I couldn't stay here.

The thought crystallized in my mind as I lay there in the darkness, Emma's soft breathing beside me where she'd refused to leave.

I couldn't stay in this pack, in this place where no one believed me. Where I'd been tortured. Where the man who'd claimed me as his mate couldn't even spare time to check on me because he was too busy with a beautiful woman who actually belonged in his world.

I couldn't raise my baby here and let my child grow up watching their mother be ...