Damon lunged to grab her on reflex. It didn't matter that the drop was only from the second floor, which was nothing for a werewolf. Seeing Elizabeth fling herself from the windowsill still made Damon's heart jump into his throat.

He was too slow. She disappeared from the window and Damon heard a pained male grunt from below. Wait – male? He rushed to poke his head out and his mouth fell open slightly at what he saw.

Elizabeth had somehow managed to angle her fall in such a way that she landed perfectly on top of the single beta guarding the front of Damon's house. She was standing to the side of his unconscious body now. Damon watched in muted horror as she poked his cheek with the tip of her shoe to make sure he was knocked out before she looked up to the window and waved frantically at Damon, the message clear. He was supposed to jump too.

He hesitated, only for a moment. But then he remembered his last view of Jun being dragged away, in heat, in pain, and he clenched his jaw. What point was there in staying? Jun was gone. Mark was God knows where. His parents were working with the Reynes to keep him trapped in his own house. And Malachi was still hanging around somewhere waiting to complete whatever villainous plans he had in the works.

It just wasn't worth it.

He just had to hope that he could actually trust Elizabeth. She seemed genuine, but Damon had known her for exactly five minutes. Still, he had few options. He had to get out of the pack somehow, and she was offering to help him do just that. He had to think of this one step at a time. If he thought about what he was going to do once he actually got out of the pack, his head started to hurt. Finding Jun was its own hurdle – Damon had no idea where Jun would go once he was tossed out, except back to Venus pack, but that was a fairly long journey on foot, in human form or wolf form. And if he found Jun, where would they go?

Damon didn't have answers to these questions, but he didn't exactly have the luxury of sitting down and working out a concrete plan. It was now or never.

So he jumped.

His fall was noticeably less graceful than Elizabeth's, and he stumbled to keep his footing upon impact, but Elizabeth flashed him a thumbs up so maybe he didn't look like a complete wimp. Or maybe she was just pleasantly surprised he hadn't hit the ground ass first. Hard to say.

Well, they were out of the house. What now?

Elizabeth answered that unspoken question by giving him a hard push in the direction of the street and hissing "Go," before sprinting the opposite way around the side of the house. Okay. Great. Go. Damon could do that.

Damon ran toward the street and kept running, hoping that whoever Elizabeth had gotten to help sneak him out of the pack would find him. Elizabeth had told him to head west, so he guessed he would just keep going until something happened.

Was it a little terrifying that Damon was out on the street, exposed, with no idea what the plan was despite being a central figure in said plan? Yes, very much so. Did Damon have much choice other than to do what Elizabeth said? No, not really.

Damon sprinted past all his neighbor's houses, hoping none of them would be glancing out their windows at the moment he passed. Should he cut through some of their yards to be less exposed out on the street? No – what if Elizabeth's friend couldn't find him? Then he would have fucked everything up before it even began. But he would also end up fucking it up if someone saw him before he even reached Elizabeth's friend, so what the hell was he supposed to –

"Huaaghh," Damon gurgled in surprise as he was forcefully yanked into a ditch by his arm. His momentum caused him to roll to a stop at the bottom of the ditch, spitting out a mouthful of grass and dirt. Very elegant and cool of him, if he did say so himself. Before he could curse or scream in terror like a small child, a slim hand slapped over his mouth. Crouching above his head was a certain blond omega, dressed all in black like she was about to rob a bank. Ava.

"Shhh," she hissed. "You're going to get yourself caught in two seconds if you go around shouting like that."

Damon physically melted in relief and rolled to his knees. "Thank god it's you." Damon felt like he could kiss her feet in gratitude, if her feet weren't under her and covered in muddy boots. Wait a second. Ava was Elizabeth's friend? How long had they known each other? Did Ava know Elizabeth's identity? What -

Ava patted Damon's head like he was a dog when she saw his eyebrows crinkling in confusion. "Don't think so much, okay? Your brain will explode. I met Elizabeth a couple months ago, and yes, I know who she is. We both want to help you though, trust me on that."

Well – alright then. If Ava was vouching for Elizabeth, then she couldn't be a bad person, right? Ava had been Damon's friend almost as long as Mark had, and though his relationship with her wasn't quite as solid as his relationship with Mark, he knew he could trust her. And at this point, he was too deep in this to back out. Even if Ava and Elizabeth had cooked up some master plan with Damon as a helpless chess piece, well, he was exactly that. Helpless. Might as well go along for the ride.

Damon was almost too tired to care, at this point. When and how Ava and Elizabeth met – did it really matter? He just wanted to find Jun before the wolf part of him started going rabid and lashing out at anyone who comes too close. His nesting urges were starting to wan, thankfully, but while he was less horny and frantic, he was still away from his alpha, and it was starting to make him a little twitchy. The anxiety of not knowing where Jun was or whether he was hurt – because who knows whether Peter had had him beaten before tossing out of pack territory – was like a nail lodged in the back of his brain, constantly reminding him, painfully, of its presence.

So Damon let Ava lead him carefully through the deep ditches along the street until the street ended and they were able to slip into the woods. They definitely weren't safe yet, though. In fact, they might be more exposed out here because who knows how many wolves were roaming about. It was guaranteed that they would spot Damon and Ava before Damon and Ava spotted them. If they remained in their human forms, they would be at a disadvantage, and yet, neither he nor Ava brought up the idea of shifting.

Why? Because there were only so many clothes a wolf could carry in their mouth. They would likely both have to sacrifice their shoes and maybe their pants, and who knows what they would need to do later, so giving up either of those was a bad idea.

They hadn't been walking through the trees for long before they caught the sound of footsteps running towards them. Ava grabbed Damon by the arm again and pulled him into the brush. Damon got a mouthful of vegetation for the second time that day.

The footsteps slowed and stopped – right outside their hiding place. Damon held his breath while Ava carefully peeked through the leaves – and then stood up. Damon was about to hiss at her and ask if she was crazy, but Ava pulled him up too, and he came to face to face with Elizabeth, whose hair was definitely wilder than it was ten minutes ago, grinning like a maniac.

"Let's go," she said, and started sprinting through the woods. Ava went to follow her without question, so Damon did as well, wondering how he'd managed to get himself escorted through the forest by two crazy omegas.

Apparently, the adrenaline was really doing wonders for Elizabeth, unlike Damon, who felt like his heart was about to explode it was pounding so fast, because she laughed brightly as they ran and said, "We're such bad bitches!"

Damon wasn't so sure about that. "Uh huh," he mumbled breathlessly. Maybe she could hear the doubt in Damon's voice, because she whipped around to face him, running backwards flawlessly like it was nothing. The coordination. Damon could never.

"Damon," Elizabeth said sternly. "Don't think like that. If you believe you're a bad bitch, then you're a bad bitch. Embrace it."

Okay then. Why not.

Bad bitch Damon, here we come.