After a quick shower while Maverick slept in the bed, I stood by the door watching my mate. He slept so peacefully I hated what I was about to do. He had been working so hard to make things work. But the truth was, this was my mess to clean up. The sight of him tugged at my heart. If I hesitated I would climb back into bed with him and hold him close and never let him go. I had to do this, I had to be strong enough to save him. I let out a deep sigh before I closed the door quietly.

Then I went to find Amy.

I couldn’t time. If I was going to succeed I had to commit and go through with my plan. Pushing the last bit of hesitation that caught me as I remembered how Maverick had shattered my world.

He meant everything to me, and I would protect him. If it meant with my life, than I would be prepared to pay the ultimate price.

I had never had any purpose before, this was the first time I felt I had something important to fulfill. It was also taking back my identity. I wasn’t an orphan anymore. I was the daughter of a powerful pack and I wasn’t going to cower to anyone.

Whatever happened, I would face it head on. No more running. I let out a deep breath. I was taking back control.

It didn’t take me long to find Amy. I had asked around and someone had pointed me to her room.

I knocked. The door opened.

“What the fuck do you want?” she asked, her voice harsh. If looks could kill I would be pushing up daisies.

“To talk.” I scanned around to make sure no one was watching me. The less the was seen the better for me.

“And why would I want to listen to whatever you wanted to say?” she asked, confrontationally with a gleam in her eye.

She wasn’t going to make this easy but I already knew that.

“It was you.” My statement was bold but I knew instinctively I was right. It was my gut and I trusted it.

“What are you talking about?” Her eyes guarded.

“Do you really want me to say it out aloud where someone can over hear me?” I waited for her to weigh up the risk.

I was playing it casual but I had a lot riding on this but she couldn’t know how important this way for I feared she would refuse out of spite no matter what it would cost her.

She studied me for a long moment. I lifted an eyebrow and she relented, stepping back to allow me into her room.

It was tidy. All sunshine and pink. It was what I expected from her.

“What do you want?” She put her hands on her hips.

“It was you,” I stated again, this time I watched her closely for any signs I was on the right track.

“What do you think I did?” she asked, sounding on the verge of exasperation..

I folded my arms. “You bugged the house for Kane. I don’t know why but I know it was you.”

She was already shaking her head. “Why would I do that?”

“To get back at Maverick for dropping you like a hot potato when I showed up?” I offered the most obvious reason.

“You have no proof.”

Those weren’t the words of someone who was innocent.

I tilted my head slightly in agreement. “Not right now but I bet it wouldn’t be difficult to find some.”

I walked around her room looking at the side table, the closet. “I bet there would be some evidence in your room that would prove me right.”

Her eyes darted to the chest of the drawers and I knew I had her.

She crossed her arms, defensively.

“What do you want?” She glared at me like she wanted to wrap her skinny hands around my neck and suffocate the life from me.

“I need your help.”

She gave a hollowed laugh. “Help you? You have got to be crazy. You’re the last person on earth I would help.”

I was maneuvering her into a corner she would not be able to escape. “You might not want to but you will.”

She frowned. “Why would I do that?”

“Either you help me or I tell Maverick what you did.”

There I had laid my cards on the table.

“That simple?” She continued to glare at me.

I nodded. “That simple.” Our eyes clashed.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

I shrugged. “You don’t.”

I wasn’t going to swear on some family member’s grave that I wasn’t lying, it would not hold the same weight as another person. Besides she didn’t have a choice.

“What do you want?” She was angry.

“I need to get out of here and no one can know.”

“Why?” she asked, taken aback by my request.

“You don’t need to know why. Are you going to help me or not?”

She glared at me. “Well apparently I don’t have much of a choice.”

She was a smart ass and making this more difficult than it needed to be. As much as I wanted to dislike her I saw some of myself in her and it made me dislike her a little less.

“Once you get me out of here, you can drop me over in the next town.”

She was already shaking her head. “You think I’ll be stupid enough to come back here to face Maverick’s wrath when he figures out I’m the one who helped you run away? I’m screwed either way.”

“Then don’t come back. At this point I don’t care. You’re resourceful or you can go and join Kane’s pack.”

She shook her head. “He won’t want me around now that he has Lark.”

I was getting a vivid view into her life and it made me feel sorry for her. I was seeing some of the loneliness I had experienced myself in the her. The difference was she was alone in a pack of werewolves.

“Then what do you want Amy?”

I didn’t have time for this. I needed to get out of here, the quicker the better. This was taking far longer than I had anticipated.

“Take me with you,” she stated.

Her request was baffling and totally unexpected.

“You want to go with?” I asked.

She nodded.

“You don’t want to go where I’m going.” I was going into a dangerous situation and I wasn’t going to take someone who would turn on me any minute. She was not an ally. I was blackmailing her.

“If I help you leave and something happens to you. Maverick will hunt me down.”

I frowned. “He won’t. He’ll know it was my choice.”

“But without my help you won’t get a foot off this property. He’ll know that. You can reason it any way you want to. I’ll be the one to bear the brunt of his anger.” She swallowed.

I felt of a pang of guilt for forcing her to do something that would illicit more anger but then I reminded myself she had helped Kane bug the study. He knew all my secrets and I hated that. She was not innocent, there was a ruthlessness about her that I had to remember that.

This was not part of my plan but I didn’t have any other options. If I did nothing, Maverick would go through with his plan and I couldn’t allow that.

I studied her. “I can’t trust you.”

She shrugged. “You don’t have a choice. Either you take me with or you find someone else to help you. And let me tell you there aren’t many people who would cross Maverick. They are loyal. If Maverick even gets a hint that you’re up, he will lock this place down and you won’t get a foot off this property.”

She gave me a triumphant look as I weighed up her warning.

I disliked her but she was right.

“Fine but the the minute you cross me I’ll make you rue the day you met me.” I made the threat softly.

“I already do,” she retorted, with a shrug.

I wanted to dislike her but there was a vulnerability in her that I recognized in myself that made it difficult.

How could she be so lonely surrounded by so many people? But there wasn’t time to think about that. I needed to get out of the compound before Maverick discovered what I was doing.

“So how do I get out of here?”

She walked over to her closet and opened it. Then handed me a bottle of whiskey.

“Drink.”

“How is this going to help me?” I studied the bottle with a bit of confusion.

“It’s the only way to get you out of here,” she stated and she gave a nod in the direction of the bottle.