Rescued by the Blackridge Alpha

Chapter 8

By the time Nia crossed back into Silvercrest territory, the last of the daylight had begun to fade.

She slowed as familiar scents returned. Pine smoke. Damp earth. The faint trace of the packhouse fires carried on the evening air. After hours of running through unfamiliar forest, they should have felt comforting.

They didn't.

Nia's paws dragged through the leaves. Mud had dried along her legs, and every few steps her injured hip stiffened beneath us. She still hadn't spoken, but I could feel her now. That alone was enough to keep me from asking for more.

The path widened ahead.

Someone stood in the middle of it.

Nia stopped.

Thomas had changed out of his formal jacket, but he still wore the black trousers and shirt from the ceremony. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and his hair looked as though he'd run both hands through it a hundred times since I'd disappeared. For several seconds, he simply stared at us.

Then his shoulders dropped. Was it relief? It didn't truly matter; it lasted perhaps half a heartbeat.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

There he was.

Nia lowered her head.

Normally, I might have found something sarcastic to say. Tonight, I was too tired.

I shifted.

The transformation came slower than before. Bones shortened and rearranged, fur sinking beneath skin until my hands touched cold earth. The remains of the green dress hadn't survived Nia's first shift. What little fabric was left hung uselessly around one leg before I kicked it away.

Thomas swore under his breath and immediately shrugged off his coat.

“Here.”

I stood and pulled it around myself. The hem reached halfway down my thighs, and the wool still held his warmth.

He looked me over, taking in the scratches across my arms and the mud streaked along my legs. His gaze stopped briefly on my bare feet.

“You crossed the northern boundary.”

It wasn't a question.

I glanced toward the trees behind me. The black wolf was nowhere to be seen.

Thomas closed his eyes for a moment. “Do you have any idea what lives beyond that boundary?”

Three men who ran for their lives from one wolf.

The thought came before I could stop it. I pulled his coat tighter. “I didn't exactly stop to read the signs.”

His anger faded almost as quickly as it had appeared. What remained looked worse. Fear.

He stepped toward me, then seemed to think better of touching me. “We've been looking for you for hours.”

“Who's we?”

“Half the patrol, for a start.”

My stomach tightened. That meant Cook knew.

Lottie too.

“I didn't mean to—”

Thomas interrupted me with a shake of his head. “We didn't know when you'd be back.” Thomas shifted the backpack higher on his shoulder. “The transport arrived almost an hour ago. I convinced them to wait while the patrol searched for you, but they won't wait much longer.”

That pulled my attention away from the distant lights.

“The transport?”

“The truck taking the transfers to Ravenwood. It collects from several territories along the way.”

Of course there was a truck.

While Nia and I had been running through the forest, Silvercrest had continued without us. My aunt had packed my belongings. Garrick had prepared whatever papers were needed to give me away.

All they'd been missing was me.

“I thought the transfer was tomorrow.”

“It is.” Thomas rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. He looked exhausted, and for the first time I wondered how many hours he'd spent searching the northern woods for me. “We were supposed to leave at sunrise. They need everyone at Ravenwood before tonight.”

I looked at the backpack again.

I'd thought I still had time.

Not much. Maybe a few hours before bed and whatever remained of the morning. Enough to find Cook. Enough to let Lottie rage until she inevitably made me laugh. Enough to go home and decide for myself which pieces of my life deserved space in that bag.

Maybe even enough to figure out what I wanted to say to Rosalie.

Instead, I'd run. I ran all night, and now I hadn't even slept.

The realization should have made me angry. It didn't. Thomas hadn't taken those hours from me. Neither had Garrick.

I had.

I swallowed and looked toward the pack.

“Can I still go home?”

Thomas's expression softened. “Maren…”

“Just for a few minutes.” I nodded toward the backpack. “I don't need to repack everything. I want to see them.”

He glanced toward the fading light between the trees. “The driver already threatened to leave twice. If we miss the transport, you won't be registered in time.”

I almost told him to let it leave.

For one wild moment, the solution seemed ridiculously simple. Let the truck drive away. Miss registration. Don't show up at Ravenwood tomorrow. Garrick could hardly sell me if I wasn't there.

But Silvercrest had already decided I couldn't stay. Missing a truck wouldn't change that.

Thomas seemed to read enough of the thought on my face. “Running won't stop the transfer.”

“I know.”

The words came out quieter than I intended. I looked toward the distant packhouse again. Smoke curled above the kitchens, pale against the evening sky. Cook would still be there. Dinner didn't stop because one Omega had ruined her mating ceremony.

“I didn't say goodbye to Cook.”

Thomas did not reply.

“She probably thinks I'm still running around somewhere.”

“Half the patrol was looking for you. She knows you're back by now.”

That wasn't the same thing.

“What about Aunt Helena?”

“She knows we're leaving.”

“And Rosalie?”

A pause.

“She knows too.”

I nodded. I wasn't sure whether that made it better or worse.

Thomas stepped closer, careful this time not to touch me. “I'm sorry.”

I believed him.

That was the annoying part.

He hadn't rejected me. He hadn't decided to sell me. He had spent hours looking for me, convinced a driver to wait and stood at the edge of the territory until I came back.

And he was still going to put me on that truck.

Both things could apparently be true.

“Come on,” he said. “They're at the eastern gate.”

I followed him.

We hadn't gone far when the path curved around the trees and gave me one last clear view toward home.

Two figures stood in the distance.

I stopped. They were aunt Helena... and Rosalie.

They were too far away for me to see their faces clearly, but I'd know them anywhere. My aunt stood with both arms wrapped around herself. Rosalie was beside her, still wearing the blue dress from the ceremony.

Neither came closer.

Then Thomas and I kept walking.

The sound of an engine reached us before the eastern gate came into view. The truck stood just beyond the boundary markers, large and dark grey, with rust eating through the paint around its wheel arches. Its engine was already running. One man sat behind the wheel while another paced alongside the road.

He checked his watch as we approached.

“Finally.”

Thomas didn't acknowledge him.

The man clearly wasn't interested in an apology. He walked around the truck and pulled open the double doors at the back.

The rear compartment was enclosed, with two narrow benches running along opposite walls. Small windows had been cut high into the metal, letting in strips of late-afternoon light.

Three women were already inside.

And all three were Omegas.

I knew before anyone said it. Maybe it was scent. Maybe it was something more familiar than that. A way of making yourself smaller when someone higher-ranked entered a room. Shoulders drawn in. Eyes attentive without quite meeting yours.

One woman looked close to my age. Dark hair had been braided tightly down her back, and both hands rested in her lap. Beside her sat a much younger woman with swollen eyes and a blotchy face.

The third sat opposite them.

She was older, perhaps thirty, with blunt blonde hair brushing her shoulders. Unlike the others, she made no attempt to disappear. She leaned against the metal wall with her arms crossed and studied me openly.

I turned to Thomas.

“You didn't mention company.”

His gaze moved past me into the truck. “They're Silvercrest transfers too.”

Three.

There were three women from my own pack being taken to Ravenwood tonight, and until this moment I hadn't known any of them existed.

Or maybe I had.

Silvercrest was large. I could have passed them at gatherings. Served them food. Stood beside them during ceremonies without ever knowing that one day we'd all end up in the back of the same truck.

“What happened to them?”

Thomas's attention returned to me. “That's their business.”

A quiet laugh came from inside.

“Don't worry,” the blonde woman said. She uncrossed her legs and made room on the bench. “Apparently none of us have any business anymore.”

Despite myself, I almost smiled.

Thomas didn't.

The driver reached for my backpack.

I caught the strap before he could take it. “I've got it.”

He shrugged and walked away.

I held the bag against my chest. My entire life apparently fit into something I'd once used to carry cheese. And I did not even know what was inside of it.

“Get in, Maren,” Thomas said.

“You're not coming?”

"No."

The word landed harder than I expected.

I frowned. “What do you mean, no?”

“I have to return to Silvercrest.” He glanced toward the truck, then lowered his voice. “This transport makes the route regularly. You'll be safe. I'll drive to Ravenwood by myself.”

I stared at him.

Some small, stupid part of me had assumed he would come with me. Not because he could stop any of this, but because he was my uncle. Because he'd been there when I lost my parents. Because if someone was going to hand me over to strangers, surely he wouldn't put me in the back of a truck and go home for dinner afterward.

Thomas reached toward me, then let his hand fall before it touched my shoulder. “I'll be there tomorrow.”

I tightened my fingers around the strap of my backpack.

Then I turned and stepped inside.

The blonde woman moved her knees aside, giving me enough room to pass. I sat opposite her and placed my backpack between my feet.

Thomas remained outside.

The driver put one hand on the door.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” my uncle said again.

I looked at him through the narrowing space.

“Before or after they sell me?”