The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 239

** Poppy’s POV **

I run, and I don’t stop running until the path to my building blurs under my feet. My lungs burn and my heart feels like it’s trying to punch its way out of my chest. By the time I reach the narrow door tucked between a nail salon and a takeaway that never seems to close, my hands are shaking so badly I fumble the keys twice before I get the lock open.

The smell hits me immediately. Old oil, salt, and grease soaked into the walls from decades of fried food downstairs. Home. If you can call a single room above a takeaway home.

I slam the door shut behind me and lean against it, dragging in air like I’ve forgotten how breathing works. My apartment is exactly as depressing as it was this morning: a narrow bed shoved against one wall, an old chest of drawers, a tiny kitchenette that barely deserves the name because making anything more than tea and toast is damn near impossible. But it’s cheap, and it’s walking distance to work. And it suddenly feels very unsafe.

“Nope,” I mutter, pushing away from the door. “I’m not staying here.”

I grab my bag from under the bed and start throwing things into it without thinking. Clothes, shoes, my battered laptop. Three photo frames, one with me and Paige years ago, taken on a beach holiday by my mum before everything broke. Another with my parents smiling together on their 20th wedding anniversary, completely unaware of what fate had planned for them before they reached their 21st anniversary. The third is Jaxon on his first day of school, so sweet and innocent. Gosh, I miss them all.

My hands move faster, panic buzzing through my veins. I need to get out, to just go anywhere but here.

I drag another bag from the cupboard and start shoving things into that too: toiletries, my medical notebooks I haven’t used since I left the Phoenix pack.

I stop. Slowly, stupidly, reality catches up. I straighten, breathing hard, and look around the room. Where exactly do I think I’m going?

I don’t have a car. I don’t have enough savings yet, not for a proper move, not for another town to disappear into again. I’ve barely been here two months. I was supposed to stay longer to save for my next move.

I sink down onto the edge of the bed, my bags half-packed at my feet.

“Shit,” I whisper.

Silence rings in my ears, but then there’s a warmth, a feeling of not being alone. It’s not the foggy presence that’s always hungry; it’s the other one, the one that says wise things that usually piss me off.

“Running without a destination isn’t freedom.” The soft-spoken voice rings through my mind.

I laugh weakly. “You don’t get to lecture me.”

“You don’t get to keep pretending this isn’t about fear.”

My throat tightens. I scrub a hand over my face and stare at the wall opposite the bed. The paint is peeling in one corner, the colour wrong where someone tried to patch it without caring it was a completely different shade.

I could go back to Paige. The thought hits me like a blow. The Phoenix Pack, where there are wolves who know what she is and love her anyway. Wolves who would wrap themselves around her and protect her without question. Wolves whom I trust, even if they scare me.

And there it is again… the ache. Sharp, sudden and deep. My chest tightens painfully as memories flood in uninvited. Paige’s laugh. Jaxon’s small arms around my neck. The way he used to curl against my side like he belonged there.

Jake’s quiet admiration. Leo’s fierce protectiveness. My mates. The bond I never let finish. My soul twists, craving them so badly it feels like hunger.

I want to run back to them all. To let Paige pull me into her arms and tell me everything is okay. Let Jake’s calm anchor me and let Leo burn away my fears. I squeeze my eyes shut.

“That’s what cowards do,” I whisper. “They run back when it gets hard.”

The voice doesn’t soften this time.

“Running from what you are… from who you’re bound to… that’s the real cowardice.”

I flinch. “That’s not fair.”

“The truth rarely is.”

My phone vibrates on the bed, and I freeze. It hasn’t rung once since I left Phoenix. Not a call, not a text. Nothing. Which is exactly what I’d asked of them. They’d each respected my wishes… until now.

Slowly, as if it might explode, I reach for the phone. The screen lights up with a video call from Paige. A million thoughts run through my mind, of emergencies, bad news, or maybe she just sensed how much I need her right now. My breath catches painfully.

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