Unbeknownst to Elaine, one person could hear her—Alpha Darius. He had been standing outside the pack house, deep in conversation with his beta, when his eyes caught sight of her slipping out.
At first, he thought nothing of it, but then he noticed the way she moved—shoulders rigid, fists clenched, as if she carried the weight of the world. And when she suddenly bolted into a run, he could not stop himself. Instinct—raw and unexplainable—drove him forward.
He followed her.
Elaine ran with such determination that she never once looked back. She didn’t sense his presence trailing her, too lost in whatever storm raged inside her.
Her feet barely seemed to touch the earth as she pushed forward, as though if she stopped even for a breath, the pain pressing in on her would consume her whole.
