Chapter 15 · Stay

I don't make it two steps before the bond snaps tight.

It's not the gentle tug I've felt before. This is a full-body yank, like someone hooked a chain around my ribs and pulled. My knees hit the floor and the burned page flies out of my hand. Cain's standing across the room but I feel his heartbeat slamming against mine, double-time, too fast, and my breath won't come right because his lungs are working too hard and everything's tangled.

"Lila." His voice cracks. Not the Alpha command. Just my name.

I press my palm flat against the floor. Cold tile. Real. I'm here. I'm in his office. I threw the evidence at him thirty seconds ago and now the bond's ripping itself open like it's been waiting for this, for me to finally look at him and mean it when I said I wanted answers.

The room tilts.

No. Not the room.

It's a memory and it's not mine.

I'm standing at the border. The trees are thicker here, older, and the pack boundary hums under my feet like a current I can't see. It's dawn.