86

86

Andrea tossed on the bed, her eyes wide open, staring at the shadowed ceiling of her room. The night outside was eerily silent, but her mind was loud — too loud to let her rest. After everything Rock had told her, everything she had seen in his eyes, the hidden weight behind his smile… she felt sick with confusion.

She hadn’t spoken to anyone since they got back. Not even Jaxon. Especially not Jaxon.

She couldn’t risk slipping, not now. He was still in danger, and she didn’t know how to protect him — or protect herself. The moment she stepped inside the house, Andrea had shut her door, locked it, and collapsed onto her bed, burying her face in the pillow to keep from screaming.

What was she supposed to do?

No answers came.

Then her heart clenched at the only name she could think of in the moment. Her father.

With trembling fingers, she picked up her phone and dialed the number she had memorized since childhood — even though it had been months since they spoke.

“Hello?” his deep voice came through. Warm but laced with authority.

Andrea couldn’t help it. The dam broke.

“Father… something happened.”

She poured it all out — the run-in with Rock, his cryptic warning, his eyes filled with something darker than any man she’d ever known. Her father listened silently until the end, then his voice dropped, furious and cold.

“Elena,” he said, calling her by the name she had buried with her past. “How could you be so stupid to mingle with such a man? You were done with your work. That was the last mission! Why would you let him come near you again?”

Andrea blinked as guilt washed over her. “I didn’t know who he really was. Not until now. That’s when I realized…”

Her father cut her off sharply. “You realized too late. That man — that animal — was the reason we cast him out of the kingdom! I went to the Alpha and the elders myself. Do you know what he did? He was caught with a member of the rival pack. One we were not on speaking terms with. He nearly started a war.”

Andrea sat up in bed, her mouth slightly open.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me this before?”

“Because I thought you were smarter than this!” her father roared. “That he saved you once as a child does not make him your friend. If anything, it makes you his prey. If you make him angry, he will destroy you.”

She swallowed hard. The words hit like stones.

“I think it’s time for you to come home now, Elena. Enough pretending. Enough hiding. I’ll handle the others. I’ll help them understand you didn’t really die — that faking your death was a mistake. But it’s time to come home.”

Andrea’s voice broke. “I can’t. It’s already too late.”

“Elena—”

“I have people here… someone here… I need to protect.” She paused. “I can’t just leave them, Father. I can’t leave him.”

Her father was silent on the line for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice had lowered, but it was firm.

“Then we’ll arrange for you to move. Somewhere safer in the city. You can’t stay in that house anymore.”

Andrea’s lips parted, but no words came out. Her hand trembled holding the phone.

Leave the house?

That meant… no more seeing Jaxon.

No more laughing at Rick’s dry jokes.

No more late-night teasing from Jack when he was bored.

Her heart felt like it dropped through her chest.

“But I can’t,” she whispered, voice cracking. “The reason I’m staying there… he’s the reason. Maybe he wasn’t before, but now… now he is. I can’t leave him.”

Her father let out a slow breath. “You don’t have a choice. You’ve made enemies. You’re risking not only your life but your friend’s life — and the lives of those children. If Rock truly wants you gone, he won’t stop until he gets what he wants.”

Andrea bit her bottom lip hard, trying to stop the tears threatening to fall.

“I understand,” she muttered.

“I’ll call you tomorrow with the new arrangements,” her father said. “Don’t tell anyone. Not even the boys. You’re leaving that house, Elena. It’s the only way you survive.”

And then the line went dead.

The phone slipped from Andrea’s hands and hit the bed beside her with a dull thud. She didn’t move. Her shoulders were frozen, her fingers cold.

Her thoughts began to blur with memories.

She thought of Rick’s wide smile when he tried to cheer her up.

Jaxon’s annoyed, sleepy face whenever she woke him up too early — and the way his gaze sometimes softened when he didn’t think she noticed.

She remembered the ridiculous excuse Jack made once about snowflakes landing only on her head because she was the “chosen one.”

The day she faked hemorrhoids to hide her period, and they all panicked and ran to the nurse’s office.

That unexpected kiss with Jaxon…

The time Rick told her he loved her.

And Jackson’s birthday — the water fights, the alcohol, the way they all laughed until their sides hurt. Until they felt like family.

Tears finally slid down her cheek.

“I can’t let them go…” she whispered, her voice breaking into the silence. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Her heart thudded in her chest as though searching for someone to hold it steady.

Then suddenly — her phone buzzed.

She flinched and quickly wiped her face before glancing down.

Jaxon.

She answered with shaky fingers. “Hello?”

“Andrea, please come to my room,” Jaxon’s groggy voice came through. “I don’t know what the hell Jack cooked, but he’s trying to feed me with oil and fire.”

Andrea’s lips curled into a tired smile.

“Fire?”

“I swear it’s torture,” he grumbled.

She stood up, dragging her feet toward the door. “I’m coming.”

But before she could cut the call, Jack’s loud voice echoed through the phone.

“Andrea, don’t worry! I remember you don’t eat hot food. But this one is good for Jaxon. It boosts the immune system!”

Jaxon groaned. “He’s trying to kill me in the name of healing.”

Andrea let out a small, tired laugh, shaking her head as she opened her door.

“All right, I’m coming,” she said.

Even as she lowered the phone from her ear, she could still hear the chaos on the other end.

“Please, come quick,” Jaxon shouted in the background. “He’s torturing a patient!”

Andrea ended the call and stood there for a moment, smiling quietly to herself — her fingers still curled around the phone.

They were so ridiculous.

So chaotic.

So alive.

So hers.

And now… she might have to leave them.

She sighed and rested her forehead against the cool wood of the doorframe. Her hand gripped the knob, and her chest rose and fell slowly, heavily, as the warmth in her heart battled the storm in her head.