"So, what happened between you and Adan?" Jasmine asked, grabbing potato salad.

I took the spoon from her once she finished and gnawed on the inside of my cheek. If she and Adan were mates, I really didn't think that she would want to know. I didn't want her to hate me, especially because we were close friends now.

"We dated," I finally said, knowing that I shouldn't lie to her. "Not for that long."

Jasmine pressed her lips together. "Did you really?"

"Yes," I said, turning toward her. "It was a long time ago."

To me, it felt like forever ago, but really it was only mere weeks since the last time we were together. I had tried so hard to forget that night, but it was ingrained in my memory forever.

The blood on his hands. The smile on his face. The nerves zipping through my body.

The last time I saw Adan, he had ripped my brother's throat out of his neck and told me to run fast and far away from here and to never come back.

After a couple moments, we walked back to the quiet picnic table. We sat in the packhouse's backyard, eating dinner with Adan's pack. Nobody spoke a single word to each other, the silence deafening and overwhelming. Callum pulled me closer to him at the picnic table as I tried to let his sweatshirt swallow me whole.

Less than twenty minutes, I had admitted that my parents sold me to the Council.

And I had barely been able to keep it together. No matter what questions he asked me, all I could think was the absolute worst. Like Adan said, the Council would find me and when they did, they'd do anything to get me back.

"Did you guys read the last chapter?" a pup whispered a bit too loudly across the back yard, holding up the One Alpha from his backpack enough to show them the title on the cover. "It was—"

"Quiet down," a woman scolded them, nervously glancing at Adan. "And put that away."

"It's fine," Adan said, waving it off and giving her the most menacing smile—even though he probably thought it was a sweet one. "I don't give a fuck about the Council. All my pack members read that book too."

Adan glanced over at me like he did for the fiftieth time today, but I kept my gaze on the plate of untouched food in front of me, inching closer to Callum to show him that though Adan and I might've dated before, I didn't have any feelings for him now.

After getting the go-ahead from his mother, the boy pulled the book out of his backpack and laid on his stomach with a couple of other boys, talking about how the One Alpha was so cool and so strong and how they all wanted to be like him one day.

"Why did they do it?" Callum asked Adan, referring to my parents selling me to those assholes without explicitly stating it. He might've trusted his pack mates, but that didn't mean that I trusted them with this secret. "You have to know something."

Adan placed his hand on Jasmine's knee. "If I did, I would've taken care of it."

"They're going to find me here," I said, my stomach twisting in knots. I stared emptily at the food and felt bile rise in my throat. I clutched my empty stomach and pushed away the tears. "They're going to fucking find me and take me away."

I had been so stupid, thinking that I was safe here.

I put Callum and this entire pack in danger.

Callum wrapped his hand around the side of my face and forced me to look over at him. "Nobody is going to take you away from me," he said to me, gently leaning his forehead against mine. "I won't let anyone take you, no matter if it's the Council or not."

More tears welled up in my eyes. Mom and Dad had said that same thing, and then... then they sold me for a couple million dollars. When they saw that money, nothing else seemed to even matter anymore.

Not even me.

And I didn't want that to happen with Callum too.

I fucking loved him.

"We love him," that voice said in my head again.

Quickly, I tried to push the tears from my cheeks and to stop crying. All I wanted to do was run away from here. I didn't want these problems anymore. I didn't want to put Callum in danger. I wanted to disappear.

"Mate will protect us from everyone."

That voice was... wrong, so wrong.

Adan swallowed hard and motioned for Jasmine to follow him elsewhere, to give us privacy. At least, he wasn't being a dick to Callum anymore. In the past half-hour, they had found some kind of peace between each other.

When they were gone, I curled my arms around Callum again and moved closer to him, not wanting to ever lose him. "You wanted to know more about my parents..." I started. "They are nothing but assholes who abuse me. They told me one thing and did another. They refused to let me be happy. They sold me for money. That's who they are and that's who they will always be."

Callum held onto me tightly, his body tensing. "I'll kill them."

"They're untouchable and have the Council's protection. You can't."

"I will."

I pressed my lips together. "I'm afraid that you'll sell me out too. That you'll tell me lies."

Deep down, I knew that he would never do something like that. But I had been conditioned all my fucking life that I wasn't good enough, that I needed to be this or to be that, that I was the perfect daughter but the worst daughter at the same time.

It had been non-stop with my parents.

So bad to the point that sometimes I didn't even believe my own thoughts.

"I would never do that to you, Bria," he said, pulling away and looking down into my eyes. "You're my mate, and I would sacrifice my life before I allowed someone to take you away from me."

"Tell him that we would do the same. Tell him that we love him."

But I couldn't get the words out of my mouth. I wanted to assure him too, but I was too terrified of the Council to believe myself anymore. If they wanted his head, they would take it, no matter how hard I tried to keep him safe.

And because Adan was here... I was sure they'd be close behind.