and jogged across the lawn, towards the school and then towards town.
“Sarah!” I heard Nick yell from far away.
I felt awful for leaving him, but he never would have let me go. He would have handcuffed me to him if he’d known what I wanted to do. I just hoped he knew I wasn’t doing it for myself, but for him and the rest of the pack.
I fought the tears that wanted to come out and focused on masking my scent and confusing Nick so he wouldn’t be able to follow my trail.
The tears were coming so hard now that I could barely see. As I wiped at my eyes, I ran into someone. I stumbled backward. “Sorry,” I gasped.
“Sarah?” Tom asked. “What’s wrong?”
I looked up into his concerned face and sobbed. “I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble.”
Tom frowned and then touched one of the bites on my neck. “You’ve never caused me trouble.” I yanked back from him and started walking away, but he followed me. “What you’re feeling isn’t real,” he said softly. “Those are just thoughts that he put into your head to try to break you.”
I shook my head, but couldn’t find my voice.
“Sarah, listen to me. I know what you’re going through. I felt it myself.”
“I have to go,” I said as I heard Mason yell my name in the distance.
“Don’t leave, Sarah. Think how much it will hurt them. Think how upset Thornton will be,” Tom whispered as he walked towards me.
“I’m just going to cause more problems. Next time I might actually kill Nick!” I yelled and then clamped a hand over my mouth.
Tom’s body tensed, and he stared at me in shock. “What happened?”
“Sarah!” Nick yelled from nearby somewhere.
I shook my head at Tom, turned, and ran. I only made it two more blocks before Dad tackled me. Once we’d finished rolling, he smiled at me. “That was fun. I think I should do that more often.”
“No, let me go! Please, I can’t go back,” I pleaded. “I can’t hurt you anymore.”
Dad picked me up and held me against his chest. “It’s going to be alright. We’re going to take care of you.”
“Sarah!” Nick yelled. “What the hell?”
Dad shushed him and started walking back towards home. I struggled against him, but only for a moment before settling into his comforting arms. As much as I wanted to deny it, he was my dad and when he held me, I felt safe.
“We’re going to protect you, Sarah. We’re going to keep you safe and you’ll realize soon that the only place for you to be is with us. We’re your family and we love you. The vampire is dead and soon you’ll forget about these ridiculous thoughts that he’s put into your head. He can’t control you anymore and we’ll make sure no one else ever has that chance again.”
The farther we walked, the more of the pack met up with us. “Why?” I asked. “Why would you all come searching for me?”
Dad smiled down at me. “We love you, Sarah. Nick, Mason, all of your pack loves you. You’re the one treasure we have and we will fight to protect you, even if we have to fight you until you realize that.”
“We love you,” the boys said at the same time as they looked at me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I know it was childish to run away, but I don’t want any of you to get hurt. I love you all, too, and it hurts me to know that I could have killed one of you.”
“It shouldn’t take too long for the thoughts to fade and then this will be nothing more than a bad memory. The real you wouldn’t run away, and we know that. The real you is a fighter and loves us too much to abandon us,” dad said.
Was I? Was I a fighter? All I did was cower and let the others protect me. How could I fight against supernaturals? They could kill me so easily.
“I’m useless. All I do is get in trouble and make you all save me.”
“You are not useless. You are the bond that keeps us together. Nick and Mason probably would have killed each other by now, if you weren’t here,” he said and chuckled.
“I don’t know if I can choose,” I whispered. “How am I supposed to choose between all of these guys?”
“You don’t have to choose, at least not for a while,” he said. “None of us will make