Avery’s POV
The car rolled to a slow stop in front of the mansion, and my stomach twisted into tight knots.
Home.
Or at least, that’s what it was supposed to be.
I gripped the straps of my backpack, my fingers going numb from how tightly I clenched them. The sight of the familiar iron gates, the perfectly trimmed hedges, and the towering walls that once protected me and later, trapped me—made my pulse pound.
Five years.
Five years since I had last stood before this house. Five years since I had walked through those doors and planned my perfect escape. Five good years since I punished Kieran and Piper. Five years since I had left the pack, believing I would never return.
Yet here I was.
I should have been numb.
Instead, a flood of emotions surged through me all at once—nostalgia, r
