Alec’s

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So many times I wanted to turn back, but I couldn’t. It took Raven’s encouragement and push to keep me going.

I was still having a hard time letting go of everything I’d known. Damn, I’ve never been out of our city, yet here I was traveling to places unknown. Somewhere far away, where I didn’t know anyone except for Raven.

My heart bleeds, and I get angry every d**n time I remember all the things Alec has put me through. All the things he’s taken from me. I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hate him right now. As if that wasn’t enough, he rejected his own flesh and blood. Who the f**k does that?

I get his hate towards me, but what does he have against an innocent child? My baby did nothing wrong, despite what Alec and his stupid pack believed, yet he was ready to kill us both. What and

utter bastard.

“Are you okay?” Raven asks, her eyes shifting from my face to my clenched hands.

I breathed in and then out, trying to cool down the anger that was burning inside me.

“I will be.” I growled in anger and bitterness.

I needed to do better. I needed to get my emotions in check. The anger and bitterness and the overload of emotions I was feeling weren’t good for my baby. The last thing I wanted was to put stress on my child.

I needed to get myself in check because when I got the opportunity to visit a clinic, I wanted nothing. but good news concerning my baby’s health.

“Want to talk about it?”

I stopped and looked at her. So far, we’ve been keeping to the dense, unclaimed forests. It was rare for werewolves to wander into such areas so that was our safest bet. We’ve been lucky so far. We have yet to encounter any rogues, so I’m grateful for that.

I couldn’t fight since, when I was in the pack, I didn’t need to know how to. I had always planned to start training when I reached twenty-one, but because of my circumstances, there will be a bit of a

change of plans.

Rave is powerful, but I couldn’t expect her to fight everyone who brings trouble to us on her own. With that in mind, I decided that I’d start training immediately after I gave birth. I needed to be able to

III

defend me and my baby.

She shook me gently, bringing me back to the present.

I started walking again, and she fell in step right next to me. “I’m just angry and bitter. Sometimes I feel like those two emotions are consuming me. Burning me from the inside out.”

“You know hate and bitterness are a lethal combination. I’m not telling you to forget, but I am asking you to control it for your own sake and that of your baby.”

I sighed in frustration, needing to hit something or someone. “That is easier said than done.”

She was quiet for a while. “Do you have any idea of who might have framed you and why?”

We’ve been travelling for almost a week now. During that week, she told me about herself, and I told her about me and what happened.

“That’s the other thing that f**g frustrates me.” I grumbled; the need to stamp my feet on the ground like a child was almost overwhelming. “I have no idea who could have done it.”

“Are you sure? There has to be at least one person you suspect.”

“There isn’t,” I breathed out. “I was well liked.I didn’t have any enemies. I’ve never offended anyone and I always made sure I was at peace with everyone and would go out of my way to be kind. Of course, there were a few mean people who didn’t like me, but that’s that. Come to think of it, maybel wasn’t as well liked as I thought, and other pack members just tolarated me because I was best. friends with the Alpha’s sister.”

We are both quiet after that, both of us lost in our own thoughts. It just didn’t make sense, you know? I’m just an orphan girl, so why would someone set me up like that? Why would he or she want to destroy my life in such a wicked manner?

“What if you weren’t the one they were after?” Raven asked after a while, making me turn to her.

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it, Alec is a powerful alpha with one of the largest territories known to packs, so if they wanted to take him down and weaken him, the best way to do that would be to get his mate to reject him, and what better way to do that than to pay someone to drug him so he’d end up with another she-wolf and then make sure they got caught?”

I paused and thought about it. It did make sense. I mean, for years, other alphas have been trying to bring down Alec ever since he took his place as an alpha.

C

Everyone knows that when your fated mate rejects you, you weaken because the bond created by the goddess dies, and I can see how Alec’s enemies might use this to their advantage, but it still didn’t make sense why I was drugged too. They could have easily paid a desperate bimbo to do the work for

them.

“I get what you’re saying, but deep down, I feel like there’s something more. Like there is something I’m missing. I just can’t put a finger on what exactly it is, but I’m sure that Alec wasn’t the only target.”

“How so?” she asks curiously.

“I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.” And it really was.

I could barely make sense of it on my own, so how could I explain it to Raven? What I know is what I feel and what I feel is that there is something more to this whole thing.

Something or someone bigger and deadlier was pulling the strings. I just didn’t yet understand what my part in this was.