Chapter 75

#Chapter 75 – Broken Commands Victor and I dash across the lawn, my feet padding silently on the dewy grass as I work to keep up with him. My breath comes fast, ragged in my lungs, as I push, my eyes on the tree line ahead of us.

Part of me is terrified, listening behind me for the sound of my father raising the alarm, of pounding Beta footsteps that want to grab me, to drag me back. But another part of me is thrilled, exhilarated to be free – to be going back home, to see my boys, to be with my family –

Bam! Out of nowhere, it’s as if I have slammed face first into a wall. I fly backwards, letting out a shout as I fall back, clutching my face where I feel blood leaking from my nose.

Victor skids to a stop in the wet grass ahead of me. “Evelyn!” he shouts, turning around. “Are you okay? What happened?” He comes and kneels next to me on the lawn, looking around us for evidence that we’ve been seen or that someone heard my shout.

“I don’t know,” I say, gasping. “It felt like – like I ran into a wall –“

“Come on,” he says, pulling me to my feet. Hesitating, I follow a few steps behind him and then I feel it again, solid, ahead of me, in the air.

“Victor, I say,” pressing against the air which he walks through with ease. “I can’t – I can’t go past right here.”

“It must be your command,” he says, coming back to my side. “This must be the edge of your father’s property, which he told you not to leave.” He nods and leans down to scoop me up in his arms. “This is where the kidnapping comes in, I guess.” Determined, Victor starts to walk forward, carrying me with him, but I feel almost a ripping inside of me and slap my hand over my mouth, covering a shriek.

“Victor – “ I gasp – “No, please!” I claw at him like a wild cat, trying to get back to where I was.

Shocked, Victor lets me go and I scramble back to the place on the grass where I feel I can stand, where the command doesn’t put me in physical pain to deny it.

Gasping for breath, I meet Victor’s eyes as he stands only a few feet away from me, separated by an invisible wall. I pant, staring at him, and feel tears leaking down my face. I’m crying as a result of the pain in my nose – god, is it broken? – but also from the knowledge that all Victor did to try to save me tonight – it’s all for nothing –

I’m trapped here, under my father’s will.

“You f*****g Alphas,” I say, panting, taking refuge in my anger for a moment. “You shouldn’t have this power over us, an Alpha shouldn’t be able to hold me here – hold anyone here – against their wills. It’s bullshit, Victor! No one should have this kind of control over anyone!”

Victor’s face is serious and sorry, but he knows I’m not talking about him, not really. I know that Victor is one of the good ones – he doesn’t trap people like this – but still, he has the power to do it, and he benefits from it.

“You’re right, Evelyn,” Victor says, reaching out to take my hand. “It’s wrong. It shouldn’t exist.”

I nod, righteous, but a little of the fight goes out of me.

“Try once more, Evelyn,” he says as I put my hand in his. I look up at him, surprised.

“What’s the point,” I say, wiping tears from my face, wincing as I bump my injured nose with my wrist.

“He’s my alpha, he has control.”

“I think…” Victor hesitates here, and then takes a step closer to me, looking down into my face. “I’ve been thinking about it, Evelyn.”

He glances around us and I’m suddenly aware that, of course, we’re standing out in the open on the edge of my father’s property, and we’re being hunted. We don’t have time to get into my philosophies about freedom and wolf rights.

“I think that if you try, very hard,” he says, placing two fingers under my chin and turning my face up so that I look him in the eyes. “I think that you can break his command.”

“Why,” I say, my breath hitching, wanting to believe him so, so much. “Why would I be able to do that?

He’s my Alpha, my father – his command is my bond –“

Victor shakes his head at me, staring down into my face. “These contracts we have, Evelyn, these bonds between our bodies – I think that there’s…there’s more to them than we understand. And I think that you…” he hesitates here, choosing his words carefully, “I think you respond to a higher command than that of your father.”

Victor steps away from me, moving backwards until he’s holding only my finger tips, and then lets my hand go.

“Come to me, Evelyn,” he says, standing three feet from me, but a world apart. “You can do it.”

I laugh a little ridiculous breath and hold out my hands to my sides, helpless. “It’s impossible.”

“Believe in me, Evelyn,” he says, looking at me with a depth and an intensity that I haven’t seen before.

Slowly, he puts his hands in his pockets, waiting patiently for me on the other side. “Trust me when I say there’s something bigger at play here. Come to me.”

I close my mouth, my laughter fading, hope building inside my chest. I see him, standing before me, his tall form, his broad shoulders, his beautiful face – and inside me, I know, with an assurance that speaks beyond ages, that he’s right. There is something larger here.

I step forward, pressing against the barrier, pushing it, gritting my teeth as it tries to push me back.

It is adamant, refusing my assault, but I keep my eyes on Victor and push.

Slowly, a moment at a time, the barrier begins to give, crumbling like sandstone before a storm. I push harder, grinding a shout between my teeth as I go, thrusting, feeling my bones grind against my father’s command, moving inch by inch towards him –

And then, suddenly, I’m through.

I take three stumbling steps forward and crash into him. Victor laughs and cries out in victory, catching me in his arms and spinning me around. He picks me up off the ground, holding me close, whispering in my ear, “I knew you could do it, Evie. I knew it.”

Shocked, I look around me, seeking out any evidence of the broken barrier that held me back – but of course, there’s nothing there. I laugh, caught up in his joy, and hold his face in my hands. “Oh my god,”

I whisper, marveling at him. “How did we –“

“There!” A shout comes from our left and a light sweeps out over the lawn, coming close enough to us that Victor jumps and quickly sets me back down on my feet.

“Come on,” Victor says. “Celebration later. Now, we have to run.”