Chapter 29

It seemed like it was hours before both of the alphas rejoined the antsy group. It was awkward, sitting around with a bunch of people that just fought. They kept shooting each other dirty looks and muttering curses under their breath. But all that stopped when their respective alphas rejoined.

Mason stands triumphant while Alpha Glenn makes his way over to Luna Jenna and I with defeat weighing down his shoulders. He kneels next to us, and I know that he doesn't have good news.

“Glenn?” Luna Jenna asks in a worried tone.

He sighs heavily, still refusing to look at me. “We have no choice but to work with Alpha Mason for the sake of our pack. There’s no way that we’ll be able to make it out of her without starting a war otherwise.”

She didn’t shy away from meeting my gaze like her husband did. “Harper…”

There were probably a million things that she wanted to say, but none of them were right. Her mate described the situation perfectly. All of them had their backs against the wall no matter how much they might want to help her.

My heart thundered painfully in my chest. I squeezed my eyes shut, closing out the rest of the world and let my head and shoulders slump in defeat.

I should’ve known better than to think that I would actually be able to escape from Mason that easily. After all, he’s proven how determined he is to keep me under his thumb and use me.

“What’s going to happen now, Glenn?” she asked in a hushed tone.

There wasn’t very much distance from the Ridgeway Pack and our little group. I knew those who shifted had better hearing, but I only had a rough estimate about how much. Talking about this wasn’t a good idea, but we didn’t have very many options.

“We can’t take her.” His tone is decisive even though I can tell that it wasn’t the decision he wanted to make. “In return, we gain trade benefits and official cooperation with the Ridgeway Pack. We’re not strong enough to handle any retribution from them now that they know we were trying to help Harper escape.”

His words snapped something inside of me. I might have already known that all hope was lost, but hearing him talk about the economical benefits of sending me back with my abuser caused the last shred of restraint that I had left in me.

Without thinking about how stupid it was, I allowed the desperation to wash over me. It invaded every nerve and took control of me. I sprang to my feet, catching the attention of members belonging to both packs that were still standing around.

It was easy to take advantage of their surprise and run for the trees, but it didn’t last long. Everyone recovered quickly and pursued me.

I only made it a couple of more steps before a force smashed into me from behind, sending me flying face first into the forest floor. The impact was hard, knocking all of the air out of me which only made the panic worse.

Flailing and squirming, I tried to get out from underneath the weight and keep running no matter how futile it was. They could keep catching me, but I would keep fighting. There was already nothing else to lose, I had nothing.

I didn’t even get the chance. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake whoever was on top of me. I knew it wasn’t Mason, but that’s all I could decipher since my sense of smell was blocked by all the dirt that was in my nose.

Whoever had caught me shifted their weight then, pulling my arms behind my back, sliding one of theirs though so they could grab me and haul me off the ground.

My view shifted as I was turned around to face everyone. Members of the packs mingled together now, all looking at me with different expressions on their faces. Some angry, a few hopeless. But they all blurred together until the only one I could see was Mason’s which held a huge triumphant smirk. He felt like he really had me, like he was confident that no matter what I did, he would always be the one to come out on top.

I hated him.

No matter what he did to me, even after he killed the love I had for him, I didn’t hate him truly until that moment.

And that feeling disgusted me. He was a horrible person who lied and took so much from me, but all I wanted was to be able to feel indifferent about him. He took that from me too.

Just like he’d taken everything else.

I didn’t even have Levi anymore. That thought alone made tears burn in my eyes. That was probably the worst thing about it all. No matter how complicated my relationship was with my foster father, he’d always been there for me. Something I could count on. Now, I really had nothing when all I wanted was him.

If only he didn’t see me as a burden. I wanted to be able to rely on him, knowing that there was always going to be someone there for me that I could count on. Someone I could call my family, even if I didn’t see him as my father.

The man that had a hold on me walked forward, my feet were useless to stop us, dragging along through the leaves on the ground, all the way to Mason.

When we reached him, the hold on me loosened, but he pushed me to Mason who caught me, not letting me have another chance to try and escape even though I would never make it anywhere. He whirled me around, holding my back to his chest. I was finally able to see who caught me.

It wasn’t someone I knew, not someone from the Ridgeway Pack. No, it was a member of the Red Moon Pack, someone I’d seen close to Alpha Glenn, most likely his beta.

I really was alone, without a single ally on my side.

Levi’s POV

I managed to pull myself out of a drunken stupor. Dealing with Avery while I was processing everything was too much.

It was hard to admit, but losing Harper had taken a bigger toll on me than I imagined. I couldn’t get married while I felt like this. Beyond how I felt, it wasn’t fair to Avery who deserved more than that.

It was the only reason that I sobered and cleaned up, before taking her out to dinner.

She’d been excited when we made the plans, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it wasn’t going to end up how she wanted. Despite everything, she probably thought that this would be the night that I officially proposed to her, but I couldn’t. Hopefully, she would be able to understand, but I doubted it.

She met me in the foyer of the pack house that night, dressed in a tight black dress that showed off her body, but I wasn’t interested no matter how great she looked. Not long ago, if I would’ve seen her like that I’d be thinking about how I couldn’t wait to get her in bed.

Now, all I saw was a duty and responsibility that I knew I wouldn’t be able to fulfill.

“Are you ready, baby?” she asked, looking up at me with wide, hopeful eyes.

I wanted to feel bad. I also wanted to be able to tell her not to call me that. But I couldn’t make myself do either.