The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 211

**Ryder’s POV **

The second the car doors shut, the world goes quiet. It’s not a peaceful or relieved quiet; it’s a stunned silence.

Paige sits between me and Parker in the back seat, staring straight ahead. She hasn’t said a word since the police finally let us go. Her glow has dimmed to almost nothing, not gone, just tucked deep inside her.

The engine hums as we pull away from the curb. I’m not sure how we all switched seats, but Ronnie is now driving with Blaine beside him, while Callen, Remy and Hayden climbed into the second car behind us.

Paige’s fingers twitch in her lap. She hasn’t cried. She hasn’t shaken. She’s just… still, too still.

I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to her in this situation… I’m sorry your as*hole ex-husband died? But I’m not sorry at all, I’m only sorry I wasn’t the one that got to do it.

The car slows at the junction, and I turn my focus to our surroundings. We know hunters are nearby, and now they know we are in the area too, so I wouldn’t be shocked if they were scrambling to stage an ambush.

I’d mind-linked with the pack to be on high alert the moment Greg was shot. Not doubting the hunters would use this opportunity to attack the pack once they knew weweren’t there.

I don’t mention any of this to Paige, it would only worry her, and there’s literally nothing she could do from this distance. The main thing is that Jax is very well guarded, and if the hunters think the pack is unguarded because we aren’t there, they’ll be in for a shock. With reinforcements from River, Midnight, the trained marksmen, and the Twiceborn, it has never been safer.

The moment we merge onto the motorway and pick up speed, I relax a little.

I look at Paige, her gaze is fixed straight ahead, almost vacant. As if her body is here, but her mind is elsewhere.

“You’re safe now,” I say softly so | don’t startle her.

She blinks once. “I know.”

But her voice seems miles away.

Callen’s voice slips into my mind through the link.

“How is she?”

“Quiet,” I send back. “Too quiet.”

Parker answers next. “She’s shut down. She does that right before she breaks.”

Callen grumbles, “Or before she does something goddess-y.”Ronnie’s tone is calm. “Do not push her. She needs stillness to process what she witnessed.”

I cut the link off before they can argue about it. Right now my priority is the woman beside me, the woman who just closed the final chapter of her old life and watched it die on the pavement.

Paige finally speaks, barely above a whisper. “didn’t want him dead.”

“I know,” I say quietly.

She swallows. “But I didn’t want him in our lives anymore.”

“That doesn’t make you responsible,” Parker says, sliding a hand over her thigh.

Her gaze moves back toward the window. “The hunters didn’t kill him because of me… did they?”

I grind my teeth so hard they threaten to crack.

“They killed him because he was a loose end,” Parker answers. “That isn’t on you. That’s on them.”

She nods… but the guilt still trickles through the bond.

I reach over and take her hand, threading our fingers together. Her skin is cooler than I’m used to.

“Paige,” I say softly, “look at me.”

It takes her a moment, but she does.”This isn’t your fault.”

Her lip trembles. Just once. “Why do I feel like everything is spinning?”

Because she’s exhausted and overwhelmed. Plus, the Dawn within her is growing faster than we can manage.

But most of all, she just saw death right in front of her, and she processed it like a goddess, not a human.

– “You did everything right,” I say. “You walked away. We all did. There is nothing for anyone to pin on you. Mrs Turner saw the shot come from the trees. The CCTV shows the angle and the distance. The police weren’t even suspicious because you had nothing to do with it.”

Her voice cracks, soft but raw. “They looked at Hayden and Blaine like they weren’t human.”

“They don’t look human anymore,” I admit. “But they’re on our side. They always will be.”

She leans her head back against the seat and closes her eyes.

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