Leah's POV
"You're still in love with him. Love clouds your judgment. He's going to strangle you and your cub to death, but you still want to flee with him. I can't let this madness continue. It's time to put an end to it," my wolf said, her voice calm in my mind.
"If you let him out, I will hate you for the rest of my life!" I screamed.
"I don't care," her voice was unwavering. "You'll hate me for a while. But eventually, you'll make peace with it. Men come and go, but you're stuck with me."
"You're impossible! He's the father of my baby!" I shouted. "You will make my baby fatherless!"
At that moment, Finn shifted into human form. He picked up the clothes from the ground and put them on piece by piece.
As he dressed, he said, "Leah, I know you're there. I know you can hear me. You deserve the truth, and now I'm telling you. My entire life, I've been used and exploited. My blood was altered, my muscles torn and reassembled. Sak forced me to stay with you, Jalin used Sak to make me please you. I was a lab rat, a project, a toy, a commodity. I could be anything, but never myself. The truth is, I regained my memory long ago, right after I met you. Leo sent me a message to wake up, and he asked me to kill you. I had my chance, many chances. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't because..."
He paused, staring at my wolf.
"Because I had already fallen in love with you. I fell in love with the one I should hate the most."
His words were knives, stabbing into my heart. I wanted to hold him, to kiss him all over. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, that everything would be fine, that no one would ever hurt him again. But I couldn't. I was torn apart.
My wolf could feel my pain, but she wouldn't let me take over. "Let me out!" I screamed in anguish. "I need to be with him!"
"You stay here with me," my wolf said sternly.
As Finn was about to leave, Sak suddenly stepped forward and grabbed his arm. Finn looked back. Sak's voice trembled, tears rolling down his cheeks. "You've been alone all your life. You can't do this alone."
"Brother, go back," Finn said.
"You idiot," Sak replied with a faint smirk. "I've told you a thousand times. I'm not your brother."
Then, he suddenly shoved Finn into the cage and locked it.
"What are you doing?! Let me out!" Finn slapped the cage door, too drained to shift again.
Sak turned to my wolf and said, "Leah, send Finn back to the Skakels. Diego will take care of him. They owe him a second chance."
"No! No! Stop him! Stop him right now!" I urged my wolf, realizing what Sak was about to do. But it was too late.
Sak grabbed Finn's coat from the floor and bolted out of the shrine.
A series of gunshots echoed in the distance.
"Sak!!!!" I screamed in agony, forcing myself to shift into human form.
Before I could dart out of the shrine, powerful hands grabbed me from behind, pulling me back.
I tried to scream, but a hand clamped over my mouth.
"Calm down, Leah. You need to calm down right now."
I looked up to see Gean Lee, and he removed his hand.
"Gean? What are you doing here?" I gasped.
"Your husband sent me to kill you, but I'm here to save you and your baby," he said.
I looked out and saw Sak's body lying in a pool of blood. Soldiers swarmed around him.
One of them checked his body.
"The target is dead. Repeat. The target is dead. Finn is dead," he said into the microphone over his shoulder.
"Alpha Lucas wants to see you now," Gean said. "He knows about the baby. He won't let it live."
"What?!" The thought of my husband killing my unborn child made my knees buckle.
Gean caught me, holding me in his arms.
"Listen. You have to toughen up right now. They shot Sak, and his face is unrecognizable. I'll tell Alpha Lucas that Finn's dead and you're missing. You need to run, Leah. Take Finn and disappear. Do you have somewhere to go?"
"Mediland..." I whispered, trying to compose myself. "We can go to Mediland. There's a bar called Green Point."
"Good. Then go to Mediland. Alpha Lucas will hunt you down throughout the Kingdom. I'll find you as soon as I can," Gean said.
"Gean," I grabbed his arm. "Did Lucas ask you to kill me?"
Gean stared into my eyes. "Miss Lewyn, you're his wife..."
"Gean, answer my question. Did Lucas ask you to kill me?!"
Gean sighed.
"You're pregnant with another man's child. You ran away with that man. You've turned him into a laughingstock. You know your husband better than I do, Miss Lewyn. You know he doesn't handle betrayal very well. Now you tell me, if your husband wants to kill you or not."
I was stunned. I couldn't believe Lucas would want to kill me! But after what I had done to him, I couldn't blame him. Gean was right. Lucas didn't handle betrayal well. After his late Beta, Basil, was killed because of a traitor's snitching, trust was something he couldn't afford. The only one he entrusted was me, and I had let him down.
But now wasn't the time for sentiment or guilt. Three lives were hanging by a thread. I blinked back my tears and said to Gean, "I need a car."
Gean nodded and said, "They will raid this place, but the most dangerous place is the saftest place. Take Finn with you and stay in the basement till dawn and I will send a car to pick you up. Then, you drive it to the Mediland. There will be checkpoints all the way. You need some disguise and I'll prepare a pass for you."
Then, he stood up and said, "Good luck, Miss Lewyn. I'll see you as soon as I can."
After Gean had left, I dashed into the storage room to free Finn.
“Did they kill Sak?” he asked anxiously.
“Yes,” I responded somberly. “He died so we could have a chance to escape. But listen, the soldiers are coming. They're going to raid this place. You have a choice: stay here, grieving over Sak's death and let the soldiers find and kill you, which would make Sak's sacrifice meaningless. Or, come with me now to hide in the basement. Gean will send a car to pick us up, so we can head to Mediland.”
Finn looked at me for a long, tense moment before he asked in a chilling voice, “Leah, how did Gean know there’s a basement here?”