Chapter 4

Eliana POV

I was zipping up the last of my duffel bags when Catalina walked into my room. She didn't knock.

"Leaving so soon?" she asked, leaning against the doorframe with a smug, satisfied tilt to her head.

"Get out," I said, yanking the zipper closed with finality.

"Jax is downstairs," she said, her voice dripping with mock sympathy. "He's worried about you. It's pathetic, really."

She walked toward me, her eyes flashing. "You need to understand something. He is mine. Even if you leave, you are a threat. Your scent... it still lingers on him."

"I rejected him," I said, my voice flat. "The bond is broken."

"Not enough," she hissed.

Then, she moved.

Her hand lashed out, shoving me hard.

I stumbled backward, my feet tangling in the plush rug. Gravity took over. I fell, my head cracking against the sharp corner of my silver-plated vanity table.

*Pain.*

White-hot, searing agony exploded in my skull. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air-acrid and metallic. Silver poisoning. For a wolf, it was instant, debilitating torture.

"Jax!" Catalina screamed, her voice pitching into a perfect, fake shriek of terror. "Help! Jax, help! Eliana fell!"

Thundering footsteps echoed in the hall. Jax burst into the room.

I was lying on the floor, blood pooling around my head, my vision swimming in dark spots. The silver was sizzling, burning its way into my bloodstream.

Jax looked at me.

Then he looked at Catalina, who was crouching in the corner, sobbing into her hands.

"She tried to attack me, Jax! She went crazy and then she slipped!"

Jax didn't check my pulse. He didn't notice the sick, sweet scent of burning skin rising from my temple. He rushed to Catalina.

"Are you hurt?" he asked frantically, scanning her body for injuries that didn't exist.

"I'm so scared," she wailed, burying her face in his chest.

I lay there, dying. And he was comforting her.

The last thread of hope in my heart snapped. It wasn't a loud noise. It was a quiet, final click.

"Get the pack doctor," Jax barked at a guard hovering in the hallway.

Then, he scooped Catalina up in his arms. "I'm taking you to my room. You're in shock."

He walked out.

He stepped over my legs to get out the door.

I closed my eyes. The pain was excruciating, but the clarity was absolute.

He didn't care. He never would.