“Bella, please,” Darla said softly, her voice almost pleading now. “This is all mixed up, but it can be fixed. I promise you. Just trust me.”
Bella squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out Darla’s voice and the overwhelming pull of her presence. When she had stopped looking at Macky, it had helped her resist his Gamma Charm. Maybe it would work here too. Just don’t look at her. Don’t listen. Don’t give in.
Tyler whimpered in her mind, her longing to return to the pack unmistakable. Bella gritted her teeth, her fear spiking. He has too much power, too many people working for him. He doesn’t even have to lift a finger—they’ll all do it for him. And when he gets his hands on me…
Her thoughts spiraled into dark territory. He’ll take my babies away from me. He’ll punish me for not coming back sooner. He’ll make me suffer in ways I can’t even imagine. He’ll destroy me. Lock me away and never let me see them again.
The scenarios bombarded her, each worse than the last, fueling her fear and sending her heart racing. Her hands gripped the edge of the basin so tightly her knuckles turned white. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t fight off the onslaught of terror consuming her.
“No…” Bella whispered again, her voice barely audible. Her fear was suffocating, her body trembling as she fought against the tide of despair washing over her. She couldn’t let Darla—or anyone else—win. But in this moment, it felt like the walls were closing in, and she had no escape.
Bella’s distress was mounting rapidly, her thoughts spiraling into an unbearable storm of fear and anguish. Tyler whimpered alongside her, their bond uniting them in their mutual terror of losing the pups. Bella clung to that bond, to their shared desperation to protect the triplets. Better to die than endure the pain of losing them, she thought, her heart twisting at the mere possibility.
Her fear fed on itself, growing stronger, filling her with an overwhelming sense of dread that even Luna Darla’s calming aura couldn’t suppress. The power that had held her frozen moments ago was now weakening under the sheer force of Bella’s panic.
She wrenched her arm free from Luna Darla’s grasp, taking a stumbling step back. The shock on Darla’s face was unmistakable—she hadn’t expected Bella to break free from her influence. Bella saw sadness flood the older woman’s eyes, and tears welled as Darla seemed to realize the depth of Bella’s fear.
For a moment, Bella hesitated. Does she feel it? My fear? My desperation? The waves of terror radiating from Bella were uncontrollable now, spilling out of her in raw, unfiltered bursts.
But the hesitation passed. Bella shoved past Darla, her instincts screaming at her to escape. I have to get out of here, away from them, all of them. Back to my babies. She couldn’t bear to be apart from them—not for a minute, let alone forever.
“Bella, wait!” Darla’s voice called after her, tinged with worry, but Bella ignored it. She pushed through the door, her focus on escaping, only to crash directly into Alpha Tomas.
He looked down at her, his expression immediately shifting to one of concern. His sharp eyes darted past her to Darla, who had rushed out of the ladies’ room after Bella. Bella saw his eyes glaze over briefly, the telltale sign of a mind-link, and she seized the moment, bolting for the hallway.
She barely made it a few steps before his hand closed around her wrist, his reflexes too fast for even her and Tyler to evade. Only Tomas and Luke had ever been able to catch her like this.
“Bella, wait,” he said softly, his tone unusually gentle, almost pleading.
“No,” Bella snapped, trying to pull free. “Leave me alone.”
“It’s really okay,” he insisted, his grip firm but not painful. “No harm will ever come to you or your babies. You have my word.”
Bella’s breath hitched, her voice a broken whisper. “She’ll never let them live.” The thought was a dagger to her heart, twisting with every beat. Pain ripped through her and Tyler alike, the shared agony of imagining their pups being hurt because of her.
“They’re so small,” Bella whispered, tears spilling over. “They didn’t ask for this. It’s not their fault…”
“About Mia, honey—” Luna Darla started, her voice soft, trying again to soothe her with the Luna Calm.
“I don’t care about her!” Bella snapped, her voice raw with emotion. “I don’t care she’s mated to him. I don’t care about any of it!” Her voice cracked, her green eyes blazing with a mother’s fierce determination.
And she meant it. She didn’t care about Mia, or Luke, or any of the tangled mess of pack politics. Her sole purpose, her singular focus, was the safety of her children.
“They’re mine,” Bella said, her voice trembling but resolute. “It’s my job to protect them. I won’t let anyone take that away from me.” Her eyes darted between Tomas and Darla, daring them to challenge her, to try and undermine her conviction.
She was their mother. And nothing—no Alpha, no Luna, no pack—would take her pups from her.
Bella’s heart raced as Alpha Tomas’s words echoed in her ears: “Bella, honey, she’s gone. He has no Luna.”
His revelation should have given her pause, but it didn’t. “I still don’t care!” she yelled, her voice trembling with a mixture of rage and anguish. The last time she’d faced Luke, his fury had burned through her like wildfire. He hadn’t even known about the babies then, and now that he did? She could only imagine the depths of his anger. The thought alone made her stomach churn.
“Tyler,” she begged, her voice a desperate plea. “Help me. Help us.”
Her wolf surged forward like a tidal wave, raw and untamed. Tyler was defiance incarnate, her ferocity born from the primal instinct to protect their pups. Bella felt her wolf’s rage boil over, their shared pain and desperation searing through her veins. “We’re strong, Tyler. Do it,” she sobbed inwardly, surrendering to her wolf’s power.
Alpha Tomas’s body stiffened, his instincts sharpening as Tyler growled low and primal, a sound that reverberated through the restaurant like a warning siren. The growl was feral, vicious—a declaration that the old Bella, the obedient pack member, was gone. She and Tyler might as well be rogues now, their loyalty to no one but the pups.
