Chapter 2 No Turning Back

Maya's POV

I felt weak as we ran toward the train station, blood still trickling down my leg. That was what was draining me. This was our third, and hopefully final, change of transportation for the next several hours. We had just gotten off a bus wed been stuck on for hours. I knew I was slowing my sisters down, and the guilt was eating at me. They refused to leave me behind, but if I was the reason we got caught, I would never forgive myself.

Pushing through the pain, I forced my legs to move faster. If they caught us, our futures would be over, stolen and shattered. My sister Lauren had said we would fight to the death before going back. That only reminded me how I was the weakest of us. As we reached the terminal, Lauren ran ahead to buy our tickets while Meliza helped me through the crowd.

We arrived minutes later, Meliza keeping a firm arm around my waist. I prayed my black jeans were hiding the blood. I just needed to sit down and stop the bleeding. A part of me wanted to sneak into the restroom and tend to the wound properly, but there was no time. Lauren was already motioning for us to follow her. She was right, we couldn't afford any delays. The trackers would be coming. Alpha Damien wouldn't let me go.

His obsession with me had only intensified after our parents died last month. I was never his to claim, yet he pursued me relentlessly. His Luna, Kayla, was another nightmare. She had hated me for at least five years, maybe longer. She pretended well, like most in the pack did. But I never belonged. My father was the only reason I had a place at all. As Blackwood Packs Beta, he had Alpha blood, and no one dared to cross him.

He never wanted to lead, just to protect. He preferred training warriors and spending time with his family. He had fallen in love with my mother, a witch named Ciara, who lived peacefully in the forest. Witches don't find mates the way wolves do. There was no magical bond, just love. She resisted it, but she loved him back.

When I was two, Dad went away for a special training. He returned with Helen, already marked. That betrayal broke my mother. He marked Helen before facing her, knowing she had beg him to change his mind. Helen was the daughter of the Alpha hosting the training. She had little standing and left easily with her new mate.

My mother wanted to take me with her. She said she could already feel my magic and knew I was a witch. She couldn't sense a wolf in me. But my father called her a liar. He threatened her, said she would be hunted if she tried to take me. He swore I would be safer with him. She left crying, and never came back. Everything I learned about her came from our Omega cook, my nanny, the only one who treated me like I mattered.

Helen wasn't cruel, just distant. She favored her daughters, and I reminded her of what my father had before her. His love for my mother cast a long shadow. After I failed to phase at eighteen, Dad gave up on me. He never said it aloud, but the regret was clear in his eyes. He wished he had let my mother take me. But by then, it was sixteen years too late. She never wrote. Never called. Never tried. I was left to suffer among wolves who never saw me as one of their own.

Only my sisters saw me as equal. They never treated me like less. Lauren, only fourteen when I turned sixteen, had always protected me. She confronted Kayla and her cronies without hesitation. Our pack was big, nearly 900 members, and school was brutal. I couldn't blend in, especially when my class had only forty students.

Lauren always seemed to know when I needed her. Even when they tried to isolate her, she fought back. Fierce and fearless, she was a fighter like Dad. He had always been impressed by her. She listened, she trained hard, and she phased early. Everyone said it was her Alpha blood showing.

I looked like my mother, wavy platinum hair, cornflower blue eyes, curvy. It made me a target. The boys liked how I looked, but none would claim me. A hybrid like me was taboo. I was the dirty secret no one wanted, and the whispers behind my back were cruel and constant.

Lauren was already at the train car, talking to a staff member holding a step stool. She glanced toward us, trying not to shout for us to hurry. We stopped running once inside the terminal, we couldn't afford to draw attention. We stood out already. All three of us were beautiful, but we didn't look alike.

Lauren was 5'10", lean and athletic, with straight golden-blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail, a sign she was ready for a fight. Her hazel eyes shimmered with flecks of gold. She looked like her mother, strong and determined. Relief crossed her face as the man scanned our tickets and helped me up the steps.

Meliza stayed right beside me, an arm around my waist as we moved down the aisle to our seats. I was grateful they were benches, we could lie down. I planned to treat my leg as soon as I could. I didn't heal like they did. Meliza helped me settle. She was my height, 5'9". With our fathers brown hair and soft gray eyes. Sweet, kind, and the gentlest of us, Meliza avoided fights unless absolutely necessary. But I knew she had fire when it counted. She could surprise even Lauren.

She watched me with concern, and her gray eyes shimmered. I wanted to cry from the tenderness. We might be safe, for now, but we couldn't let our guard down. We had to take turns sleeping. The Blackwood Pack wouldn't give up. They would come for us.

I laid down, head on the bench, exhaustion washing over me. I had not truly slept in almost forty hours. I couldn't fight it anymore. I closed my eyes, and passed out.