Page 177 of The Ashpaw: Part One

Not just any alphas.

Her alphas. She was sure of it.

“Ready,” she said.

They each took a bag that had been waiting on the floor, and then Eidan stretched out his arms. “I’ll carry you. It will be faster.”

Fern ran towards him and jumped, he let out a small grunt of surprise as she landed.

“Careful, there,” he chuckled.

Reinn went first, and they slipped out of the room.

“Where’s Lucas?” she asked. “I want to say goodbye.”

“Shh,” Reinn replied. “We dismissed him. His help was needed elsewhere.”

The hall was empty, but the sound of screaming and clashing steel echoed from the dining hall.

Her grip on Eidan tightened. “What’s going on?”

“You don’t have to worry about it, we’re going the other way. No one will hurt you,” Reinn whispered over his shoulder.

For large men, they moved with a surprising amount of stealth, their steps light, calculated, and fast.

They went down a staircase Fern didn’t recognize, then through a hallway she didn’t know, and then stopped in front of a door she’d never seen before.

The screaming was too far away to hear.

Reinn looked at Eidan, who nodded in confirmation, and he opened it slowly, the hinges squeaking from age.

A gust of cold, humid air pulled them inside, and then the door shut firmly behind them.

“Where are we going?” Fern asked, a trickle of fear running down her spine. Her mind was still foggy from the heat and the medicine, but was starting to clear to make way for panic.

They were taking her somewhere she didn’t know.

New nest or not, this was strange.

At first, neither of them answered. They cut through the darkness with ease, not missing a step or turn, while Fern could only see pitch black.

When her grip on Eidan tightened and she began to tremble, he squeezed her tighter.

“We’re taking you away, and we’re never coming back.”

Fern didn’t know whether to scream, laugh, cry, or fight.

She was leaving… leaving this place where she had known nothing but hurt, misery, and loneliness. The only reprieve ever offered had come from the alphas whisking her away. And none of them were coming back.

Fern felt she should have been ecstatic, but all she focused on was hearing she would never see Darion again.

Darion was awful, but he was still her alpha. She still needed him.

Something shattered inside her, agony bleeding through and making it difficult to breathe. And in the darkness she felt the icy, cold grip of oblivion threaten to swallow her.

“Fern,” Eidan called. She knew he was close, but his voice sounded so far away. “Stay with me. Breathe…”

Breathe…