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One
Not everyone can stopa war between two alphas, and yet, I was the key to ending it without lifting a single finger. The price I’d pay was gut-wrenching.
Nausea churned in my belly. I’d be leaving in a minute, and I would never return.
I smoothed my hand over my jade-green comforter as my gaze darted around my bedroom one last time. Tears pricked my eyes, and my bottom lip trembled. I sniffled, taking everything in. The desk my mom and I had sanded down and repainted a summer ago was littered with best-wishes and sympathy cards.
Sympathy. Ha. That was one way to look at it. I was taking one for the team, being sold off as a breeder to protect my pack. My home.
I flicked my gaze to the family photos that adorned the wall. We all looked so happy there, smiling ear to ear, our pronounced dimples on display. Those happy memories were gone. Shattered.
I curled my fingers around the comforter, and I balled it in my fist. I covered my mouth and bit down on my fingers as a sob bubbled up my throat.
“Sloane?” My mother knocked on the door. She didn’t wait for me to answer before cracking the door open, and when she saw me, she came rushing to my side and enveloped me in her arms. “Oh, sweetheart.”
A sob wormed free from my throat. Tears cascaded down my cheeks as my knees trembled. My head swam, and my pulse roared in my ears.
She hugged me tighter. “I can’t let you do this.”
I drew in a deep breath, inhaling her soft vanilla scent for what might be the very last time, before pulling back. “I have to.”
She put her hands on my face. Tears shimmered in her eyes. “Sloane, baby, we can find another way.”
I looked away from her and bit my trembling lip. “I’ll be fine, Mom. I can’t let them hurt our family again. It’s bad enough…”
My voice caught in my throat, and I looked away as I squeezed my eyes shut.
My mom swiped away my tears with her thumbs. “He wouldn’t want this for you either.”
She was right. But the risks were too great.
I had to protect my family at all costs. I was the only one who could. “This is my choice. I’m going.”
She sighed and pressed her forehead to mine. “You’re too stubborn and strong for your own good.”
I reached up and took her hand, grasping it as I pulled it off my cheek. “Let’s go.”
She let out a shuddering breath before nodding. There was no other choice. I had to do this. My fate was sealed, and if my being sold off as a breeder saved everyone I loved, then so be it.
We walked arm in arm down the stairs and through the front room to the large wraparound porch. The birds sang sweetly thismorning. My eyes drifted to the porch swing where I usually sat just listening to them.
How were they to know this was the worst day of my life? I might never hear them sing again.
My new pack might keep me caged in a room and bound to a bed. I might be an alpha’s daughter, but to them, I was just a woman who could bear children.
I darted my gaze around the front yard, taking it all in one last time, only stopping on the vehicle that would take me to my doom.
My dad’s Ford Bronco sat in front of the house, and he stood with a grim expression by the passenger door. Two of my brothers and my younger sister stood at the bottom of the porch steps. Erica was a blubbering mess. Seeing the tears and her puffy eyes made my chest ache.
This was happening.
I could stop it. No one was making me go, but the cost would be more severe if I didn’t. The pack I was being taken to had killed my aunt and uncle and most of their pack. A few survivors had made their way here.
I wished I could say the nightmare stopped there.
It didn’t.
My parents would fight to keep me, but I couldn’t let them. Not when I had the chance to save everyone. It was time to go.
