~ Chapter Ten ~

In the middle of the night, the yelling and screaming could be perceived as dreams. But when those dreams transcended the act of waking up, of sitting up in bed and rubbing your eyes in confusion, was it a dream anymore?

I came to the terrifying conclusion that, no, it wasn't, so there really was screaming outside my bedroom door that rattled every wall of the house. And I jumped up from bed with the knowledge, eyes fruitlessly searching the dark for what I should do. I ran for a pair of sweatpants so I wasn't running around in booty shorts, I brushed through my incredibly difficult hair until it was in a neat bun on top of my head - or as neat as I could get it, and I shoved my feet into a pair of sneakers.

All of this happened, yet the screaming did not stop. I recognised the timber of the scream, one many of us heard during the night but not to this magnitude. I knew something had to be wrong for such a sound to still be going on, and as the doctor, I felt drawn to figure out what.

Or maybe I was just nosy and tired.

I rushed from my room into the empty hall, then ran toward the screaming sound. I came across a small group crowded at the top of the stairs, looking down on the foyer as the screaming continued. But not from down there.

The screaming was from Bree, Connor and Valerie's middle child (technically, as she was second to be born out of the twins). She was watching the same scene as the rest of us, only actually expressing her shock and terror.

Alpha Roger was in the foyer fighting with a bleeding, angry Jessica. Her clothes were completely bloodied, though I couldn't find the source of that blood, and it appeared she was starting to falter in her movements. But she looked desperate to fight for her life, desperate to win this battle. I thought of Dimitri downstairs and how he was supposed to die in just a few hours, as soon as the sun would break the horizon. I wondered if it was him she was fighting for, or if it was herself.

Amid the chaos, no one noticed Connor coming up next to me. "You're in danger, Keller."

I didn't look at him, eager not to rouse the suspicion of the other pack warriors around us.

"Roger went down to the basement to execute the prisoner just ten minutes ago, this warrior found out and broke from her restraints. She's fighting for him."

"How does that put me in danger?" I whispered as I processed the fact that Dima could've been killed while I was *sleeping*. I never would have had the chance to so much as say a final goodbye.

"Because," Connor started steering me toward the stairs, "Roger has snapped. It's happened. He wants you to pay for your defiances, for "falling" for the prisoner. He's angry with you and even a little with me for ever believing in mates. Wants you gone."

I gulped. "So what do I do?"

"Go somewhere safe. Anywhere. Then-" Before he could finsih his instructions, the door to the house burst open, and a flood of wolves came bounding into the room.

I didn't recognise any of the wolves, nor did I stay too long to figure out whether they were enemies or friends. While the women on the stairs were screaming and starting to run for their bedrooms, I took the first part of Connor's advice completely, and I ran to the one place I felt safe in in the whole house: the garden.

Flowers upon flowers crunched under my feet, creating an obvious path behind me until I leapt from one bed to the other, trampling as few plants as possible. In a lame attempt to cover my tracks, I then jumped behind the wooden gazebo no one ever used at the bottom of the garden. It creaked slightly under my weight, but held strong enough that I could hold on. I vaulted over the railing into the middle, where a table sat. It was easy cover - and very basic - but I doubted anyone would ever think to look back here, anyway.

Spiders crawled close to me, bugs I'd hadn't even heard of edged their way closer to my feet, moths attacked the back porch light. No one cared for this place nearly as much as I did - and more importantly, no one knew I cared for this place nearly as much as I did.

My heart was pounding in my chest. I didn't know what to do from here, or how I was ever going to be a part of Roger's pack again. Not that I was delusional enough to think he wanted me. I believed Connor totally in that Roger had finally snapped and decided not only to get rid of his prisoner but his prisoner's fated partner. Even if that partner was a *doctor* for *his* pack - and the only one.

The man was totally crazy, which had been becoming clearer and clearer every time he did something lately. I wasn't sure when it started, but Gina had been a huge influence to him in the wrong way. She'd made him think that mates really weren't fated, she'd driven him to the point of madness in which he would do anything. No matter what that anything could be. Like stab his mate, or kill his valuable warriors like they're nothing.

Despite the dire situation, I allowed myself to feel hurt for a short while. Life hadn't been handed to me. I'd been born, forced to study science, forced into the position of Doctor just so my father could retire early, forced to abide by broken rules made by a broken, unstable man. Nothing about that had been easy. And now here I was, hiding in a backyard with nowhere to go, unsure of what my future would become.

Screaming wasn't happening anymore, and something about that unsettled me. It meant either Bree had been silenced or things had calmed down.

I remembered seeing how many wolves had suddenly burst through the door looking for blood, and how the pack warriors around me hadn't even stepped in to help Roger. There was no way we'd won this battle, so the silence that fell over the house could only mean those wolves were coming for everyone I'd ever known. And that they'd probably succeed in their mission, whatever that might be.

It came to my attention when I tried to mind-link Connor to ask if he was okay that it felt like I was suddenly detached from the house I hid from. Like having a message unable to deliver, it didn't feel like what I was saying had reached anyone. Not Connor, not Nola, not even Jacob, who I tried just for the fun of it. It seemed I'd been kicked out of the groupchat.

Which, in werewolf terms, meant that I had been *kicked out*.

Of the pack. Of the only family I'd ever known, even if they weren't close to me.

Everything I knew had just been ripped from me and Roger hadn't even waited until he saw me in person to do it. Which made me wonder if we actually had won, and his way of revenge on me for simply having a mate had been to kick me out without a word. To leave me stranded.

I considered that he knew where I was, but the most likely guess about what was going on was that he didn't see me in the house, so he presumed I had run away.

And I knew that was my only option now that I wasn't a part of him. What else could I do? Any other packs would see me as a rogue and nothing more, and I'd be killed by the end of the day. I though of Gina, of whether she'd be willing to take me in or if the risks were far too high for her. I would understand, of course. I couldn't expect her to stick her neck out for me. That was just ridiculous.

But as I started to conclude that I had no other options at all, I heard what was either my salvation or my doom.

The back door had opened, and fast footsteps were spreading through the garden aggressively quickly. It sounded a bit like an army, like a plethora of people. And like any reasonable person, I started to panic about what that meant for me. This was it, wasn't it? I was dead.

Then a voice called out to me - queit and careful, like they were afraid of getting caught themselves. "Erika?"

My ear perked like a dog. I couldn't help it. The voice that spoke to me was one I'd heard only in whisper. It didn't sound right to me being any louder, even if it was still essentially a breath.

"Erika?" Footsteps - slow, careful footsteps - accompanied it now.

I peeked through the spaces of the table toward the house.

Illuminated only by the dimmed porch light, standing tall and proud, with almost frantic movements shifting side to side, I saw Alpha Stone. My Dimitri.

Free and looking for me.

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