DELPHIE POV:

Everet Scott watched me approach, his body tense.

Even injured, the air around him crackled with power. The raw pressure of an Alpha. It made the hairs on my arms stand up.

"What do you want?" he asked, his voice a low, rough rasp.

I didn't answer. I knelt and tore a strip of cloth from the hem of my own worn tunic. It was the cleanest part.

I walked right up to him, ignoring the dangerous energy rolling off him in waves, and held up the makeshift bandage. I gestured to his bleeding arm.

A flicker of surprise crossed his face. He wasn't used to people not fearing him.

He didn't pull away. He watched me, his grey eyes narrowed, trying to figure me out.

I gently cleaned the dirt from around the gash. My touch was light, focused.

As my fingertips brushed against his skin, a jolt, hot and sharp like a spark of lightning, shot up my arm.

I flinched back, a gasp escaping my lips. It felt like I'd been burned.

At the same instant, Everet's breath hitched. His pupils dilated, turning his grey eyes almost black. A low, guttural sound rumbled in his chest.

Deep in my mind, a word echoed, a possessive, primal growl that wasn't my own.

Mine!

I shook my head, convinced I was imagining things. The stress, the fear. I forced my trembling hands to finish their work, tying a neat, tight knot to staunch the bleeding.

He stared at me, his gaze intense, searching.

"What's your name?" he asked again. His voice was softer now, laced with a strange urgency.

I shook my head and turned to leave. My mother's instructions were clear: make an impression, then disappear.

His hand shot out, grabbing my wrist. "I owe you. Tell me your name. I will repay you."

The touch sent another one of those strange, hot sparks through me.

In the distance, a voice called his name. His Beta. His men were coming.

He was distracted for only a second, but it was enough. I wrenched my arm free and melted back into the shadows of the forest.

I ran until my lungs burned, not stopping until I reached the edge of the Orr Pack's territory. The sky was beginning to pale with the first light of dawn.

I had just stepped inside my room when the door crashed open.

Alistair stood there, his face a mask of fury.

The slap sent me sprawling to the floor. "You dare stay out all night!" he roared.

Pain exploded in my side as his boot connected with my ribs.

My mother screamed my name and threw herself over me, trying to shield my body with her own.

Alistair kicked her away. She hit the wall with a sickening thud and slid to the floor, a cough rattling in her chest. Blood flecked her lips. This was no act.

"And you, you worthless bitch, you encouraged this!" he snarled, turning his rage on her.

"No!" I scrambled forward, grabbing his leg. "Don't hurt her! It was my fault! I went out alone!"

My confession stopped him. He looked down at me, then at my mother's still form, his face filled with disgust. He stormed out, leaving us in the wreckage.

I crawled to my mother's side. Her breathing was shallow, her skin clammy and cold.

This wasn't part of the plan.

She was dying. For me.

A wave of hatred, so pure and strong it made me dizzy, washed over me. My weakness had done this.

Miles away, in the Black Forest, a Beta approached his Alpha.

"Sir," he said, holding up a small, blood-stained piece of cloth. "We have a lead. The girl... we think she's from the Orr Pack."