POV Avery
The ride home is dead silent, which is somehow worse than screaming. We got yanked out of the summit so fast I barely had time to process what happened, let alone look for Natalie in the chaos. Now I’m sitting in the back of this transport with the taste of smoke and blood still coating my throat, wondering if I just got played by a vampire with perfect cheekbones and a talent for manipulation.
Was this whole thing a setup? Did she drag me into that room while her people orchestrated a massacre? The questions spiral through my head like vultures, picking apart every moment we spent together.
Lots of wolves died tonight. But so did vampires. Which either means this was genuine chaos, or someone’s playing a game so twisted that both sides are expendable pieces.
The compound comes into view, and my stomach drops. Every light is blazing. Emergency protocols are clearly in effect, which means tonight was even worse than I thought.
I barely make it through the front entrance before Father’s voice cuts through the controlled chaos like a blade.
“WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?”
The meeting room is packed with surviving pack members, maps scattered across tables, medics treating wounds. Blood on everything. Father stands in the center like the eye of a hurricane, fury radiating off him in waves that make the air itself feel dangerous.
“I was following protocol—”
“Protocol? PROTOCOL?” His voice echoes off stone walls. “Our diplomatic envoy vanishes the second violence breaks out! Where were you when the summit turned into a war zone?”
The accusation hits like a physical blow. Half the room turns to stare at me, and I can see the judgment in their faces. The Alpha’s daughter, missing when her pack needed her most.
“The attack came from multiple directions—”
“And our representative was nowhere to be found!” He steps closer, and I can see the exhaustion mixed with rage in his eyes. “Twelve of our people are dead, Avery. Twelve.”
The number hits me like ice water. Twelve wolves who went to that summit trusting their leadership to keep them safe. Twelve families that are going to get the worst news of their lives.
“Father, I was trying to—”
“You were trying to what? Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you abandoned your post the moment things got complicated!” His fist slams down on the table hard enough to crack wood. “We sent you there to represent this pack, and you failed!”
The room goes completely silent. Even the medics stop what they’re doing.
I can’t breathe. Can’t think. Can’t do anything except stand there while my father destroys me in front of everyone who matters.
“I didn’t know the attack was coming—”
“That’s exactly the problem! You should have known! You should have been where you could see threats developing!” His voice drops to something deadly quiet. “Instead, you were God knows where, doing God knows what.”
If only he knew exactly what I was doing. And with whom.
“Get out,” he continues, voice like winter frost. “Get out of my sight before I say something we’ll both regret.”
I don’t wait for him to change his mind. I bolt from the meeting room like the coward I apparently am, pushing through pack members who won’t meet my eyes.
My chamber door slams behind me with enough force to rattle the walls. I’m shaking—from adrenaline, from rage, from the horrible certainty that everything just went to hell and somehow it’s my fault.
The door opens without a knock. Joanna slips inside and closes it behind her, leaning against the wood like she’s barricading us in.
“Look what she did,” she says, voice tight with something between anger and fear. “She distracted you.”
“Please, Joanna, get the hell out of my room if you’re just going to blame Natalie!”
“See? This is all her fault!” She pushes off from the door, gesturing wildly. “You can’t even hear criticism of her without defending her!”
“That’s not—”
“It is! You’re so twisted up over this vampire that you can’t see straight. Twelve wolves are dead, Avery. Twelve of our people. And where were you? In some room with her, probably making out while our pack bled!”
The words hit like individual slaps. “We weren’t making out.”
“Then what were you doing? Because it sure as hell wasn’t protecting our people.”
I open my mouth and nothing comes out. Because what was I doing? Getting mind-fucked by revelations about political manipulation while wolves died outside?
“She knew,” Joanna continues, pacing now like a caged animal. “She had to know what was coming. Vampires don’t do anything without a plan, and convenient timing isn’t a coincidence.”
“The summit was supposed to be neutral ground—”
“Neutral ground that turned into a slaughterhouse the moment you disappeared with their precious little princess.” Joanna’s voice gets sharper, more cutting. “Wake up, Avery. She used you. She played on whatever sick attraction you have to her, got you alone, and kept you distracted while her people did what they came to do.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know you’ve been acting like a lovesick idiot ever since you met her. I know you’ve been lying to everyone, including yourself, about what’s been happening between you two.” She stops pacing, faces me directly. “And I know that tonight, when your pack needed you most, you chose her.”
The accusation hangs in the air like a death sentence.
“I didn’t choose anyone.”
“Bullshit. You’ve been choosing her since that first night in the forest. Every secret meeting, every moment you spent thinking about her instead of your mission, every time you defended her to me.” Joanna’s eyes are bright with unshed tears. “She’s turning you against your own family.”
“That’s not—”
“It is! Look at yourself, Avery. Look what she’s done to you. You’re not the sister I grew up with anymore. You’re not the future Alpha this pack needs. You’re just some girl who got played by a vampire with pretty eyes and a silver tongue.”
The words hit their target perfectly. I feel something crack inside my chest, something that might have been hope or trust or whatever stupid thing I’ve been calling my feelings for Natalie.
“Get out,” I whisper.
“Avery—”
“GET OUT!”
Joanna stares at me for a long moment, then shakes her head. “When this all falls apart—and it will—remember that I tried to warn you.”
She leaves, closing the door with deliberate quiet that somehow feels worse than slamming.
I’m alone with the wreckage of tonight, with twelve dead wolves and a father who looks at me like I’m a failure, with the growing certainty that everything I thought I knew was a lie.
Natalie isn’t who she says she is. She can’t be. The timing, the manipulation, the way she conveniently pulled me away from the main summit just before hell broke loose—it’s too perfect to be coincidence.
I’ve been played. Used. Turned into a weapon against my own people by someone who probably laughed about it while wolves died.
Time to end this.
I’m going to find her, get the truth, and call this whole twisted mission over. One way or another.