you now. You should have fought that ruthless manipulative bitch when she got her hooks into Jesse. Bella, for the love of the moon goddess…wolf up.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose, contemplating her argument.

“Yes, I should have. But this is different. Santiago is ours only through a contractual agreement. I’m not arguing. I know we could beat her ass without exerting much effort. But, it would be wrong. If Santiago is her baby’s father, then he needs to be by her side and take care of her.”

The thought of the baby being Santiago’s pierces through my heart like a knife through butter. My core melts, dripping like a slow bleed at the thought of him being Layla’s pup’s father.

“Don’t you find it coincidental that this event is televised and she needed help immediately after seeing Santiago dancing with us?” My wolf asks with a low growl through clenched teeth.

“I’ll give you that the timing is odd. But, there is no way of knowing if we were on camera or that she even saw us; we mustn’t be paranoid.”

A pit forms in my stomach, leaving the space within me feeling hollow as I look around the room, wishing I’d see Santiago making his way back through the crowd toward us.

Several single Alphas in attendance ask me to dance. I can’t bring myself to accept or even try to enjoy the remainder of the party.

I close my eyes briefly for a fleeting moment, remembering in my mind’s eye the way it felt with Santiago’s body pressed against mine.

The friction our dancing that close caused between my dress and his suit made my belly tingle. The thin veil of satin fabric of my panties dampened when my leg wrapped around him in the moment he dipped me.

The cold material clings to me now in his noticeable absence. My thoughts return to Layla taking him away, just as she did with Jesse.

He dropped me like it was nothing and hurried to her side.

My jaw ticks, and my hands ball up into fists at my side. I feel my face flush. Heat spreads up my forehead and down my neck at the anger building inside me.

“The party is over for us,” I tell my wolf. “Let’s make our way back to the pack house.”

“I agree, Bella. Let’s get out of here.”

The only way back to Santiago’s pack house on foot is through the Rogue Forest. Resentment pumps heavily through my veins. So much so, my blood pressure skyrockets. The nerve endings throughout my body sting on high alert.

I keep my head on a swivel as hypervigilance within me meets the silence at the edge of the forest. The only sound is my stiletto heels stabbing twigs and fallen dry leaves carpeting the ground.

The muscles in my neck and shoulders throb at the growing tension deep within their fibers.

“We wore the wrong shoes,” I say to my wolf with a deep sigh.

“No, CinderBella, we did not,” she scolds. “Prince charming should have at least had a car sent or left his for you to get back.”

I chuckle at her fairytale wordplay. “Agreed.”

This forest is dark and foreboding during daylight. The witching hour doesn’t do it any favors.

There’s a narrow dirt path to follow that winds through tall, gnarled trees connected by a thick moss canopy stretching between branches and vines down the trunks. Branches reach out to grab me like arms of a decaying skeleton.

A misty blue-green glow shines dimly in the distance while silver dapples of moonlight filter through the canopy above me.

I step over a patch of exposed tree root when a twig cracks beneath the heavy boot of someone behind me. I jolt and spin around.

Jesse shoves me hard back into the trunk of a tree. He continues to apply pressure, and I feel the bark cut into my exposed skin on my shoulders.

His scent of pine and mint mixes with the alcohol on his breath and the spicy aroma of the laurel trees that flank us on either side of this ancient forest. His lips are mere inches from my face as he begins to speak. “Your comments at the Alpha Ball,” he starts, “deserve punishment, Isabella.”

“Jesse. Back off,” I say through gritted teeth in a desperate attempt not to sound as scared and shaky as I feel.

He slaps my face and wraps his hand around my throat. Seemingly without any effort at all he raises me by my throat with just his one hand until my feet are off the ground.

I feel my shoes slide off my feet as he glides me up the bark. The wood splinters in my flesh, cutting into me at varying depths.

He isn’t squeezing my windpipe, so I find myself able to speak. “Oh, don’t tell me I wounded your pride, Alpha Jesse.”

His fingers tighten around my throat.

I choose to double down. “What’s the matter, feeling impotent and weak compared to the testosterone that Santiago exudes…without…even…trying?” I ask with dripping sarcasm and a raised eyebrow.

He squeezes my windpipe until I gasp and start choking.

I kick him in the crotch with my toes pointed and every ounce of strength I can muster.

He groans, releases me, and doubles over in pain.

I fall to the ground and feel the sensation of cold damp moss and algae soak through to my ass.

I jump up and punch him in the nose. I hear the satisfying crack of his bone and smell the metallic odor of his blood as it floods from him. He lunges forward and punches me back in the eye.

I immediately feel it swelling as the socket forces my eyelids to close.

“Shift, Bella!” my wolf screams.

I heed her advice. More bones cracking and rearranging fill my ears. This time though, it’s my own as I retreat to the back of my wolf’s mind and let her complete our shift.

My dress shreds and falls from my muscular wolf-form. My skin erupts in plush silver strands of fur. I see Jesse through her golden eyes.

We don’t miss a beat. Slobber sloshes from our sharp fangs as we sink them deep into Jesse’s flesh. He doesn’t have time to shift. We don’t let him.

He takes a bladed weapon and sinks it down deep into our abdomen. Then rakes it through our midsection. Pain sears through me. I scream.

My wolf howls. I’m forced to shift back to my human form. I lay there, naked, with the blade still penetrating through me. I glance at it. Silver.

“Son of a bitch,” my wolf growls meekly before going silent in my head.

Jesse crawls to me, straddles me…runs his hand down my exposed breasts and bare stomach. He brings his blood-soaked fingers to his lips and sucks them clean…then he kisses me, forcing his tongue into my mouth.

He leans over to whisper in my ear. His breath feels hot on my clammy skin. “You can die here,” he says with a smirk. Then he darts off into the woods, doing what he’s always done best…leaving me all alone.

Wind brushes against my skin. I welcome the coolness that it offers.

Suddenly, I realize I am not alone. I feel stares in my direction from behind the moss-covered trees.

A pair of blood-red irises meet my gaze. I lift my head to find an entire pack of ebony mange-inflicted wolves staring at me with low growls.

My eyes go wide for just a second.

“Rogues,” my wolf manages a whisper within my mind.

Then, my vision ceases, and darkness takes over.