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My heart sinks to the floor. A cold sensation flows through my body, making me shiver. His words ignite fear in my chest.
Fingers slide through mine, and I shift and look at Chase, meeting his gorgeous gaze. He offers me a tight smile, trying his best to push his strength into me. Davian takes my other side, and Tristan, Adam, and Evander crowd around us. Sloan, Slater, and Ravi stand ahead of us, staring at the distance where a yacht bobs on the waves.
This is it. This is my pack and everything I wanted. I just hope we make it.
I don’t trust the mage, nor do I trust the island. The only ones I trust now are the people around me. And myself.
I know we’ll get through. I’ve always been a survivor. Now, after facing the wild wolves and this monstrous island, I know I’m more than that.
I am a fighter.
I’ll never stop fighting.
Chapter twenty-seven
Eliana
Freedom
“Thisisit.Itshouldn’t take long from here.” Adam glances at me from over his shoulder, offering me a small smile.
I can’t believe we’re here. We actually made it to the human world and back onto land. No one wanted to leave the yacht, because we didn’t really have a plan or an idea of where to go, but then Adam realized how close we were to his father’s old bunker outside of Los Angeles. His dad was a doomsday prepper, after all, and it might’ve just saved us. Who knew this would be the end of the world for us? Or I guess, the beginning.
“Everyone, transform. It’ll be easier to navigate the forest as a pack. We have about a five-mile hike. It’s dark, and I don’t know about you, but I want to be prepared if something happens.” Chase rubs his palms together, keeping close to my side.
Kellan shakes his head. “No. We need to remain human. The council can pick up on us if we shift.”
“Fuck. Then what? What’s the point if they can just drag us back?” Tristan kicks at the dirt, his muscles bulging on his arms as he flexes.
If it wasn’t for the small amount of cash and clothing on the yacht, we would’ve never even made it this far. It was set up for the packs to come here. I’m sure they stay for a while.
“No one is dragging us back. You need to have faith. Look how far we’ve already come. Only my grandmother was able to escape Shadow Moon before. We’ve already accomplished so much. We need to stay positive.” I reach out and take his hand, tugging him closer. Standing on my tiptoes, I press a kiss to his lips, savoring the sensation of his mouth.
It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve had a moment of affection with him, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed it. How I crave to be with all my guys. My pack. I ease away and smile, trying to flood him with the hope I carry, lit by the city lights we saw off the shore of California before we took the motorized raft into Santa Monica, swimming from it to shore. That alone will draw attention, but we’ll be gone by then. Maybe the yacht will be too. Who knows? The magic is still incomprehensible to me.
“I’m going to need you to share some of that confidence, Elle. The last place I want to return to is that godforsaken island.” Davian keeps his voice soft, his eyes flashing gold, almost haunting in the dark. He still hasn’t told me everything he has been through, but I know it was a lot. Those bastards hurt him so badly that he still suffers. Even if it’s just mentally.
I turn away from Tristan and wiggle my fingers. “Come here. I will kiss every single one of you if you will just relax and let Adam guide us. He knows what he’s doing. He grew up around here.”
“I know the city and the mountains. My dad had a place here. He was one of the park attendants. The shit he managed while he was alive was pretty awesome now that I think about it. We own one of the campgrounds, but it hasn’t been in use for a while.” Adam jerks his head in the direction of a sign, declaring a hiking trail called Anderson’s Mountain Mile, after his last name.
I’ve learned far more about everyone on the trip back to the human world than I had the whole time we were on Shadow Moon. The details of our lives before didn’t matter when we were trying to survive. And now that we’ve opened up more candid communication, I can’t get enough. I want to know everything about them. Where they’ve lived before, what their lives were like. Just knowing the cities they were kidnapped from isn’t enough for me. It doesn’t matter that Chase was taken from Seattle after he left Idaho because of the charges against him. Or that Davian had only been out of jail for less than a week when he was kidnapped from San Luis Obispo, California. What matters is that I know who they are and not how their circumstances defined them at the time. The same applies for me. I wasn’t just a sugar baby, an escort, or a woman of some perv’s wildest dreams.
Now’s the time to take advantage. We’ll finally have what we wanted since we were chosen by the moon. Each other. A future of our making.
And it starts here. A little trust, hope, and strength. Everything we have.
“Careful, princess. I’m starting to really catch your scent again. We need to hurry so I can go on a fucking run. It’s going to be torture until the moon.” Ravi cracks his neck and bounces on the balls of his feet. Theodore did say that he could only suppress our nature for so long.
Shit.
“Then I guess we better hurry.” Davian beats everyone and scoops me into his arms, closing the space to Adam. He smacks him on the back, getting him to hustle, and the two of them laugh as they run with me down the trail.
My muscles loosen and I cling onto Davian, watching as Sloan trips Ravi and manages to cut both Slater and Kellan off, slowing them down.
“Whoever catches us can help me celebrate! The rest of you will be in charge of keeping those damn alpha dicks away for me!” I squeal with my words, Davian sliding his hand down to squeeze my ass.
“Who knew that being a fucking infraborne would be my lucky day,” he teases, burying his face into my throat, kissing my skin.
