I can’t breathe. I claw at my own throat, desperate for air.
Natalia grabs the back of my neck and forces my head down toward my legs.
I snarl at the sudden movement, pain burning across my shoulders and down my arms. But I don’t fight her. I can’t. I still can’t breathe. But I’m cognizant enough to know I need to get my shit together. I cannot shift. I grind my teeth, riding through the wave torment from my injuries.
“Breathe, honey. Just breathe.” Her grip tightens on my neck, and inside I’m screaming for her to let go. Not to touch me. But I can’t get the words out. Seconds tick by. Then minutes as I struggle to regain control of myself.
When my breathing finally slows down, she lets go and steps back.
“It was just a panic attack,” she says as I lift my head back up.
My vision blurs for a moment but then she comes back into focus.
“Take another breath.”
I do as she tells me and when I no longer feel like my lungs are going to collapse in on me, I wrap my good arm around myself. “Thank you.” My words are brittle.
“Do you want to talk to someone? A professional?” she asks. “I can get something arranged—”
“No.” I say quickly. “I’m fine.”
She pulls out her phone and her fingers frantically type across her keyboard before she puts it back in her purse.
Then she leans down and lifts a small bag from the ground that I hadn’t noticed when she first walked in. “I brought you some clothes. Let’s get you dressed and I’ll take you home.”
I nod, accepting the bag but then I stop. “What about…?” I make a small wave of the room around me with my good arm. I’m supposed to wait for the Alpha. For Rafe’s dad. A tremor works itself up my spine.
Natalia takes a step closer and saves me from my panic. “You don’t need to worry about that today. Your father will take care of it.”
I give her a relieved, half-hearted smile. At least he’s good for something. “Really?”
She nods her head. “Really. You’re not under their jurisdiction. The Alpha and your father have an arrangement with very clear guidelines. You are under no obligation to speak with him. If he takes issue with how you handled tonight’s events, he can take it up with your father.”
Relief sweeps through me before reality sets in. “But I killed a vampire.”
Her lips press into a thin line. “You let the adults worry about that. Besides, he had it coming.”
I can’t help the small smile that curls the corners of my mouth. Because, yeah. He did.
I accept the bag and hobble toward the attached bathroom to get dressed. It’s awkward. I have a crutch under one arm, but I can’t hold the other one with my sling. Thankfully, I somehow manage.
Catching my reflection in the mirror, I jerk away as I strip out of the tattered remnants of my clothes, trying to bottle up all my emotions in the face of the battered girl before me. I’ll heal. I’m just not used to seeing myself like this. I feel … broken. Vulnerable. Weak.
I don’t like it. But I force my shoulders back. A part of me feels like if I don’t, I’ll crumble.
When I come back into the room, Natalia and Ricardo are facing off against one another. They turn to me and I stop.
“Isa. I was trying to explain to your—” Ricardo begins.
“She is a minor and she is not affiliated with your Pack. The decision has been made. We’re leaving.”
I bow my head and decide to take Natalia’s advice. I’ll let the adults figure it out.
I slip my feet into the slippers she brought and hear the distinct buzz of a cell phone as Natalia uses her take no prisoners tone with the Pack’s healer.
I don’t bother listening to their conversation.
I locate my phone on the bedside table, grateful it was recovered at the scene, and unlock the screen with fumbling fingers, the motion awkward with my sling and crutch.
Five missed messages.
Rafael: Where are you? What the hell, Isa? You said you’d be here.
Rafael: After everything that’s happened will you at least let me know if you’re okay?
Rafael: Tracked down Meiying. She said you bailed for some phone call. Where are you?
I glance at the time. It’s after noon the next day. He would have come out of the locker rooms, expecting to find me waiting for him, but I wasn’t there. How long had he waited for me? God, he must be so worried. But before I can type out a response, I glance over the remaining messages.
Jordy: Way to fucking support our boy.
Then the last.
Rafael: You know what, whatever. You do you.
A fresh wave of tears pools in the corners of my eyes but I blink them away.
Natalia calls my name and I turn to her, shoving my phone into the pocket of the pants she brought for me, then I follow her to the door. On my way out, Ricardo hands me a small business card. “In case you need anything.”
The card is simple. It has the Southwest Pack crest, a triangle outline filled with Apache pines, and spread out above the trees are the five phases of the moon. Beneath the crest is a phone number. Nothing else.
I nod in thanks and shove the card into my back pocket, already knowing I won’t call.
Natalia watches the exchange with a tight-lipped frown, but she doesn’t say anything.
A pair of shifters and the man who found me meet us halfway down the hallway. I don’t recognize the two shifters with him but from scent alone I know one is a hyena like Josué, the other a lion. And the man who helped me, he is very much a wolf. A dominant one at that.
I want to thank him. He saved me. But I can’t make the words form. My heart races in my
