We could pretend I hadn’t run from dinner with my parents and the alpha and his wife, that my father hadn’t caught me—in the driveway I’d just looked down on—that I hadn’t fought my way to hide in my bedroom, knowing that he could break down the door if he wanted to.
But he didn’t want to.
I’d embarrass the pack if I didn’t go willingly to my own wedding.
“Well?” Gray asked. “Are you coming with us?”
“I’m not sure why you make it sound like I have a choice.”
“You know you do,” he said. “Even if it isn’t much of one. And I don’t like to drag a girl screaming out of her house.”
Blue grunted. “Gives me tinnitus.”
Gray rolled his eyes, just faintly, before he schooled his face. “That’s what they expect too, I imagine, if you don’t give in. They expect you to be dragged out of here screaming the whole way and begging. They expect you to leave all your dignity behind as well as your childhood bedroom.”
He spoke like he’d seen it happen a dozen times before, and an icy chill swept down my spine.
My childhood bedroom. It made me look around, seeing it with new eyes, the way these men must. I’d never see this room again: the canopy bed where I’d spent so many hours reading, the bookcases with books stacked on top of others because I’d run out of space, the ribbons and certificates hanging on the wall from all the little competitions in school that hadn’t mattered to my parents.
“I’ll go willingly,” I said, and I swear, for just a second I saw relief flash across Blue’s face, no matter how cold he was. I looked at my bag. “Should I…”
“You don’t need anything where you’re going,” Blue said.
“Sure.” Gray zipped the bag up, then shouldered it, giving Blue a look. “You never know.”
Blue shrugged. “If it makes her happy.”
My lips parted in a faint, bitter laugh. If it makes her happy. Sure.
Blue reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “Come here.”
“Really?” I asked. What was I going to do?
I couldn’t run. I was on pack land. There was nowhere to run.
“Really,” he said. “Come here.”
I did, and he slipped the cuffs around my wrists. The cold metal seemed to burn against my skin.
“If you try to shift wearing these,” he said, “they won’t break. You’ll do a lot of damage to yourself. Do you understand me?”
I stared ahead of me, and he tugged on the cuffs, drawing me against his body. I froze, my heart suddenly beating fast, as he murmured into my ear, “Do you understand me? I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
I couldn’t make sense of the way my chest fluttered, the sudden throb between my thighs, even when I was terrified.
But I wasn’t terrified of him, at least, not exactly.
“I understand,” I whispered.
Gray gave me a look that I could’ve sworn was sympathetic, just before Blue grabbed my shoulder, the heel of his hand pressing painfully into a bruise even though his touch was light, and steered me ahead of him out of the room.
The hallway was empty. Together, Blue’s hand still on my shoulder, the three of us went down the stairs, down the familiar blue-and-bronze rug. As kids, Alan and I had played on these stairs, pretending we were zoo animals as we peeked out from between the twisted wrought-iron bars. Clearly, I’d had childhood premonitions of the future.
There were a lot of people in the living room—my extended family all lived on pack lands—and they turned to watch me go. Their faces were hard, for the most part. Shifters can’t afford to show much weakness in our world.
In the distance, my mother wept. I craned my head to try to see through the crowd, hoping for a glimpse of her, but she must be hiding in the kitchen.
Alan must have been with her, because he suddenly burst into the living room. Maybe he’d been trying to cajole her into saying goodbye.
He stopped in the doorway as the gazes turned his way, his chest heaving. My heart dropped at the sight of his face. He couldn’t afford to look weak in front of the pack. Not even for his twin.
“Last chance, Saoirse,” my father said, looking away from Alan to me. His hazel eyes were the same shade of mine, and they looked light against his deeply tanned and weathered skin. “You don’t need to do this.”
I could’ve said the same thing to him.
Blue let the two of us stare at each other for a long minute. The air felt tense and heavy around us.
Then, when I didn’t say anything, Blue pushed me gently down the last two steps. My legs felt clumsy beneath me, as if they might falter, but then we were out the front door, crossing the front porch and then the gravel yard.
Gray opened the car door. Blue stopped when we reached the car, and I looked back at the house where I’d grown up.
Then, before either of them could remind me, I ducked into the backseat.
It was time to go.
Chapter Two
I leaned against the window, watching the familiar terrain of pack lands flash by.
“How long is the drive?” I asked. I hoped it was a long time; I could manage the drive to the prison. It was what would come after that scared me.
“It’s about twelve hours,” Gray said. I didn’t think Blue would’ve bothered to tell me. “Plus stops.”
Twelve hours. Good. I leaned against the window again, letting my eyes drift closed. For twelve hours, I was safe, more or less. I dozed off for a little while, and I only woke when a sharp voice cut into my dreams.
“How long were you hiding in your room?”
“Three days,” I
