Chapter Eight

"I don't understand," Silver murmured to herself.

Owen had peeled out of here, spraying gravel from the drive as he disappeared down the road.

"Your phone is over there," Captain called out. He'd made his way to a chair on the front porch, and was pointing to the yard.

"My phone?" she asked, confused as she made her way down the stairs.

"Damon brought some of our stuff from the river."

She picked up the phone, and winced as she noticed the screen protector was cracked like a spiderweb across the front. Her phone lit up with a stack of texts from Rook. One talked about killing Gunner. What the hell? She looked back up to the settling dust cloud where Owen's truck had disappeared. Damon must've brought back his truck too? "Where is the rest of my stuff? This was in a plastic bag."

"Oh, I took it out so Owen could see your conversation."

The blood drained from her face, and she rounded on him. "This isn't my conversation. This was sent to me."

"Mmm, it's just interesting seeing how you and your man talk."

"He's not my man," and damn her voice as it shook.

"Why would we believe anything you have to say?" Captain asked, and now his tone had lost its lightness.

Silver huffed a frustrated sigh. "I don't know what I am anymore. He said he doesn't want me, but I was already through my Queen ceremony for the Pride. He put my rank at the bottom of the Pride, and picked another. Now I'm extra, and…and…"

"Get the story just right," Captain encouraged her.

"Fuck you," she snarled. She was so angry that she was being honest with him and he was insulting her personal life. Nothing was easy for her, and today she'd been trying. She had! She'd been honest with them and was offering to leave. "You don't know me."

"Whooo," he said, standing slowly. "I can hear that traitor lion in your voice now. Good. Now we're getting somewhere."

"Captain, leave her alone," Hallie said from the doorway. "Silver, you need to pack your things."

"What?" she asked, not understanding the change in the dynamics.

"Gunner called it. You have to leave the territory." Hallie was leaning on the doorframe with her arms crossed over her stomach. She dropped her gaze to the floor as she said softly, "Now."

Silver looked from Hallie, to Captain, to Ace, who stood silent near the porch, then to the empty road where Owen had disappeared. She thought about texting him, begging him to come back so she could explain Rook's text messages, but what was the point? Truly, what was the freaking point? She was here to betray them, and she had caused a mountain of problems.

She didn't belong here.

She didn't belong in the Pride.

She didn't belong anywhere.

Stupid tears burned her stupid eyes, and she blinked hard and bit her bottom lip to punish herself for being so weak. This was fair. The Fastlanders should kick her out of the territory.

Silver walked past Hallie and wiped her eyes fast, looked up in time to stop herself from running right into Corey. Oh, here it went. She couldn't wait to hear what Corey had to say.

She steeled herself and waited, staring right into her eyes, but Corey didn't say anything right away. Her eyes were filled with…something. "It was Gunner's call. Not ours." And then Corey stepped to the side to allow her to pass.

But she should know. All of them should. They should know what Owen had read. What Captain and probably even Gunner had read.

So, she woke up her phone and opened the text thread, and then turned it toward Corey. She allowed her to read a couple texts and absorbed the appalled look on Corey's face, and then Silver scrolled. And scrolled. And scrolled, tears still burning her eyes. Rook had texted her dozens of times while they were at the river. "Gunner made the right call," she uttered.

As she made her way to the hallway, Corey asked, "Then why are you crying?"

Silver didn't turn around, or even slow. Why was she crying? She didn't freaking know! Maybe because she was a weak lioness who always cried? If the Fastlanders knew how much she had cried the first day she'd escaped the Pride, they would never speak to her again. Or how much she cried as she adjusted to life outside of the Pride for the first month. Or how she had cried with happiness when she began to make friends outside of the Pride. Or how much she had sobbed when the Pride had found her and taken her away from the life she'd been building. Or how much she had cried when Rook brought her back to his home, and shunned her, and stripped her of her rank. Or how much and how long she had cried when he cut her face with that damn burning knife, and shamed her in front of everyone.

Everything she touched turned to ashes.

God!

It felt like she'd had a moment outside of her cage, and she had laughed, and learned, and loved in such a small frame of time, and it had been intense and emotional and…and…beautiful. She'd gotten a glimpse of the women she could be if only she had space from the Pride, and she'd liked herself for a little while. And now she had to go back, and the moment she'd been so happy in was crumbling around her.

She hated it. She hated her life, and she hated who she would be when she returned to Rook.

Silver fell to her knees in the bedroom and screamed as long and loud as she could, just to expel the awful turmoil that washed through her.

Corey and Hallie appeared in the doorway. She didn't see them because her back was to the door, but she could feel them there. Could hear their breathing, their heartbeats.

"Could you please leave me alone?" she asked. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't want anyone to see me like this. I just want to be alone while I pack."

And she sat there, tears streaming down her cheeks as they hesitated. Her arms were wrapped around her middle like it would keep all her pieces together.

When they left, and when she heard the click of the front door shutting, only then did she start packing her things.

With shaking hands, she shoved everything into her suitcase, strode for the bathroom and gathered her toiletries she'd so carefully lined up on the counter into a plastic grocery bag, and then she threw that into the suitcase too and closed it, zipped it, and dragged it to the door.

She left the remaining food in the kitchen. On the counter, she left the half-full bottle of red wine she'd opened last night, when her life had been happy for a moment, talking to Owen.

This was how it was supposed to be—messy always, because she was born to be a mess.

"Thank you for letting me live," she said to the remaining Fastlanders as she carried her suitcase down the stairs and into the yard.

"You don't have your car here," Corey pointed out quietly.

"I'll figure it out."

"You can't walk all the way to the float ramp to get your car," Corey said.

"Let her go," Hallie said low.

In her back pocket, Silver's phone vibrated with a text. It would be Rook, and it would make her angrier, and it would make the tears return, so she ignored it.

Down the driveway, someone was following her, and Silver tossed a pissed-off glare over her shoulder. Corey was trailing her.

"Go away, Corey," she said.

"You can't walk the whole way. I can call someone to give you a ride."

"I don't want anything from anyone here. I don't need anyone."

"Who cut your face?" she called.

"It's no one's fucking business."

"Who cut it?" Corey asked from closer. "Who made that traitor mark on you?"

Silver shook her head and bit her lip again as the stupid burning sensation returned to her eyes.

"Who, Silver?" Corey asked from much too close. "Who cut you?"

"My man," she yelled, turning around.

"Lie." Corey stopped, leaving a couple yards of space between them.

"Rook. Rook cut me in front of everyone!" She dragged air into collapsing lungs. "Rook had a right to. I betrayed him, I left, I couldn't stand being there. Couldn't stand being his. I was weak! I did the unthinkable! I left the Pride, as a Queen, left the Pride in turmoil with a King who was so enraged he lost control of his lion and fought his own people! Everyone knows that is all my fault. I caused him to lose control. I caused the fighting. I earned this traitor mark! Are you happy?"

Corey parted her lips to say something, then closed them again and hung her head, shook it.

"That makes two of us," Silver said. "Can you tell him I'm sorry?"

"Owen?" Corey asked.

"Yes."

"You lied."

"We've established that."

"Not about your reasons for being here," Corey told her. She looked up, and her eyes were that bright, glowing green. "You said your man cut you, and it was a lie, but when you said Rook cut you, it was the truth. Rook. Isn't. Your. Man."

"Now ask if he's my master."

"Fuuuck this," Corey growled, turning and walking up the road.

Good. Now she would leave her alone.

"Hallie!" Corey called out, her voice echoing through the woods that lined the driveway. "Call Lucia. Tell her to get her ass here now."

Wait, what? Who was Lucia.

"I'm already here," a woman said from the woods.

With a yelp, Silver startled hard and clutched her suitcase closer to her. The woman was beautiful, with raven-black hair and eyes the same shade of bright green as Corey's. She was leaning against a tree like she'd been here forever.

"Of course you're here," Corey gritted out. "This," she said, jamming a finger at Silver. "Is a problem!"

"No shit. That's why I had Owen handling it. He knew what she was from the second she came into Moosey's. You fuckin' Fastlanders can't let things play out. We had a plan!"

"Owen wasn't handling it well. He has known her for a day and already kissed her. In the river, in front of everyone."

Lucia's eyes narrowed, and then slid to Silver. "He was messing with you."

"Great." Silver huffed a laugh because of course he was messing with her. "You know what? Deserved. I deserved it. You two have a great life."

She adjusted her suitcase and began rolling it down the long driveway again. Truth be told, this was all very emotional and she still wasn't feeling completely recovered from what had happened earlier, and she hadn't eaten much since the sandwich Owen had brought her this morning. And now salt in the open wound, he had some plan with this women to what? Seduce her? Grand. She couldn't even be mad. She'd planned on seducing a Fastlander.

Down to her bones, Silver was exhausted of being herself.

"I'm going to order a rideshare," she said aloud, holding up her phone, so that perhaps Corey would let go of whatever notion she had that she needed to see Silver to the safety of her car.

Corey squinted at the screen of her phone. "Owen texted you."

With a frown of disbelief, Silver looked at the glowing phone screen. Sure enough, he had.

I did mean it.

Her heart hammered hard in her chest cavity. He was talking about the kiss.

"What does it mean?" Corey asked as Silver stared dumbly at the message.

"I was surprised when he kissed me in the river. And angry, I don't know why. I told him not to do it again until he meant it." She shrugged and murmured. "He kissed me in the bedroom."

"And he meant it," Corey murmured. "That's what he's saying?"

Silver inhaled deep and shoved her phone into her back pocket. "Everything got pretty messed up," she said, forcing an empty smile. "It was interesting meeting you. And also weird and draining." She began walking again. "The Pride will come for you. Keep your heads on a swivel, ladies. Rook won't stop."

"What about you?" Corey called.

"What about me?" she asked without turning around.

"Will you come for us?"

"Fuck no. You have werevampires and bears and whatever Wreck is. I like survival."

"We have Owen, too," Corey called, but Silver saw what that was. She was baiting her.

She didn't answer. Yes, most importantly—secretly, most importantly—they had Owen.

No, she would never be a part of any war with the Fastlanders.

And that was the last of the questions.

Silver walked the rest of the way to the end of the drive, downloaded a rideshare app she hadn't used since she'd escaped the Pride for those few intense, beautiful months, and then she waited twenty minutes for it to arrive, and traveled to her car at the river's edge.

And then she did as Gunner demanded.

She left the territory.

Nothing had gone as planned.

Not a single, solitary thing.

She was different down to her bones, and Damon's Mountains were to blame. Owen was to blame. Her stupid laugh in those joyous moments was to blame.

Now, she needed to figure out what kind of cage she could stand.